Bio: Krueger, Frank (Pardon - 1932)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Krueger, Jensen, La Follette

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 22 Dec 1932

Krueger, Frank (Pardon - 14 DEC 1932)

A conditional pardon to save Frank Krueger from the insanity which holds his brother, Leslie, as the result of their sentence to life imprisonment after resisting the draft in the World War, was announced last Wednesday by Gov. La Follette.

The slaying of Henry Jensen, Withee Station Agent, who was one of a posse of more than 50 men that in 1918 engaged the four Krueger brothers in a gun battle on their clark County farm when they sought to avoid the draft, led to the sentence of Frank and Leslie to terms of life imprisonment.

Leslie has been insane for some years, but only recently a prison lunacy commission pronounced Frank "introspective, reclusive and non-cooperative with ideas of suspicion and delusions of persecution."

The brothers have had pardon applications before every governor who has been in office since their imprisonment and all denied them clemency until La Follette granted Frank the conditional pardon, allowing the board of control to release him as soon as he can be made mentally fit for society.

Ennes Krueger, one of the four brothers, escaped from the posse and was killed by federal officials later near Polley, Wis., and Louis was captured at Chippewa Falls.

"The whole incident at the Krueger farm is inexcusable," La Follette said, characterizing the two brothers as victims of the "war hysterics."

The governor reviewed the case from the time when federal officers first visited the Krueger farm to arrest Frank and Leslie as draft dodgers.

Ennes and Frank were in a corn field and their mother directed the officers to that place. The conversation which ensued is in dispute as is the testimony regarding who fired first, the officers or the brothers, La Follette noted that Ennes was the only one of the brothers to shoot then and "he has paid the price with his life," the governor said.

One man went to the nearby village and returned with a posse which surrounded the Krueger place and fired more than 100 bullets into the home, where the mother and sons took refuge and exchanged shots with the greater forces. Frank was wounded in both legs and Jensen killed. Ennes escaped when a truce was declared and Frank was removed from the house for treatment of his wounds.

"Applicant could have been arrested on the streets of the village almost any day of the week," La Follette said. "With the feeling of the community, which must have been expressed many times and which was evidenced by the mob that assembled, a normal man could feel most keenly a necessity for an instinct of self preservation..

"Most of the time that battle was taking place, Frank was wounded and unable to fight. Whatever blame is to be place upon him for the death of the villager is small in comparison with the time that the applicant has served. I feel that society owes the applicant a pardon."