Better Newspaper Contest

Page 41 Division 4 Headline Writing/Category 7 First Staff The Republic (Columbus) Will KC bring sunshine? Pocket protectors Feeling bugged? Gnat a problem I love the word play in "Gnat a problem." Second Staff The News Sun (Kendallville) Lollipopped Expenses hacked End of the road for 111-year-old county bridge Third Staff The Republic (Columbus) It's a plaid, plaid, plaid, plaid world Exploring the solar system In a pickle Best Short Feature Story/ Category 8 First Mitchell Kirk Pharos-Tribune (Logansport) Bout with the Brady Gang Nice read, great graphics to come back over and over again, the photos were a great touch and the Fast Fact pull out box was an added benefit. I am sure local people had conversation about this article over dinner. Second Mark Webber The Republic (Columbus) A hidden treasure I enjoyed this short feature. The graphics and photos told their own story - nice package. I would love to see the follow up featuring the new log home. Third Steve Garbacz The News Sun (Kendallville) Growing good deeds Good positive feature on people giving back and making a dif- ference. All the elements were there. Best Profile Feature/Category 9 First Michele Holtkamp Daily Journal (Franklin) Hope and Forgiveness This story hooked me from the beginning, and became even more interesting as more details were revealed. It was very well written, and describes well how the subject has come to terms with her injuries and adopted a philosophy of forgiveness. Second Ryan Trares Daily Journal (Franklin) A Lifetime of Fandom The story starts with an excellent description of the subject stepping onto Wrigley Field when the Cubs won the World Series, and follows with great writing on how he managed to become one of the ring bearers. In short, the writing is excep- tionally skillful and top notch. Third Brian Blair The Republic (Columbus) Spirit of giving This could have been a run-of-the-mill Christmas bell ringing story, but the writer has managed to make it surprisingly great, with a good, strong lead, and details, and quotes throughout that make it stand out as an example of turning a routine as- signment into something that really shines. Bout with the Brady Gang Staff The Republic (Columbus) Will KC bring sunshine? Pocket protectors Feeling bugged? Gnat a problem Hope and forgiveness Mitchell Kirk Pharos-Tribune (Logansport) Eighty years ago today, law enforcement officers chased a band of bank robbers from northwestern Cass County into White County, where the pursuit ended in bullets and bloodshed. It resulted in the first killing of an Indiana State trooper by a criminal and left the trooper's unborn daughter to grow up without her father. A Cass County Sheriff's deputy was wounded. A small farming community was rattled. The gangsters got away, but only for the time being. Alfred Brady, Rhuel James Dalhover and Clarence Shaffer Jr. — known as the Brady Gang — robbed the Goodland State Bank in Goodland of $2,528 on May 25, 1937, before heading east, as recalled by the fall 1992 issue of Indiana's Finest. One of about 150 robberies the gang committed, it occurred about seven months after they had escaped from jail on charges following the killing of a police officer in Indianapolis, according to the article. ISP Trooper Paul Minneman and Cass County Sheriff's Deputy Elmer Craig were told of the robbery before heading out to patrol Ind. 16 in Cass County in Minneman's car, the article continues. David Morrison, Battleground, who retired from the ISP as a sergeant in 2000, has researched the subject through his collection of FBI and police files, crime scene evidence and old photographs. He escorted Minneman's casket from Logansport to Lafayette to be reburied next to his widow in 1976 and got a historical marker placed at the shooting's location in 1990. Morrison said the officers were standing near Minneman's car checking on a parked vehicle off the gravel road when the Brady Gang drove by and opened fire, hitting the ISP car. The officers returned fire and the gang turned around near Thompson Cemetery to head back the way they came, he continued. The gang had a machine gun they stole that was once equipped on a World War I aircraft and their car's back window dropped down so they could shoot out the back of it, Morrison said. "They turn that car around, drop that back glass and the chase is on," Morrison said. "Well, you're not going to win that chase." Minneman and Craig lost the gang in the dust from the gravel road, Morrison continued. Eventually that dust cleared near Caley United Methodist Church in White County, Morrison went on, adding it likely led Minneman to believe the gang had to be nearby. Morrison said Minneman had his car door open, looking for phone lines that would lead him to a telephone, as the technology of the time would only allow his radio to receive messages, not transmit them. Minneman's hunch was right, Morrison went on to say, as the Brady Gang was hiding behind the church and let out a torrent of bullets toward the ISP car. Morrison said the car was riddled with 51 holes and 31 bullet casings were found at the scene, indicating many bullets went in and out of the vehicle. For the complete story, visit hspa.com. Michele Holtkamp Daily Journal (Franklin) She was sitting in the grass in front of her home with her children, waiting for the ambulance to arrive. They had watched as her new tattoo slid off her arm. Her earrings fell out as her earlobes melted off. Her breasts, gone too, as her entire torso from her neck to her upper thighs had been set on fire. Amy Keever felt all of it. "I felt like I was melting everywhere," she said. The medics arrived, and were distraught at causing her more pain as they treated the woman and got her in the ambulance. As they closed the door, Keever began yelling to make sure her three children would hear her. "I love you! I'm proud of you!" Over and over again. She had to make sure they knew. She was certain she would never see them again. She was certain she would die at the hands of her husband. Insurmountable pain Keever and her husband, Donn, had been separated for four months, but had been struggling in their marriage for four years. He had moved out, and for a while, she had begged him to come home. But he resisted, and she sensed that he wanted to be free of responsibility. Finally, she was done. She wanted more from life. She filed for divorce. And suddenly, he wanted to come back home, she recalls. His reactions were unstable, and she was never sure what to expect. In early July, he had found her in the parking lot of an area business and he was on his knees, screaming and begging her to take him back. She had to kick him to get away, she said. The day before he set her on fire, he had come to the home and had an animal look in his eye. He told her she would burn in hell, and said everything is in her hands. "'You've done this,'" Keever said he told her. She worked third shift at a local factory and came home the next morning, Friday, July 24, 2015, and took a shower and went to yard sales. When she got home, Donn texted her to apologize for what he had said and told her he was coming over with the divorce papers. She met him outside. He handed her the papers, then threw lighter fluid all over her and sparked a lighter. The pain was immediate and insurmountable. Her skin was sliding off her body before her eyes. Her neighbor and youngest daughter, Payton, who is now 11, heard her screams and came running. Payton brought her a cup of water and got her oldest sister, not knowing what else to do. Their mother was watching her skin slide off her body. Her flesh was hanging from her arms like drapes. Her face and hair had been spared. Donn was gone. Police began an immediate search for him as Amy was taken to Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis. Officers told the family to be cautious until he was found, because Donn was not in the right state of mind. They would learn in the hours to come that a horrific fire and crash on Interstate 65 was no coincidence — Donn had sprayed gasoline into the bed of his truck and crashed head-on into traffic. He died. The children were taken to the police department to tell detectives what they had witnessed. Payton carried her Bible with her. "She had to hold on to a lot of stuff that wasn't there," Amy said. The doctors told them that Amy could live, if she could make it through the next five days. They were all in shock. Fighting her way back She was in a medically-induced coma for two months and woke up with her body greatly debilitated and no memory of her time in the hospital. But she knew what had happened to her, and she immediately wanted to know about her children and if the police caught Donn. For the complete story, visit hspa.com.

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