509 & 511 WEST SECOND SOUTH STREET  Salt Lake City

 Preface

These are the stories of the people who occupied a two story building that once stood for nearly one hundreds years on Lot 6 of Block 63 Plat A in Salt Lake City. The legal description of the location of the brick structure was “beginning 56.50 feet from the northeast corner of Lot 6 running south 6 rods [99 feet] thence west 40 feet thence north 6 rods then 40 feet to the beginning.

            The 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Block 63 showed that Lot 6 fronted Second South and was filled with one and two story brick buildings used as various shops and a boarding house. The two residences which were listed as 513 West Second South and 204 South Fourth [Fifth] West in the 1898 map had been demolished to accommodate seven businesses between 501 West and 515 West.

            On the northeast corner of Block 63 at Second South and Fourth [Fifth] West there was constructed a two story edifice containing three businesses numbered as 501 West, 503 West, and 505 West Second South. In 1910 the Wagener Brewing Company took out building permit to construct the two story brick building for $8000. Each of the three businesses had a frontage of 24 feet.

Another structure built directory to the west is the subject of this report. It was a two story brick building of two businesses each on the ground floor with frontage facing Second South built around 1902. The building contained three addresses, 509 West, 509 ½ West, and 511 West. The 509 ½ West was a rooming house which was located on the second floor of the building. It is not known who had the structure built, but it may have been a real estate agent named John J. Corum [ 1847-1934] who owned several properties in both side of Second South at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

            Directly west of this building was a one story structure that contained two business at 513 West and 515 West Second South. They were built between 1907 and 1910. The 513 West address was the location of saloons until prohibition ended the sale of alcohol and the space later became a series of cafes. The address of 515 West was a much smaller space and for a period of time was used as a residence.

PART ONE

 CHAPTER ONE

The Pioneers of Lot 6 Block 63 Plat A of Salt Lake City

The original owner of Lot 6 was Mrs. Martha Ann Noah, a widow.  After she died in 1855, Mrs. Noah left the homestead to her grown children James Matthews, Mary Woodard, Sarah Ann Norton and Mahala Thomas.   

When actions on the part of the United States government required titles to deeds of pioneer properties to be rerecorded, Lot Six, of Block 63 Plat A was contested in 1872 by a Mrs. Mahala Thomas, one of the daughters of Martha Noah.

In the public records of the proceedings, Mrs. Thomas disputed the claims of Benjamin Roland, Amos Jones, Nathan J. Lang, and James L. Bess,  all who had acquired interests in the property from a Joseph Chamberlain who had purchased the property in question from her ex-husband, John Pledger Thomas in 1864.

Mahala Thomas maintained that the lot was illegally sold by her husband, whom she argued did not have a clear title as that she contended that the lot had originally belonged to her mother, shortly after arriving in the Great Salt Lake Valley, and that John Pledger Thomas had not the legal right to sell it without her consent. Mahala claimed also that John was mentally ill. However Mahala would lose her suit and interest in the property.

Mahala Matthews Thomas [1827-1911]

Mahala Matthews Thomas, the wife of John Pledger Thomas, resided on West Second South from 1849 to 1861 on land which was built the business structure that occupied the space for nearly 100 years. Mahala’s life story and that of her extended family covered the breath of early Mormon history from the 1847 trek across the plains;  to the establishment of a polygamist colony on Colonia Juarez in Mexico.

Mahala Jane Matthews married John Pledger Thomas in 1846 at the age of 18 years while crossing the plains in Potawatomie County, Iowa. “It has been said that she was a shy girl and that she felt embarrassed when she left her father's wagon to ride with her husband in his wagon.”  Her step father was a man named Pleasant Noah and was part of the exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois.

Mahala Thomas’ mother, Martha Ann Nicholas Matthews [1807-1855], was a widow, when she married Pleasant Noah in Nauvoo.  The couple were not married long,  as that he died in December 1846 at the Mormon refugee camp at Winter Quarters, Nebraska.

They traveled to the Great Salt Lake Valley within the Edward Hunter-Jacob Foutz Company. The Mormon wagon train was comprised of 160 individuals, including many of the other extended families of John Pledger Thomas and also others who also would settle near Martha Noah in what became the Fifteenth Ward of Salt Lake City.

The wagon train left Nebraska on 19 June 1847 and according to a daughter of John and Mahala Thomas, during the journey west,  the couple "endured many hardships on the plains; food often became scarce and clothing was not too plentiful. Nevertheless they tried to be cheerful. At night they would dance and try to forget their troubles.” She added that "They arrived in Great Salt Lake in the fall of 1847” and “at once began to make a home and soon a small log cabin was built.”           The Hunter-Foutz Company arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley  on 1 October 1847 and  camped on the old Fort Grounds now known as Pioneer Park. Martha Ann Noah’s family upon arriving in Utah consisted of her 19-year-old son James Nicholas Matthew [1827-1871], and her unmarried daughters, 17-year-old Mary Catherine Matthews  [1827-1871]  and Sarah Ann Matthews 13 [1833-1898], as well as her married 20-year-old daughter Mahala Thomas [1828-1911]  and her 25-year-old son in law John Pledger Thomas.

Mrs. Sarah Ann Norton, Mahala Thomas’ younger sister, when called to testify in the Probate Court case of 1872, said she recalled that her family “came to this territory together from Council Bluff, Iowa. My mother’s family consisted of two persons, my mother and myself. I was about fifteen. John P. Thomas’ family consisted of Mahala and one child.” She then said they all “lived together as one family from the time they went to said lot to the death of my mother.”

