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Andriza Mircovich

Andriza Mircovich (c. 1879 – May 14, 1913) was a Montenegrin immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian Empire who arrived in Nevada in 1911 to work as a silver miner in Tonopah.^[1] On May 14, 1912, he murdered John Gregovich, a fellow Montenegrin and the executor of his cousin's estate, whom Mircovich believed had defrauded him of insurance money following his cousin's death in a mining fire the previous year.^[2] Convicted of premeditated murder on June 15, 1912, and sentenced to death, Mircovich chose execution by shooting over hanging due to his Eastern Orthodox faith's aversion to desecration of the body.^[3] When Nevada State Prison warden George W. Cowing failed to recruit volunteers for a traditional firing squad, he devised an automated mechanism using three Winchester rifles connected by wire and triggered simultaneously to ensure no single individual bore responsibility.^[4] This "shooting machine" executed Mircovich on May 14, 1913, in Carson City, making him the only inmate in Nevada—and uniquely in U.S. history—to die by such a device, highlighting early 20th-century challenges in capital punishment administration.^[5]^[3]

Early Life and Immigration

Origins in Austria-Hungary

Andriza Mircovich was born in 1879 in the Austria-Hungary Empire, holding citizenship of the multi-ethnic Habsburg monarchy.^[3] He was of Serb ethnicity, originating from territories populated by South Slavs where ethnic Serbs comprised communities under imperial rule.^[6]^[3] Details of Mircovich's pre-emigration life are limited in historical records, consistent with the scant documentation often available for rural Balkan migrants of the era. As an unmarried man without children, he exemplified the demographic of young, single male laborers from impoverished agrarian backgrounds who departed the empire's Slavic provinces amid economic hardship and limited prospects.^[7] These regions, including areas like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia-Slavonia with Serb populations, featured subsistence farming and manual trades as primary occupations, fostering emigration waves to industrializing nations like the United States.^[3]

Arrival and Settlement in Nevada

Andriza Mircovich, born around 1881 in the Dalmatian region of Austria-Hungary, immigrated to the United States as part of the post-1900 wave of South Slavic laborers drawn to Nevada's mining booms.^[7] Many such immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, including Yugoslavs, arrived to fill labor demands in the silver and gold districts, with Tonopah's rich ore discoveries since 1900 fueling rapid population growth from a few hundred to over 10,000 residents by 1910.^[7] As a recent arrival by 1911, Mircovich spoke little English and joined the ranks of manual miners in the Tonopah area, where ethnic enclaves of Serbs, Croats, and other South Slavs provided social networks amid the isolation of frontier camps.^[8] Mircovich settled in Tonopah, a key hub in Nye County known for its silver camps, and took employment in underground mining operations such as those of the Tonopah Belmont Company.^[6] Living conditions reflected the era's industrial realities: miners endured 10- to 12-hour shifts in hazardous tunnels prone to cave-ins, toxic fumes, and fires, often housed in basic bunkhouses or tents that offered minimal protection from extreme desert temperatures.^[7] Wages for unskilled immigrant laborers hovered around $3 to $4 per day, sufficient for subsistence but insufficient to escape the cycle of debt to company stores, while frequent accidents underscored the human cost, with Nevada mines recording dozens of fatalities annually in the early 1910s.^[3] Integration into these communities was shaped by shared linguistic and cultural ties, as South Slav groups clustered in boarding houses and formed mutual aid societies to navigate discrimination and economic precarity.^[7] Mircovich's own circumstances exemplified the typical trajectory of such workers—transient, low-skilled entry into a high-risk industry driven by the promise of quick wealth from ore strikes, yet marked by vulnerability to workplace perils like the structural failures and blazes that occasionally halted operations in Tonopah's shafts.^[6]

