Robert W. Tisdale (-1930)

TISDALE

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 8/16/2008 at 08:43:12

AMES DAILY TRIBUNE-TIMES, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Monday, January 6, 1930.

Tisdale Youth's Slayers Held for Manslaughter

FORT WAYNE, Ind. Jan. 6 - Charges of involuntary manslaughter against John P. Shaffer and a charge of being an accessory after the fact against Charles W. Harris, as the result of the fatal shooting of Robert W. Tisdale, 25, formerly of Colo, Ia., have been file in circuit court.

Shaffer and Harris said the shotting New Year's day was accidental and that it followed a drinking party in celebration of the New Year. Shaffer, it is said, held a revolver and fire the bullet which killed Tisdale. He said the weapon was pointed at the floor and the bullet evidently glanced from a stove and struck Tisdale in the temple.

A coroner's examination failed to find a trace of alcohol in Tisdale's stomach.

Shaffer is accused of firing the fatal shot and Harris is charged with aiding Shaffer to escape and attempting to conceal the crime.

--------------------

Tribune-Times County News Service
ZEARING, Jan. 6, - The body of Robert W. Tisdale, former Story county boy, was interred in the Zearing cemetery Sunday afternoon with the Masonic lodge of Colo, of which Tisdale had been a member, in charge. Members of the Masonic lodges of Union and Zearing assisted in the burial services.

Funeral services were held at 1:30 o'clock Sunday afternoon at the Church of Christ in Union. The body was brought to Union from Fort Wayne, Ind., where Tisdale was accidentally shot on New Year's eve.

An investigation of the story that the shooting was the culmination of a wild drinking bout revealed that although Tisdale's two companions had been drinking, he had not. No trace of intoxicants was found in the stomach in an autopsy performed by the coroner and undertaker.

The story was investigated by W. H. Lelpley of Union and Lloyd Kelly of Marshalltown who went to Fort Wayne, and returned to Union with the body.