Mrs. Norton, also at the proceedings, gave a summary of her family’s condition at the time saying, “My mother was a widow. Her husband, Pleasant Noah, died at Winter Quarters, so called, on the Missouri River in the winter of 1846 and 7. Her first husband, my father Thomas Matthew, died in the state of Mississippi before my remembrance. My brother, James N. Matthews, brought my mother and myself from the Missouri River and after our arrival in Great Salt Lake City, my brother sold the team and wagons and with the means went to California but left with my mother two cows for her use, otherwise my mother had not much property.” 

She added, “John Thomas had a yoke of oxen, a wagon and two cows. He and my mother had provisions each for one year and besides which they had little property except their clothing and bedding.”

Martha Ann Noah was assigned lot 6 of Block 63 west of the Old Fort when the city was laid out. Mrs. Norton also said her family was  one of the first occupant living in the area. Mrs. Norton went with her mother to live on the lot in 1848 and were the “first settlers.”   She said they raised “corn, potatoes, squash”  and other food stuff. Mrs. Norton recalled that John Thomas built the house that  they all lived in after leaving the Old Fort grounds.

A neighbor in the Fifteenth Ward, George Washington Boyd, was called to testify in 1872 on behalf of his neighbors Rowland, Bess, Lang, and Jones, as that he was one of the few old timers who knew the history of the area and the Thomas family. Boyd  owned property in Block 64 across Second South Street near the Thomas family. Boyd recalled  that “John Thomas moved onto it [Lot 6] in the Spring of 1849, commenced improving it, moved the old houses formerly occupied within the old Fort on to the lot.”  

Boyd stated that “when the city [Salt Lake] was laid out it was divided in divisions. President [Brigham Young] had a division, and Heber C Kimball [First Councilor] had a division. After those divisions had been taken up, another division was surveyed comprising a section of country laying west of the Old Fort. This division was called Heber C. Kimball’s Second division and in this, the lot, in question, was situated.”

             The 1850 Territorial Census of Utah enumerated Martha Ann Noah along with her daughter Sarah  as the 302 household in Great Salt Lake City. John P. Thomas was listed as household number 301 which included his wife Mahala and two infant children.

In 1851 Martha Ann Noah’s son,  James Nicholas Mathews, along with a group of southern slaveholders accompanied Amasa M. Lyman to San Bernardino, California  to establish a Mormon colony there. His departure left John P. Thomas as the only male to provide for his mother-in-law’s family. James Mathews returned to Utah after the California Colony was abandon in 1857 on Brigham Young’s orders due to the perceived eminent threat of Johnston’s Army sent by President Buchannan to protect federal interests in the territory. He did not return to Great Salt Lake City, however. In spring 1857, Mathews was part of a migration of southerners to the Cotton Mission in Washington County. In that same year, Mathews married a 15-year-old girl as part of a Mormon Reformation-era marriage when the church was experiencing a religious revival and commitment to orthodoxy Mormonism.

While in Southern Utah, James Matthews was appointed a Second Lieutenant in Company I of  the Fourth Battalion in the Iron Military District of the Nauvoo Legion: In September 1857 he participated in the massacre of the Baker-Francher Wagon Train at Mountain Meadows where a company of mostly Arkansas  men, women, and children number 117 souls were massacred. James Mathews was not named in the 1859 arrest warrant of the participants, however John D. Lee identified him as being there in his autobiography “Mormonism Unveiled” published posthumously in 1877. Lee identified Mathews as being at the scene, “saying he saw him with the other men from Washington on Monday night at the massacre site.”

In the early 1860s James Mathews moved to Pine Valley in northern Washington County where the settlement began as a lumber camp because of its access to the pine forests.  His residing in Pine Valley in Washington County was the main reason, that when Mahala Thomas left her husband, she moved there with her children.

Mahala Thomas’ mother, Martha Ann Noah, died of consumption in 1855 and was buried in the Great Salt Lake City Cemetery. After she died, Mrs. Noah’s four grown children, James Matthews, Mary Woodard, Sarah Ann Norton and  Mahala Thomas were left her property in the Fifteenth Ward. Mahala’s siblings gave up any claim to the property to Mahala and John Thomas, for their having taken care of and providing for their mother.

G. W. Boyd

George W. Boyd, while testifying in the probate case, recalled that he came to reside on his place in 1857, which he “cultivated and built on  it, the fall of the same year.” Prior to his move to the Fifteenth Ward, he had been a constable in Green River, Wyoming and was one of Brigham Young’s enforcers.

After moving to the corner of Fifth [Sixth West] and Second South Streets, Boyd said that he and John Pledger Thomas “opened the street running east and west, past said lot and fenced in our lots.” Boyd also said that he and Thomas had “hauled poles for our lots” to build the fences. Evidently the lots were unfenced until that time.

Mrs. Mary Woodward, Mahala’s sister, claimed that John Pledger Thomas “became insane in 1857.” However, he began to show signs of a mental illness in 1856 according to a neighbor Henry Heath who lived on Second South and Third [Fourth] West. Health was a Great Salt Lake City police officer for most of the 1860’s although the 1870 federal census listed him as a 41 year old “miner”, worth  $2000 in real estate and $200 in personal property. He was  household 44 in the Fifteenth Ward.

Henry Heath and his brothers were teenagers when they had traveled with the Thomas family in the Hunter-Foultz Company of 1847 and had known of  the family since then. Heath lived eight households away from the Mahala Thomas’ family in 1860 as the 38th household. He became a member of the Great Salt Lake Police force in 1860 and farmed in the same general area of the Fifteenth Ward. He probably lived east of Fourth [Fifth] West Street on Second South Street.

