The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-25
ST. CLAIR DIED GAME
Murderer of John Decker Executed
at Idaho City.
SAID HE WAS INNOCENT
CRIME WAS COMMITTED NEAR
VAN WICK.
Decker Was Mining Man and the
Two Were Travelling Together
Decker Killed In Lonely Cabin
and His Body Dragged Up the
Gulch.
(Snecial to The HeraldO

Boise, Ida, June 24.-At Idaho City
this morning Herman G. st. Clair paid
the penalty for the murder of John
Decker last October. The murderer
declared on the gallows he was limo
cent. He died game" st. Clair adj
mitted he had been mixed up in many
other crimes and had been in Folsom
and San Quentin prisons in California.
Herman c. st. Clair killed John
Decker on the night of Oct. q, 1897, in
a lonely cabin two miles from Van
Wyck, in Long valley. The men had
Travelled together into the valley, being
apparently on prospecting trip.
Decker paid all the bills and seemed
to own the team and other property
carried on the trip. The tragedy oc-
CURED in what is known as the Jerry
Lester cabin. The two men were seen
together in the cabin on the evening
Of Thursday, Oct. 81. On Friday ST.
Clair appeared at Van Wyck alone.
He exhibited considerable money, and,
in the course of a hilarious drunk,
spent it lavishly. He continued his de-
bauch Saturday, and his actions and
some remarks he made aroused the
suspicious of the people there. Asked
what had become of his partner Deck
err St Clair replied that he had gone
to Boise.
= Some of the leading men of that sec
ton held a consultation and decided
to make an investigation. Without
giving st. Clair any inkling of their
intentions, they proceeded to the Lester
cabin. Their search failed to produce
any trace of Decker or his body until,
as they were about to give it up, some
one called attention to a wagon trail
leading through the tall grass up the
gulch. The trail was examined, and,
following it, the crowd found evidences
OF something having been dragged
through the grass. They proceeded a
few hundred yards up the gulch, when
they came upon the body of Decker
The body had been wrapped in a blan-
ket. Additional wrappings had been
placed around the head, into which two
bullets had been fired, in order to re-
move as far as possible the possibility
of a trail of blood into the lonely and
gulch. The body was
found on Sunday, the oath st. Clair
was arrested.
On the trial of the case it was shown
that St Clair, on the day after the
had exhibited a. Smith & Yves /
son revolver which he desired to
trade. Parties who examined the
weapon testified there were two cham
bers in the gun that had been recently !
fired. A purse found on ST. Clair was /
identified as Decker's, as was also /
clothing found in the possession of st. |
Clair. The case occupied a week in
the trial, and the jury, on Nov. IS. 1897. !
after being out but a short time. re- |
turned a verdict of murder in the first /
degree.
Decker was a mining man from Spo- |
kane, and although his identification |
was complete, all efforts to locate his
wife or other relatives proved futile.
On his body was found a letter from
MS wife, dated at Spokane This made
statements that lead those who read il
TO suppose Decker was suspicious of
his wife. In this connection it was said
ST. Clair, if he would, could have made
some highly sensational disclosures
out he died without revealing the mo-
i've for his terrible crime.