Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1922-01-19
GUNNER ON TRIAL
FOR WICK MURDER
AT VALLEY CITY
Selection Of Jury Started Soon
After Court Convened at
Ten o'Clock-Eighty-Sev-
en- Witnesses Listed BY
Prosecution Photographs
of Victim. .... -.

Valley City, Jan. 18.-When the
work of obtaining the jury that will
try VIM. GUNNER of Fargo on the
charge of Staying Miss Marie Wick
of Grygla, Minn., in Fargo hotel
Oil June : last, was resumed III The
Barnes county district court this
morning counsel for the state and
defense were confident that the jury
would be completed during the day.
Story of Killing
The Staying of Marie Wick at a
hotel here in June 1921, for which
William GUNNER, the hotel clerk was
held, created sensation in the
northwest and city and county Of
falls characterized the crime as one
of the most brutal ever committed
in this section.
The body of Miss Wick, who was
eighteen years old. was found in
room No. 80 Of the Prescott Hotel
about z a. m. on June z, after she
had registered at the hotel the pre-
vious night. She was on her way to
Pettibone, North Dakota, from her
home in Grygla, Minnesota, to spend
vacation with an aunt and had
stopped in Fargo to make train con-
nections. Gagged with parts of the
bed clothing and trussed to the bed
with blood soaked pillow cases i'm
|vesigation showed that the girl had
been attacked before being beaten
to death with the nozzle of a fire
hose. She had been dead from four
to six hours, according to Dr. P. H.
Burton, county physician, who made
the examination.
Authorities Immediately plunged
into the work of attempting to find
the slayer who apparently left no
clues, and after eight days of in
vestigaiion, GUNNER was arrested
June Is, on charge of murder in
the first degree on complaint Of VIII.
liam Green, states attorney for ;Cass.
county. !. = ~ - r.. -: .:
GUNNER, who is twenty two years
old and the son of farmer living
near Mayvflle, North Dakota, strong
ly maintained his innocence, but af-
ter the state at preliminary hearing
had submitted what was termed
discriminating evidence" he was or
dered bound over to the Cass Coun-
ty district court for trial in Novem-
ber.
When his case came up at the No
vember term of county court, Cum
mer thru his attorneys, asked for
change in venue, claiming that pre-
judice against the crime was SO great
in Fargo that selection of an impair
lila jury would be virtually impossi-
BILE. He was granted the change by
Judge c. H. Cooley of Grand Forks,
presiding in the county district court
and the case ordered transferred to
the Barnes county district court at
Valley City to be heard during tho
January term.
The hotel clerks preliminary
hearing began June %, after hav-
ing been postponed from June FL at
the request of the state, and ended
after four days when. he was order
ed bound over for trial before cor
.Oners verdict was returned holding
him responsible for the slain girl
death.
Coroner's' Jury Verdict
The verdict reached by the cor
oners jury, withheld until after the
preliminary examination, was that
marie Wick came to her death on
the seventh day of June, 1921, in
room No. 80 in the Prescott Hotel
in Fargo, North Dakota, by reason Of
having been choked, strangled and
struck upon the head with a fire
hose nozzle; that her killing was
felonious, following rape, and said
rape and murder were committed by
William GUNNER, according to evil
dence presented and to, the best of
our knowledge" $sG. Il. 2. $4.5s
At the time Coroner E. F. Moore
said the verdict, which was returned
July. {, !, after GUNNER was bound
over for trial had been previously
reached but 1t, was sthot advisable not
to make 1t known until after the
hearing. Gummer's preliminary
hearing, which; according to officials,
was to prove that there was probable
cause to believe he had committed
the murder ended July Q. without the
hotel clerk taking the stand.
GUNNER Visits Room First
8 AT the hearing States Attorney
0AfO0A At4AGAV0UVVug0s0k q 0s0k1kOkA0UJlS&WulCU
he alleged GUNNER made to him ad-
mitting that he had visited the girls
room about g 80 on the morning Of
June 2, q half hour before any one
else knew OF the crime. GUNNER
said that Miss w lex had left 4 q call
Tor 8 clock and that he made his
way into her room with pass key
only after he had failed to receive q
response to srepeated telephone calls.
Shocked and afraid that he sht be-
aceused sgof the crime II he made
known his discovery, GUNNER said
HI than vent back to. 1hiss desk Id
thaSh0tsl lobby and after waiting fif-
tsen minutes formed Fred LaM-
rencs son ~ hotst pYpprietors]
ID wss5 lanab bic 10 ct nv sres5
pon1e from the occ ccnpaIt sof the