            He testified at the 1872 hearing, that he was “well acquainted” with John Thomas from 1856 to 1864. Heath said, “I saw him frequently from 1856 to 1864 though not as often as before.” He continued by saying “I was with John P Thomas in the Winter of 1856 at different times, “during that time he was crazy.” Health said he was “called by authorities of the Ward,” to report on  the condition of the Thomas family. He asserted that he found Thomas “at his own home laying on some kind of mattress on the floor speechless.”  Health said he “brought him too by putting him into a cold bath.”  Health testified that while John Thomas was “subject to fits,” over a period of time, he  claimed, “The only spell I ever seen him in was the time mentioned.” 

Heath also stated that “Mahala supported herself by some assistance from the Ward and by washing, ”  adding “I was called upon by the family, in his crazy spells, to quiet him down. They were afraid of him doing some mischief. At one time Mrs. Thomas sent for me. He had an ax and was going to break up everything.”  Heath stated, “I could control him pretty well for a crazy man.” When asked if he had contacted authorities regarding Thomas’s actions, Heath said he had notified the county and city authorities of “the Insanity” but nothing was ever done.

Evidently John Pledger Thomas’ mental illness eventually prevented him from adequately providing for his family and he was also said to have been  abusive to them which was a reason why Mahala left him in 1861.

            Heath testified that “At the time Mrs. Thomas left him, I considered he was not a sane man. Heath said John Thomas “Sold out in 1864” and left Second South. “The last time I saw him I did not consider him a sound man as he once was.”  Heath said he “thought Mahala should have been there to say something about the sale.”

Mahalia Thomas testified in 1872 that she left her husband John Thomas in 1859 but that may have been due to her faulty memory as that the 1860 federal census showed them still as a couple living in the Fifteenth Ward of the “Great Salt Lake, Utah Territory” as of July 6th. Mahala was listed as living with John Thomas as the 46th family visited in the Fifteen Ward.

John Thomas was listed as a farmer, born in South Carolina, worth $300 in real estate and $200 in personal estate. They were listed as having four children born between 1849 and 1859 although, if the 1850 census was accurate, one may have died prior to 1860.

Mahala moved from Great Salt Lake City for Southern Utah in 1861 due to “his [John Pledger Thomas] insanity.”  Family records claimed that “John Pledger Thomas, “due to some illness, passed away on August 4, 1861.”  This was not accurate as that he was alive in 1864 when he sold property to his neighbor Joseph Chamberlain.

Mahala Thomas’ sister, Mrs. Sarah Ann Norton, a resident of Lehi, Utah in 1872, came to Great Salt Lake City and testified in probate court that “she was well acquainted with John Thomas up to the Spring of 1864.” According to her, John P. Thomas “was not of a sound mind,” “not a safe man to live with” and “was not capable of supporting a family.”

More than likely, the date given for John’s death was actually when John and Mahala Thomas probably separated. There is no record of an actual divorce which would have been registered in the Mormon Bishop’s probate courts.

Mahala Thomas said, when she departed, she took with her a “yoke of oxen, two cows and two yearlings” and “whatever I could take of our effects and with my four children moved to Pine Valley in Washington County.”  Her brother James Matthews, who had suggested that she leave her husband, resided there as a constable of the town.

George W. Boyd, testifying on behalf of Roland, Bess, Jones, and Lang, alleged that Mahala’s mother, Martha Ann Noah, while having a claim to the lot in dispute, had given “over half of it to John Thomas to build on.”  Boyd testified that In the Spring “a year before she sold out [1860]”, I plowed his lot for him and he cultivated it, raised a good crop of corn on it that Summer.” He stated that Thomas “continued to improve in health and used to visit me often getting provision in trade for what he had raised.”

Boyd alleged that when Mahala Thomas left the Fifteenth Ward, she “did not want her husband John Thomas to follow her south.” He said, “she told John not to come down that she would send him back the cattle to help him make a living” and said that if John Thomas was able to make a  living on that lot that he was perfectly welcome to it.”

John Pledger Thomas must have been not well when Mahala left him as that Boyd told the Probate Judge,  “After she went south, I took care of John. I frequently went into see him. I continued to wait upon him, bathing his head with castile soap and ammonia and found that in a week or two he was getting better and finely [finally] began to take care of himself, doing his own cooking and walking about.” 

When asked by the court whether Boyd thought Thomas was rational when he sold the lot to Joseph Chamberlain in 1864, he answered, “I think he was as much as he ever was.”

Mary Arey Brown, [1806-1875], the 66-year-old  widow of Charles Brown and mother-in-law to former Bishop Nathaniel V. Jones  of the Fifteenth Ward, was called to testify in 1872 what she knew of John Pledger Thomas. In the 1860 federal census she was listed as household 85, age  54, and  worth $250 in Real estate and 100 in personal estate. She was enumerated as the household just prior to George Boyd. Her lot was valued at $250.

In the 1872 probate court, she was called “Mrs. Mary Brown” however she had been married previously to a widower Lorin Whiting Babbitt 1846 in Nauvoo, Illinois. She stated “when I went to reside on that street opposite said Lot 6 about thirteen years [1859] ago, John P Thomas had lived with his family. His wife was making arrangements to leave her husband and go South.”  She had asked Mahala Thomas “what she was taking with her and she said a yoke of oxen and I think two cows and one two or three heifers.”

