Voices from the Past

January 23, 1925

Roy Walsh to Hang for the Killing of Johnson

Roy Walsh, 22, convicted slayer of Al Johnson, Renova merchant, has moved a step nearer the gallows and for the second time heard a date set for him to pay the extreme penalty for his crime. Saturday, February 14, between the hours of 1 a.m. and 1 p.m., was the date set by Judge Lyman H. Bennett in the district court at Boulder when Walsh must hang.

The history of Roy Walsh’s crime from the time he was captured after the murder of Johnson, through his trial and conviction, his escape and subsequent location in the Missouri State Penitentiary, his return to Montana and his appeal to the Supreme Court in an effort to escape the penalty of his crime is not unmixed with sentiment.

Standing before the bar in the district court, Walsh received his sentence without visible emotion. In response to the question of Judge Bennett inquiring if he knew of any legal reason sentence should not be passed, Walsh hinted that in his mind there is the thought that he is not being treated as fairly as was his convicted accomplice, Arthur Hughes, who it is said, confessed and now is serving a term in the penitentiary at Deer Lodge.

Knife May Not Save Hunter

William Weaver, one of the men badly frozen while on a hunting trip near Livingston in the middle of the last December and who was taken to Helena to have one of his feet amputated, is not expected to live. Relatives have been advised of his grave condition.

Train Demolishes Speeder

Jumping just a few seconds before their speeder was struck and demolished by a train, Frank Angelo and his section crew of Plevna had a narrow escape from death. The foreman, in leaping from the car to the frozen ground, was the only one injured. He sustained a sprained ankle.

Find Children Starving

Four children, ranging from 7 to 14 years, were found in Anaconda to be on the verge of starvation by Probation Officer Joe Henault. The mother, who was alleged to have been deserted by her husband and stepfather of the children, is unable to work and it is probable that the youngsters will be taken to Twin Bridges. The whereabouts of Thomas Nelson, father of the children, is not known.

January 20, 1950

Caught Two Fingers in Electric Mixer

Mrs. McCulla Hough is a wiser but sadder cook after an entangling experience Monday morning with her electric mixer. Mrs. Hough was getting breakfast when she had her unfortunate experience. In some manner while trying to assist the mixer do its job, the first two fingers of her right hand were caught in the whirling blades of the mixer. The accident was not serious, only painful and the fingers are well marked where they stopped the mixer.

Billings Matron Tried Walking to Rapid City

Mrs. Leo Dratsky of Billings, was picked up on Highway No. 212 five miles east of Broadus at 8 o’clock Thursday night by Undersheriff Dewey Stewart and Town Marshal John Gunther. An hour after she was picked up a telephone call from the Billings sheriff asked local officers to be on the lookout for the Billings matron who was missing from her home. She had hitchhiked from Billings that day and said that she was walking to Rapid City and did not wish to accompany the officers back to Broadus where she was placed in the county jail. The next morning her daughter came from Billings on the bus and took her home that evening. She was slated to appear for a sanity hearing in Billings Friday. Local officers were notified that the woman was walking east on the road by Henry Phillippi who had tried to get her to return to Broadus and wait for a ride.

Cold Weather Chief Subject of Conversation

In the first seventeen days of January there were five of those days when the mercury in the thermometers failed to register zero or more. In all of January 1949 there were only two days when the mercury stayed below zero for 24 hours.

Weather is the big news in this area as well as in most parts of the United States according to radio and daily newspaper reports. In the first seventeen days of the month the minimum reading was below zero on every day but one. Sixteen days had below zero readings.

Coldest days were the 16th and the 14th when the mercury dropped to 28 degrees below zero. It was 26 below on the 15th, 22 below on the 5th, 21 below on the 3rd and 10th, 20 below on the 14th, 18 below on the 12th, 12 below on the 13th and 2nd, 13 below on the 17th, 6 below on the 7th, 5 below on the 6th, 2 below on the 9th and 1 below on the 11th.

Warmest day was the 12th when the mercury rose to 41 degrees. That was the only day of the first 17 in January when the mercury rose above freezing although the reading was 32 degrees on the 7th and 8th. The highest temperature on the 3rd was 9 degrees below zero.

Snow fell in measureable quantities on five of the first 17 days and moisture in the snow was .22 inches. There were traces of moisture on three other days. Snow on the ground here measures 8 inches.

Ranchers are starting to compare this winter with the one a year ago when there was considerable loss from deep snow and cold weather. In some parts of the county there is as much snow as there was last winter and most everyone agrees that the prolonged cold spell exceeds that of last winter. Feeding started around the first of December and will continue for weeks to come. Ranchers who do not have sufficient feed will be in bad shape before too long.

While this particular area has had lots of winter, there have been but few blizzards and none of the real high winds reported in the western part of the state where velocities of 60 miles per hour have been recorded. No wind here over 30 miles per hour has been recorded during the cold weather.

January 27, 2000

Numbers Growing for Annual Cowboy Event

The number of artists, poets and musicians committed for inclusion in the annual Powder River Cowboy Poetry, Music and Art Contest scheduled here for February 20 is growing steadily, according to organizer Norman Turnbough.

“We have some really talented individuals coming,” said Turnbough Tuesday. Turnbough is organizing the event to help raise proceeds for the popular annual Horse Futurities, held in conjunction with the Powder River Quarter Horse Breeder’s Association annual late-summer futurity and sale.

Committed to date are: Arletha Drexel, Esther Barnhart, Francis Hayes, Pam Nisley, Stanley and Georgia Damm, Bryan Tarter, Bob Talcott, Dale Benge, Celia Yates, Amber Jardee, Cody Morris, Ed Lawrence, Justin Lawrence and Tonya Gardner of the local area; Sandy Lee and Ann Secrest, Miles City; Alfred Hutchinson, Aladdin, WY; Barb Peabody and Nelseena Lehman, Ekalaka; Carl Ogaard, Belle Fourche; Wayne Wipf, Spearfish, SD; Shanna Jahrig and Seth Heinert, Hullett, WY; Helen Cain-Cossitt and Bob Powloski, Laurel; Bob Petermann, Wibaux; Sonny Strangle, New Underwood, SD and Willy Felton, Ten Sleep, WY. The list is expected to continue to grow as word of the affair gets out.

“If anyone would like to donate a door prize or an item for our silent auction, we would really appreciate it,” Turnbough continued. “We would also really appreciate a gift certificate from the business people, the same as last year. We would rather have this than cash, so the winners will have to trade with the businesses that have supported us for so many years.”