Oscar Kerr and Fred Mitchell Fires Into Teepee at Waverly, Killing Indian
The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington 29 Oct 1909, page 9
Kerr and Mitchell, 21 and 24 years, respectively, are held in the county jail, charged with firing the shots into a teepee at Waverly Monday night that killed Jack Wilson, an Indian. A written confession has been obtained from both of the boys.
The father of Kerr is said to be a well-to-do farmer in Lawrence County, Ohio. Mitchell says his mother lives in Spokane but has not given her address. His father is in Oakdale.
“Just meanless” is given by young Kerr as the reason for the shooting. The connection of the two sides of the story by the prosecuting attorney’s office develops the evidence that Kerr and Mitchell went to the teepee of Wilson on the evening with two-pint flasks of whiskey.
The whiskey was taken away from them in a scuffle with two Indian boys. The loss is supposed to have angered them and returned an hour later. They fired indiscriminately into the tent.
The bullet that ended the life of Wilson had been sharpened in an idle moment by one of the pair.
“Did you ever sharpen a bullet?” asked Deputy Prosector Don F. Kizer of Kerr.
“I did once,” he answered.
“Then you are the man that fired the shot that killed Wilson,” accused Deputy Prosecutor Kizer. Kerr gasped for breath at the accusation but regained his composure and qualified his statement by saying that he had taken a handful of cartridges out of his pocket, among them the sharpened bullet and that Mitchell might have placed the cartridge in his gun.
The enormity of their crime, death on the gallows as a probable fate, or at best, a lengthy prison term, does not affect the youths, who told their story without a shot of emotion or trace of regret.
The act of the two boys terrorized the Indians of Waverly in the camp at the time, who, after the tragic death of Wilson, left and camped within the limits of that village for protection.
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