Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1900-05-31
Aged Resident of BurIeigh County
Murdered in Cold Blood For
His Money.
The Dead Body of Simon WEIGH Found
in His Cabin Near Bis.
mdrCk.
Believed That He Was Killed While
Asleep. Authorities are
Investigating.

Simon Welch, bachelor farmer
living about four miles northeast OF
| Bismarck, was found dead in his shack
at about noon Wednesday by a neigh.
Dor named Riley, who was passing
Welch's place en- route to town.
| That Welch was murdered was
plain to Coroner White, States AttOr.
ney Allen and a cOrOnerS jury that
visited the place Wednesday evening,
and examined the body and the sur
rOundingS. When the murder took
place is difficult to say but from the
appearance of the body the crime was
committed several days ago. Welch
was seen the latter part of last week
by a neighbor named McGee, who was
one OF his nearest neighbOrS and
| friends, and who talked with Welch
! Friday or Saturday. The murder oc-
Cured some time between that day
and Wednesday when the body was
found. The murder was done with a
revolver, and probably one that be-
longed to the murdered man for such
one was found beneath his pillow,
| with one empty shell that had been
recently discharged.
The ball entered the mouth, passed
through the bones, breaking them to
email piococ and 1orlfroJ ~ tho h,ro of
the brain, where it was found. 1t was
| a bullet OF the same callibre as
Welch' own revolver, and in all prob
ability came from the same gun. The
opening in the ear, at first thought to
be the wound of entrance, is believed
to have been caused by the driving of
a splinter of bone through by the bull
let. "A cold-blooded murder was clear
ly established by the post mortem.
Welch had suffered considerably
from pains in his head, the result of
a trouble for which he had undergone
an operation not long ago. At first
it was thought that suicide might
have caused death, but the discovery
of the wound and the fact that there
| was no weapon within reach Of the
hand of the dead man forced the dis
carding of this theory. Welch's re-
volver was ten feet away from the
body, under a pillow. He certainly
did not place it there after shooting
himself.
Welch was reput6d a miser and the
possessOr Of considerable cash. Up to
a recent time he had been in the hab-
it Of keeping it in the cellar at his
place, or good share of it. 1t has
been known that, in paying threshing
crews on his place, Welch entered the
cellar and got cash to pay off the men.
II this was known to some one whose
avarice would have prompted murder,
this may be the cause for the crime.
The dead man, in life, had been ac-
customed to keep the money he had
about the place in a small sack, some
what larger than the ordinary mus
lin tobacco sack. This sack was found
! by the coroner, empty. McGee says
there was money in it a few days be-
fore, for Welch had taken some change
! therefrom to pay him for some tobac-
co. There was no money found about
the house or in the cellar.
The authorities are busy with an
investigation of the case, and will
spare no efforts to apprehend the mur-
| derer or murdererS. 1t is believed
that Welch was killed for the sole
purpose of robbery. He had some
$1,000 in banks. He is reported to
| have had brother or two in Penn
sylvana and sister in Ohio. He
had been resident of Bismarck for
twenty-five years, and was at one time
employed as a Waterman at the
| bridge.
Uric Chilkoff, alias William Mil
Ter is suspected. He is Russian and
served three years in the penitentiary
for stabbing a policeman in Fargo. He
is known asa ''bad man" in Bismarck
and whoever captures him will have
to have the drop on him. 1t is stated
| that after the murder Chilkett spent
number of days in Bismarck. He
spent money freely and told his
friends that he had recently received
a sum of money from relative who
had died. 1t is thought that the mon
ey taken from Welch amounted to
$40.
1t is said that Chilkoff bought a