Says Bickert Feigns Insanity to Escape Charge of Burglary

Bottineau, N.D., Aug 29—(AP)—Belief that Rudolph Bickert, 60, with a long criminal record feigned insanity to escape prosecution on a burglary charge so that he could be committed to the state hospital at Jamestown, has prompted Sheriff J.C. Miller of Bottineau to recommend that Bickert be returned to be charged as a habitual criminal.

Bickert was arrested by Sheriff Miller in June on a charge of burglarizing a house near Omemee.

A few days after being put in jail Bickert began to act peculiarly. He attempted to gouge holes in the jail wall, explaining that he was seeking a gang of counterfeiters concealed therein. Other unusual actions and remarks by Bickert led to the sheriff signing an insanity complaint against him and the county insanity board ordered his committment to the state hospital.

Fingerprints of Bickert were sent by Sheriff Miller to the United States bureau of identification at Washington and from there it was reported that the inmate had served prison sentences in Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Indiana and also has been in three different insane asylums.

Bickert's past record has caused Sheriff Miller to doubt that he is insane and he is urging prosecution under the habitual criminal law of the state.

The Bismarck Tribune, 8/29/1930