The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-02-01
MANKATo FREE Press.
MURDER WILL OUT.
Strange Story Nine Years
AftsrWard.
Hans Oien, Who Was Supposed to
Have Committed Suicide, Probably
r1urdered==A ConfeSSiOn==RumOrS
at St. James.

earlier part of 'S7, Hans Olen, d rail-
road laborer who had been doing
bridge work on the Omaha under Con-
tractor Charles Strom, died in Ander-
sons boarding house at No. 33O-32
n. Front street in the tumble-down
shack in which Drayman Demary now
keeps his horses. Oien'S death was
caused from a knife-cut across his
throat, and at the time the wound was
supposed to have been inflicted by his
own hand with suicidal intent and a
coroner's jury returned a verdict ac-
cordingly.
The scene of the crime was a cheap
boarding house conducted by this An
derson and his wife, and Oren was n
of the dodgers. He was a tall, raw
boned fellow and was strong enough.
so his fellow-wOrkmen said, to throw
an OK, but was as genial and merry as
he was strong. But he had an abnor-
NAL appetite for liquor, and the savings
of a month would suddenly melt
away in one grand protracted spree,
The man was never quarrelsome, and
so far as was known, w thought OF
suicide or was ever low spirited.
One day he met with an accident in
which one of his feet was badly
crushed.
This mishap kept him in bed for
some time, but he kept sending out
for liquor and was under it's influence
during his illness. Some two weeks
after he had been in his oom and on
a day when Oien had drank an unusu-
ally large quantity of liquor. Mrs.
Anderson, who was at work on the
first floor saw blood tickling through
the plastering overhead.
Rushing up stairs and into Oien's
room she beheld him stone dead, with
blood still flowing from a CHASTITY
wound in his throat. A cOroner's in
quest was held and a verdict of suicide
rendered.
Immediately following the crime the
AndersonS moved from the house and
no human family has since occupied
it, and it has long since fallen into de-
cay. The wintry winds blow a dole
full tune through the chinks between
the warped and weather-beaten
boards, and were the incidents to have
occurred in the middle ages the house
would undoubtedly be declared
"haunted." The old shack is far be-
low the grade of the street, its owner
probably deeming it of insufficient
value to raise it higher, and so it re-
mains-a weird, ghostly eye-sore to
the street and a nuisance to the sur
rounding property-owners.
Now comes a strange story from
St. James which seems to up
set the theory Of suicide and
place the crime in the more terrible
list of murders.
Ole Peterson, who sells tombstones
for A. r. Exile, doing business on
Jackson street east of Front, was at
st. James two weeks ago, returning
late last week to this city. He has
connected the past with the present,
and his story is a strange one.
About two and a half years ago a
man who was not a stranger to the
Anderson boarding house died on a
farm a short distance from this city.
When he saw that he was attending
the dance of death he made a confess
sion tits said, in the presence of his
wife, in which he acknowledged that
Oein did not commit suicide but was
murdered by his hand. He gave as
his reason for doing the deed that he
owed his victim considerable money;
that Oien stated just before the crime
that he must have it because
he wanted to go away, and threatened
to make trouble if it was not forth
coming. In his alleged confession
this man goes on to state that he stole
into Oien's room and cut his throat
from ear to ear with a knife as he lay
in a drunken stupor and made good
his escape, to swear to a plausible tale
before the cOroner'S jury.
1t is said that the self-confessed
murderer then admonished his wife
to write a letter to Oien's brother at
st. James, setting forth the facts as
he had given them.
Why the wife delayed 50 long in
complying with his request is
not known, but she has
Just remarked and it
is supposed the old trouble preyed up
on her mind to such an extent that
she finely wrote the letter, and Peter
0 says that the long delayed mission
is now ia the hands CT Oien's brother,
ii a popular rumor at st. James is to
be believed.
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