Claude E. Alexander, World War II CasualtyPorter County Data on World War II Casualties . . . .
Claude E. Alexander
Private, Paratrooper, Company K, 1st Regiment, US Army
Date of Birth: 1921
Date of Death: January 9, 1943
Burial: Graceland Cemetery, Kouts, Porter County, Indiana
Cause of Death: Murdered
Date of Enlistment: June 24, 1941
Hometown: Valparaiso
Newspaper Notices:
Death for Soldier In Murder Charge
Sentence Second Paratrooper To 10 Years in Alexander Slaying
One paratrooper has been sentenced to hang and another to ten years in prison
for their part in the murder last January of Paratrooper Claude Alexander, of
Valparaiso, Fort Benning, Ga., officials announced today according to a United
Press dispatch.
The post relations office at Fort Benning said that Raymond Fortney, of Otho,
Iowa, had been given the death penalty by a court-martial. Erschel Hunt, of
Betsey Lane, Ky., was sentenced to 10 years. Hunt had turned government's
evidence. Their ranks were not given.
The two men were found guilty of assisting Albert Kissell, of Corning, N. Y., in
the slaying. Last August Kissell was sentenced to hang in connection with the
murder.
Kissell was charged with killing Alexander on the night of Jan. 9, 1943, and
aided by Fortney and Hunt, throwing his body in the Chattahooche river from
Dillingham street bridge in Columbus, Ga. The body was recovered Feb. 28.
The body of Alexander was brought to Valparaiso and later buried in the Kouts
cemetery. Several months later 1st Lieut. Mafflin E. Christoffel was sent here
by Fort Benning officials to conduct an investigation in connection with the
identity of Alexander. It was said fingerprints of the dead man did not
correspond with finger prints of Alexander taken from industrial records.
An order was obtained from Judge Mark B. Rockwell, of Porter superior court for
exhumation of the body. Coroner H. A. Flynn conducted the disinterment. Dr.
George R. Jones, Valparaiso dentist, examined Alexander's teeth and identified
dental work done by him.
Both Coroner Flynn and Dr. Jones were witnesses at the trials of Kissell and
Fortney held in U. S. Military court at Muscogee, Ga.
Alexander, who was 21 years of age, was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Clyde Alexander,
of Valparaiso. He was inducted into the service on July 14, 1942, by the Porter
county selective service board and sent to Camp Wolters, Texas. Later he
transferred to a paratroopers' school at Fort Benning.
________________________________________________________________
Source: The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana;
January 13, 1944; Volume 17, Page 1, Columns 1 and 2
Return to
List of
Porter County World War II Casualties
Information abstracted and transcribed by Steven R. Shook