The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1920-07-10
MURDER OF ARMOUR
WAS CRUEL CRIME
BLANCETT, HANGED YESTER-
DAY, MURDERED BENEFACT-
OR FOR HIS CAR

OR FOR HIS CAR
The crime for which Albert w
Blancett was hanged was the murder
Of Clyde d. Armour, near Glorieta,
N. M, about twenty miles east of
here, October %, 1916.
Armour, who lived at Sioux City,
Iowa, where he was employed as
chief clerk in the passenger office of
the Northwestern Railroad
left his home September 20, 1916, &C
companied by his mother and sister,
en- route to California in a new
e~ight-cylinder automobile. On ar
irving at Clarks, Nebr., the sister was
taken i'll and when recovered suffici-
emily to travel she and her mother
proceeded to their destination, Fres-
no, Cal, by train. Clyde Armour
continued the trip by auto. He ar
rived in Denver, October 10.
He asked the Y. M. G.. A. at Denver
to find a companion who desired to
travel by auto to the coast. The "Y"
being unable to find such a man,
Armour inserted a want ad in one of
the Denver papers,, which was an
swered by Blancett, an agreement
was reached and they started west
ward.
Armour never reached Santa Fe,
but a man representing himself to be
Armour arrived here October 23,
registering at a local hotel. When
he did so he committed the first in
discretion which led to his arrest
later on, as, when he started to write
&c. D. Armour the first letter he
made was "E." This he changed,
making a &C" over the letter "E"
which he had first written. He re-
manned here until October 27. going
then to Albuquerque, where he sold
the automobile for $500. The night
of October 80 he boarded, a train at
Albuquerque and evidently went
straight through to California.
By November IS Mrs. Armour,
who, with her daughter, had reached
Fresno, became so alarmed over the
failure of her son to arrive that she
began an investigation. Her son-in-
law, Myron T. Sawyer, went to
Needles, CAL, from which point Mrs.
Armour had received a message, pur-
porting to be from her son, to the eff
feet that he had sold the car and
would continue his trip to Fresno by
train. Inspecting the original of this
telegram, Mr.. Sawyer at once decid- !
ed that it was a forgery. Sawyer
ven to San Diego at Los Angeles
and finally came on to Alburqueruue
and Santa Fe.
About this time Armours two
brothers arrived here from Sioux
City to take charge of the search.
They learned that the man who posed
as Armour, during some of his con-
%versations had said that he once lived
near Aztec, San Juan county, and
mentioned the name of his mother,
who had remarked following the
death of her first husband, Blancett's
father. This is believed to have
furnished the officers with the clew
which led to his arrest at the home
of his mother at Friday Harbor,
Wash, December 81, 1916, the family
moved there from New Mex
leo.
After Blancett was arrested he re-
cook shack to 'say goodbye" to
somebody. A moment later there
was a report OLA gun shot from the
interior of the shack. Investigation
that Blancett had almost
ended his life by firing a charge of
shot into his neck. When asked why
he replied: II couldn't tell mother"
Although a diligent search was
made in the mountains east of here,
Armour's body was not found until
January ID when a dog belonging to
Antonio S%andovaly Griego walked
INTO the house carrying a part of a
human leg bone, on which a shoe still
remained. Antonio followed the dog
IN the back trail and found the bones
hat remained of Armour's body, in
IN arroyo 300 yards from the main
.oad. About twenty feet away from
he skeleton lay a shot gun and some
.lothing. Marks on the clothing and
papers in the pockets served to in
licate that the clothes were ARM
,ur's. At an autopsy held later on
Tx shots were taken from the base
# the skull, indicating that the fatal
hot was fired from behind, severing
and inflicting a wound from
which the victim quickly bled to
cath.
Blancett was placed on trial in the
Fe county district court April
3, 1917. The jury returned a YER
let Of guilty of murder in the first
egree, April "a. Blancett when :
laced on the witness stand admitted !
hooting Armour but said it was an I
ccident. He said they got out of
car to hunt and hat while he was
nd in trying to save himself from
ischarged.
On appeal both the state supreme
0urt and the supreme Court of the
-nited States affirmed the decisions
{ the lower court and ordered the
carried out.
Tatah County Records.