Joseph Clark
Abt. 1880*-Nov. 18, 1914
Niles Daily Star, Thursday, November 19, 1914, page 1, col. 1, microfilm Niles District Library
STABBED TO DEATH
Joseph Clark, a Niles Boy,
Meets Terrible Fate
ASSASSIN ARRESTED
Ernest L. Dodge of Binghampton,
N.Y., Wielded a Knife--Result
of a Quarrel Between Two Men
Joseph Clark of Niles, was stabbed to death last evening in a brawl which took place in a dive operated by Mrs. Cora Mann, 205 north Walnut street, South Bend. Clark was stabbed at about 6 o'clock and at 7:30 o'clock Ernest L. Dodge, 26 years old, of Binghampton, N.Y., was arrested, accused of the crime and lodged in jail.
Clarks' death was the result of a quarrel between the two men, it is said, over one of the women present. Hot words led to blows which caused Dodge to draw his knife.
He cut Clark in the right arm, severing an artery. The knife penetrated the left side. The former wound was the cause of the man's death.
The cutting took place in the kitchen of the house, which was one of the few resorts left in South Bend. When the police patrol, summoned by a citizen who had heard rumors of a cutting scrape in one of the west end saloons, arrived at the place, Clark was stretched out on a sofa in a front room. The sofa was drenched with blood and Clark had been dead nearly an hour, according to Coroner Swantz, who was immediately summoned.
Two Women Are Found
An immediate search of the neighborhood was started by Patrolmen Alby and Koczorowski. The Mann woman and Mrs. Nellie Brown were found in the house, both, it is claimed, too far gone in the effects of liquor to flee, as the other "guests" had done.
From them particulars of the fray were obtained, and by means of quick work by Alby and Koczorowski, four persons, including Dodge were picked up in and about side streets near the scene of the crime.
Guy Moore, James Kartinos, Margaret Kartinos and Dodge were arrested. Dodge had gone in a north Walnut street saloon immediately after the fight and had become so intoxicated that it was almost impossible to book him at the police station. Mrs. Mann and Nellie Brown were by the men sent with the patrol.
The room in which the dead man had been stabbed was red with blood from his wounds. The women of the place, in an effort to clean the house of any trace of the fray, had only succeeded in scattering the blood over the walls and furniture.
Had Bled to Death
It was stated by Dr. Swantz that Clark evidently had bled to death and that with prompt medical attention his life could have been saved.
He had either walked or had been carried by persons present to the sofa in the front room.
The guests, fearful of arrest, had fled the place, and left him in the care of the two women. The two women, claim the police, were too drunk to properly tend his injuries.
The murdered man was identified at the McGann morgue by John Bachman, Michigan Central detective of Niles.
The death of Clark was the aftermath to an afternooon of carousal. The men and women arrested had been in the place, say the police, since the early afternoon. Much liquor had been partaken of and the men had almost come to blows several times through the day.
Not much was gleaned from the persons arrested last night. All were more or less under the influence of liquor and had not much to say about the matter. Dodge, according to police authorities, has neither denied not admitted his guilt. He is a laborer who had come to South Bend in an effort to obtain work.
The persons arrested were picked up by Patrolmen Ably and Koczorowski within an hour after the police were notified of the affair. Dodge was located in a side street too drunk to offer resistance to the officers who arrested him.
The other members of the party were scattered over an area of four blocks. Not one of them offered resistance to arrest.
The dive in which the killing took place is one of the worst in South Bend. It has been under police surveilance for some time, and Mrs. Mann, it proprietress, has been arrested innumerable times.
Coroner Swantz will hold the inquest as soon as the police locate all the witnesses possible.
The father was Herman Clark, a miller by trade, formerly residing at 418 south Third street, Niles. He died Jan. 1, 1912. Of the remaining family are the mother, two daughters and a son, Misses Agnes and May, and John Clark.
The mothers and daughters moved from Niles to South Bend last Tuesday to make that place their permanent home. John remained here and is employed at home of Mrs. Henry Lardner.
Funeral arrangements have not been completed, but it quite likely that the body of Joseph Clark will be brought to Niles, there being a family lot in Silver Brook cemetery.
*Indiana Deaths state age 34 years.
