The Morning Press,
Tuesday, June 30, 1931
DEWALD GETS TWO TO
FOUR YEARS IN THE
EASTERN PEN.
Fishingcreek
Young Pleads
Guilty to Shooting Emory
Kline in Head
COURT HEARS FACTS
Fine of $50 Also Imposed
When Story of Old
Grudge is Related
Two to four years in the Eastern
Penitentiary at separate and solitary confinement, $50 fine and the costs, is
the price Chester Dewald, 20, of Fishingcreek
township, is to pay for shooting Emory Kline, 62, of
Dewald, who told
the district attorney he had nothing to say and who was only questioned a short
time by the Court, entered his plea of guilty during the afternoon session
yesterday and sentenced was imposed immediately after the facts in the case had
been presented to the Court.
Sheriff Arthur Rabb,
who took Dewald into custody three hours after the
defendant had wounded Kline on the Perry McHenry farm in
The sheriff told of Dewald
having been around McHenry’s farm on the two day before he shot Kline in the
head and fired two other shots at him. The official said that Dewald declared he only wanted to cripple Kline because he
contended the latter had tried to take a job away from him. He admitted,
Sheriff Rabb said, that he knew of rumor that McHenry
kept money in the safe of his home and he knew the location of the safe but he
denied he wanted the money. The sheriff stated that Dewald
had had other opportunities to attack Kline.
The sheriff read Dewald’s
written confession to the court in which he said that all three shots were
fired at Kline. Kline who still carries in his head the
bullet, fired by Dewald, appeared in court. He
did not even wear a bandage. Both he and Perry McHenry, on whose farm Kline
works and who was walking with Kline when the latter was attacked, told of the
shooting. They said Dewald was only about a step
behind them when he opened fire. He had had supper at the McHenry farm and
afterward the three had gone to the barn. They were returning from the barn
when Dewald opened fire and then disappeared in the
wood.
Dewald is
Questioned
Dewald said he
would be 20 on August 17th but gave the date of his birth as 1912
which would make him only 19 this coming August. He said he used a .38 caliber
revolver and had later thrown it into Fishingcreek at
Forks. Physicians had believed the revolver only to be a .22 caliber.
Only
three chambers were loaded and all of these were discharged. He said he “had it
in for Kline” but had nothing against McHenry and had not fired at him. Dewald said that the job Kline tried to take away from him
was that of ?ring at a saw mill. This was about two
years ago. He last worked in May of this year when he received $1.50 a day and
board for cutting props. He quit school when 16 and does not attend church nor
Sunday School, he said. He is one of 10 children of
whom the others are four brothers and five sisters. One brother is older.
Henry Dewald,
the father, said that he had noticed nothing peculiar about his son before the
shooting. He said the revolver he used had been a borrowed one. He had taken it
from the home. He said it was a .38 cliber gun.
Sentence was then pronounced with the sheriff to take Dewald
to the penitentiary within then days.