Wednesday, February 11, 1959
Wednesday, February 11, 1959
O'Kasicks Not Shot by Pistol,
But Pathologist Raps Coroner
The exhumed bodies of Roger and Ronald O'Kasick contained no evidence that they had been shot with .38 caliber police pistol bullets.
This was the report of a Wisconsin pathologist employed by Richard O'Kasick, brother of the two men killed in a sensational gun battle on the' Carlos Avery, game farm in Anoka county Sept. 14, 1957.
The pathologist coupled his findings with criticism of the present coroner system of death investigations in Minnesota.
Richard O'Kasick has dedicated himself to searching for evidence to support his contention that his brothers did not kill a hostage they had kidnapped before they were cornered in the game farm.
As put of his search, Richard hired Dr. James L. Jaeck, pathologist with the Gundersen Clinic-Lutheran hospital at LaCrosse, Wis.
Richard believed an exhumation of his brother's bodies and an autopsy would disclose they had been shot with a pistol as well as a shotgun.
The hostage was killed with a pistol bullet. Both Roger and Ronald carried pistols. The highway patrolman, James Crawford, testified later that he had used only a shotgun on the O'Kasicks.
Richard apparently felt that evidence his brothers had pistol wounds would discredit the highway patrolman's testimony.
Dr. Jaeck said, however, "Evidence points toward �double-ought' buckshot being the ammunition fired at Ronald and Roger O'Kasick, at least no 38-caliber pistol bullets were found in their bodies."
The most significant things brought out in the examination are omissions of the coroner's office in handling of the slayings, said Dr. Jaeck.
"It would seem to me that for reasons still unknown, that the coroner's system of investigation of death in Minnesota is responsible for denying an individual and family their constitutional rights by not making available all the facilities of modern science.
"This should be the, best possible example for the case of a non-political and scientific medical examiners office to replace the present coroner system in Minnesota," the pathologist said.
He pointed out that no autopsies had been ordered on the O'Kasick brothers or, their hostage.
In the Anoka county trial of James O'Kasick, the, third brother who shot and wounded himself after his two brothers had been killed by a highway patrol officer, counsel failed to advise James of his right to have the consultant services of a qualified, pathologist, said Dr. Jaeck.
"A complete autopsy immediately after death could have �furnished, better, evidence for either side than bits of tissue taken from the gunshot wounds;" he said,
Roger, Ronald and James had been, sought for nearly a month for the shooting of two Minneapolis, police officers in August 1957. They were found in Anoka County.