PITCHED BATTLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 228, 28 September 1935, Page 9

PITCHED BATTLE

FARMER’S WIFE KILLED BAMILY'S FIGHT TO RESIST UTILITY COMPANY Received Sept. 27, 6.20 p.m. NEW YORK, Sept. 26. Mrs. Sophie Crempu, aged 40, was killed, and her husband John, a Belgian war veteran, wounded in a pitched gun battle with Jive deputy sheriffs who were attempting to arrest Crenipa in his small farmhouse in New Jersey on a writ issued to a New Jersey public service company. For eight years Crempa had been engaged in a persistent light to prevent a utility company stringing a high tension wire over his property. Sev«‘ial yeais ago the company was granted a condemnation order and installed the wire, but Crempa refused to accept an SOO dollars award and repeatedly short circuited the wire, causing tho company extensive damage. Many times officers attempted to serve an injunction, but Crenipa kept the house barricaded. To-day sheriffs determined to carry out. the court orders, but as thev attempted to smash their way into the house, Crempa and his wife and daughter started shooting. The officers responded, and dozens of shots were exchanged until the wife fell dead, whereupon Crenipa sur rendered, but the daughter continued shooting until overpoweml. Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure, For Influenza Colds.