 “I asked her what about the lot as I understood it belonged to her mother. She replied that John P Thomas had done enough for her mother Martha Ann Noah to pay for two or three such lots or words to that effect and she was willing so far as she was concerned for him to have it.”

After leaving Great Salt Lake City, family tradition stated that Mahala Thomas “traveled by wagon until she was able to catch up with the Earl Company and eventually met her brother who was “well acquainted with the roads and led them all into Pine Valley.” They arrived there on Christmas Day, 1862.

Mahala made a living making cloth as she “was very skilled at cording, spinning, dying, and weaving. She sewed all of the clothing for her family and taught her girls these same skills.”

A granddaughter wrote of Mahala Thomas “Grandmother Thomas became the official midwife at Pine Valley. She married Andrew Gibbons and they had two boys, Andrew and David, and then separated, and my grandmother became a widow again.” 

This narrative is slightly in error as Mahala’s second husband was named Richard C. Gibbins [1825-1897] not Andrew and she remarried once more before becoming a widow. Mahala Thomas stated in 1872 that she did not know the whereabouts of John Pledger Thomas as he left Great Salt Lake City in 1864. Richard Gibbins was alive in 1872, when Mahala Thomas Gibbins married a third time, Samuel Burgess.

While in Southern Utah, Mahala Thomas became the plural wife of Richard C. Gibbins. They were married in 1865 at Hanksville, Wayne County, Utah and she had three children by him, born between 1864 and 1867. A daughter  was born seven months before they were married so she and Gibbins were cohabitating at least by 1864.

Hanksville is some 260 miles to the north East of Pine Valley so why they were married there is unknown. In May 1864, Gibbins was serving in the Third Platoon of the Mormon Militia in Pine Valley. The Pine Valley Ward Chapel,  built in 1868,  is the oldest Mormon chapel in continuous use.

Mahala Thomas was living apart from Gibbins by 1870 as he was residing in Clover Valley, Washington County while she was listed as the 24th household in Pine Valley, Washington, Utah having no real estate and only $200 worth of personal property. The 1870 federal census listed Mahala using the surname of  “Thomas” as were her five children who were living within her household, although the youngest two children were fathered by Richard Gibbins. Her poverty may have been the reason she disputed the deed to her mother’s old property in Great Salt Lake City, now along West Second South.

Mahala Thomas returned to Great Salt Lake City in 1872 to dispute the title to Lot 6 which had once been owned by her mother. The disputed title was between Benjamin Roland, Amos Jones, Nathan J Lang, James L Bess, and Mahala J Thomas who argued that her husband was not legally competent to have sold the property in 1864.

The case was settled in Probate Court after a number of witnesses were called who knew the history of the property and the family. Besides her sisters, neighbors Henry Heath, George W Boyd, Mary Brown as well as Joseph Chamberlain and  Robert T Burton testified at the hearing.

            The Fifteenth Ward Bishop, Robert Taylor Burton [1821-1907] was also Sheriff of Salt Lake County. He had been a member of the Nauvoo Legion in Illinois before immigrating to Utah where he moved into the Fifteenth Ward in 1849 of which he was Bishop from 1869 to 1877. He was a constable of Great Salt Lake City in 1852  and a United States Marshall in 1853. He served as a Territorial legislator from 1855 to 1887 and had three wives.

            Robert T Burton, who had been Sheriff of Great Salt Lake County since 1860 was called to testify and stated  “I was Sheriff at the time and was not aware of being formerly notified” of Thomas’s insanity. Nevertheless, speaking regarding the mental condition of John Pledger Thomas, Burton testified, “I knew him to be periodically insane from 1856 to 1864. A very eccentric  man as a rule. He was dull and morose.”  He added that because of his mental health Thomas’ family was “very destitute.”

Mrs. Mary Brown, in addition, stated that after Mahala Thomas left him, John Thomas had borrowed several articles from her “stating at the time he was needy.” He borrowed food and said he “did not know when he could pay what he borrowed but intend to sell his place and when he did so he would pay and after selling paid back what he had borrowed.” She alleged that “he appeared rational at the time of the sale. When he came to pay me what he had borrowed, he told me that he had sold his lot and obtained means to make him comfortable and desired to pay what he owed.”

Joseph Chamberlain, the man who purchased the property from Thomas in 1864, said, “I considered John P Thomas a rational man capable of doing business as any man.” He said he paid $250 for the lot and in addition John Thomas wanted a pair of boots, “the finest he could get” which Chamberlain paid $150 .

The Probate Court after hearing all the testimony, ruled in favor of Amos Jones, Benjamin Roland, Nathan J Lang and James L Bess giving them title to Lot 6 as the  lawful owners and occupants of the property after Mahala Thomas’ claim was denied.

Mahala had married Samuel Israel Burgess [1825-1875] as her third husband while in Great Salt Lake City. He was not a polygamist and had married Mahala after his first wife died in 1870. Having married Burgess, Mahala returned to Pine Valley where her husband died three years later.

The 1880 federal census only enumerated 21 families there in Pine Valley, with 111 people in them. Among them was “Mahala Thomas” listed as “keeping house.” Only her two sons by Richard Gibbons were included in her household and they were using the surname of Thomas.

Sometime after this census, Mahala moved to Colonia Juárez, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, probably around 1886, when Mormon pioneers founded the settlement. Colonia Juárez was established as part of the Mormon evasion of the anti-polygamy Edmunds Act of 1882. Much of its growth in the late 19th century was due to Mormon polygamists leaving Utah as the practice of plural marriage was now illegal in the United States.

