September 16, 1957
MURDER, KIDNAP, ROBBERY
Wounded O'Kasick Tells of 5 Months of Crime
By AL WOODRUFF
Minneapolis Star Staff Writer
From his bed in a General hospital ward today, James O'Kasick recounted for Minneapolis detectives a three-month trail of crimes that included murder, kidnapping, car theft and armed robbery.
O'Kasick is still weak from chest wound, self-inflicted, following the killing of his brothers, Roger and Ronald, by a state highway patrolman Saturday night.
He spoke in a low, halting voice to Detective inspector Charles Wetherille and Detective Captain Clifford Egeland.
Because of O'Kasick's condition, no formal statement could be taken. However, a police stenographer recorded the young gunman's conversation.
Nasal oxygen tubes hampered O'Kasick's talking, and Wetherille and Egeland could peak with him for only 45 minutes.
The shooting of Police Officer Robert Fossum was imputed to his brother, Roger,
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Richard O'Kasick, 30, older brother of the killers, visited Wetherille at police headquarters this afternoon and was granted permission to visit James at the hospital.
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whom he described as "criminally insane and someone I never really knew.
He described a trail of drugstore and supermarket robberies that his brothers, Roger and Ronald, had committed since 1955.
During this period, the youngest of the three brothers said, he was serving in the Marine Corps and did not start participating in the robberies until after his discharge last April 18.
James O'Kascik's first "job" after his release from the marines was last June 27 at Knight's Pharmacy, 2201 W. Broadway, where he and his brothers obtained almost $1,200.
Then came the holdup of the Pennhurst pharmacy at 5358 Penn Avenue S., July 6. They used his'41 Cadillac in this holdup, James said.
Other robberies which he said his brothers had committed prior to his teaming up with them were Harold's pharmacy, 4159 Cedar Avenue, June 15, 1956; Osgoods' Supermarket, 5615 Chicago avenue, June 29. 1956; Zipp's pharmacy, 4956 Thirty-fourth avenue S., July 22, 1956; At Kinson's pharmacy, 5431 Nicollet avenue, Aug. 18, 1956.
He also named the Kenwood pharmacy and another at Thirty-third Street and Nicollet Avenue. It was after this latter holdup, he said, that his brothers fired at a pursuing squad car near Twenty-fourth and Nicollet Avenue in their escape.
James said that prior to the Aug. 17 killing of Fossum, they had purchased steel plate for $5 from a firm located, he said, near University and Washington Avenues SE.
On Aug. 16, the three stole a car from a parking lot at tenth street and LaSalle Avenue.
This Car, he said, had been parked in a wooded lot near a cemetery near Forty-second street between Third and Fourth avenues S.
Here, the O'Kasick's placed the steel plate in the car and. equipped it with the rifles, pistols and ammunition furnished by Roger, who always kept the guns after each holdup.
Whether Roger had obtained the guns, James could not tell Wetherille and Egeland.
On Aug. 17, the trio were on their way to hold up the Red Owl store at 2440 Hennepin avenue when they spotted the squad car driven by Officers Fossum and Ward Canfield.
They turned around in an effort to avoid the squad car, James said, and in the ensuing chase the police officers began firing, he said.
James said the back window was shot out by police officers, and he pushed the rifle out the back window and commenced firing. H e emptied his six-shot rifle at the pursuing squad car.
Ronald was riding in the front seat and Roger was driving, James said. Ronald also was firing a pistol at the police car.
At Thirty-ninth Street and Van Nest Avenue, where the O'Kasick car smashed into a parked car, James said, Ronald got out and got in the driver's seat of the car that had been hit.
James said as he was running backward to join Ronald, he fired and hit Canfield.
Roger, he said, went over to Fossum and fired his pistol at his head "so that he couldn't recognize us."
When Roger joined his two brothers in the other car, they were not aware that Canfield was caught in the wheels.
They then drove to the filling station on Thirty-ninth and Nicollet where they forced two women from their car and drove to First avenue S., where they took the car of Alvin Anderson, 9448 Clinton avenue, Bloomington, and kidnapped his wife.
From there, they drove to Thirty-sixth Street and Second Avenue, where their own car had been parked in advance. Mrs. Anderson was transferred to their own car in a nearby alley, James said.
Then they drove to the rear of 3325 Columbus where she was pushed from the vehicle. James said that killing Mrs. Anderson had not been discussed.
Soon after Mrs. Anderson was thrown from their car, they drove to Roger's room in south Minneapolis. Roger got out and Ronald and James returned to their home at 3909 Thirty-eighth Avenue S.
On Monday, the trio once again met and drove to northern Minnesota. At no time while they were fugitives did they register at motels or ho-tels, James said.
Part of their time was spent near Ely on Echo trail (which runs between Ely and Buyck) in Superior National forest, There they lived in the woods and slept on the ground.
They had returned to a wooded area near Forest Lake last week, James said, so that he could call his family. :
It was in this area that the events of last Saturday began, James said.
O'Kasick said he did not see who killed their hostage Eugene Lindgren, an Anoka painting contractor, but believed it was his brother, Roger.
Lindgren was the only person they had ever told about, the shooting of Fossum and Canfield, James said. They told him during their escape attempt after leaving Lindgren's home.
O'Kasick was not pressed hard with questions about the Saturday slaying of his brothers, as he was unable to speak for an extended period of time.
However, Wetherille said l hat he plans to take a formal j statement of all of the, O'Kasicks' activities as soon as James has recovered sufficiently.
A police guard has been posted at James's bedside.
Bodies of his brothers are at Kapala mortuary, 230 Thirteenth Avenue NE. Funeral arrangements are expected to be completed tonight.
Meanwhile, County Attorney George M. Scott said he plans to call the Hennepin county grand jury into session at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to consider indictments of first degree murder, first degree assault, kidnapping and car theft against James O'Kasick,
Scott said that under the law in a murder case, the judge could sentence O'Kasick to Stillwater prison, if convicted, instead of the youth conservation commission which normally handles cases involving persons under 21. O'Kasick is 20.
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