The Stalker

GRAY...

From the Fargo, North Dakota, Forum, October II, 1970:

TRUCK MISHAP CLAIMS LIFE OF LOCAL MAN

Paul Wykopf, 34, owner of the X-Cel Trucking Company of Fargo, was crushed to death shortly past 7 p.m. last night in the company’s truck garage at 1149 State Street. A failing hand brake on one of the General Motors diesel cabs parked in the garage was blamed for the tragedy. The vehicle apparently rolled forward after the hand brake slipped, pinning Wykopf against one of the concrete walls. Death was instantaneous, police said.

Gordon Jellicoe, head mechanic at X-Cel, discovered his employer’s body when Wykopf failed to meet him as promised at a local tavern, and he returned to find out why. He said that Wykopf was in the habit of working late on the company books three nights each week, and that he always made a check of the premises before leaving on those evenings. “That’s when it must have happened,” he told police.

Wykopf was graduated from Fargo High School in 1953, where he received statewide prominence in both football and baseball. He purchased X-Cel Trucking, then called Martin’s Freight Lines, from Pete Martin in 1962. The company specialized in the hauling of perishable goods.

There are no survivors.