Mahala Thomas’ daughter, Mary Jane Thomas [1857-1920], had married a polygamist named George Washington Sevey, who had thirty children by his three wives. In 1886 Sevey took his wives to Mexico and Mahala most likely went with them. There she lived out her remaining years.

Mahala Thomas died in 1911 and is buried Colonia Juárez, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua under the surname Thomas, far from her home on West Second South. She would not recognized how her neighbor had changed in the fifty years since she left.

Joseph Chamberlain [1812-1879]

Joseph Chamberlain, who had bought Lot 6 from John Pledger Thomas in 1864, immigrated to Utah Territory in 1852 with his family. The 1860 federal census enumerated Joseph Chamberlain as a 48-year-old farmer worth $500 in real estate. Joseph Chamberlain according to the 1867 city directory operated a sawmill on the “eastside of Fourth [Fifth} West with Andrew Cunningham Bishop of the Fifteenth Ward. An advertisement from September 1869 stated, “Lumber, Shingles and Lath- I keep constantly on hand Lumber, Lath And Shingles of the Best Quality at my Lumber Yard 15th Ward. I intend to sell At the Lowest Cash Figures. Joseph Chamberlain.”

Chamberlains divided Lot 6 into at least four parcel and sold them to James L. Bess, Benjamin Rowland, Nathan J. Lang, and Amos Jones. Jones bought his property in 1866 for $240 which was 8 rods deep for $240. Bess bought land from Chamberlain in the western section of Lot 6 2 rods [33 feet] adjoining his property in Lot 5 in 1867 for $60.  In 1870 Joseph Chamberlain sold to Benjamin Roland a piece of property 13 rods [214 feet] west from the Northeast corner 0f Lot 6 consisting of 5 rods [82.5 feet] by 10 rods [165 feet] South for $150. Finally in 1871 Chamberlain sold off to Nathan Lang 2 rods by 8 rods for $50 who paid off a lien by a bankruptcy attorney named Henry W Isaacson who in 1867 was “cut off from the church.”

The Deseret News reported in 1869 that Joseph Chamberlain of the Fifteenth Ward  was “cut off from the church for unchristian conduct. ” The 1869 city directory listed Chamberlain as living between South Temple and First South on Fourth [Fifth] West which would have been in Block 80 where the Gateway Mall and the old Union Pacific Depot is located today.

The 1870 federal census listed him as a “miner” worth  $1000 in real estate and $600 In personal property as  household 80 in the Fifteenth Ward. In 1872  land records showed him having title to  Lot 4 in Block 80 plat A. He died of  typhoid pneumonia in 1879.

The land descriptions for the property on which the structure containing 509 West and 511 West is unclear. Certainly it was not part of James L. Bess’ property as his was connected with Lot 5. The city directories gave vague locations for Amos Jones, Nathan Lang, and Benjamin Rowland. Amos Jones was residing in 1867 on the “southwest” corner of Second South and Fourth West according to the city directory. This would have been lot 6 in Block 63.

Nathan Lang in 1867 was also listed as residing in the Fifteen Ward on the also on the “southwest corner of Second South and Fourth West.

The least likely of the three men Jones, Lang and Rowland was Benjamin Rowland. In 1867 Benjamin Rowland lived on the “west side of Fifth [Sixth] West between First and Second South which became Block 248. By 1869 Rowland had moved to Lot 6 in Block 63 located at Second South between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth [Sixth]West.

The 1889 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showed that Lot 6 had been divided into seven parcels of land. A one story brick dwelling was located at 513 West  separated by 38 feet from a one story brick dwelling at the corner of Second South and Fourth [Fifth] having the address of 204 South.

Amos Jones [1838-1913]

Amos Jones, a Welsh laborer, immigrated to Utah in 1856 at the age of 18 as a teamster. In 1862 he married Leah Parry the daughter of a Welsh stonemason named Thomas Parry who crossed the plains crossed the plains in the Captain James D. Ross Company, in 1860. The Parry family settled in the of the Fifteenth War.

Amos Jones and Leah Parry “courted for a few months, and then were married in the Endowment House on March 10, 1862. Their first child was born in 1863 and they eventually had 13 more children.

“Amos, replied to the call for volunteer soldiers to fight the Black Hawk Indians in southern Utah. Amos left a house partially built to answer the call for volunteer soldiers. Amos was gone for about three or four months.” Amos Jones served in William Binder’s company on the Sevier River at Fort Gunnison. William Binder was a member of the Fifteenth ward also.

"The next winter was a hard one for the family." "At one point Amos was paid for his work with molasses. Then they used molasses for sugar and bacon grease for butter. Leah learned to make great molasses candy, which she could sometimes sell.

Amos Jones was residing in 1867 on the “southwest corner of Second South and Fourth West according to the city directory. The 1869 directory listed him as a Stone Mason residing between Fourth [Fifth]  and Fifth [Sixth] West however his main occupation was primarily as a Brick Mason.

In 1872 Jones  was part of the suit for title to property contested by Mahala Thomas in lot 6 along with Benjamin Rowland, David Bess, and Nathan Lang.  The 1874 city directory listed Amos Jones as a bricklayer living in the 15^th Ward at the corner of Fourth [Fifth] and Second South on the west side.

Amos Jones in 1877 sold his interest in lot 6 to Obadiah H. Riggs [1843- 1907] who was the “outspoken” Territorial Superintendent of Common Schools appointed by the Governor of Utah in 1874. Riggs wanted to increase public funding for schools and use standardize textbooks but was opposed by Brigham Young who “disposed the idea of public funding for schools.”