The Crime

Dispute with John Gregovich

Andriza Mircovich and John Gregovich, both South Slavic immigrants from the Austria-Hungary region who had settled in Nevada's mining districts around Tonopah and Goldfield, became entangled in a financial conflict following a fatal mine disaster.^[1]^[6] On February 23, 1911, a fire at the Tonopah Belmont Mine killed 17 workers, including Mircovich's cousin Christopher Mircovich, a 27-year-old Serbian miner who perished from asphyxiation underground.^[1]^[8] Christopher Mircovich left an estate valued at approximately $2,500 without a will, prompting the appointment of Gregovich, a local attorney and state senator, as probate administrator under Nevada law.^[1] Gregovich distributed the bulk of the assets to Christopher's siblings, Maria and Peter, back in Austria-Hungary, while issuing a $50 check to Andriza Mircovich on July 17, 1911.^[1] Mircovich, believing Gregovich had withheld a larger share rightfully due to him from the estate or associated relief funds, repeatedly demanded additional payments, accusing the administrator of cheating him.^[7]^[3] These demands escalated into heated arguments and explicit threats throughout late 1911 and early 1912, with Mircovich's hostility prompting Gregovich to petition the court for release from his executorship duties owing to safety concerns.^[6] Trial records later documented this pattern of unresolved grievances and prior confrontations as evidence of the dispute's personal intensity.^[6]

The Murder on February 12, 1912

On May 14, 1912, at the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad depot in Tonopah, Nevada, Andriza Mircovich approached John Gregovich as the latter addressed a crowd from an elevated platform. Mircovich, armed with a knife, suddenly lunged forward while shouting, "I will get you, you son of a bitch!" and inflicted two deliberate stab wounds: one to Gregovich's chest, puncturing a lung, and another to the groin, severing the femoral artery.^[1]^[9] The assault occurred in the presence of numerous witnesses at the public venue, who observed the rapid and forceful nature of the attack. Gregovich collapsed from the injuries and succumbed later that afternoon to exsanguination and shock.^[9]^[1] Mircovich did not flee the scene following the stabbing and was promptly taken into custody by authorities. Upon apprehension, he asserted that the act was justified, citing Gregovich's prior handling of his cousin's estate proceeds as theft, though this claim pertained to their underlying financial dispute rather than negating the immediate lethal violence.^[9]^[1]

Legal Proceedings

Arrest and Initial Charges

On May 14, 1912, immediately following the fatal stabbing of John Gregovich at the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad depot in Tonopah, Nevada, Andriza Mircovich fled the scene but was quickly apprehended by bystanders and arrested by local police officers.^[1] ^[6] The knife used in the attack was recovered, and Mircovich's clothing bore evident bloodstains from the assault, which involved multiple stab wounds to Gregovich's abdomen and chest.^[1] Mircovich, a Montenegrin immigrant miner with limited English proficiency, was formally charged with first-degree murder under Nevada statutes defining premeditated killing as a capital offense punishable by death.^[9] He was held without bail in the Nye County jail in Tonopah, as was standard for such charges to prevent flight risk in frontier mining towns.^[8] A preliminary hearing was conducted shortly thereafter, establishing probable cause based on eyewitness accounts of the public attack and physical evidence, despite noted challenges from Mircovich's language barriers requiring an interpreter for basic proceedings.^[9] ^[7] Local newspapers covered the case as a dispute between fellow South Slav immigrants over estate funds, highlighting the swift apprehension amid Tonopah's rough mining community environment.^[6]

Trial Evidence and Arguments

The trial of Andriza Mircovich occurred in Tonopah, Nevada, during the spring of 1912, with District Attorney Sanders leading the prosecution. The state's case emphasized premeditation, supported by witness testimony recounting Mircovich's prior threats against John Gregovich's life, including instances where Mircovich was ejected from Gregovich's business premises.^[6] The motive stemmed from a longstanding financial dispute, wherein Mircovich believed Gregovich had defrauded him of earnings from a joint mining endeavor following the death of Mircovich's brother.^[1] Prosecutors introduced evidence of Mircovich's admissions expressing intent to kill Gregovich, reinforcing the argument that the stabbing was a deliberate act driven by calculated resentment rather than momentary impulse.^[9] The killing itself was undisputed, with Mircovich using a knife to fatally stab Gregovich at the Tonopah & Goldfield Railway depot on February 12, 1912.^[11] The defense contended that the act arose from passion ignited by perceived betrayal in the monetary matter, invoking Mircovich's immigrant background and potential language barriers as contextual factors diminishing premeditative capacity. However, these arguments gained limited traction absent substantial corroborating evidence, and Mircovich offered scant personal testimony. The prosecution countered by portraying the grudge's persistence as indicative of willful planning, aligning with first-degree murder criteria under Nevada law.^[9]

