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Seven Dead, Two Wounded In Saturday Night Shooting SpreeEric E. (Ike) Pearson, 56. of Lake Superior Road. Ironwood Township, was charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Rudolph Maurin late Saturday night at the Lake Road (Hautala) tavern. Lake and Airport Roads, in Ironwood Township, late Monday morning in Ironwood Municipal Court.No charges were filed in the shooting deaths of six other persons and the wounding of a woman and a 12-year-old girl in which Pearson is being held as a suspect.Municipal Court Judge Charles C. Keeton Jr., acting on a request by Pearson’s court appointed attorney, set a preliminary hearing on the charge for Tuesday. March 26. at 9:30 a. m. Pearson is being held without bond.After the hearing was set. Sheriff Prebish and the officers escorted Pearson from the building to awaiting squad car which returned the suspect to the county jail at Bessemer.Sheriffs Deputy Richard Bennetts signed the complaint against Pearson in the shooting death of Maurin. which occured in Ironwood Township between 10 and 10:30 Saturday night.Dead are Mrs. Vienna L. Gustafson, 41, a widow, of Ironwood Township: her mother. Mrs. Sally Johnson, 60, of Ironwood Township: Mrs. Joseph P. Rigoni, 59. of 524 Kennedy St., Ironwood; Rudolph Maurin, 56. of 1323 Florence St., Ironwood: Henry Raymond Hautala, 49 of Ironwood Township; Mrs. Axel Puisto. 47, of 749 Sunset Road, and Dan August Weiss. 67 of Lansing.Injured and reported in “very serious” condition at Grand View Hospital are Robin Gustafson. 12. daughter of Mrs. Gustafson and Mrs. Henry R. Hautala. 61.The Gustafson girl is reported to have been shot once through the abdomen and Mrs. Hautala was shot in the lower abdomen, attending physicians said.All the victims were shot by a bolt action, heavy calibre rifle, it was learned.The murderous rampage is believed to have begun in a modern one-story dwelling on Airport Road owned by Mrs. Gustafson and ended two and one-half miles west of the home at the Lake Road Tavern It is the worst crime of its kind in the history of the Gogebic Range and ranks as one of the worst in the history of the Midwest.In the Gustafson home five persons were gunned down, four of them as they sat in the living room. Robin Gustofson, fleeing in terror from the slaughter, apparently ran to her bedroom and hid in a closet. The killer evidently took after her and shot at her through the closet door.The living room was a scene of unbelievable horror. Two chairs and a sofa were drenched in blood and the walls and ceilings were splattered with both blood and tissue. A piece of a leg bone was found near one of the chairs and the carpet was thick with gobs of coagulated blood.A walk into the bedroom where the girl had hidden in the closet presented a similar scene. The floor was red with blood that had flowed from the girl’s wounds out from under the closet door. The tench of death throughout the entire house was sickning.Mrs. Gustofson was said to have been shot three times, twice through the chest, with the third bullet passing through her left leg. Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Rigoni and Weiss all were shot once through the chest. Coroner Robert L. Zielinski of Ironwood reported.The killer is then believed to have left the Gustafson home and proceeded west to the home of Henry Raymond Hautala. Entering the Hautala home through the rear entrance located on the north side of the house the gunman leveled his rifle at Hautala who was standing in the kitchen and shot him. Hautala tumbeled to the floor near the kitchen table and is believed to have died almost instantly. The next victory was Hautala's wife who was gunned down. She, however, managed to crawl out of the house onto Lake Road where she was picked up by an unifentified motorist and taken to Grand View Hospital.Leaving the Hautala house the gunman evidently walked about 200 yards to the Lake Road Tavern where the frenzied killing spree was about to reach a climax.Entering the front door of the tavern, apparently he leveled the rifle at Rudolph Maurin, who was sitting on the second stool at the bar a few feet from the entrance, and fired. Patrons in the bar said Maurin, upon being shot, momentarily stood up, made a slight turn to the right, and then collapsed facedown on the floor. Maurin was shot just below the left shoulder blade with the bullet passing through his chest and lodging in the bar. He too is believed to have died instantly. Patrons said they believe that everything happened so fast Maurin was not even aware of the gunman's presence.After Maurin was shot, Mrs. Puisto's husband, Alex and another patron, John Niemi of Ironwood Township lunged for the gunman, Puisto reportedly went for the rifle while Niemi threw a couple of punches in the assilant's face to throw him off balanceKnocking the assailant to the floor Niemi then grabbed a whisky bottle protuding from the gunman's pocket and clubbed him with it, knocking him senseless.It was during this struggle for the rifle that the weapon went off and the bullet struck Mrs. Puisto through the right elbow and passing through her body, causing the wound to be mortal. In addition to keeping the gunman under control the patrons then tried to assist Mrs. Puisto.Authorities said first word of the incident was received through a telephone operator at Iron Mountain. One of the patrons of the tavern reportedly pickd up a phone and dialed “operator and informed her of disturbance” at the bar. The operator then reportedly phoned the4 Ironwood Police Department which in turn called the Gogebic County Sheriff’s Department at Bessemer.Officers said that when they arrived at the Lake Road Tavern the patrons had the gunman under control. The latter was revived and questioned and he reportedly told officers he could tell them where there were five other bodies.”Checking out the gunman’s story, officers said they went to the Gustafson home and found the salin victims. It was about this time that the body of Hautala was found and it learned what happened to Mrs. Hautala.Authorities said however, that the bodies in the Gustafson home were first found by on of Mrs. Gustafson’s other daughter, Pamela. She reportedly also found her younger sister. Robin in the closet.
Newspaper Details
Bessemer Gogebic Explorer
Bessemer, Michigan, US
Thu, Mar 21, 1968
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Reinhart B.
USA 05 Jun 2016
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