The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-05-06
GUNSH0T WOUNDS
CAUSE OF DEATH

Saturday night at $3.50 o'clock, died
at st. Johns hospital last night at 9
o'clock. He was conscious until the
last and before he died gave a state
ment of the affair to DR.. Wm Scan.
lon and one of the nurses at the hos
pital. Shortly before his death he had
Catholic priest called and the usual
ceremony was performed.
According to his story he was born
at Rospyolen, Russia, % years ago and
came to this country some five years
ago. He first secured work with
Mitchell Phillips at Phillips, Wis, in
the woods. He went to Superior from
that point and some five weeks ago he
started for Fargo.
Saturday, after having spent about
a day in the Front street district, he
decided to find work and left to inter-
view the farmers south of town. He
was unsuccessful in securing work and
started back to Fargo along the river
road shortly after 8 o'clock. Just
south of the Crabbe farm he met three
men, one dressed as laborer and the
other two with ordinary clothes, who
walked with him short distance.
After drawing him into converse
ton one of the men demanded his
money. The demand was refused,
whereupon the speaker drew an auto
matte from his pocket and shot Lapslle
twice in the stomach and took his
money, $50 in all. Believing him dead,
they threw the body into the river
and continued their journey toward
town.
The water slightly revived Lapske
and he crawled onto the bank and
made his way to where he was found.
He was unconscious when found, but
came to shortly after his arrival at
the hospital. He stated before he died
that he could identify the men if he
saw them again. Both bullets were
fired at close range, the powder burn
ing holes in his shirt.
DR.. William Scanlon held post
norton examination of the body this
morning and found both bullets lodged
near the backbone. They were of .32
calibre.
Fargo, May with two bullet holes
in his stomach and lying face down.
ward, laborer % years old was found
on the driveway along the Red river
about one half mile south of the Sam
Crabbe farm at $50 o'clock last even
ing. Circumstances seem to point to
an attempt at murder, the motive not
being known. Before sinking from
semi-consciousness into unconscious
ness at a hospital the man lisped the
name Joe Labske. Later he told an at
tendant that he had been shot and
thrown into the river. The police dis
credit the statement that he was
thrown into the river. Mystery sur
rounds the whole affair.
Two bullets, the size of which had
not been determined at a late hour
last night, but presumably from .32
calibre revolver, entered the mans
stomach just an inch apart vertically.
One pierced the stomach twice; the
other portion of the stomach and the
lungs. After probing for the bullets,
DR.. Scanlon, the attending physician,
stated at IL o'clock last night that
Labske's condition was critical and he
doubted if the victim could pull
through.
The lower portion of the mans cloth
ing was soaked with water, which in
way corroborates the mans state
ment that he was thrown into the riv-
er. After an investigation made by
Officer Anderson, no place on the
banks of the river showed marks of
any description where Labske had
craWled ashore. A pool of water near
by also was minus any such marks.
The hands of the wounded man, how
ever, were thick with mud, making it
evident that if he had been in the
water he had grappled around in an
effort to reach a hold on which to
support himself. ....
That robbery was the motive for the
shooting is discredited by the police
for the reason that he is said to have
owed a board bill on lower Front
street. The police are prone to be-
lieve that the wounds came as the re-
suit of fight. 4
Two boys in the vicinity of the
Crabbe farm are said to have heard
two shots fired about o'clock. One
is said to have been Allen Shiveley, 4
student at Fargo high school, who was
riding horseback near the Ray farm.
A group of Fargo college students was
also picnicing a short distance from
tho scene An aged connie nassing in