KINSEY, Jack

The Prescott Courier, Prescott, Arizona Thursday, January 13, 1949 Woman 76, Kills Indian Intruder Almost reminiscent of early Yavapai county days when wily Geronimo and his marauders were on the loose, a woman yesterday had to take up firearms in a successful defense of her home against an Apache attack. An 80-year-old San Carlos Apache Indian was shot and killed as he attempted to force entry into the Clemenceau home of a 76-year-old widow, according to County Attorney David H. Palmer, Jr. Dead of a bullet wound in the left breast is Jack Kinsey, who staged the on-man raid. He died as the result of a gunshot wound inflicted by Mrs. Martha Lee LeMay in defense of her person and home, a coroner’s jury ruled. No charges will result, Plamer said. Mrs. LeMay testified she shot the husky Indian, whose appearance belied his 80 years, only after he repeatedly attempted to force entry in the face of her warnings that he leave. She had never seen the man before, she said. Persons who viewed the dead man said he bore a striking resemblance to photographs of Geronimo, Apache ruler who struck terror into the hearts of early-day Arizona settlers. And like many another Indian raid, yesterday’s attack probably was given impetus through the use of the white man’s firewater. Palmer said Kinsey had evidently been drinking. After her first warning that he leave, Mrs. LeMay said, the Indian picked up a board and started to hammer on the door of her home, where the elderly woman lives alone. Mrs. LeMay related she then went into another room to get her revolver, a 38 caliber weapon, and returned to the front door to give the man another warning. When he persisted, she said she fired a futile warning shot over his head and then closed and bolted the door. As he continued to pound, she said, she fired a shot through the door. Apparently the shot missed. Once more she opened the door, she said, and the man started toward her with the board upraised. “I was crazed with fear,” she testified. “So I shot at him, intending only to injure him.” The shot struck the Indian in the left breast, later examination revealed, possibly striking or barely missing the heart. In spite of the mortal wound, however, Mrs. LeMay said the man leaned over to pick up the board that he had dropped at the impact of the slug and attempted to rush at her again. As he raised the board, however, he fell over backward to sprawl at her feet. Palmer said indications were that the man died almost instantly. Two young girls barley in their teens, heard the shooting and saw the Indian fall, Palmer said, from a vantage point across the street where they had run when the trouble started as they were about to enter Mrs. LeMay’s home for lunch. The Indian glared at them as he entered the LeMay yard, the girls told Palmer. After the shooting, the girls said they ran to their nearby school to inform one of the teachers, who reported the incident to Deputy Sheriff Jerry Foster. The coroner’s inquest was conducted by Palmer and was presided over by Justice of the Peace K., Norton, ex-officio coroner. Kinsey’s body is at the McMillan mortuary in Jerome. Although a ward of the government, the Indian did not spend all his time on the San Carlos reservation and had been seen frequently in the Clemenceau area, Palmer said residents testified. Note: Mr. Kinsey is buried at the Middle River Indian Cemetery.