Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-06-01

lot left over. can find both Of
They couldn't find either Of them.
1t turned out. They did learn that the
man and woman, with team and out
fit had left Great Falls a day OF so
earlier. Again the officials took up the
trail
Cascade they came on a man and
woman getting supper near the grade
of the Montana Central railroad The
officers rode up slowly but, as they
neared the outfit, the man dropped the
dish Of potatoes he had been peeling
and sprang for the wagon.
Disregarding safety the officers
jumped from their horses and rushed
him. They succeeded In disarming him
before he could get a winchester he
had taken from the wagon into action.
On searching him they found a re-
volver IN each hip pocket.
The man gave his name as James
Wilbur Of Wyoming. Questioned, he
admitted having been with the party
near Lewistown. However, he denied
their killing.
placed in the Cascade county Jail
that night he maintained his silence.
In the morning he was dead. He had
made rope Of his belt, tied up his legs
so they would not reach the floor and
rolled off the top bunk In his cell.
To his cellmate, negro, he stated,
after warning the negro not to interfere
or he would kin him, They couldn't
get me for killing those sheepherders
in Wyoming. but they sure have got
me right for this"
So, without trial and clearing In
court, ended the most atrociouS muir
ders In Montana history. 1t subsequent
ly was discovered that the theory Of
Abe Hogeland and L. S. Butler was
substantially correct.
Wilbur had joined the emigrant
part at Helena, where he had been
gambling. They had taken him with
them and he had discovered that the
men had several thousand dollars be-
tween them In cash. The night at Won
Tobel springs, as they slept, he muir
dered them. Butler, later recalling how
his horse had bucked that morning on
the bench when he first met the wagon,
knew that the horse had senSed the
fact that the bodies were beneath the
tightly drawn tarpaulin ct that very
The bodies were later identified as
those Of MIR. and Mrs. Joseph Krutz,
Mr.. and Mrs. Edward Biggs and an
adopted child of the Biggs couple. They
were enroute from mining claims they
had operated at Grass Valley near
Helena TO Fort Benton.
A queer fable grew up about Wilbur's
death. There are those who claim the
woman with whom he lived managed to
slip him some sort Of drug and that,
after he was buried, she opened his
grave and revived him. But, to author
tiles, he was and still Is dead. At least
the doctor who filled his veins with q
solution after death, believes he Is.
But, In the opinion Of Abe Hoge-
and It was was not really his theory
1r the work Of himself and Butler
which resulted In Wilburs undoing.
It was an act of the young man who |
worked for Hogeland, or an act of !
ate which always traps murderers.
When Wilbur drove up to my place |
md asked If anyone lived between |
here and the mouth of the Judith he /
made his fatal mistake" Hogeland says |
Just because those living down the |
liver, between my place and the mouth, |
we're not at home the boy told Wilbur,
here was no one there. Therefore,
linking the stretch was uninhabited I
nd that the bodies would not be found
or long time, he put them In the
fver there. OF course, they were found II
SUIT, If someone had been home and
ny worker had said there was some
ne down the river, undoubtedly the
murderer would have sought another
lace to dispose of the bodies and the
asQ might never have broken