August Pickett Shot At Baldwin Opera House

PICKETT, REGENWETHER, TEEPLE

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 3/22/2014 at 09:20:21

Jackson Sentinel, March 5, 1914

AUGUST PICKETT SHOT AT BALDWIN OPERA HOUSE

Tuesday night about 10 o'clock Sheriff Regenwether received a telephone message from Baldwin that a man had been shot, whereupon the officer left at once for the scene of the crime. The details of the affair as accurately as we can learn at this writing are as follows:

An entertainment was given in the opera house in Baldwin on Tuesday evening, the talent comprising of Van Teeple, Tom Carson and a number of other lesser lights. It seems that a crowd of boys or young men who attended the play created a series of disturbances and after its close the mischievous lads were taken to task by members of the theatrical company. Numbered among the former was August Pickett and in the melee which followed the exchange of words he was shot, we are informed, by Van Teeple, who with his partners was immediately arrested and escorted to jail. A hearing was given Teeple at Baldwin and he was bound over to await action action by the Grand Jury and was then brought to Maquoketa and committed to the county jail.

Mr. Pickett's condition is said to be very critical, the bullet piercing his right lung and small hopes are entertained for his recovery. Teeple is well known here as "Buster" Van and for some time has been one of the owners of the Van & Van Stock Co., this aggregation being the one which gave the entertainment which led to the above tragedy.