Warsaw, Ill., Nov. 16 — Fred Gerdes, 31, committed suicide by shooting, a coroner’s jury decided after hearing his father testify that he feared he would be drafted to serve a year in the army.
The body of the bachelor-farmer was found yesterday in the basement of the farm home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dick Gerdes, with whom he lived.
The father told the jury that his son had brooded since the national draft lottery and became despondent after receiving his selective service questionnaire recently.
The jury held that “death was caused by a gunshot wound in the forehead, self-inflicted, with suicidal intent.”
Young Gerdes was ninth in line among Warsaw registrants for conscription, but his number was considerably higher on the list of the Hancock county local draft board at Carthage.
Current Obituaries in the Astoria South Fulton Argus