Conviction and Sentencing

On June 15, 1912, after a brief deliberation, the jury convicted Andriza Mircovich of first-degree premeditated murder for the stabbing death of John Gregovich.^[1]^[12] Presiding Judge Peter B. Averill sentenced Mircovich to death on the same day, specifying execution by hanging or shooting as per a 1911 Nevada statute that granted condemned inmates the choice of method.^[1]^[13] Mircovich accepted the verdict without filing appeals to challenge the conviction, affirming his guilt while later seeking clemency through unsuccessful petitions to the pardon board and governor, thereby establishing the legal finality of the proceedings.^[3]^[14] The sentence reflected the demand for retribution in Tonopah's mining community, where the savage nature of the crime—inflicting 32 stab wounds—intensified calls for severe penalty.^[1] Execution was initially set for August 29, 1912, but postponed to May 14, 1913, following state reviews of the case transcript and related matters.^[1]

Capital Punishment Context

Nevada's Execution Methods in 1912

In 1912, Nevada's capital punishment statutes mandated execution by hanging as the default method for condemned individuals, a practice codified since statehood in 1864 and consistently applied in prior executions at the Nevada State Prison after executions were centralized there in 1903.^[4] A legislative amendment in 1911 introduced the option for prisoners to choose execution by shooting, reflecting the state's lingering frontier ethos where firearms held cultural prominence in law enforcement and self-defense traditions.^[15] ^[16] This choice accommodated preferences rooted in military experience or aversion to strangulation, though empirical records show hanging remained predominant, with no documented shootings prior to 1913.^[17] The shooting alternative relied on volunteer firing squads, typically composed of citizens or guards, but historical accounts indicate persistent challenges in recruiting participants due to moral hesitancy and psychological burdens associated with direct participation in lethal force.^[18] This scarcity stemmed from broader societal qualms in a transitioning Western state, where public executions had evolved from territorial spectacles—such as the 1863 hanging of Allen Milstead—to more contained prison proceedings, yet still evoked reluctance for hands-on roles in shootings.^[19] Hanging, by contrast, often utilized mechanical drops and professional executioners, minimizing direct human agency in the fatal act and thus facing fewer volunteer barriers.^[4] These methods embodied causal practicalities of early 20th-century penology in Nevada: hanging's reliability through gravity and leverage ensured swift death when properly calibrated, while shooting's ballistic precision demanded coordinated human input, amplifying logistical risks from unreliable squads.^[16] The 1911 provision thus represented an incremental statutory adaptation to inmate agency without overhauling entrenched infrastructure, prioritizing empirical efficacy over uniformity amid low execution volumes—fewer than a dozen statewide in the decade preceding 1912.^[17]

Mircovich's Selection of Shooting

Following his conviction for first-degree murder on June 15, 1912, Andriza Mircovich exercised his right under a 1911 Nevada statute permitting condemned inmates to select execution by either hanging or shooting.^[1] Mircovich opted for shooting later that year, reportedly due to awareness of frequent botched hangings that prolonged suffering through strangulation or decapitation.^[1]^[6] This choice aligned with the statute's intent to offer alternatives to hanging, Nevada's established method, though no prior inmate had selected shooting.^[4] Nevada State Prison Warden George W. Cowing immediately faced challenges in assembling a firing squad, as state protocol required five volunteer marksmen.^[3] Cowing's recruitment efforts, including appeals for participants, yielded no suitable candidates by late 1912, with prison guards and locals expressing reluctance to participate in the execution of a foreign-born convict.^[1]^[20] Offers of anonymity for volunteers were extended but rejected, exacerbating the impasse as the execution date approached in early 1913.^[21] This failure stemmed from the unprecedented nature of the request and general aversion among potential participants to directly firing upon a living person, prompting prison officials to explore mechanical alternatives to fulfill the sentence.^[3]

