9/17/57

My Children Not Bad, He Says

Michael O'Kasick, gray-haired father of the three brothers who killed two men and wounded two others, Monday was being held for questioning in Hennepin county jail. The 58-year-old father of the three who shot it out with police in an Anoka county game refuge Saturday was arrested in Duluth, Minn., yesterday morning for parole violation. Detective Capt. Calvin Hawkinson, Minneapolis police department, said the elder O'Kasick's parole was automatically revoked after h failed to report to his parole agent for three weeks. O'Kasick will be taken to Stillwater state prison after he is questioned by Detective Inspector Charles Wetherille. Hawkinson said.

Associated Press reported earlier that O'Kasick learned for the first time yesterday that two of his sons were killed and a third critically wounded in the gun battle. O'Kasick sobbed, telling Duluth authorities: "None of my children was really bad." "I NEVER thought 'they would do anything like that," he wept. "My boys have been in trouble before but the have never carried arms o shot anyone, It just isn't like them "

James O'Kasick

Reveals Brothers'

Career of Crime

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis General hospital yesterday the only survivor of the trio James O'Kasick, 20, gave Police additional details on the brothers' career of crime. In critical condition with self-inflicted chest wound James said his brother, Roger, 26, was the murderer of Patrolman Robert Fossum.Roger was "criminally insane and someone I never really knew," James said Roger had fired his pistol point blank at the dying patrolman "so he wouldn't recognize us." THE TRIO stayed in town the day after their Aug. l7 gun battle with Minneapolis police, James said. The following Monday the gunmen fled by auto into northern Minnesota. They lived in the woods and slept on the ground. Part of their time was spent near Ely on Echo trail in Superior national forest. James said they returned to a wooded area near Forest Lake last week so he could call his family. The Saturday gunfight took place in this area. HE DESCRIBED a string of drugstore and supermarket robberies committed by his brothers, Roger and Ronald, 24, during the past two years. James, in the marines until last spring, joined his brothers in holdup of Knight's pharmacy, 2201 W. Broadway, June 27, where about $1,200 was taken. This was followed by the robbery of Pennhurst pharmacy, 5358 Penn Avenue S., July 6. James said robberies committed by the brothers before he joined them included Harold's pharmacy, 4156 Ce-dar Avenue, June 15, 1955; Osgood's supermarket, 5615 Chicago avenue, June 29, 1956; Zipp's pharmacy, 4956 Thirty-fourth avenue S., July 22, 1956; Atkinson's pharmacy, 5431 Nicollet avenue Aug. 18. 1956