The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1940-04-11
CONFESSED SLAYER
RETURNS TO Scene
DOPE FIEND BEAT NEW
ULM DENTIST TO
DEATH In OFFICE

DEATH In OFFNE
st. Paul = up = Sheriff John
Reitter of Brown county and Ell
mer Matson, state crime bureau
agent, are to arrive in st. Paul
today from Seattle with George
Malcolm Creighton, 62-year-old
iron worker, in custody.
Creighton has confessed beat
ing to death DR.. Louis Gebhardt,
a New Ulm dentist, 35 years ago
in his hysteria to get narcotics.
Reluctant to confess, despite
steady questioning since Friday,
because he said, II was afraid
I'd lose everything" Creighton
finally told authorities Il think /
hit him. / don't know if ! hit
him with my fist or not. ! know
/ hit him with something"
Creighton, once a resident of
st. James was arrested Friday on
a tip from Mrs. Louise Richard
son, about IS, whose home is near
Grand Rapids and who lived in
st. James where her husband,
now dead, operated a photograph
gallery at the time of the Staying,
November l, 1904.
O. K. Bodia, chief sheriff's de-
putty here, said Creighton signed
an eight-page statement telling
how he killed DR.. Gebhardt.
Bodia quoted Creighton as say
ing he was reluctant to confess
because "they will put me on the
end of a string or in the pen for
life. I'm afraid. I will lose my
pension but I've no chance to earn
much money any more. Pm get
ting too old to get any employ
ment. I get a Gays work now
and then"
Under questioning, Creighton
said he went to DR.. Gebhardt's
office and asked for narcotics but
DR.. Gebhardt refused him.
Gle told me to get out and
got mad. I was all jumbled up
Creighton then told how he hit
the dentist with something"
81 hit him and he didn't get up
and then 1 searched the place for
some DOPE
Creighton said he found a box
of narcotics, took a ''big shot" of
it, went into another room and
then through a window.
Creighton read in the news
papers about the dentist being
killed but, he said 81 didn't think
l had killed the man."
He also said he had read about
DR.. George R. Koch, another New
Ulm dentist, being tried for the
crime.
DR.. Koch was tried three times
the first two trials ending in dis
agreement and the third, at Man
kato, in acquittal. DR.. Koch now
is resident of Minneapolis.
Al Koch, manager of the
Echo Milling company and
well-knOwn in Redwood
county, is brother of DIR.
Koch
Mrs. Richardson, who lives with
a son-in-law, Oscar Johnson, and
a daughter on a 40-acre fruit and
poultry farm four imles east OF
Grand Rapids, furnished the tip
en- the Staying after she read an
article in detective magazine
last September.
She told authorities Creighton
was one Of several young men
who frequently visited her hus-
bands photo studio and said that
she recalled that a day or so after
the Staying Creighton dropped in
and told her he had been in New
Ulm seeking narcotics, had had a
| fight with a man, knocked him
out with a hammer and fed.
After reading the magazine,
Mrs. Richardson contacted au-
thorities. She accompanied Min
nesota officials to the west coast
and confronted Creighton.
Creighton recalled he was once
arrested by Minneapolis police for
questioning in the killing but said
they just asked me if I was ever
| oil Olt1lo O1lN Id. "A illdll sSdlllC LII
and looked at me and shook his
his head"
He reiterated details of the
crime are hazy in his mind but
said he might have taken what
ever he hit DR.. Gebhardt with
| from the floor.
Asa P. Brooks of Minneapolis,
who at the time Of the Staying
was publisher of a New Ulm
newspaper, viewed Creighton in
i the Minneapolis jail where he
was held on a narcotics charge
ten days after the killing but was
unable to identify him as the man
he saw bending ever DR.. Geb-
hardt's body. Brooks peered thro-
ugh transom when he heard
noise in the dentists office and
Spraad fbp alarm of tho S1avipo