The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-09-04
zEHETMElER, THE LIVINGSTON
MURDERER, HANGS HIMSELF.
JOB WAS NEATLY EXECUTED
Short Strap and Convenient Sink In
His Cell Supply the Neces-
sary Facilities.
Martin Zehetmeier, who was to hav'

Martin Zehetmeier, who was to have
been hanged at Livingston this morn
ing, very accommodatingly spared the
sheriff of Park county the ugly job
before him by hanging himself in his
cell yesterday morning. The act was
done as effectually and expeditiously
as though done in accordance with the
law and the courts order, and as far
as the ultimate outcome of either is
concerned, Zehetmeier was just as
from a hook in his cell as though the
moose had been placed about his neck
by the sheriff and he had received
the regulation jerk from the weight at
tached to the rope that was to be the
instrument of his transit into glory.
OF course, it is not known when he
tween midnight and s o'clock yester-
day morning. The last time his guards
saw him alive was about IL o'clock,
when the undersheriff called at his
cell and gave him some fruit and
talked with him for several minutes.
Zehetmeier was than in his usual
frame of mind, cool, calm and col
lected, and thanked the officer for his
kindness.
When the undersheriff left him Ze-
hetmeier returned to his cot and laid
down and apparently fell asleep, COW
ering his head with a blanket, as was
his custom. The death watch says he
saw him several times after that,
seemingly asleep each time. About S
o'clock the death watch, James Rowe,
went TO put some wood into che
stove and when he returned to his
chair looked into the cell and saw thH
man whom he was supposed to guard
for the purpose of preventing him
from harming himself swinging back
and forth in the corner of his cell. He
shouted for help and the jailer and a
couple of other men came to him and
the party entered the cell. Zehet-
meier had cheated the gallows. He
was quite dead, but still warm.
How It Was Done.
Around the neck of the dead man
was wrapped a narrow leather strap.
The moose had been formed by buck
ling the strap so tight that it cut into
the flesh. The other end had been
fastened to a hook that formerly was
used for ~suspending an electric light.
The hook. vas just above the sink, and
the latter the suicide used as a trap.
After fastening the strap to the hook,
Zehetmeier stepped off the edge OF
the sink and he was hanging in the
air, his feet clear of the floor.
The mans determination not to per-
nit the law to take his life was shown
in the fact that the strap he employed
was not over two feet long. 1t was
evident that he strangled to death, as
the drop he employed was not long
enough to break his neck.
The leather used formed part OF a
standing martingale" of a harness
and had been hanging from a water
pipe about two feet outside of the
cell. Zehetmeier had a small arm and
hand, and the supposition is that when
unobserved he reached out and pulled
it into his cell and concealed it about
his person. Only three days before he
hanged himself Zehetmeier's cell was
examined and everything belonging to
him was searched. At that time the
strap was still hanging in it's accus-
timed place.
1t is believed that he had fastened
the strap about his neck before the
under sheriff visited him and that
when he thought the right time had ar
rived he finished the job.
His Crime.
The crime for which Martin Zehet-
meier was twice condemned to death
was the murder of George Reider, who
disappeared April 10. 1901, and was
believed to have been killed by wild
animals while hunting in the noun
tains. March 3, 1908, Andrew Wieden-
bauer made a confession that he was
an accomplice after the fact and that
Zehptmeier had murdered Reider. Two
days afterward Zehetmeier, Weiden-
bauer and Jack Held were arrested
for the offense. April 16, Zehetmeier
was found guilty of murder in the first
degree. In May he was granted a nev
trial and July 6 a second jury found
him guilty as before. July 20 he was