The Lamoni Chronicle Lamoni, Decatur County, Iowa November 15, 1906 Overholtzer Pleads Guilty When George OVERHOLTZER was brought into court Tuesday, for trial for the murder of his wife last June, he withdrew his plea of not guilty and entered one of guilty. The plea was accepted by Judge TOWNER and will be sentenced Friday. It will be remembered that Mr. OVERHOLTZER had been to Van Wert to a ball game and came home in the evening, and while walking home with his wife, who had been to church, pulled a revolver and shot her twice, killing her almost instantly. After the shooting he took a run around a block or two and came up where she lay dying. Suspicion at once rested on Mr. OVERHOLTZER and coroner's jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree. He was arrested by Sheriff WALLACE and taken to Leon where he waived examination and was committed to jail without bail to await the action of the grand jury which found an indictment for murder in the first degree. The plea now entered will save, both the county and friends of the defendant, the heavy expenses incident to a long, hard fought trial. The Lamoni Chronicle Lamoni, Decatur County, Iowa November 22, 1906 George OVERHOLTZER, who on last week Tuesday plead, guilty to the murder of his young wife on the evening of June 10 last, received his sentence Saturday morning. The court room at Leon was filled when he was brought in for sentence. Judge TOWNER, after giving him a talk on the heinousness of his crime, commanded him to arise while sentence was pronounced upon him. He was then given a sentence of twenty-five years in the penitentiary at Fort Madison, to which place he was taken that afternoon. Copied by Stacey McDowell Dietiker, May 17, 2003

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