The Adair County news., 1922-01-31
Policeman of Winthrop Harbor
Harbor, ILL.,, Killed While
Pursuing Car.
BROUGHT DOWN With SHOTGUN
One of Five In Big Blue Touring Car
Shoots Officer While Travelling at
20 Miles an Hour-SIayer
May Be BootIegger.

i@OIOCcyCle pOnCemdn at winthrop
fTarbOr, ILL.,, was shot to death by one
of five men in large blue touring car
he had raced at breakneck speed for
seven miles to arrest the occupants,
believed to have been running whisky.
Part of the wild flight was through
the heart of Zion City, Ill. At times
the speed of the car and motorcycle
reached 20 miles an hour.
Near Beach, ILL.,, between Zion City
and Waukegan, PetersOn's machine
Overhauled the automobile. AS he
yelled an order to the driver to halt,
one of the five men leaned from the
rear seat, took deliberate aim with a
shotgun, and fired two charges of
buckshOt into the policeman's abdO-
men.
Thrown Into a Ditch.
The motorcycle swerved into ditch
beside the road, hurting Peterson ten
feet into field. He was dead when
Melvin Jordan, nineteen years old, Of
Beach, and Geoge w. Pavlik twenty
four, and Lyle Fast, farmers who were
watching the wild chase and saw its
finish, reached his side
News of the shooting was immedi-
ately telephOned TO Waukegan and 9TH
er towns on the road to Chicago and
police traps were laid for the death
car. Automobile posses of deputy
sheriffs and police also began imme-
diately to patrol all the surrounding
country IN search of the machine.
The chase which ended In the shoot
ing of Policeman Peterson began i'm
Kenosha, Wis. The car with it's FIVE
occupants, all believed to have been
colored men, shot through that city at
a high rate Of speed. A deputy sheriff
undertook to halt them and, falling,
started in pursuit.
Goes Through at Sixty Miles.
Winthrop Harbor is just south of
the Wisconsin line. The blue car
rOared through that village at sixty
miles an hour, with the Wisconsin
deputy close behind it, but forced to
give up the chace because he was out
of his own state.
Policeman Peterson took up the
pursuit for him. With muffler open,
the. big machine dashed into Zion City.
residents there watched in horror as
1t tore over half mile stretch of
rough unpayed street, expecting mo-
mentarily to see the car smashed and
its occupants killed
Half a mile behind it came Police
man Peterson on his motorcycle. He
did not slow down q fraction of a
mile for the rough road. and when
the paved road south of the town was
reached he was only a quarter of
mile away.
With both machine making their
utmost speed they roared toward
Beach. Jordan, Pavik and Fast, work
ing near the road. heard the throb-
bling motors when they were two miles
away and watched the chase.
Fires With Shotgun.
When the car was almost opposite
where they were working Peterson
drew alongside it. The three men saw
one of the men in the rear seat turn.
yell something, then aim with the
shotgun and fire.
When the three reached PetersOn's
side the blue car had raced into the
village of Beach and disappeared.
One of the men ran to telephone
word of the shooting to Waukegan.
As the others attempted to carry
Peterson to Beach, Deputy Sheriff
Wilson of Kenosha, driving to Wau-
kegan with his wife, came along in
his automobile
Peterson was loaded into his car
and rushed to Victory Memorial hos
pital in Waukegan. Physicians there
said buckshOt from the shotgun had
struck him in the abdomen and near
the heart and that he was dead even
before he was placed in the deputy's
machine.
Showed SeVenty-two Mile Speed.
.Waukegan police who went to the
scene of the shooting said the register
on Peterson's motorcycle showed that
the machine had reached a speed of
seventy-two miles an hour in the
chase. .Pavlih and Jordon~told the po-
lice the automobile was running at
least sixty-five miles an hour when
the shots were fired from it.
The shooting aroused intense feel
ing in villages and towns along the
north shore, and all night long vol
unteers assisted police and deputies
in the search for the blue car and the
slayers.