The Morning Press,
Friday, June 26, 1931
DEWALD READY TO BE SENTENCED FOR
SHOOTING E. KLINE
Pleads Guilty Before Justice
And Signs Written
Confession
THREW GUN INTO CREEK
Kline Improves from Wound
in Head and Attends
the Hearing
Chester Dewald, 19, of Fishingcreek
township, who Wednesday night shot Emory Kline, 62, of Orange township, in the
head when only five feet away, said yesterday that he only wanted to wound
Kline so that he could not work, to satisfying a grudge he has carried against
the older man who, he says, caused him to lose his job three years ago.
Dewald pleaded guilty to felonious assault
and battery with intent to kill when arraigned before justice of the peace
George A. Zeigler, of town, yesterday morning at 10:30 o’clock. Sheriff Arthur
Rabb, who took Dewald into custody three hours after the shooting Wednesday
night, is the prosecutor.
Kline, with the bullet still lodged in the
back of his head, was at the hearing as was Perry McHenry, employer of Kline
and on whose farm the shooting occurred. Physicians who examined the bullet would sustained by Kline say that
it a superficial wound with the bullet
probably of .22 caliber although Dewald says that he used a .38 caliber
weapon which he later threw into Fishingcreek.
A written confession was made by Dewald
yesterday in which he gave a minute account of the crime and in which he says
that after wounding Kline he fired two shots at both Kline and McHenry although
he says his grudge was only against Kline. The latter did not seem to recall
much about working with Dewald at a saw mill near Buckhorn about three years
ago when he is alleged to have taken Dewald’s job.
Kline said that when the bullet struck
midway up the back of his head it stung as though he had been hit with a stone.
It made him dizzy and forced him to bend over, with his hand striking the
ground, but it did not knock him down and at no time was he unconscious.
The bullet then took a downward course and
was found lodged in the head when an X-ray picture was taken yesterday at the
Dewald in pleading guilty said that he
wanted to “get kid of Kline so he could not work any more” but did not want to
kill him. Dewald appeared rather unconcerned at the hearing and immediately
afterward was taken back to the county jail. He may be taken before the court
at the routine session Monday.
Dewald’s Confesstion
The written confession given by Dewald
follows:
“I, Chester Dewald, East
Fishingcreek township,
I left my home about 2:30 o’clock and went
to Orangeville, then to
“Chester Dewald.”