{"id":179486,"date":"2025-09-19T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=179486"},"modified":"2025-02-21T08:27:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T14:27:04","slug":"murder-at-the-cran-hotel-september-19-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=179486","title":{"rendered":"Murder at the Cran Hotel – Sept 19, 1945"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This Day In History,\u00a0<\/strong>September 19, 1945 – <\/strong>Murder of the owner of the Paramount Beauty Shop in the Cran Hotel. \u00a0\u00a0*** from the 125th Anniversary Calendar of Jamestown History and the Jamestown Sun***<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jamestown Beauty Shop Operator\u00a0Margaret Roeszler\u00a0 was shot and killed by unknown assailant in the Beauty Shop located in the Cran Hotel Building, 302 2nd Av NE.\u00a0 \u00a0The case remains unsolved.<\/p>\n

Article below is from the Jamestown Sun newspaper, September 20, 1945.\u00a0 Further down is a story about a 1949 confession. . .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

from the front page of the Jamestown Sun Sept 20, 1945<\/p><\/div>\n

“Miss Margaret Roeszler, 42, who was shot Wednesday afternoon by an unknown assailant in the Paramount Beauty Shop which she owned and operated, died in the Trinity hospital this morning at 3 o\u2019clock. The bullet entered her head just below the temple.<\/em><\/p>\n

While at work giving Mrs. Emil Miller, Jamestown, a permanent, a man walked into the shop demanding \u201cI want some money\u201d and Miss Roeszler went to the back of the room to get it. Mrs. Miller noticed he had a revolver in his hand and when she heard a shot she ran out of the shop. She told both police and sheriff\u2019s officers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Miss Roeszler was rushed to Trinity hospital in the Eddy ambulance and is believed never to have regained consciousness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Police and Stutsman county sheriff\u2019s officers have found no clues, it is reported this morning. The assailant used a .38 caliber revolver, was a small white man dressed in tan and brown. Firemen called to a fire in Overvold\u2019s, immediately began the search<\/em> with the officers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Melvin Erickson, Bismarck, from the North Dakota Crime Bureau, is here working with city and county officers at their request. An inquest will be held, it is announced by R. D. Chase, Stutsman county State\u2019s attorney. The time has not been set. No clues have been found as yet. It is announced by Mr. Chase.<\/em><\/p>\n

Miss Roeszler has operated the Paramount Beauty Shop for nine years. It is located in the Cran building on Third street Northeast. She is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Gottlieb Roeszler, Ashley. She is survived by the following, brothers and sisters; Ade, Jamestown: Reinhold, Gottfried, Otto; Mrs.\u00a0 Edward Maier, and Jacob, Ellendale, and Mrs. John Klipfel, Long Lake, S.D.<\/em><\/p>\n

She was born April 23, 1902, in Ashley. She was a member of St. John\u2019s Lutheran church. She had lived in North Dakota all her life except while attending beauty school in California.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rev Keller – photo from St. John’s Lutheran Church<\/p><\/div>\n

Funeral services for Miss Roeszler will be held at the Zion Lutheran church at Ashley, Sunday afternoon at 2 o\u2019clock M.W.T. Rev. W.W. A. Keller, Jamestown, pastor of St. John\u2019s Lutheran church, will be in charge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rev. Keller will also be in charge of a service at the Eddy Funeral chapel here Friday morning at 11 o\u2019clock.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

**************<\/p>\n

From Prairie Public News<\/a> – Dakota Datebook June 2019, written by Merry Helm<\/p>\n

A convict “confesses” to the murder<\/strong> . . .\u00a0 however, Stutsman County officials interviewed him, and concluded that Crockard made it all up, since almost nothing checked out.\u00a0 Read on:<\/p>\n

About this time in 1949, North Dakotans were learning that a man doing time for forgery in Michigan had confessed to killing two people in North Dakota. One of his victims was shot in a beauty salon in Jamestown, and the other was a man named James Woods.<\/em><\/p>\n

In his confession, 29-year-old John Crockard, said he and Woods used to run drugs into North Dakota from Canada, and had even robbed a bank. He said Woods had gotten friendly with a Jamestown hairdresser named Margaret Roeszler.<\/em><\/p>\n

Crockard became concerned when Woods told Roeszler about the bank robbery and the narcotics. He went into a lavatory and shot up while deciding what to do. He then went to the beauty parlor saying he planned to take her along with them \u2013 but instead, he shot her.<\/em><\/p>\n

Crockard said he was too \u201chopped up\u201d to remember whether he used his own .32 or Wood\u2019s .38. When asked how many shots he fired, he answered, \u201cI don\u2019t know. I was excited \u2013 it could have been sixty or could have been one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He said he found his way back to the car and left town with Woods. He gave Woods some drops that knocked him out, then stopped outside Jamestown where he stabbed Woods to death. He said he buried Woods, the guns, and the knife in a roadbed that was about to be paved.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Fargo, Crockard checked into a hotel and overheard some railroad men discussing the Jamestown murder of Rosezler. He sold the car, chose a name from the phone book, and started forging checks.\u00a0 He next traveled to Bismarck, where he said he tried to get caught for the forgeries, and he was. After serving time in North Dakota, he was handed over to Michigan authorities.<\/em><\/p>\n

Crockard confessed to all this in 1949 \u2013 he said he had found the Lord. It was on this date that Stutsman County officials interviewed him, and concluded that Crockard made it all up, since almost nothing checked out. Crockard couldn\u2019t remember Margaret Roeszler\u2019s name, the brand of gun, or the kind of car he drove. Nor could he account for where or when he sold the car. When asked what Woods looked like, he said, \u201cI think he had dark hair and thin long arms.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The detectives were fans of pulp fiction, and in a surprising twist, they discovered a recent Dick Tracy story that may have inspired Crockard\u2019s fantasy. The bad guys had to get rid of a dead body, and chose a roadbed ready for the cement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Day In History,\u00a0September 19, 1945 – Murder of the owner of the Paramount Beauty Shop in the Cran Hotel. \u00a0\u00a0*** from the 125th Anniversary Calendar of Jamestown History and the Jamestown Sun*** Jamestown Beauty Shop Operator\u00a0Margaret Roeszler\u00a0 was shot and killed by unknown assailant in the Beauty Shop located […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":179582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-thisdayinhistory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179486"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180366,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179486\/revisions\/180366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/179582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}