Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-09-03
WAS 1T MURDER?
The startling story of a Lamb
Canyon Logger.

At about 2 o'clock to-day two rough
looking men came busting into the Police
Office, showing in front of them l6-year-
old boy, who seemed to be reluctantly
keeping company with them, and who, as
later developments show, will likely have
to answer to a very serious charge.
As soon as the party we're inside the
door, one of the men, who is known as
Old Pete, and who has often figured in
police circles, started out in clustering
manner to tell how the boy had
CRUSHED THE SKULL
OF a man named Hyrum Mikesell, in
Lambs canyon, and, leaving him for
dead, fed from the place. The boy pro-
tested his innocence, but the third party
chimed in with the accuser, and persisted
that Mikesell was fatally injured and
would die before morning.
The scene of the occurrence was at
John Durning's mill, in Lambs canyon,
which leads off from Parley's canyon
near the Hallway House.
The story of the affair, as told by the
old man, is as follows: There is party
of loggers camped at the place above
named, and among them were the boy
and Mikesell, who were continually at
swords points. Yesterday morning the
two had quarrel and
MIKEsELL STRUCK MORGAN
In the eye. Later in the day, while the
party were at work logging, the two enc
mics got off together and were absent
from the crowd for some time, so that no
one witnessed what took place between
them. Later on, however, the boy came
rushing up to Pete and one or two others
and told them to 60 and take care of
Mikesell; that he had struck him with a
neck-yoke and
LEFT HIM FOR DEAD.
"Pete" claims that the boy then ran
away from the crowd and was not seen
again until to-day, when they were on
their road to town, bringing the wounded
man in the stage.
AS soon as the boy left, the men went
to the spot where he had told them he
left Mikesell, and there they found the
latter lying with his face in the mad,
while the
BLOOD POOhED
From a cash in the back OF his neck.
They picked the man up and this morn
ing they started for town with him on the
stage. On the way in they caught Nor
gan and brought him along.
Mikesell was taken to his home in the
Eleventh ward, and the narrator says he
was more dead than alive. He says
there is a cash in the back of the mans
head, clear through the skull, SO large
that he could put his finger in it, and
that on the side of his head there is an
other ugly wound.
THE BOYS STORY
Does not differ materially as to the facts
of the case, but his estimate of the result
is much more mild.
He states that Mikesell struck him in
the eye without provocation, and his optic
shows that he was hit pretty hard. He
says also that every man in the camp
advised him to kill Mikesell, who was,
he SAYS, always picking upon him, not
withstanding the immense difference in
their size and age. He claims that he
did not leave the canyon of his own
accord, but that the men sent him away,
and that Pete told him that if he had
stayed they would have
STRUNG HIM UP.
He also says that Mikesell's wounds are
not serious, but that they are merely
scalp wounds. He denies having told
the men that he mad left Mikesell for
dead, and says that after striking the man
he took him water and brought him to.
He said that he was crazy mad when he
did it and he didn't know what made
him do it.
Morgan's first name is William. He is
Is years old and resides in the Twenty
first ward, of this city, with his widowed
mother. Mikesell is a man of probably
80, and resides on Seventh East street in
the Eleventh ward.
The boy told quite a plausible story,
and seemed less excited than his accuser.
The lateness of the hour does not permit
an investigation of the affair in time for
to-day's issue. 1t is likely, however, that
the man overrates the wound, while the
boy undertakes it, from which, taking a
fair average, one would conclude that
Mikesell is very seriously, though not
fatally, wounded.
Only the result of the wounds, and the
confederation of one story or the other will
decide whether or not it was case of
murder.