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Quiz Master Kills Intruder


The Milwaukee Journal – Apr 22, 1947

Quiz Master Kills Intruder

Firs at Prowlers in Kitchen; One Escapes; Other an Ex-Convict

Chicago, III. - (AP) – Joe Kelly, quizzer of the famed radio Quiz Kids, shot at two prowlers in the kitchen of his apartment Monday night, killing one.

Andrew Aitken, deputy chief of detectives, said the dead man was identified from fingerprints as Harold C. Fransen, 25, an ex-convict who had been paroled to the army, saw service, as a paratrooper overseas, and was released as psychoneurotic in 1945.

He died in a back yard adjoining that of Kelly’s apartment building after leaping a four foot fence with .38 caliber bullet wounds in his back and neck. A trail of blood indicated the other burglar had been wounded.
Kelly said he, his wife, Mary, and their son, Joseph, jr, were sitting in the darkened living room of their apartment discussing the son’s November wedding plans when a noise was heard in the kitchen.

Joseph, jr., was instructed to get the revolver. With the gun in his hand, Kelly said, he found on of the prowlers in the kitchen, the other about to step in through the door from the back porch. Kelly said he fired four shots after the pair ignored his command to “Stay where you are” and began to run.

Aitken said Fransen had served a one year term for burglary and was paroled from another three to seven year burglary sentence in the state prison at Joliet in 1943 to enter the army. He was discharged from the parole when he was released from the army in 1945 as a psycho neurotic with disability compensation of $40 a month.






Reading Eagle – Apr 22, 1947
Joe W. Kelly (right) quiz master of radio’s “Quiz Kids” program, stands in a doorway of his West Side Chicago apartment with his wife and Joe Jr., after the elder Kelly shot and killed an intruder last night. Story on Page 4.                                         (A. P. Wirephoto.) 

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