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Show SHARP BATTLE WITH fl MANIAC Denver Family Has Exciting Excit-ing Time With Lunatic, . Recently Escaped From Idaho Asylum. DENVEE, Oct 29. The settlement nine miles west of Denver had a sensa- tioa Buaoay morning mac neariy resulted re-sulted in the lynching of George Shepherd, Shep-herd, an escaped lunatic from Idaho. At daybreak Mr. and Mrs. Elias Stef-fan Stef-fan were awakened by someone pounding pound-ing on their door. When Mr. Steffaa opened the door he found himself gazing gaz-ing Into the mntzle of a shotgun la the bands of a stranger, who demanded that he be allowed to enter the house and hide there during the day. Mr. Steffan grabbed the muzzle of the gun and attempted' to take It away from the man, but was. getting the worst of the encounter when his wife came to his assistance. She removed the cartridge, while her husband held it, and in so doing sustained a bad bruise on the right arm where Shepherd Shep-herd struck her. His own weapon having been made useless by the heroic action of the brave woman. Shepherd struggled with 8ieffan across the room and tried to seize a revolver which was lying on a dresser. Mrs. Steffan was too quick for him, getting the weapon first. 8he was afraid to shoot at the intruder, fearing titat she might wound her husband, who was struggling with Shepherd on the floor. She ran to the door and tried to discharge the revolver in the air to summon help, but found it was not loaded. Meantime, Shepherd had gctten hold of a large jar and was beating her husband over the head with it. Running to the woodshed she se ' cured an az and tried to strike Shepherd Shep-herd with it, but was so weakened with fright and excitement that he easily struck the weapon from her hands. About this time Steffan got a hold on his man's throatAnd quickly choked fcim into submission. Seeing that her husband bad control of the man, Mrs. Steffan ran barefooted and attired only in her nightdress to the Tarfet ranch, a quarter of a mile distant, where she summoned help. When the men from the ranch arrived ar-rived they found Steffan still master of the situation, although he was bleeding bleed-ing profusely from scalp wounds and from places about his hands and face where Shepherd had bitten him. The man was securely bound and the Sheriff Sher-iff notified. Before the arrival of the Sheriff thero were threats of lynching, but cooler counsel prevailed. Shepherd told them that they could shoot him if they wanted to, but that he had serious objection to hanging. When questioned by the officers he contradicted contra-dicted himself several times, first giving giv-ing his name as O'Brien and then Shepherd. He claimed to be an escaped es-caped convict from the Idaho penitentiary, peniten-tiary, and said he was intimate with both Moyer and Haywood. He said he made his escape while working on the farm at the asylum. He said that for some time he had been traveling at night and hiding by day and thought he could frighten Steffan and bis wife into shielding him and feeding feed-ing him until dark this evening. Steffan Stef-fan had his wounds dressed today, and, while painful, they are not considered dangerous, unless blood-poisoning sets in. |