5/19/2013:
A raving man was arrested late on the night of May 19, 1922, by a Bismarck patrolman. The officer believed him drunk, and jailed him for the night, hoping he’d sober up by morning. However, by morning, the man was still spouting, yelling at the Chief of Police, Louis Dahlgren, to shoot him because something was after him. When Dahlgren opened the man’s cell to release him, he lashed out with a sharpened tobacco can he had twisted into a knife, ripping open the side of Dahlgren’s face. The Fire Department was called in and “…placed the hose on [the perpetrator] for twenty minutes” rendering him tame enough to handcuff. Obviously, this is no longer the approved method for soliciting cooperation at the Bismarck Police Station.
Dakota Datebook written by Jayme L. Job
Sources:
http://www.infomercantile.com/dakota_death_trip/Twisted_Tobacco_Can_1334441506.html (Dakota Death Trip blog posted by D. Dahlsad, The Bismarck Tribune, May 20, 1922).