It is doubtful Riggs ever lived on Second South and probably bought the property as an investment. He was a polygamist who became dissatisfied with Utah Mormonism and later he left to moved back east to attend medical school. After graduating from the Long Island College Hospital at Brooklyn, Kings, New York, he “located his practice at Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio.”

Riggs was baptized a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on 1 September 1895 at Limerick, Jackson, Ohio, by R. Etzenhouser. He moved to Independence, Jackson, Missouri, in 1901 where he suffered a severe fall on 7 September 1907 which resulted in traumatic pneumonia and eventually his death.

In Utah one of his abandoned plural wives, Elmira Wilson committed suicide in 1897 and a daughter by his first wife, who remained in Utah, Emma Ray Riggs, married David O McKay a future LDS Mormon Church President.

Between 1879 and 1880 Amos Jones left Salt Lake City. "They moved their young family to ‘The Point' near Malad, Idaho, where Amos' parents had settled. He felt that a farm would be best for his sons."

The community of Malad “began largely as a Welsh LDS settlement whose settlers brought their Welsh traditions with them. Some of the minutes from early town meetings were taken down in both English and Welsh. The city is very proud of its Welsh heritage. Malad lays claim to having more people of Welsh descent per capita than anywhere outside Wales.”

“In addition to the LDS majority, some of the leading families in the community belonged to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. These two denominations each built a place of worship in the town.” In 1880 Amos Jones left the LDS Church and “joined the Reorganized LDS group in Malad." Though Amos Jones and some of his children “had become embittered and antagonistic toward the Mormon (LDS) church and joined the Reorganized LDS, Leah and her oldest daughter, Louisa (Anna) kept their faith and membership in the LDS church.”

The Reorganized missionaries and converts in Utah and Idaho made a significant impact upon federal government anti-Mormon legislation of the late nineteenth century. “The Josephites also acted as a safety valve for dissatisfied Latter-day Saints. No other religious group was so successful in proselyting among Mormons in Utah as the Reorganized Church during the nineteenth century.”

Amos Jones’ family was  listed in the 1880 federal census of Oneida County, Idaho but returned in 1883 when he was listed as mason residing at on Fifth [Sixth] West in the 1884 Directory. "They returned to Salt Lake City. Leah was not very well and could not be contended so they moved back to the farm on ‘The Point'.

Amos Jones eventually moved to Malad City, Idaho  where in 1906 he applied for a medal for services “suppressing Indian hostilities”  as provided in Chapter 86 Laws of Utah 105.

The 1910 Census of Idaho listed him as having a wife married for 48 years. He died in Malad of “general disability with a secondary contributory of lead poisoning.”  He was a brick mason.

Nathan J Lang [1837-1909]

The 1867 city directory Nathan J Lang was a cooper whose business was located at First East [State Street] and Third South. He resided in the Fifteen Ward on the southwest corner of Second South and Fourth West. In 1868 he advertised in the Deseret News, “Nathan Lang Cooper Shop, Block and half of Theater on State Road, keeps stock on hand to exchange for produce. Cheaper than is to be found elsewhere.”  He is not listed in the 1869 directory . 

The 1874 city directory listed “N. J Lang” as partners with a man named Case providing “groceries and provisions” on the westside of First East [State Street] at the “corner Second South”. His residence was in the Fifteenth Ward residing on the west side of Fourth [Fifth] West and between Second and Third South.

 In 1875 he was mentioned as being fined $50 for being an absence Jurist. “Nathan J Lang, absent juror, fine of Fifty dollars remitted by the court.” The fine was remitted when he showed later up for jury duty.

The 1880 federal census showed that Nathan Lang had left Salt Lake City and had moved to Springdale in Kane County, Utah. He was living with his older brother Joseph Lang as a border. Both men were listed as single and living next to their married brother William Lang.  William and Joseph were both listed as Coopers by trade while Nathan was listed as a stone mason.

Lang returned to Salt Lake City by 1890 when George Q Cannon sold to him “lots 28 through 31 in Block 13 of Forest Dale for  $900. The Forest Dale property was in the Eight East section of the Sugar House area. In the 1900 census Lang stated he had been married for 10 years. He was 53 when first married to a 23 year old woman named Alice Ferrell by whom he had four children. He was listed as a cooper and his older brother Joseph Lang also lived with him and was a “fruit peddler”.

He died in 1909 with a very brief mention in the newspapers, “Nathan Lang Dead. Nathan J Lang 73 years old died this morning [29 August 1909]at is home 2450 Locust Street after a long illness. He was a native of Pennsylvania . The funeral will e held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock from Forest Dale Chapel. Locust was one street east of Fifth East.

Benjamin Rowland [1832-1910]

Benjamin Rowland [Rolland, Roland Rollins] immigrated to Utah in the William Morgan Company in 1852 at the age of 18. He married in 1862 and eventually had eleven children  although he never was a polygamist. In the 1867 city directory he was listed as a teamster residing on the west side Fifth [Sixth] West between First and Second South. By 1869 he had moved to Lot 6 in Block 63 located at Second South between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth [Sixth]West

The 1870 Federal Census listed Rowland’s age as 36 years born in Wales. He was simply a “Laborer” located as household 106 in the Fifteenth Ward. He owned $300 worth of real estate which he had bought from Joseph Chamberlain the title of which was disputed by Mahala Thomas. The title to his portion of Lot 6 purchased from Joseph Chamberlain was eventually secured by the probate courts that had jurisdiction over land disputes.

 The 1874 city directory listed Rowland as a stone mason,  as were many of the Welsh westside immigrants, residing on the south side of Second South  between Fourth [Fifth] and Fifth [Sixth] West, the same in the 1879 directory but now listed as a “laborer.” 

