Clifford Drietzler

WHITE PINE NEWS

MEMORIAL HONORS STATE POLICE DEAD

…Deputy Sheriff Clifford Drietzler had been a well liked officer in White Pine County.

He was unfortunately to become one of the at least two White Pine County peace officers this century to lose his life in the line of duty…

On Nov. 7, 1941, police were alerted by Wendell Lambert of Ely that his car had been stolen and an abandoned police car had been parked hastily in front of his house.

The car was that assigned to Drietzler. Police began a search for the deputy sheriff, fearing that foul play was involved in the incident.

Earlier in the day, Ward Swain had stopped in McGill to advise Drietzler of a car which had been parked along the McGill Highway all day.

Swain said that the occupant of the car was a 145 -pound man wearing dirty, greasy clothes and sleeping.

Drietzler’s body was discovered that evening, a mile east of the Klaich Ranch near the pipeline, north of McGill.

he had been shot in the back of the head with his own gun. Police later surmised at what happened. Apparently, the man sleeping in the car, who was Kenneth Shepley, an 18-year-old
ex-convict of Arkansas, had somehow been alerted to the approach of the officer.

He had hid away from the stolen car while Drietzier checked it out. Shepley surprised Drietzler and took his police revolver away.

He then marched the McGill officer up by the pipeline and shot him behind the car.

…Shepley was apprehended by law authorities in San Diego within the week after the murder. He was driving the car stolen from Lambert in Ely

The newspaper reported that Shepley confessed to the murder. However, on Nov. 22 in White Pine District Court, Shepley pleaded not guilty. His contention was that Drietzler was shot during a scuffle and that he helped Drietzler walk up by the pipeline.

Shepley said the officer was still alive when he left. The district judge set the trial to begin on Dec. 7, not realizing the turmoil the United States would be thrown into that week.

Drietzler was defended by attorney J.M. Collins. The six-day trial ended in the conviction by the jury on Dec. 13. Shepley was reportedly unmoved as he listened sentence of life imprisonment. He was out on parole two decades later.

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