Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1915 — REMINGTON OFFICER GOT BULLET IN HAT [ARTICLE]

REMINGTON OFFICER GOT BULLET IN HAT

John Burns, Special Nightwatch, Fired On By Man Who Was Skulking in Rear of Stores. John Burns, who was substituting for Nightwatch Bill Zimmerman, of Remington, Thursday night, had a close call from sudden death. A bull let hole through his hat, just above the band, shows that death or serious injury was literally a matter of a hair’s breadth. According to Burns, he was making his rounds through the alleys at about 2 o’clock Friday morning and saw a man skulking behind Leslie Fisher’s grocery store. The officer demanded, “What are you doing there?” The man responded with a shot from his pistol. Burns is said to have retreated and to have made no report of the matter until the following morning. While no one cares to question the veracity of the nightwatch, some have suggested that the bullet hole was in a position that a scalp wound seems almost impossible unless the hair of the officers was standing on end and supporting the hat. Substantiating the story of the officer is that of the night telephone girl, who soon after the shooting heard an automobile horn and saw a man run out of the alley back of Fisher’s store and get into the automobile and be driven rapidly away.