Obituaries for Doniphan County, Kansas

WIFE SLAYER SAFE FROM MOB

Emery Machmer, Captured by Posse, Now in Hiawatha Jail

TROY, KAS., June 19---Fearing mob violence, county officers took Emery Machmer to the jail at Hiawatha, Kas., thirty miles away. Machmer, 21 years old, shot and killed his 19-year-old wife at her father's farm near here yesterday. After the murder, Machmer fled and was captured later by a posse who found the youth hiding in a hay stack.
(Kansas City Star ~ June 19, 1920)

BLAME GOSSIP IN TROY MURDER

Reports Concerning Slain Wife Are Said to Be Untrue

TROY, KAS., June 19---To gossip carried to Emery Machmer, 21 years old, who killed his wife yesterday, largely is attributed the murder, which is the principal topic of conversation in this section, where the families of both are widely known.

Because of the feeling against Machmer, Sheriff W. L. Privett and A. N. Hays, under sheriff, secretly removed Machmer last night from the Doniphan County jail to Hiawatha, county seat of Brown County.

According to reports, friends of Mach ((missing part of article)) and jumped to the ground. The husband went down the stairs and met his wife in the yard, where he shot her through the head.

When captured a half mile from the house, Machmer had a revolver and a pair of steel handcuffs in his pocket. Sheriff Privett believes the husband first intended to handcuff his wife and spirit her away.

In jail Machmer admitted killing his wife and gave for his reason that he desired her to go hom with him and she refused. The Machmers were married last June and separated in February, this year. Members of the murdered wife's family assert the husband was not industrious and often mistreated his wife.

Last March Machmer was sentenced to six months in jail for attacking his wife. He was paroled at the end of sixty days.

The husband is held on a charge of first degree murder. His bond was fixed at $50,000. The date of trial has not been set.
(Kansas City Star ~ June 20, 1920)

LIFE FOR A KANSAS SLAYER

Henry Machmer Goes to Lansing for Killing Wife at Troy

TROY, KAS., July 6---Henry Machmer, Doniphan County farmer, pleaded guilty in the district court here this morning to a charge of first degree murder for the slaying of his wife. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by Judge W. S. Stuart and was taken to Lansing to begin his sentence at once. Machmer, who was taken to the Brown County jail at Hiawatha to avoid possible mob violence, following the shooting of his wife five weeks ago, was brought to Troy this morning for his hearing.
(Kansas City Star ~ July 6, 1920)

SLAYER OF FATHER IS HELD

Kansas War Veteran Must Face Murder Charge in Doniphan County

HIAWATHA, KAS., Sept. 29---Freeman Gildersleeve, who shot and killed his father, Charles Gildersleeve, will have to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge. At the preliminary hearing, held in Troy yesterday afternoon, Gildersleeve was bound over to the Doniphan County district court. His bond was fixed at $10,000.

At the preliminary hearing two daughters of the dead man testified that Freeman came into the house and charged the father with being intimate with a daughter; that he asked his father if he was going to admit it. When his father said he would not admit such a thing, because he was not guilty, the son fired.

Was Freeman Gildersleeve suffering from the effects of being shell shocked and gassed while in France? That question was not brought out at the hearing yesterday, although attorneys say it will be a strong point in the defense of Gildersleeve. He was in the Argonne battle and St. Mihiel drive.
(Kansas City Star ~ September 29, 1922)

JOHN DIEBOLT GUILTY OF MURDER IN THE SECOND DEGREE

TROY, KAN., October 10---John Diebolt, who shot and killed Marion Cornelius Pinyerd near Dentonville last September, was found guilty of murder in the second degree. The jury was out twenty-two hours.

When the jury retired, Diebolt, not knowing that his presence was required in court, went to his home and when the verdict was arrived at, the court was compelled to keep the jury locked up for about seven hours longer until he arrived.

The killing was a very mysterious affair. Pinyerd, in company with several other companions, went to a watermelon patch owned by Diebolt. It seems that Pinyerd was to be made the subject of a practical joke. At a pre-arranged signal, Diebolt and others rushed into the field and began yellling and firing. Pinyerd, in his fright, ran from the field to the Rock Island right of way, where he was afterwards found with a bullet hole in his head, from the effects of which he soon afterwards died. His body was also lacerated and torn by coming in contact with a wire fence. In his flight from the patch he was pursued by young Diebolt with a revolver in his hand, who discharged it once in the air before starting after Pinyerd and then again about the time of reaching the right of way fence, which shot is supposed to have done the killing.

The defense was conducted by Hon. S. L. Ryan of Hiawatha, W. I. Stewart of Troy and W. H. H. Curtis of Severance, while County Attorney Aleid Bowers was assisted by J. J. Baker of Troy. A motion for a new trial was presented.
(Topeka Weekly Capital ~ October 12, 1893)