Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1942-06-20
Boone Helm Was Responsible for Murders
But One Was Prevented by Beautiful Girl
By GEORGE NJ CASEY

Boone Helm was seldom linked with
/ women. He was married once In Mis-
/ souri, but the union was brief. Nobody
could have lived with such q hoodlum
/ long.
His mother may have loved him but
even that point might be open Ia
argument. No female, sober and In her
right mind, could have held Boone IN
! anything but very low contempt.
He had needed hanging long before
the Vigilantes got around to the Job
at Virginia City. If they had roasted
him alive-Slowly and thoroughly over
a fire-nobody could have blamed
them. He may have been no worse
than Reinhard Heydrich, Filters
Ratchet man whom the Czechs final
ly caught up with, but he was certain
ly Just as bad and when the rope
put a permanent fracture in Mr..
Helms neck it should have been the
occasion for unconfined revelry. He
did plenty Of killing before justice
was served.
But there was one job Of murder in
California which Boone carefully
plotted but which never came off
And the reason 1t didn't was because
a woman had the nerve to make a
perilous 200 mile horseback ride to
warn the intended victim that he
would be killed and his property con-
fiscated unless he did bit of defense
work.
He Knew No Gratitude
The man marked down for death by
Helm had taken Boone into his home
year or two before, given him food
and shelter and friendship when the
poor bloke was down on his luck and
half-starved But gratitude was never
in Boone's book. Given a bit Of fold
ing money and the opportunity, he'd
have killed anyone on earth.
One Of the most engaging stories
of the west is this episode in which
he was frustrated by a woman. The
story was told to N. P. Langford,
author Of "Vigilante Days and Ways"
and is recounted in that interesting
work.
The name Of the man who told the
story-Boone's intended victim-is not |
given and neither Is that of the |
woman whose life he saved but the |
narrative has everything to satisfy the |
reader of adventure yarns everything !
save the fact that the man and woman
didn't wind up in each others arms. /
The man in the case was. a studious
fellow who craved to get ahead but
who still wanted time for solitude. He
vent to Oregon In his youth and, on
mans estate, got himself a
quarter section of land, some cattle,
sheep and chickens, built himself a
home, plowed fields, planted an or
hard, cultivated q garden and, when
lime permitted, read heavy, pl1ilo-
;ophic volumes.
Then, one day, when the future
ooked brightest and he was delight
lllly bordering a problem in Euclid
mid the fragrance of his flowers and
ruit trees, the locusts struck and
-obbled everything in sight except the
livestock. The cattle and sheep, how
yer, winked out the following winter,
Thich was marked by heavy SHOWS
nd low temperatures.
Our hero, rendered respondent and
Indifferent by this turn Of fate, was
bout to chuck it all and Join the
oregin legion or Jump In the Pacific,
ut his father, wealthy and sympa-
netic, gave him encouragement and
nancial aid.
Vent to California 8
Bucked up remarkably, the young !
ian stocked up on more educational
olumes, Latin and Greek classics pre-
and hied forth to Cali t
,rnia. Employing three men to drive
is newly acquired herds, he picked q
Is way over mountains and rivers to t
he Rogue river valley, region des- 0
tute of settlers, insuring him the S
,litude he craved. There were fierce
nd hostile Indians about but this I
.ct gave the man no concern. 4
He picked a spot 80 miles west Of j
lie old California trail in a charming c.
Illey, turned his cattle loose on the
sh grass, built a log cabin and p
a half acre, enclosing 1t u
It'll poles Is feet high. For protection n
, had rifle, is United States yagers, s.
double barreled shotgun, pair Of Il
Its revolvers and a bountiful supply g
ammunition. Then, feeling secure p
ainst the Indians, he dismissed the II
en- he had hired and settled down
sweet seclusion. fc
He fished and hunted some for CT
riety and tended his herds, but
0stly he lived with Euclid and Aris- VI
lie and confessed that "the prof.
'ncy made Ia study was my great q
source OF encouragement and hap hi
leSs." ri
One day. surfeited with study. he
burned into the forest in quest Of h,