PRIEST ATTACKED
STABBED WITH POCKET-KNIFE SEVERE INJURIES INFLICTED Rec. 10 p.m. NEW YORK, Apl. 21. A former marine, armed with a small pocket knife, attacked a Jesuit priest as he was serving communion before the altar of the Church of the Immaculate Conception at New Orleans today. Long lines of worshippers had filed to the front to receive communion. The marine knelt before the railing as though to receive the holy water, but as the priest, Father James Courtney, aged 52, bent over he leaped upwards and thrust the knife into the priest’s throat. He then jumped over the railing and again stabbed the priest in each side of the neck and once in the back. The nearby worshippers, who were at first stunned by the suddenness of the attack, then rushed to the aid of the priest, and disarmed the marine. The priest lost a considerable quantity of blood, but, following a two-hour operation in the Mercy Hospital, doctors said he had a chance to survive. The marine refused to explain his motive. “He is a psychopathic case of some sort,” said the police.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 26442, 22 April 1947, Page 7
Word Count
185PRIEST ATTACKED Otago Daily Times, Issue 26442, 22 April 1947, Page 7
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