The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-12-11
WIDOW TELLS OF
HOLDUP TRAGEDY
Mrs. Paul JuriIx Describes
Scene of Hold-up to
CorOner's Jury.
VERDICT BY THE JURY
File Death Of Two Men Due to
"Gunshot Wounds Received
From Persons Unknown.

at the earthly remains CT IeI ldte P@t'
Mrs. Paul Jurik took the witness stand
at the coroner's inquest into the deaths
of George Balazs and Paul Jurik in
the municipal courtroom on MONDAY
afternoon. The two men were killed
during the hold-up in their little soft
drink parlor at 463 Pearl street on
Thursday night. The little widow was
simply attired in q black coat, and her
face was covered with a heavy veil
that hung down close to her face from
q plain black hat The veil, no doubt,
covered up much of the expression of
her sorrowfu' emotions. In the course
of her testimony it could be seen that
, the streaming tears were touching the
black veil where the impression en-
phasized rather than hid the gnawing
grief
Mrs. Jurik is the only living per-
!, son, so far as is known to the coroner
and the authorities, who witnessed
any of the incidents in that tragic
minute or two on Thursday night when
three men-two of them masked-en-
tered the little store above which Mr..
and Mrs. Jurik lived, and ordered Paul
Jurik and George Balazs, partners in
the business, to throw up their hands.
Within another minute Balazs was ly-
ing dead on the floor and Jurik was
struggling madly with one of the gun
men until he too was shot and col
lapsed.
At the inquest called by Acting Cor
oner John Slater at o'clock on Mon
day afternoon, the court and jury
heard the report of the two physicians
who performed the autopsy and post
norton. The technical details of the
course of the bullets were read into
the records of the inquest by DIR. A.
i. Christofferson and DIR. w. c..
Steward, physicians called into the
case.
Following the hearing of the medi-
cal testimony the inquest was adjourn
ed until such time as the funeral serv-
ices of Paul Jurik, who was being
buried at St. Georges cemetery at that
hour, should be completed. Mrs. Jurik,
who watched the interment rites, was
asked to appear before the coroner's
jury after the funeral in the hope that
she might shed any new light on the
tragedy. On the stand, however, Mrs.
Jurik was unable to give any addition
al information than that already in
the hands of the police who are work
ing on the case. Acting Coroner John
Slater conducted the cross-examina-
ton. At times the answers to his
questions were hardly audible and FREE
quently Mrs. Jurik had to be told to
raise her voice. At every mention of
the name of her late husband there
would come new flow of tears and
for several minutes questioning had
to be postponed until Mrs. Jurik could
control herself long enough to pro-
coed with the inquest.
Mrs. Jurik told the coroner's jury
that the first time she had any suspic-
ion that something was wrong in the
parlor downstairs was when she was
working at the stove in the rooms
above the soft drink parlor. She
heard two shots in rapid succession.
She happened to have pail of coal
in her hand, she said, and when she
heard the second shot she ran to the
top of the stairs to see what was wrong.
There she saw, she told the jury, a
short slim man, unmasked, standing st
the door holding the door wide open
with one hand and holding a gun in
the other Just then she heard a shot
and this frightened her so that she
dropped the pail of coal down the
s" stairway and this commotion frigh-
tened the three men away. When ask
ed whether she could identify the I'M
masked man if she saw him again,
Mrs. Jurik believed that she could. She
had never before seen the man, she
said.
The rest of the testimony of the wit
ness was merely a repetition of what
she had heard from her husbands lips
while he was lying at the hospital the
day after the shooting. Jurik followed
his partner in death "a hours later.
Frank Hams Testifies.
Frank Hams, a friend of the two
men for years, was called to the stand
to testify. Hams told of his CONVEX
sations with Jurik at the hospital. It
was Hams who helped Jurik make out
his will when physicians who attend
ed the latter told him that his life was
then only q matter of few hours.
Jurik, he said, seemed to be perfectly
conscious at the time and he realized
his danger and the circumstances in
- which the shooting had placed him.
Jurik told Hams that he had never
seen any of the men before and could
not understand why they should have
singled his place out for robbery.
When they entered the store at first,
Jurik believed them to be Kidding
him." and refused to take them Sc
riously, according to Hams report of
the conversation, until one of the
men began to shoot. Jurik declared at
the hospital that only two of the three
men did the shooting.
The testimony Of Hams closed the
examination at the inquest and in a
few minutes the coroner's jury return
ed their verdict finding that George
Bala2s and Paul Jurik came to their
death and died from injuries result
ing from gunshot wounds, said gun
shots being discharged into the bodies
Of George Balazs and Paul Jurik will
fully, feloniously and murderously by
some person or persons unknown"
To Open Safe Today
Shortly after the double tragedy on
\ Thursday night Judge Slater ordered
\ The safe in the place sealed. Today
2he> families of both men are being
summoned to be present at the open