The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-03
MOTIVE FOR THE MURDER
Lucey Needed Money With
Which to Marry.
WEDDING DAY WAS FIXED
He Was to Be Married Three DAYS After
the Date of the Murder-It Is
Supposed He Also Muir
dered Leary.

| night or the second of last September
for which Dan Lucey was convicted of
murder Saturday night by the jury
which sat in judgment upon him, which
| furnishes what is regarded by the
authorities as the real motive of the
crime The story, which is paradoxical
in the extreme, has been current since
1t first became practically certain Lucey
| was the murderer, but for obvious
! reasons it has never hitherto been pub
lished. Upon it is built the theory that
Lucey actually committed the revolving
| crime to secure the money to enable
him to wed the girl of his choice. I'm
possible as would seem for the theory
| to be correct, there is good ground
| for the belief that 1t Is based on actual
| fact. County Attorney Connolly be-
| lieves in the theory and, 1t Will be re-
| membered, attempted to draw out
| tacit confession of its truth dring mis-
cross examination of Lucey, but was
checked by objections sustained by the
| court.
| 1t is known Lucey was engaged to be
| married to a young woman of the city
| who was well connected, and whose
| name was mentioned during the trial
| From the young woman it has been
! learned they were to be married about
| Labor day. which fell last year three
! days subsequent to the murder, or as
soon as Lucey could possess himself
| of 500 in cash. She was waiting for
him to raise the money, and he was
! anxious to hasten the event. Reagan
vas man who would go on periodical
| sprees, and he was engaged in one of
| these at the time he fell in with Lucey
| and they were about drinking together
| constantly for some days prior to the
murder 1t is known that the day be-
| fore Lucey and Reagan left Butte
Reagan had upwards of 800 about him,
| and these known facts finish the basis
| of the theory. 1t is believed Lucey,
knowing Reagan had the money about
him, deliberately planned to lure him off
into Silver Bow canyon and murder him
to get the money he had to have to
crafty his chief ambition.
Lucey, as has been previously pub
lished, is suspected of having murdered
the man Leary, who disappeared some
years ago, and was never heard from
afterward. The circumstances in that
case were identical with the Reagan
murder. Lucey and Leary left Butte
to go, as they told their friends, to
British Columbia. The next day Lucey
turned up in Butte and told the same
story he told in this case on the stand.
He and Leary got as far as South Butte,
where as in this case, he and his man
behind supposedly. Some months later
a corpse so decomposed as to be beyond
recognition, was found in Silver Bow
canyon not far from where Reagan was
| murdered. 1t has since been believed to
be the body of Leary. The circum-
stances in this case greatly strengthen
the theory regarding Reagan's murder.
1t is reasoned that Lucey, having been
so successful in eluding detection in the
former case, thought he could repeat
the operation, a theory which seems to
be justified by the close similarity of
the two cases and the story Lucey told
in the two instances. 1t is not believed
Lucey had any intention to go to the
Occur d'Alene any more than he intend
ed to go to British Columbia in the for
mer instance, but instead that he in
tended to do away with Reagan and re-
turn to Butte, figuring, of course, that
the body would not be discovered SO
soon, and if he got back to Butte be-
fore the discovery he could as before
convince his friends he never left the
city. 1t is known that he did not tell
his sweetheart Of his going, as he un-
doubtedly would have done had he
really intended going so far away
as to the Occur d'Alenes, and the first
the girl knew of his having had any
intention to leave Butte was when she
heard of the murder and that her af-
famed was suspected of the crime
There is no doubt in the minds of the
officials who have worked on the case
that Lucey committed the murder to
get the money to get married. The girl
was unutterably shocked by the part
she unwittingly played in the terrible
tragedy, and out of sympathy for her
and her relatives the authorities did not
require her to figure any more promi-
nently in the case than was necessary.
For the same reason her name is not
mentioned again here,
There is another theory in connection
with the case, which, if correct, fur
nished evidence of Lucey's guilt, which
did not come out at the trial. 1t re-
lates to the pair of trousers Lucey wore
the morning of Sept. 3. when he ap-
peared at Gregson Springs and which,
when produced at the trial, had been
mutilated by having a part of one leg
cut off and piece cut out of the other
leg. 1t was told by the persons who
saw Lucey at Gregson the morning fol-
lowing the murder that his trousers
were wet from the knees down. Lucey
had his story to explain this circum-
stance, but it was believed up to very
recently that he got his pantaloons wet |
by stepping into the creek when he car
red the body of his victim to the |
stream and threw 1t in the water. |
When Lucey arrived here from Color |
ado he wore the same trousers he had |
ON at Gregson that morning. A day |
or SO after his arrival he asked Jailer |
Peter Walsh for pair of trousers and |
a pair of overalls was furnished him. |
Later. when the trousers were wanted, |
they were found with the left leg cut |
off, all the knee and good sized piece |
cut out of the other leg. The missing |
portions could not be found and never |
have been. |
Since that time there has been an
other theory as to what caused Luceys |
trousers to be saturated with water
that morning at Gregson Springs. In
stead of its having been caused by
Lucey stepping into tn stream, it is
now believed he got blood on himself
when he carried CT dragged the body
to the rivers edge and that trying to
wash away the blood stains was what
caused his trousers to be soak with
water. and it is assumed that i'm cut
ting away the portions of the good
that were missing Lucey was actuatei
by a fear that tell-tale blood stains |
sA