Barber County, Kansas.  

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Barber County Index, May 4, 1944.

Young Killer Gives Self Up In Pratt Friday

Shoots Girl In Kingman Cafe And Wounds Cook

Fleeing from Kingman where he had shot and killed his 18 year old sweetheart in the Harris cafe there, a 21 year old youth drove his car through Barber county, stopping briefly in Sharon and Medicine Lodge before going on to Pratt, where he surrendered to officers.

The youth is Paul Everett Redlinger, 21, of near Burrton, formerly of Kingman county. The girl he killed was Mildred Orth, 18 years old, whose parents live near Andale in Sedgwick county. She had been working in the Harris cafe on highway 54 since Christmas. Owner of the cafe is Lt. Commander Harris of the United States Navy, who is stationed at Staten Island, and is a brother of O. E. Harris of Medicine Lodge.

Also wounded is E. J. Sammons, 27, a cook in the cafe.

Redlinger had reached Pratt by a roundabout way and had come to Father John J. Butler, pastor of the Sacred Heart church at Pratt. He asked to give himself up to Patrolman Lewis, with whom he is acquainted. With the patrolman when young Redlinger was picked up and placed under arrest was Patrolman Ira Frantz of the Pratt city police force.

The officers found a .38 caliber Colt revolver under the driver's seat of the 1941 Ford coach Redlinger had driven into Pratt. It was loaded but in the mackinaw the youth was wearing were eight loaded cartridges and two empty shells. The cook was reported to have been shot once and the girl three times.

Redlinger told the officers that he left his home near Burrton yesterday morning about 10 o'clock, intending to drive to Kingman to patch up his difficulties with Miss Orth, with whom he had quarreled Sunday evening. They had been going together for more than a year.

He drove to Hutchinson, Patrolman Lewis said he told the officers, where he purchased the revolver and about 30 cartridges. Asked about what happened to those not accounted for, he said he had fired at telephone poles near Pretty Prairie enroute to Kingman.

Officers were told by Kingman county officers that as Redlinger entered the cafe the girl ran to the kitchen. There he is said to have argued with the girl for nearly an hour. Part of the time she was crying. Officers said he told them he thought for a time they were about to settle their difficulties.

About the actual shooting, Redlinger, who appeared to be suffering from shock when questioned here last night, said he was hazy. He had backed the girl into a small cubby hole off the kitchen now used for storage purposes. Redlinger said the cook tried to interfere. Kingman officers said that the girl screamed as she evidently sensed the youth had a revolver and the cook stepped between them.

Redlinger told officers he remembers seeing the cook fall but was hazy about shooting the girl. Officers believe the gun was fired from the mackinaw pocket in which the youth was carrying it. Patrolman Frantz said there was a hole large enough to put two fingers through in the pocket, evidently made by the bullets fired from the gun.

Kingman officers said the youth dashed out of the cafe and drove hurriedly away. He told officers he remembered heading his car east and then south and remembers no more until he found himself in Harper. He turned west and stopped at a little town, which Patrolman Lewis believes must have been Sharon, and got a road map. A Colorado map was found in his car.

He stopped briefly at Medicine Lodge and then came to Pratt, arriving here while it was still light. He saw Lewis, whom he recognized, he said, and was on the point of giving up then. However, he sought Father Butler and it was the priest who called the patrolman to come for the youth, Redlinger is Catholic.

The youth intimated to officers, they said, that when he drove east out of Kingman he intended to shoot himself. He was hazy on what prompted him not to. He told officers he had been taking treatment for a nervous condition from a Wichita specialist.

Miss Orth was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Orth. Redlinger is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Redlinger.


Thanks to Shirley Brier for finding, transcribing and contributing the above news article to this web site!