BATTLE WITH GUNMAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 29 (Supplement)

BATTLE WITH GUNMAN

TEAR GAS BOMBS USED Betrayal by a former "sweetheart and a desperate "Hands up!" to a woman and her two children as ho hid in her house figuro in the dramatic story of the shooting of an ex-convict near Butte, Montana, recently.

Fleeing from tho police, who were chasing him for the alleged killing of a sheriff, a policeman, and two others, William Knight rushed into tho suburban house of a Mrs. Gilligan. Ho held her and her two children prisoners at tho point of his gun for a whole day as he calmly rccitod his talo of shooting four men since November 13. "Don't you dare call the police, or I'll kill the kids and shoot myself," ho threatened his hostess. It was not until Mrs. Gilligan's husband Yeturned from work that they succeeded in escaping by a ruse and notifying tho police. The local Flying Squad, armed to tho teeth, besieged the house. By using tear gas they drove tho fugitive out like a rat from his hole and shot him down. Knight's former sweetheart, Joan Miller, had been with him when he shot Sheriff Thomas Moeham at Tacoma, Washington, on November 13. Knight followed her to Montana and rnado his way into her house, killing two persons, including a policeman, and wounding two others. Jean survived to tell tho police her story. It is feared that Knight's fourth victirji is a cowboy from whom ho stole a motor-car and made a "getaway."