Part II: Doretta Zinke, 39, Killed by 9 Pit Bulls (1945)

Dade County, FL - In part II of Doretta Zinke's story, we learn that she is a world traveler and that the dog owner, Joe Munn, is a laundry truck driver. We also learn that Munn is a breeder of fighting dogs. Not only did his dogs attack and kill a human being, witnesses came forth at his trial and reported attacks on children. Munn did not cull his "human aggressive" dogs, as pit bull lovers claim. One article revealed that his dogs had attacked horses and their riders as well.

From left: Doretta Zinke, 39, lecturer and Joe Munn, 43, fighting dog breeder.

05/19/45: Police Probe Strange Angles in Dog Case
MIAMI. Fla.. May 19. -- (UPI) -- Joseph Munn, 43, laundry truck driver, will be arraigned Tuesday on manslaughter charges filed after a wealthy, eccentric neighbor was chewed to death by his vicious bulldogs, police said today.
The arraignment date was set as the police investigation of the death of Mrs. Doretta Micko Zinke. 39, former world traveler and lecturer, turned to several channels.
Munn's kennel of 26 dogs were put to death. They were of a breed trained to fight in pits. Police investigated the possibility that free-spending Florida vacationers had caused a revival of dog-fighting around resorts here.
As yet they had found no evidence of dog fights, and said they were convinced Munn's pack were not raised for fighting in this vicinity.

A Hobby With Munn.
Police quoted Munn as saying that he bred the dogs as a hobby
and not as pit fighters. Munn, held in lieu of $5,000 bond, told police that the only time the dogs were loose was when he exercised them at feeding time each afternoon. He said he had sold "two or three" of the dogs in the last two years.
Mrs. Zinke died in a hospital Wednesday night a few hours after two soldiers found her moaning in the tall weeds 200 feet from Munn's kennels. Police sought to learn whether she had gone to the kennels to meet some-
(Continued on page 2)

Richard C. Glass, "Police Probe Strange Angles in Dog Case," Statesville Daily Record, May 19, 1945.

05/24/08: Order Munn Held for Manslaughter
MIAMI, Fla. (AP). A state's witness, Constable W. M. Hudson of Dade county, testified Wednesday that Joe Munn, 43, twice attempted to burn a pile of blood-stained papers near the scene where Mrs. Doretta Zinke, 39, was fatally attacked by a pack of Pit Bull Terriers owned by Munn.
At a combined inquest and preliminary hearing, Peace Justice Henry L. Oppenborn ordered Munn held for trial in criminal court on a charge of manslaughter resulting from Mrs. Zinke's death.
THE VICTIM died in a hospital last Wednesday night less than two hours after she had been found, terribly mutilated but still conscious, in a field near Munn's kennels at Miami Springs. .
Deputy Sheriff Mark Richardson testified that Munn admitted he had been raising dogs as "pit fighters" and said Munn also acknowledged that the docs were vicious.
Justice Oppenborn continued Munn's bond of $5.000 and ordered him held for trial after reading a coroner's verdict declaring that Munn knew the "vicious propensity" of his dogs and failed to keep them properly penned up. The entire pack of 27 was destroyed by humane officers last week.

Associated Press, "Order Munn Held for Manslaughter," Lincoln Nebraska State Journal, May 24, 1945

05/24/08: Court Rules Against Munn
MIAMI, Fla., May 24.-- (UPI) -- Joe Munn, 43, will be tried by the Criminal Court of Record at its next session on charges of manslaughter in connection with the death of Mrs. Doretta M. Zinke, at the teeth of a pack of his pit terriers.
Munn was bound over to the higher court yesterday under $5,000 bond by Peace Justice Henry L. Oppenborn.
At the conclusion of a five hour hearing at which Oppenborn acted as coroner, the justice of the peace ruled against Munn on all counts He found that Munn knew the "propensity of viciousness" of the dogs, knew they were running at large, and "did not take proper precautions to have said dogs properly enclosed."
Witnesses at the hearing yesterday included three soldiers who related how they found the dying woman in a desolate field near Munn's kennels, with the owner wandering around only 50 feet away.
Pfc M.D. Rutledge from a nearby Army transmitter testified he was attracted to the spot by the woman's moans and screams. "I saw Munn standing there, looking in the direction of the moans," he said.
The 39-year-old woman was badly mangled, her clothes torn from her by the dogs and apparently had dragged herself 40 feet from the scene of the attack. An autopsy attributed her death to "traumatic shock and hemorrhage."
Nearly a score of persons testified to "previous attacks" by the dogs owned by Munn, over a period of three years. Several witnesses told of attacks on themselves while riding horseback near the kennel and others reported attacks on children. All the animals in Munn's kennel were put to death last Friday, two days after Mrs Zinke was set upon.
George A. Worley, attorney for Munn, declared that the manslaughter statute, in such cases, requires that the victim use every precaution to avoid the dogs, and sought discharge for Munn on the grounds that the state failed to prove circumstances of the attack.

United Press International, "Court Rules Against Munn," Statesville Daily Record, May 24, 1945.

Part III of the story talks about an event 10 years after the trial. It reflects what still happens today, 63 years later, with owners of dangerous dogs.

Related articles:
12/29/08: Part III: Doretta Zinke, 39, Killed by 9 Pit Bulls (1945)
12/07/08: Part II: Doretta Zinke, 39, Killed by 9 Pit Bulls (1945)
11/29/08: Part I: Doretta Zinke, 39, Killed by 9 Pit Bulls (1945)