OCR Text |
Show Funeral At Dennett For Ifictim Qf Tooele Shooting Funeral services were held in the Bennett ward chapel, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Latter-day Saints, Tuesday at 1 p.m. for LaVerne Hamaker, 25, who died in a Tooele hospital at 2:45 a.m. following a fatal shooting at a Tooele trailer court. Bishop John Haslem, of the Bennett ward, conducted the services, and graveside rites were held at the Vernal cemetery ceme-tery under the direction of the American Legion of Vernal, where burial was held under the direction of the Tate Mortuary Mortu-ary of Tooele. Being held by the Tooele police po-lice for investigation in connection con-nection with the shooting, is Reuben Emerson, 31, who had recently come from Montana and was living at the trailer park, being employed near Tooele. Events leading up to the fatal fa-tal shooting, details of which are somewhat mixed up, were told by Mrs. Lillian Smith Hamaker, Ham-aker, as follows: Mrs. Hamaker married La-Vern La-Vern Hamaker in Roosevelt, Jan. 24, 1949. Sbe told police (Continued on Back Page) Hamaker . . . 'Continued from page X) she thought she was divorced from Hamaker and on Feb. 7, 1953 she had married Emerson in Elko, Nevada. A brother of the dead man maintains that there never was a divorce and that Mrs. Hamaker knew that she was not legally married to Emwrson. Mr. Hamaker had recently completed a 150-day jail sentence sen-tence in the Duchesne County jail (served his time at Provo due to the county jail being torn down), after having been convicted of a battery charge. Sixty-five days of the sentence was suspended. After completing complet-ing his jail term, Hamaker had taken a job in a garage at American Fork with his brother. He had go:ie to Tooele after receiving re-ceiving a call from Mrs. Hamaker Ham-aker the day of the shooting. Mrs. Hamaker reports that she was unaware that she did not have a legal divorce from the dead man, and other phases of her account of the shooting have not been verified or disputed dis-puted by the police at Tooele. She was at a trailer owned by her sister, Mrs. Claudia Anderson, An-derson, when Hamaker arrived Saturday about 1 a.m. They talked for a time, then he left the trailer and went to Mrs. Hamaker's trailer, which is about 47 feet east of the trailer owned by Mrs. Anderson. Mrs. Hamaker heard three shots several minutes after Hamaker Ham-aker left Mrs. Anderson's trailer. trail-er. She ran to her trailer and found Hamaker slumped on the floor. She screamed and ran back to her sister's trailer and neighbors called the police. He was born Dec. 28, 1927, in Vernal, a son of Van and Mary Elizabeth Hamaker. He spent his early life in Roosevelt and was married to Lillian Smith Jan. 24, 1949, in Roosevelt. |