DORSELIES FRUGE BROUGHT TO JAIL
Crowley Signal October 10, 1903
News Article from Adadia Parish
Submitted by Winston Boudreaux, 2006

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DORSELIES FRUGE BROUGHT TO JAIL
Crowley Signal October 10, 1903
Doreselies Fruge, the young man who stabbed and fatally wounded Arthur 
Roy at a dance near Eunice last Saturday night, was arrested Tuesday night 
between 9 and 10 o’clock at the home of one of his neighbors by Jailer A.V. 
Johnson and brought down to the parish jail, where he was incarcerated with 
a charge of murder preferred against him.
The prisoner is scarcely more than a boy and though he seemed a little 
frightened, he spoke readily enough to one of the Signal’s reporters who 
interviewed him at the jail. He does not speak a word of English, and seemed 
immensely relieved when the newspaper man addressed him in the dialect 
spoken by the country people of Louisiana.
Fruge said in substance: “Last Saturday night I had gone to a ball at the 
Charlots, or Fontenots – they call themselves by either name – and after 
having danced awhile had grown warm and gone out in the road to rest. I was 
just about to go home and was leaning against the fence. Some of the men 
there, about twenty of them and all unknown to me, began to sing songs. The 
masters of the house declared that if the men wanted to sing they should do 
so outside. This brought on a racket and the “others” were pushed outside of 
the house. The racket was continued in the road and some “others” began to 
throw sticks into the house. The Charlots returned in kind and bottles were 
also thrown. After a while the old man, the fellow I stuck, came running out, 
saying he had been struck by one of the sticks. The crowd backed up to me, 
accusing me of having struck him. I denied this as he insisted and I did not 
wish to get into trouble, I turned and began to run away from him. He ran after 
me and struck me in the back so hard that I was unable to run any more and 
had to turn.  Facing him I began backing away, and soon fell into a deep ditch, 
when he jumped on me and sitting on my chest began beating me about the 
head; see where he struck me” and his left temple. “He was a big man, much 
stronger than I, and I was helpless under him. I called two or three times for 
someone to separate us, but nobody came to help me, so I “stuck” him once,” 
and he continued, “I had to defend myself. After he was stuck he got up from 
me crying “j’suis pique,” and ran into the house. I rose to my feet and 
staggered home, weak from the beating he had given me about the head. Last 
night they came and got me and put me in jail.”
The weapon with which the killing was done is a small, common pocket knife, 
and not a large one, which was found about his person when he was arrested. 
Roy or Richard, died Monday afternoon from the effects of his wound, a stab 
in the abdomen, and the remains were interred Tuesday afternoon.