On This Date in Minnesota History: July 10

July 10, 1978 – James M. Savage, confessed murderer of 14-year-old Kathleen Bodie in the Cloquet High School band room on November 17, 1966, killed himself and injured a deputy sheriff by driving his car 100 miles an hour into a parked Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s car.

Earlier in the day, Savage had stopped two 19-year-old girls in Pine County, exposed himself, and then “told the girls to get in his car. The two girls refused, and Savage took out a 22 semiautomatic rifle and shot one of the girls twice in the chest and left her for dead. He forced the other girl in his car, raped her and physically threw her out of the car in a cemetery two miles north of Brook Park. She reported the incident to the Pine County Sheriff’s office and an all-points bulletin was put out for Savage.”

He was later spotted driving through Ogilvie, and the Mille Lacs County Sheriff Russ Iverson and Deputy Sheriff Tom Boser gave chase. Iverson and Bose got their car sideways on Highway 23 as “Savage came over a hill about a quarter mile away. Iverson told Boser to jump clear of the car. Savage crashed into the left side of the patrol car, pushing it 100 feet sideways down the highway. Boser was thrown out of the car.”

Seconds after the crash, the two cars erupted in flames. “The force of the impact was so great that the bumper of Savage’s 1972 Pinto was touching the steering wheel of the patrol car, a 1977 Ford LTD. Savage still had the 22 rifle in his hands after the crash.”    

Mille Lacs County Times; “Fleeing Gunman Killed Ramming Sheriff’s Car”; July 13, 1978; p.1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MN-23.svg

http://www.odmp.org/agency/2497-mille-lacs-county-sheriffs-department-minnesota

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