Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1913 — TWO SHOTS AND A FIENDISH SCREAM [ARTICLE]

TWO SHOTS AND A FIENDISH SCREAM

Indicated That a Murder Was Being Perpetrated But Investigation Showed Otherwise.

What seemed at first to be an attempted murder proved after investigation to be only a little pasttime for two professional men and nothing had occurred that would ordinarily be worth mentioning. It was about 10 o’clock this Wednesday morning that two shots were heard by merchants and professional men along the north side of Washington street near the A. F. Long drug store. Accompanying the shots was a loud scream as of a dying woman. Merchants ran from their stores and several soon joined officers to try to learn the cause of the trouble. Nothing developed as a result of the investigation until Dr. W. L. Myer, dentist, and A. G. Catt, optometrist, pleaded guilty to having caused the excitement, although it was entirely unthoughtedly. Dr. Myer was testing a pistol out of a back window and Dr. Catt furnished the scream, just for fun, not expecting it to reach other ears than Dr. Myer’s. The news rapidly spread and a report was current about town that some woman had been murdered.