Development of the Execution Device

Difficulty Recruiting Firing Squad

Warden George W. Cowing of Nevada State Prison faced significant challenges in assembling a firing squad of five men required under state law for Andriza Mircovich's execution by shooting.^[4] Public appeals were issued in Carson City, the state capital and prison location, alongside private solicitations directed at local citizens and even inmates at the facility.^[6] These efforts persisted through early 1913 but yielded no volunteers, as prospective participants cited personal reluctance to perform the act despite offers of anonymity to shield identities from public scrutiny.^[6] The recruitment impasse reflected broader institutional hurdles in securing direct human involvement for capital punishment at the time, amid a societal transition away from routine participation in lethal proceedings following the decline of public executions after the 19th century.^[3] Mircovich's status as a Montenegrin immigrant, convicted in a dispute rooted in ethnic mining community tensions, further deterred potential local recruits wary of association with the case.^[6] By April 1913, with the legislatively mandated execution date of May 14 drawing near, Cowing's repeated failures exhausted standard options under the 1911 statute permitting inmate choice between hanging and shooting, compelling prison officials to explore alternatives to fulfill legal requirements without human marksmen.^[4] This logistical breakdown highlighted the practical limits of volunteer-based execution protocols in Nevada's penal system.^[22]

Design and Mechanics of the Shooting Machine

The shooting machine was constructed at Nevada State Prison under the direction of Warden George W. Cowing as a mechanical alternative to a traditional firing squad, comprising three Savage Model 1899 lever-action rifles chambered in .30-30 caliber mounted on a heavy steel frame weighing approximately 1,000 pounds.^[1]^[11] Each rifle was fitted with a Maxim silencer to muffle the discharge, and the assembly was engineered for precise alignment toward the target's heart.^[11]^[3] The triggering mechanism utilized coiled springs connected to each rifle, activated simultaneously by guards cutting three strings, which released the hammers to fire the weapons without requiring direct manual operation by shooters.^[1]^[3] This setup incorporated redundancy for psychological relief among participants: two rifles loaded with live rounds and one with a blank cartridge, ensuring no individual could be certain of delivering a fatal shot.^[3]^[1] The rifles were individually sighted and fixed in position to target a cloth marker placed over the condemned's heart, promoting mechanical reliability over human marksmanship.^[3] This automated configuration addressed the prison's inability to recruit volunteers, enabling the execution while distributing culpability across the apparatus rather than specific individuals.^[1]^[3]

The Execution

Events of May 14, 1913

On the morning of May 14, 1913, Andriza Mircovich was removed from his cell at Nevada State Prison in Carson City and escorted unassisted to the execution site in the prison yard, where a steel-framed shooting machine holding three rifles—two loaded with .30-30 soft-nosed bullets and one with a blank—had been positioned and prepared.^[3]^[23] Prison physician Dr. Donald McLean pinned a cloth target marker directly over Mircovich's heart after he was strapped into the chair facing the rifle muzzles approximately 20 feet away.^[6] Mircovich displayed a resolute demeanor throughout, refusing a blindfold offered by Warden George W. Cowing and shaking the warden's hand while expressing gratitude in broken English for fair treatment.^[16] In his final statements, he cursed the presiding judge, Peter B. Averill, for the perceived injustice of his conviction before declaring, "I die like a soldier," reflecting his insistence on execution by shooting as a soldier's death rather than hanging.^[6]^[16] The execution proceeded when a guard cut one of three strings connected to the machine's spring-loaded trigger mechanism, discharging the rifles; two bullets struck within half an inch of Mircovich's heart, causing near-instantaneous death from massive trauma, as confirmed by attending physicians who pronounced him dead within one minute.^[3]^[6]

Post-Mortem and Official Accounts

Following the execution on May 14, 1913, an autopsy conducted by prison physician Dr. J. McLean confirmed that two soft-nosed .30-30 bullets had penetrated Mircovich's heart, striking within 2/3 of an inch (17 mm) of each other, resulting in immediate cessation of vital functions.^[11] Dr. McLean declared death instantaneous, with no evidence of prolonged suffering or deviation from the intended lethal impact on the cardiac region.^[3] State prison records and attending medical documentation verified the device's mechanical reliability, recording clean trajectories of the projectiles without malfunction or scatter, which directly addressed pre-execution apprehensions about automated firing precision.^[4] These accounts emphasized the method's efficacy in delivering targeted shots to the vital organ, contrasting with variable outcomes in contemporaneous hanging executions that often involved extended strangulation or decapitation.^[3] The body was examined and prepared for official verification by prison officials, confirming compliance with procedural protocols prior to release for burial arrangements. No appeals or stays of execution were pursued or granted, upholding the shooting as a legally sanctioned alternative under Nevada statutes permitting condemned prisoners to select the manner of death.^[4]

