Attempted Assassination of Andy Ernst, Gentry County, Missouri

>From "History of Gentry and Worth Counties", Crimes & Incidents, 
St. Joseph, Mo.: National Historical Company, 1882.

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On Friday night, May 12, 1882, shortly after 11 o'clock, some unknown
man broke open Mr. Andy Ernst's door, and was at once at his bedside
with a demand for his money.  The old man awaoke, and in his confusion
and excitement grabbed him by the collar, when the fiend, who had a
pistol in one hand, shot him in the left side of the neck, immediately
above the clavicle or collar bone, the bullet ranging backwards and a
little downwards and lodging against the lower cervical vertebrae. The
old man's left arm was paralyzed from the shot, and the wretch, having
felt under the pillow and between the bed and mattress for money, then
left the old man, the old woman having got out of bed by this time and
was making for the bureau to light a lamp, the assassin then demanded
if she had any money, at the same instant cocking his revolver at her
head and swearing that if she moved that he would blow her brains out,
she replied that she had no money, and he then said that if they moved 
or raised any alarm, or came out of the house until he came back that
he would kill the last one of them.  They procured a light in a few
minutes and the old man's life blood was flowing rapidly, when his
daughter, brave girl, said she did not care if she would be killed that
she was going for assistance, and started for Mr. Akes, half a mile
distant, through the darkness, infested with a still darker midnight
assassin.  The neighbors soon gathered and medical aid was procured,
but the bullet could not be extracted.  No clue has yet been obtained
to the perpetrator of the foul deed.

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