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Harris Is Killed Short, Fatal Yisit(Continued P*t* It(Continued from Pet* Ithand seemed to indicate he had There was a brief greeting . . . held that hand out in an effort to ' Hello. Phil . . . he always called ward off the attack, Allen said me Phil' . . and hello, Leroy,Police Chief John Ingalls Mid the Johnson said “Then he moved pistol turned over to police by John- back from his desk and reached son had five shells already fired into a desk drawer. I was about Police said a waitress in the cafe eight feet from him.downstairs told them she had beardtwo shots rhortly after noon.Wnlfmnn Hram NotaeRalph Wolfson, owner of a clothing store immediately below the law-office. said he thtnight he heard the shots but he was not sure how many there were I had just turned the radio on and I heard what I thought at the time was a car backfiring three or four times. Wolfson said “I didn't think anything about it until a few minutes later I went outsideand saw McClure drive up In a few minutes an ambulance also arrived Wolfson said about 11:30 an elderly Negro walked info the store and inquired if he (Wolfson sold pistols. When told the store didn'thandle ,hem he walked out. Wolfson saidWife in HUte of ShockMrs Harris, the dead man’s wife, arrived at her husband s office within a short time after the bodv was discovered She appeared to be m a severe state of shock and walkedPm not a big man physically,*’ Johnson told the interrogating officers, I felt I had to protect myself, because I thought he m.ght be going for a gun So 1 startedshooting I don't know how many times I fired and he fell back in the chair Chief Ingalls said the gun, a six-shooter. had teen fired five times, j Not wishing to tell Johnson iso as nlt;H to influence his statements) he held up five fingers for Cox to seeA preliminary coroner's report said two of the bullets had entered Harris's body—one in his head and the other in his hand.officeon herhut sheto Har-past officers into the mm Allen attempted to r mt against entering the office brushed by him and wentris' side.She looked at him, then reached over and took hold of h,s shoulder and began shaking him. railing his name Allen then entered the office and told a police officer to t.ik**Mrs. Harris home, where she was put under a physician's careNo information was irnmedia’e-ly available on survivors Harris,justice of the peace in Lawrence, had held that post since 19U His bodv was taken to the hunk. Cooper. Warren Mortuary.The last fatal shooting in Law-rence occurred Sept. 30 10fl when Johnn «Mississippi) Jackson, a Negro, was shot by Robert Coleman. a Negro restaurant operator in North Lawrence. Coleman subsequently was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to the Kansas State Penitentiary a* Lansing.At Memorial Hospital♦ADMITTEDMrs Maude Welch Baldwin; Mrs.rheresa Brubaker. Baldwin; Mrs Horence Brown. Sunflower; Byron 3eery, 600 O St.; Mrs. Dorothy •'alls. Sunflower; Mrs Jean Colins. Route 6; Herman Brown.i in * I' I 'i V nr 1At no time did Johnson appearpanicky. He sat calmly and politely added his own statements to the replies requested by the officers j His only show of nervousness was his chainsmoking: of cigarettes^ from two rumpled packages he had put on the desk along with his other belongingsAll of the man s statements wereof his own volition. There wasn ta trace of force or duress from thematter-of-fact officers.Johnson said Harris was a dis tant relative, but he declined to fell ♦ the exact relationship. . . *Tveknown Lrrov for about 10 orwyears and I even went to his wedding not too many years ago.“I^erov and I never had anv trou-. ^ +hie and e\clt; p* f r some cr ip shooting and card scrapes I‘ve mner had anv trouble with the law, the soft-4t»spoken prisoner saidThe Kansas Citian told police he had hired Harris to handle the saleof his house at 532 Mich St here after the wife died Johnson fe'tthat Harris was taking too long to complete the sale He c ime hi *' today to see him about the transaction to see if it rould be speerie I up “I have heard that Leroy sometimes gets tough with folks/* Johnson said, “so I made up my mind I was going to be ready to handle him if he tried that with me, I ain’t very big. and I got to protect mvself Ingalls asked Johnson if he’d had the shoonng planned from the time he left Kansas City “No, sir!’’ came the polite answer. I just bought that gun to protect myself if any trouble came up He went into that drawer and I figured he was going for' a gun And so the visitor's path was a direct one—from bus station to sporting goods shop to Harris's office to the police station, a dis-!1II\♦ n mu
Newspaper Details
Lawrence Daily Journal World
Lawrence, Kansas, US
Fri, May 28, 1954
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Lawrence P.
KS, USA 17 Aug 2021
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