The Alaska daily empire., 1920-07-10
BLANCHETTE IS
 HANGED IN N. M,

State penltentiary here yesterday Tor the murder of Clyde D. Armour near Glorieta, about 20 miles east of here, October 23, 1916.
 Armour who lived i'll Sioux City Iowa, where he was employed as chief clerk in the passenger office of the Northwestern Railway Com pany, left his home September 29, 1916. accompanied by his mother and sister enroute to California in new eight-cylinder automobile. On arriving at Clarke, Nebraska, the sis ter was taken i'll and when recovered sufficiently to travel, she and her mother proceeded to their destina- tion. Fresno, Cal. by train. Clyde Armour continued the trip by aut1. He arrived in Denver October 19.
 He asked the |. M. c. A. at tDent yer 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 answered by Blanchette, an
 
 started westward.
 lmposture Registers
 Armour never reached Santo Fe, but man representing himself to be Armour arrived here October 23, reg istering at a local hotel When he did so he committed the first indis- cretion, which led to his arrest later on, as, when he started to write 70. D. Armour" the first let ter he made was "E." This he changed, making a "C" over the 'Htter "F' He remained here until October 27, going from here to Al buquerque, where he sold the auto. mobile for $500 The night of Oct ober 30 he boarded a train at Albu- querque and evidently went straight through to California.
 By November 13, Mrs. Armour who, with her daughter, had reached Fresno, became so alarmed over the failure of her son to arrive that she began investigation Her sOn-in-law Myron T. Sawyer, went to Needles Cal, from which point Mrs. Armour had received a message, purporting to be from her son, to the effect that he had sold the car and would continue his rip to Fresno by train Inspecting the original of this tele gram. Mir. Sawyer at once decided that it was a forgery Sawyer went 1 to San Diego and Los Angeles and finally came on to Albuquerque and l Santa Fe.
 Brothers Unearth Clue About this time, Armour's 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 conversations had said that he once 1 lived near Aztec, San Juan county and mentioned the name of his | mother, who had remarked following the death of her first husband | Blanchette's father This is believed to have furnished the officers with the clew which led to his arrest al | the home of his mother at Friday | Harbor. Wash. December 31. 1916 the family having moved there from New Mexico.
 | After Blanchette was arrested, he requested permission ii step into a cook shack to say goodbye" 10 somebody. A moment later there was report of a gun shot from the | interior of the shack. Investigation l shnWaH . hot p1onnhotto hod o1, O1t ended his life by firing a charge of shot into his neck When asked why. he replied q couldn't tell mother"
 Body Found By Dog Although a diligent search was made in the mountains east of here. Armour's body was not found until January 14 when a dog belonging to Antonio Sandoval y Griego walked into the house carrying a part of human leg bone, on which a shoe l still remained. Antonio followed the dog on the back trail and found the bones that remained of Armour body, In an arroyo 300 yards from the main road About twenty feet away from the skeleton lay a shot gun and some clothing Marks on the clothing and papers in the pock- cts served to indicate that the clothes were Armour's. At an au- topsy later on six shots were taken from the base of the skull, indicating that the fatal shot was fired from behind. severing arteries and inflict ing wound from which the victim quickly bled to death.
 Accident, sIayer's Plea
 Blanchette was placed on trial in the Santa Fe county district court April 13, 1917. The jury re- turned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, April "A. Blan- chette when placed on the witness stand admitted shooting Armour but said 1t was an accident. He said that they got out of the car to hunt and that while he was walking behind Armour, he stumbled and in trying to save himself from falling,