The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-10-20
DYGART CONFESSEs'
SAYS HE KILLED MRS. BOLTON
BECAUSE SHE WOULDN'T
ELOPE WITH HIM.
THIRD MURDER IN WISCONSIN
Confesses He Slew John Hefstedt,
Douglas County, Wis.,, June a.
Flung Body in Well and
Escaped.

Minneapolis. = Two confessions
clearing up the murders of three per
sons were secured by the police from
James P. Dygart, who was identified
as "Jim," the hired man wanted tc
explain the murders on the Bolton
farm, Anoka county, Sept. IL.
Dygart confessed to the murders Of
Mrs. Amelia Bolton, and her cousin
Frank Edward Rhodes, on the Bolton
farm. Three hours later ne confessed
to the killing of John HefsteGs, Farm
er near Popular, Douglas county, Wis
The murders OF Mrs. Bolton and her
cousin were committed Tuesday morn
ing, Sept. IL, according to the police
and the sheriff.
Wanted Woman to EIope.
Mrs. Bolton was killed as she stood
before her kitchen range churning but.
ter. Just why he shot Mrs. Bolton
then, Jim could not explain to the pc.
lice who attribute the three murders
to an insane desire for blood. Neither
could he explain why he killed Hefs.
tedt. Dygart told the police that he
had killed the woman because she
had spurned an offer he had made to
elope with him, although he said the
two had been intimate ever since he
went to work on the Bolton farm.
Shortly after he had shot Mrs. Boil.
ton, Rhodes returned home and as
he entered the door of the barn Dygart
shot him. The bullet struck Rhodes
in the right thigh. Rhodes fled thru
the back door of the house, past the
body of Mrs. Bolton, lying on the
kitchen floor, and upstairs into the
garnet. Dygart went into the barn
and waited. In few minutes, Rhodes
jumped from a front window of the
house and started to run across the
road into the potato field.
AS he reached the side of the road,
Dygart shot him twice. Rhodes fell in
his tracks and Dygart, dropping the
rifle, ran across, dragged him past a
big oak tree and down to dead fur
row, where earlier in the morning
Rhodes had dug potatoes. He had dug
his own grave, for there it was that
Dygart dragged him, covering him
with few handfuls of earth and sand.
Dygart then went back to the house,
dragged the body of Mrs. Bolton down
the cellar stairs, staining the walls
of the passageway with blood. He
on the dirt floor of the basement.
Dygart denies he assaulted her there.
About O'Clock, with the Bolton
mandolin under his arm and the two
watches of his victims, he started to
Wyoming where, later, he tried to
sell the mandolin
The watch of Mrs. Bolton was re-
covered from the pawnshop of M.
Wolfson, here, after his confession.
Tells of Wisconsin Murder.
After admitting the killing of Mrs.
Amelia Bolton and her cousin, Frank
E. Rhodes, on the Bolton farm, near
Wyoming, Dygart made detailed con-
fession of the murder of John Hef-
stedt at Poplar, Wis, on June 9th,
The confession was made to Sheriff
Edward McKinnon of Douglas county,
Wisconsin,; Archibald Mckay, district
attorney of the same county; Night
Captain Fern and Detectives Brund-
age and Regain of the local police. 1t
was made without the slightest coer-
cion.
He told how he had shot the Wis
consin farmer from ambush, dropping
him dead with the first shot; how he
then had dragged him for several rods
to an unused well and thrown the
body into it to cover his crime; how
he then had gone to the Hefstedt
farm with the intention of killing Mrs.
Helstedt and her son, young man
of 20; but had decided not to do so,
as he was unable to get them sep
arated and feared to attack the two
of them when they were together.
Dygart said he was unable to give
any motive for the murder of Hef-
stedt when first questioned, but when
pressed, admitted he had made an in
decent proposal to the farmers wife,
who repulsed him with Indignation.