Aftermath and Historical Impact

Immediate Reactions and Burial

Following the execution on May 14, 1913, local newspapers such as the Reno Gazette-Journal provided detailed, factual reporting on the event, emphasizing the mechanical shooting device's activation and Mircovich's death as retribution for the premeditated stabbing of John Gregovich in Tonopah two years prior. Coverage highlighted the method's mechanical precision to avoid human reluctance in the firing squad but framed the outcome as a necessary closure for the victim's aggrieved relatives, who had witnessed the trial and sentencing without contesting the verdict's severity.^[23] While the contraption's novelty elicited remarks on its ingenuity amid recruitment failures for volunteer marksmen, press accounts did not portray the execution as inhumane or excessive relative to the crime's circumstances—a dispute over $5 escalating to fatal violence with a pocket knife. No contemporary reports documented public outcry, riots, or organized opposition from inmates or residents, suggesting broad institutional and communal acquiescence to the proceedings as standard penal administration in early 20th-century Nevada. Prison staff morale remained stable, with routine operations resuming promptly and no internal disruptions noted in official records.^[2] Mircovich's remains went unclaimed by any documented kin or compatriots, consistent with his immigrant status and lack of attested family ties in U.S. records. The body was interred that afternoon in the Nevada State Prison cemetery at Carson City, placed in an unmarked pine coffin per standard protocol for indigent or unclaimed executed prisoners. An informal graveside rite was led by prison chaplain Reverend Thomas, marking a perfunctory end without external ceremony or retrieval attempts.^[2]^[24]

Influence on Nevada Law and Broader Legacy

The execution of Andriza Mircovich highlighted significant logistical challenges in assembling volunteer firing squads under Nevada's 1911 statute, which permitted condemned inmates to choose between hanging and shooting, ultimately contributing to the abandonment of shooting as a practical option.^[4] No subsequent executions by shooting occurred in the state, and the inmate choice provision was effectively superseded by legislative shifts toward more mechanized methods.^[5] In 1921, Nevada enacted legislation authorizing lethal gas as an execution method, marking a transition away from both hanging and shooting; this innovation was first implemented in the 1924 execution of Gee Jon, establishing gas chambers as the state's primary means of capital punishment until the adoption of lethal injection in 1983.^[5]^[4] The Mircovich case underscored the reluctance of prison staff and civilians to participate in direct shootings, prompting the one-time use of an automated rifle mechanism and influencing policymakers to favor impersonal alternatives that minimized human involvement.^[5] Mircovich's execution endures as a unique historical anomaly in U.S. capital punishment, the sole instance of a mechanical shooting device employed by any state, and it has been referenced in later debates on execution efficacy, particularly amid modern concerns over lethal injection failures and the revival of firing squads in states like Utah and South Carolina.^[5] State archives and penal histories portray it as emblematic of early 20th-century experimentation with death penalty administration, driven by practical necessities rather than ideological reform, though without sparking broader national legislative changes.^[4]

