Collection: FND002 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Peace Officer Memorial Program
Series:
Tribute
Folder:
DIG
Item:
03448
Title:
George Piepkorn
Date:
Creator:
Inscription/Marks:
1/24/1894
Summary:
George Piepkorn
Wing, ND November 19th, 1930
George Piepkorn, a Burleigh County Deputy Sheriff residing at Wing, died in the Bismarck Hospital from injuries he received in a series of shooting and cuttings which occurred in Wing on November 12th. The trouble in Wing was described as family difficulties of John Holmes, Wing blacksmith.
Holmes is reported to have complained to callers at his shop about his stepson, Frazer, living off of him. Between the time that Holmes carried his grievance in an argument with his wife into the home of August Anderson, his next door neighbor, at 6:00 P.M. and the shooting of Holmes through the right knee at 11:30 P.M., Piepkorn and Ben McClusky, both elevator men in Wing, had been stabbed, Gus Anderson, the town harness maker, was shot in the right arm and Holmes was wounded by a shot fired by Grant Hubbel, one of a posse trying to restore law and order.
The Andersons state that Holmes and his wife came to their home to obtain their corroboration that the wife had been there during the afternoon, Holmes demanded to know where she had been. The Andersons say he had a rifle with him. Mrs. Holmes got the rifle away from him and remained at the neighbors’ for protection.
Holmes next turned up at the home of Gus Anderson, the town harness man. He wanted a revolver he had left there to have a holster made for it, the story goes, but as he already had another rifle with him, Anderson refused to go down to his shop and get the pistol. He says he closed the door on Holmes, whereupon Holmes is alleged to have fired through the door. The shot cut a groove across the upper left breast of Anderson, took a chunk of muscle out of his upper right arm near the shoulder, and then imbedded itself in the wall. Frazer was described as stepping into the case next. A group of townspeople went to Holmes' home and got involved in an argument with the blacksmith and Frazer over what had taken place, during which Frazer is alleged to have stabbed Ben McClusky in the right shoulder. Town Marshall George Kavinius arrested Frazer.
Holmes was permitted to go free but later Deputy Piepkorn undertook to arrest him. Holmes had barricaded himself in the house and flashed the house lights off and on. Piepkorn reconnoitered the premises cautiously from behind a shed and, while he was doing this, Holmes is said to have sneaked out and come up behind him. Piepkorn says Holmes jumped on his back and stabbed him. A heavy skinning knife penetrated his abdomen with such force that two left lower ribs were cut through, his intestines were perforated, and the diaphragm apparently gashed. He was brought to the hospital in Bismarck. Holmes was arrested and is in the hospital under guard from the Sheriff's office, while his stepson, Charles Frazer, is locked up in the Mandan jail.
Upon Piepkorn's death, Holmes was charged with murder. Piepkorn was the representative of the Monarch Elevator Company of Wing, and was 36 years old. He had been a deputy sheriff under Sheriff Rollin H. Welch. He leaves behind his wife.
Red ID: FND_I_77331 Image ID: 509151 Image Notes: 10950 00002 03448
