Was Earl Hulbert Really Shot by a Thief...OR Did Earl Shoot Himself?

 

It seems almost unimaginable that someone would wound himself with a gun to gain pity or notoriety, but that was thought to be the scenario when Earl Hulbert reported a robbery to the police in July, 1925. Earl, born on July 30, 1904, was about 21 when the incident happened.  According to the Bryan Press of July 23, 1925, the "bad" guys were never caught, and Hulbert had some explaining to do.

"STILL NO TRACE OF HULBERT ASSAILANTS

LACK OF TRACKS IN EVIDENCE CAUSES OFFICERS TO DOUBT HOLDUP STORY

Earl Hulbert is at his father's home between Farmer and Hicksville, recovering from a couple of bullet wounds he received early last Thursday morning while driving somewhere south of the Dunkard church on the Williams Center road.

He was found by the sheriff and his deputies under a tree on the lawn at the D. A. Erlsten farm, bleeding from a wound in  his arm and also one in his leg. Both were bullet wounds, but neither of a serious nature. He had crawled to the Erlston house and called for help, but the family telephoned to the sheriff and he drove to the spot and took charge of young Hulbert.

His story was that he was driving his Ford touring car toward home after midnight, and when at a point near the church, another car went around him and stopped, blocking the road and that two men alighted and presented revolvers and held him up.

He said they took about $3 he had in his pocket and about $40 he had concealed in the cushion in the rear seat. His story was that he reached for a cigarette and, at that instant, one of the men shot him, probably in the notion that he was reaching for a pistol, that he shot him in the arm first and then fired again, hitting him in the leg.

Jefferson Hotel, Bryan, Ohio

Hulbert was brought to the Jefferson hotel where his injuries were attended to by physicians, and his family notified of his experience. His father (Clyde Hulbert) came to Bryan, and as the officers went into the incident, and put the young man through a series of questions, they were led to the belief that his story was untrue, and that he had shot himself to gain sympathy and avoid paying some claims against him.

He claimed that while in the west some time ago, he loaned $400 to some man, and that Wednesday of last week, a representative of his debtor met him on the street in Wauseon and returned the money. He said he did not know the man and had never seen him before, and that the transaction occurred on the street with no witnesses. Hulbert said he had been working on the road north of Wauseon and was laid off on Wednesday when he met the messenger from Dakota with the money.

He had spent Wednesday evening with a young lady here and told her that he had the money, but she said that she did not see it when questioned by the officers. He owed money to his father and told him he was about to pay it.

His stories were so varied and hazy that the sheriff's office concluded they were fabrications, and that he had shot himself, taking care to send the bullets through the flesh and making slight wounds in both cases.

Powder marks where the bullets hit indicated that the weapon was close to its mark when discharged, and the officers said that the cuts in the cushion of the rear seat were fresh, and that there was no bullet hole in his trousers where the shot went in, but that the goods were cut.

It is a strange case, and if Hulbert did actually shoot the bullets through his arm and leg, it must have taken a good deal of nerve.

Some time was spent on the case by Mr. Burkhart and Mr. Calvin, but nothing conclusive was found. They said they could find no tracks or evidence of any struggle in the road where Hulbert said the holdup occurred, not any traces of blood in the road, although he claimed he was outside the car when the shooting occurred."

But time can erase the missteps of youth, and Warren grew to marry Alice and have a family of five sons and eight daughters. He was a Defiance County native who moved to Pioneer to raise his family. He died in August, 1964, and was buried in Lost Creek Cemetery, Farmer.