Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1935-12-26
Ill-Timed Pardons

Christmas this year will be sad and empty for the
bereaved families of two officers of the law at Shelby,
Montana, who were shot down in the line of duty last
Friday while fearlessly engaged in a running battle with
bandits who were ruthlessy looting business places in
the oil city.
One of the outlaws was later killed, while hiding in
ambush, by another officer who took up the search OF
the fleeing gangsters, but only after he. too, was wound
ed in the rapid exchange of shots.
The death of Alton Hanson, however, will hold little
compensation for the bereaved families of officers Alsup
and Tenbroeck, both veteran officers and long time re-
spected residents of Toole county. Some comfort OF
course will come from the high respect with which these
men were held, from the courage they exhibited in
promptly responding to the call that summoned them
when marauders were ~plundering and looting one bust
ness place after understanding their way through
doors and MISUNDERSTANDING residents of the slumber-
ing city in early morning hours.
But back of all this compensation for respect and
courage will be a feeling of bitterness against a system
that permits such outlaws as Alton Hanson to be given
the rights of freedom, and to reioin the ranks of those
who have some respect for law and order.
Records show that Hanson had never been any,
thing but an outlaw. 1t was in his blood. Born in South
Dakota, he came to Montana when a lad of 13. AT IA, he
was sentenced to the state reform school as an "incorri-
gible.' He escaped from the reformatory, but was re-
captured. Then, for an assault committed while at the
industrial school, he was sent to the state prison in Deer
Lodge in 1924, from which he was released on parole in
1881. Then, after serving a year in the Minnesota peni-
tertiary for his continued life of banditry, he returned
to the Montana state prison to finish his sentence. Last
week he was again given his freedom by the pardon
board, only to Immediately resume his carer as an out
law, climaxed four days later in the Staying of the two
officers and his own death.
To say that the pardoning of prisoners with such "a
crime record as that of Alton Hanson was in-timed can
scarcely be refuted. Here was a man, starting out as an
"incorrigible' at 10, who had nothing in his record Of IL
years that would justify his freedom. Escaped from the
reform school, assault of an officer there, three terms in
state prison; then, turned loose before his sentence ex-
PRED upon society only to again flaunt his banditry up
on organized society!
AS this is written, a posse of aroused citizens and
officers are searching the coulees and river bottoms
around Shelby for other members of the gang of which
Hanson was only one. We hope they are all shot down
or apprehended, just as Hanson was. But if the most we
can hope for in their apprehension is a prison sentence
from which a sympathetic" board Of ,pardons may cut
short almost at will, other lives may again be the price
paid for their freedom. And, what a price! Only such
bereaved widows and broken-hearted children as those
of the Shelby officers whose Christmas this year will be
empty indeed, can measure it for you in grim reality!
Perhaps a wave of protest will go to the board of
pardons that might at least have the effect of arousng
its members to more careful consideration of the REC
ORD of criminals it would slate for release. The death
of these two peace officers at the hand of a pardoned
outlaw is undeniable proof that society is entitled to that
protection.