The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-10
TETON MURDER TRIALS
William Pepo Will Have to Face
a Jury.
FOR AN ATROCIOUS CRIME
"A Decomposed Body Was Found in q
Deserted Cabin and Pepo Is
Charged With Commission
OF the Murder.

Great Falls, April 9.-Teton county is
likely to have murder trials on it's
docket at the next term of court pro-
vided Charles Simons survives the eff
fects of his duel with Charles H. Buck
ley, in which the latter was killed. The
story has been told.
The second murderer to be tried is
William Pepo, who is now in the county
Jail awaiting trial for the murder of an
unknown man at Frank Truchot's
ranch, on the Muddy. Suspicion fast
ened upon Pepo last June, when the
decomposed body was discovered, but
Pepo had fled, and though numberless
circulars and inquiries were sent out
by Sheriff Hagen, he has remained in
hiding until a short time ago. Once the
sheriff made trip down to Minnesota,
but the man held there was not Pepe.
At length the sheriff's labors unearthed
his man at Davenport, about so miles
west Of Spokane. He was working
upon ranch under the name of Will
nam Ferris for man named Fry.
When arrested he denied the charge,
but came back to Choteau with Sheriff
Hagen without making trouble. He is
man of about 40 years and weighs 40
pounds. In appearance he is not pre-
possessing. With his attorney, j. G.
Barr, he had preliminary hearing be-
fore Justice Beaupre at Choteau, when
he pleaded not guilty. He was held
until April IA for further hearing and
committed to jail without bonds.
,p,ir, oxx,ith i,,1,T -,
was particularly atrocious one. In
small and rarely frequented cabin
about - miles north of Choteau on a
hay ranch owned by F. Truchot and
adjacent to the Muddy, the nearly de-
composed body of man was found last
June. Robert Davis, in charge of the
haying operations, opened the door of
the shack to get some mower sickles
left there the year previous, and was
Mortified by the discovery of dead
man lying on the bunk partially dis
rubed and partly covered with bedding,
showing Enthusiastically that the fatal
blow had been delivered while the vic
tim was asleep. The bedstead built
of common boards, was standing near
the middle of the room with the head
of it near hole in the south wall in
tended for q. window, and about three
feet away from a door in the east side
near the corner The victim lay on his
door, with his head slightly turned
away. The murderer probably stood
in, or very near the door, when he de-
livered the deadly blow with some
heavy or blunt instrument that sent
his victim into eternity. The right
front part of the skull was crushed and
three pieces of the skull were found
lying inside like broken crockery in the
bottom of a bowl
Fruitless efforts have been made to
discover the name of the victim of the
bloody deed but apparently without
success, although it is likely that with
in the next few days it will be dis
closed. Suspicion was fastened on Pepo
as being the murderer because of the
fact that he had been seen in the vicin-
lty with a stranger-presumably his
Euileless victim, who was cruelty muir
dered for the sole motive of rob-
berry.
The man now in custody in the Teton
county Jail has been positively identi-
fed by a number of prominent citizens,
who declare in unmeasured terms that
the right man has been surely cap
tured. Pepo is a man with record.
It has been learned from the best of
sources that he came to America from
Germany in either 1884 or 1885, after
having been detected in the crime of
burglary, but escaping before appre-
hension. In his younger days he served
a term in the German army. Wander
ing hither and thither in America, he
finally located on a tract of land in the
Canadian Northwest. but his rowing in
stinct soon led him back again to this
country, where we find him, together
with the stranger whom he is alleged
to have foully murdered, in the vicinity
of the Muddy, in search of work. 1t IS
said that the sheriff's office is in pos
session of evidence which is damaging
and possibly conclusive.