The 1880 federal census listed Benjamin Rowland as household 261 in the Fifteenth Ward residing between the households of Oliver C Bess and Edward King, dwelling on Second South Street. He was listed as a 45-year-old laborer and had been eight months unemployed. Both Amos Jones and Nathan J Lang had moved from Salt Lake City.

After the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad purchased land for their freight and passenger depot on parcels west of  today’s Sixth West, street numbers were beginning to be given randomly to occupants of the area. The 1883 city directory listed Rowland as laborer residing at 519 West Second South and at the same address in 1884 but employed as a teamster. The 1888 directory listed his at 537 West Second South as a laborer. In 1888 through 1894 Rowland was a teamster delivering coal for the Wolstenholme and Morris Company “Agents of the Rock Springs Coal Company.”

Benjamin Rowland and his wife in 1890 sold to “John C. C. Glanfield et.” all parts of lot 5 and 6 block 63 plat A.

A Trustee sale  Benjamin and Elizabeth Rowland in May 1893  gave a deed of trust Part of lots five and six block 63 plat A Commencing at the northwest two feet thence southern rods [165 feet] , thence three rods [49.5 feet] and two feet thence north ten rods, thence west three rods to commencement; also a perpetual right of way over a strip of land 1 rod [16.5 feet] by 10 rods  long adjoining the above-described land on the west side. In trust to secure the payment of a $1500 promissory note due on the first of May 1896 to Frederick S. Wicks six promissory notes s of $64 default on payments Edward B Wicks sold the property $1,874 to Edward b Wicks

The 1895 city directory listed Benjamin W Roland as boarding at 126 South Fifth [Sixth] West  Later by 1897 he was residing at 16 South Fifth [Sixth]West.

The 1900 federal census showed that Benjamin Rowlands was living at 157 South Fourth [Fifth] Street which would have been in Block 80.

William T Sampson was the owner of the Sampson Meat Packing company on the corner of Fifth [Sixth] West and Third South. His only surviving son, nineteen year old  Charles Edward  Sampson was arrested on a charge of fornication in August 1896 on a complaint of Elizabeth Rowland wife of Benjamin Rowland.

The Rowland Family had lived near the corner of  Second South and Fourth [Fifth] for over thirty years and were among the pioneer families of Block 63.

“There was quite a disturbance in the Sampson and Rowland families when the charge was made against the defendant at some time ago. Young Sampson was anxious and willing to make atonement by marrying  Miss Rowland  but Charles’ father would not consent, and was very bitter against the Rowlands. Charles was under age and without the old man’s consent could not obtain a marriage license and the consequence was he was sent to jail to await trial on the charge made against him.”

Elizabeth Rowland charged that Charles Sampson “committed fornication with her daughter Maggie Rowland on September 1, 1895” and he was the father of  Maggie Rowland’s baby born in June 1896. Sampson was arrested but released on a bond of $250. Newspapers carried accounts of the arrest due to the fact that Charles Sampson had wanted to marry Maggie Rowland but being underage, his father refused to give his consent.

“Are Anxious To Marry- Had to Arrest the Bridegroom- Sampson’s Papa Objects- So the parents of the Intended Bride, who is also a Mother, Swore out a Warrant for the Young Man’s Arrest and will Bring the Affair to a Focus- The persistent refusal of a stern papa to allow his nineteen–year-old son to follow the dictates of his own heart, and marry a girl who he had wronged, resulted yesterday in the arrest of Charles Sampson, on the charge of criminal intimacy with the girl.”

“The case is in many respects a peculiar one. The girl in the case, Miss Maggie Rowland, is only 18 years old and of a very respectable family, and she and young Sampson have been sweethearts for something over two years.”

“It appears that they anticipated their conjugal felicity to some extent, however, about two months ago, Miss Rowland gave birth to a bouncing baby boy, which Sampson admits is entitled to call him papa.”

“Shortly after the birth of the child, Sampson desiring to do all in his power to right the wrong which he had committed, accompanied Miss Rowland to the County Clerk’s office and endeavored to secure a marriage license. Being only 19 years of age, though, the clerk declined to issue the license without the written consent of the prospective bridegroom’s father, and as the last named individual, who is the proprietor of the Salt Lake Meat Market, emphatically refused to give his consent to the issue, the matter was declared off.”

“An attaché of the County Attorney’s office, who was cognizant of young Sampson’s desire to marry Miss Rowland, then interviewed the father  with the view of having the matter amicably adjusted, but Sampson was inexorable, and refused, as before, to consent to the marriage. This of course left Miss Rowland’s family no other alternative except the one taken yesterday, when a complaint was sworn to.”

“It is stated that the elder Sampson has endeavored to settle the matter by an offer of money, but that Miss Rowland’s family has refused to entertain the proposition.”

“When take before Justice Wenger, Sampson gave bonds in the sum of $250 for his appearance and the preliminary hearing was set for next Thursday.” 

At one point the young couple was thwarted from even going to Idaho where parental consent was not necessary. Why William Sampson objected to the marriage so adamantly is unknown and not detailed in the accounts. It may have been a religious matter as that the Rowlands were Mormons and the Sampsons were Episcopalians.

In a preliminary court hearing, Elizabeth Rowland “among other things,” testified of Sampson’s proposal to marry the girl. Other people were called to offer testimony “but as young Sampson admitted he alone was responsible for the girls condition there was very little for the prosecution to gain by the testimony of others.”  Maggie Rowland “appeared in court with her off spring in her arms, a pretty child, bearing a strong resemblance to the defendant.”

