Bio: Wasserburger, Charles (Attempted Robbery - 1915)

Contact: Ann Stevens
Email: ann@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Wasserburger, Hantke, HAuge, Brown, Tewald

----Source: Neillsville Times (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 8/12/1915

Wasserburger, Charles (Attempted Robbery – 9 Aug 1915)

Monday night shortly after 11 o’clock when Chas. Wasserburger was going home, he was waylaid by a highwayman and robbery was attempted. A wire had been stretched across the sidewalk in a dark spot near his home and according to the robber’s plan, Charley tripped and fell over it. As he fell the highwayman, who had been hiding in a clump of bushes, fell upon him and struck him four times over the head with a club. The blows did not have sufficient force to render the victim unconscious and he called for help. His son, Henry, heard him and came to his assistance in a second and the robber was scared off. Mr. Wasserburger’s head was quite badly cut and he was assisted into the house and officers called. Sheriff Hantke and Marshall HAuge were soon there and they sent for Herb Brown’s bloodhound.

The dog was put onto the trail where the highwayman had stood in the bushes and took it down to the depot and around the Standard Oil Co. warehouse. Here the dog abandoned the trail and she was again taken back to the scene of the holdup and this time took the trail to the home of Claude Tewald on the north side. Various circumstances seemed to warrant the arrest of Tewald as a suspect and he was lodged in jail that night.

The attempted holdup was deliberately planned with Mr. Wasserburger as a victim. The highwayman no doubt thought that Charley had a considerable sum of money on his person and laid his plans to get it. Whether or not Tewald is the guilty person remains to be seen, although as yet there is only circumstantial evidence against him, but he has been mixed up in several transactions and at the present time a warrant for theft was hanging over his head.