References

[1]
That Time Nevada Executed a Prisoner With a Shooting Machine
Oct 21, 2020 · Andriza Mircovich was about to become the first – and last – man in American history to be executed by shooting machine.
[2]
Andriza “Andrew” Mircovich (1879-1913) - Memorials - Find a Grave
Andriza Mircovich was executed at the Nevada State Prison on May 14, 1913. He was Austro - Hungarian. He was the only Nevada prisoner executed by firing ...
[3]
1913: Andriza Mircovich, by a shooting-machine - Executed Today
May 14, 2014 · It was an ordinary murder, by an ordinary man: his cousin died in a mining fire in 1911, and Andriza (or Andrija) Mircovich, feeling he got ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[4]
Capital Punishment: Home - Nevada State Library and Archives
Mar 6, 2024 · On May 14, 1913, Andriza Mircovich became the only inmate in Nevada to be executed by shooting. After the warden of Nevada State Prison was ...
[5]
Nevada - Death Penalty Information Center
It was used once, in the execution of Andriza Mircovich. The last inmates at Nevada State Prison were removed in January, 2012, but the state's execution ...
[6]
Andriza Mircovich – The 'Silver State' once used lead as well.
He was barely literate in his native language and spoke hardly any English, a typical working'class immigrant destined to work more with his back than with his ...Missing: background | Show results with:background
[7]
[PDF] nevada historical society quarterly - IIS Windows Server
... Andrija Mirkovich became the first person in Nevada to be legally executed by shooting. ... Mon- tenegro had been an independent kingdom for almost a century, ...
[8]
MIRCOVICH, Chris | Welcome to Old Tonopah Cemetery!
He was survived by several relatives, including his cousin, Andriza Mircovich, a 31-year-old miner and recent immigrant who spoke very little English and was ...
[9]
State v. Mircovich (130 P. 765,35 Nev. 485) - vLex Case Law
Defendant was convicted of the crime of murder in the first degree under an indictment charging him with the killing of John Gregovich by stabbing with a knife ...Missing: Andriza February Goldfield details
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Executed -- By a Levergun - Paco Kelly's Leverguns.com
Enjoy?!?! I found it pretty interesting anyhow... Old No7 Executed in 1913: Andriza Mircovich, by a Shooting-Machine 103 years ago, a Serbian immigrant was shot ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[11]
George B. Thatcher - Democrat, Appointed - Nevada Attorney General
While in private law practice in Tonopah, the Nye County District Court, on May 14, 1912, appointed Thatcher to represent Andriza (Andrew) Mircovich for the ...
[12]
https://ag.nv.gov/Bios/Biographies/16_-_George_B__Thatcher/
[13]
Article clipped from The Daily Appeal - Newspapers.com™
-0-0- REVIEWING TESTIMONY Governor Oddie has heceived the transcript of the testimony in the case of Andriza Mircovich, sentenced to be hanged for the ...
[14]
NV Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Nevada's Death Penalty Hanging was the original execution method, although in 1911 law was changed to allow prisoners to choose a firing squad, and in 1921 ...Missing: shooting choice
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... murder of a transient. This is the only photo we have of hangings at NSP ... Photo: Andriza Mircovich who today, represents the only execution by ...Missing: degree April 1912
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Oct 11, 2007 · The 1911 Legislature gave inmates the option of hanging or being shot to death, but the only man to take them up on the firing squad was ...Missing: choice | Show results with:choice
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Death penalty history: Nevada once used an automatic shooting ...
Convicted murderer Scott ...Missing: details | Show results with:details
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In Nevada, death penalty has evolved from frontier spectacle to rare ...
Jul 11, 2018 · ... execution by shooting and in 1913, it approved electrocution as a method. In 1924, Nevada became the first state in the country to execute a ...Missing: 1907-1911 | Show results with:1907-1911<|separator|>
[19]
NO ONE TO SHOOT MURDERER; Condemned Man Chose That ...
RENO, Nev., Aug. 11.—Warden George W. Cowing of the Nevada State Penitentiary faces the strangest situation in his experience as head of the institution.Missing: Mircovich | Show results with:Mircovich
[20]
[PDF] The Firing Squad as "A Known and Available Alternative Method of ...
Andrija Mircovich in 1912—chose the firing squad.304 Because sev- eral guards balked at carrying out a sentence they thought resembled cold-blooded murder ...
[21]
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1160&context=mjlr
[22]
Andriza Mircovich May 14 1913 - Newspapers.com™
Mircovich walked resolutely and unassisted to the death chair and faced the muzzles of three rifles, two of which were to send a leaden messenger. United States ...
[23]
Nevada State Prison Cemetery in Carson City Nevada
Andriza Mircovich: died 14 May 1913; convicted of murder; the only Nevada prisoner executed by firing squad. Fred Mitchell: died 22 May 1918; killed by an ...