The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-06-20
Double MURDER ON RED OWL
James Puck and George os-
trander Foully Murdered in
Their Cabin on Red Owl.
No Known Motive for the
Crime and No Clue to the
Criminals. A Horrible Af-
fair. The Whole Story.

Criminals. "A Horrible AT.
fair. The Whole Story.
p THE UNION CLEANS the following
particulars o. the Red Owl murder
from the Sturgis Record, the edito,
of which interviewed the men who
first discovered the foul crime. The
Records story is as follows:
Thursday morning William Hor.
locker and John Timmons. arrived
in Sturgis, having ridden in from
White Owl, distance of about 80
miles during the night. They came
in to9report the murder Of two men
in their house on Red Owl James
Puck and George Ostrander.
Horlocker went to the house
Wednesday night about Z o'clock to
notify Puck about some branding
that was to be done Thursday. The
door was open, and he entered, but
found no one present, and would
have gone away, but for the. fact
that he noticed a little blood under
the bed. He pulled down the covers
and was horrifed to find two dead
men-Puck and Ostrander. They
were just as if sleeping. Puck's
face was calm and not. the sign of a
( wound. He had been shot in the
ear. Ostrander's face was covered
over with blood. Evidently the
murderer had shot Puck first, the
noise had awakened Ostrander, and
as he sprang up Or turned over, he
was shot in the face. No sign of a
struggle was apparent. The mur-
derer had either got them both very
quickly, or he had laid the second
victim down on his pillow carefully.
Both men were covered with a
tarpaulin and bed clothes, and so
smoothly, as we'll as with studied
carelessness was the job done that
Horlocker thought the two had gone
away somewhere. Puck always
kept cotin the house, on which
was tarpaulin and some quilts.
This was for the accommodation Of
any wayfarer that might happen
along. From this fact it is thought
that one or two men had slept there
Tuesday night; be or they had got
up during the night, shot the two
men in bed, and then threw the bed
8cloJhes from the cot over the dead
bodies. Any one going in would
naturally think the two men had
thrown the stuff carlessly on the
bed as bachelors will do, aud but
s for the little pool OF blood under the
bed nothing wrong would have been
noticed. In fact, the murder would
mot have been discoyerd except for
the fact that branding was to be
done Thursday, and Horlocker went
tonotify them Of it.
A watch belonging TO Puck was
lying near the bed, still running,
and a little clock had not run down.
"a Al calibre revolver had been
taken from the scabbard which hung
on the wall. and as far as Horlocker
can remember now. all the cart
ridges had been extracted from the
belt. He did not 60 to the stable
TO look after saddles, but knows
there were two good ones there the
day before. Five good horses were
in the corral, but none were taken.
There were no indications Of any
struggle, and as neither Of the men
kept money, robbery was not the
cause Of the murder.
Puck kept q check book, and had
no ready cash around. He s
>
about23 years old and had jhst
started in.the stock busines, having
35 bead Of cattle and nearly as many
horses. His father, james Puck
lives in Sioux City, and was wired
of the occurrence Thursday. Os-
strander was about 35 years old and
worked for Puck
No reason whatever can be assign
ed for the crime, but the theory
is advanced that the two escaped
horse thieves, Schofefd and Cald-
swellmay have gotten that far, put
UP for the right, found they were