Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1885 — A DRUNKEN MADMAN’S CRIME. [ARTICLE]

A DRUNKEN MADMAN’S CRIME.

After Shooting; Four People, One Probably Fatally, He Blows Out His Brains. [Salem (Ind.) telegram.J A terrible ease of drunken madness occurred to-day. Fred Berkey, Jr., a son of ■one of the leading citizens of this place, while intoxicated, appeared in the streets and began an indiscriminate fusillade. He fired nine shots, aiming at whoever happened to be in range. Laura Kleiner received two balls, one in the wrist and one in the shoulder. William McClanhan was shot through the hand. W. S. Percise sustained a flesh wound in the thigh. Jordan Payne received a ball through the body just below the breast, and will probably die. Payne when shot was in a buggy with a companion. Dragging Payne from the buggy, Berkey compelled the other man to drive on, and attempted to escape. Finding this impossible, he placed a pistol to his head and fired. The ball took effect, and the young man died in fifteen minutes. * No cause is known for the bloody work, except that Berkey was completely maddened by the liquor he had swallowed.