The county prosecutor stated that the bond of $250 seemed to low and the Judge agreed raising it to $500, perhaps to punish William Sampson, more than his son. “The $500 bail was furnished by the obdurate father who prefers to fight the matter in the courts rather than have his son amend his evil deed.”

In October 1896 Charles Sampson was to be tried on “the Fornication Charge” but the case was “dismissed on motion of the county attorney at the request of the complaining witness, Maggie Rowland,” who evidently did not want the father of her baby sent to prison. “It now appears  an understanding has been arrived at as the case was dismissed at the earnest solicitation of Miss Rowland and her mother.”

Margaret Rowland [1877-1915] never married and lived with her mother at 44 North Fifth [Sixth] West when she died of pneumonia. The baby boy was raised with the Rowland Family and was named William T. Sampson perhaps to either have his grandfather change his mind or to spite him. William Sampson moved from Fifth [Sixth] West in 1897 perhaps by the notoriety his son’s case brought to the neighborhood. 

Benjamin Rowland contacted Small pox in 1900 and was isolated in a hospital until he recovered in 1900  In  1905 a son of Benjamin died at his father’s home at 157 South Fourth West age 33.

Benjamin Rowland died in 1910. An obituary published in the Great Salt Lake Herald was printed in June 1910.

 “Benjamin Rowland, Pioneer, Is Dead; Benjamin Rowland, one of the early pioneers of Great Salt Lake died at 1:15 o’clock yesterday afternoon at the family residence 643 West First South Street, aged 77 years. He had been in failing health for years and general debility was the cause of death. He is survived by a widow and seven children. Mr. Rowland was born in Wales and came to Great Salt Lake in 1852, The funeral will be held at 2’Clock Sunday afternoon from the Fifteenth Ward chapel.”

The Salt Lake Tribune also printed “Benjamin Rowland’s Funeral. The funeral services over the body of Benjamin Rowland who died Saturday of general debility were held in the Fifteenth ward meeting house Sunday before a large gathering of friends and relatives. Bishop John W. Boud presided at the services and the following were speakers, John Roberts, Edward T Ashton, John H, Thomas, and David l Davis. Music was furnished by a trio composed of J H, Ashton, Hannah Kjar, and Joseph Kjar. Interment in the city cemetery.” 

PART TWO

Chapter Two-

The Mysterious Death of Wilford A. S. Vermillion 1904

The mysterious death of Wilford A. Scott Vermillion in August 1904 at his drug store on Second South was sensational news for several weeks as that he was a young “promising” young man. The police determined that “the best evidence that could be obtained indicated that the young man died by his own hand.”  However his family and friends contested this and believed that Wilford died during a botched robbery.

Was Wilford Vermillion death a suicide, the victim of murder, or was he the victim of an accident? Coroner jury was convened to determined how Wilford Vermillion died.

James Ingebretsen, assistant district attorney, “who has labored almost incessantly on the case since his attention was first called to it said, ‘This is one of the most elusive and baffling cases with which I have ever come in contact and I believe that there has never been a criminal case in the state that can equal this in its mysterious elements. It has occasioned the most intense interest on the part of the public.”

Wilford Vermillion was found dying from a bullet wound to his head shortly after 10:30 at night on 22 August 1904 in his drug store at 511 West Second South Street. There had been no witnesses to the shooting. He was 24 years old.

The Vermillion Family

Wilford Vermillion was born in 11 March 1880 in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada” to an American father and a Canadian mother. His father Josiah Scott Vermillion was born near Wheeling in the part of Virginia that later became West Virginia during the American Civil War. At a young age his family moved to Iowa where he grew to adulthood. He was known as “J. Scott” and J.S. Vermillion as well as Judge Vermillion in most newspaper accounts.

The 1870 federal census showed that Josiah Scott Vermillion was working as a railroad carpenter for the Union Pacific Railroad. He was a single man residing in a railroad camp at a location called Point of Rocks in Sweetwater County Wyoming Territory. While working in Rawlins, Carbon County, Wyoming he married a native Canadian named Emma Petite in 1878. Sometime before the birth of their son in 1880, the couple returned to Woodstock, Ontario, Canada where Wilford was born. His father’s occupation, given on the birth certificate, was as a “conductor” presumably still employed by the Union Pacific Railroad as the family soon returned to Wyoming.

After Wilford was born the family was residing in Cheyenne, Laramie County by 1881 where their daughter “Henrietta Ruth” known as Etta was born. Another daughter named “Florence Isabel” was born in 1887 also in Wyoming however the family had relocated by 1889.

An 1889  territorial census of Whitman County in Washington State  listed “J.S. Vermillion” as a 40 year old baker and oddly his 33 year old wife Emma was listed as a “carpenter”. This is most likely a transcription error. They had four children by then  9 year  old Wilford, 7 year old Etta [Henrietta Ruth], 2 year old Florence Isabel, and a one month old daughter listed as “no named” who was later named Minnie Margaret. Later in November 1889 Washington achieved statehood.

By 1892 the family had moved to Spokane, Washington where J. S. Vermillion was member of the board of education in that city. He was described as being “honest, progressive, and economical businessmen, always ready to join in any movement which adds progress, dignity and comfort to the school.”

A year later the Vermillion family had returned to Rawlins, Wyoming where their daughter Florence died in 1893 and was buried there. However sixteen years later Florence was reburied  on 7 September 1909 in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Salt Lake City next to her brother Wilford.

After the death of their daughter, the family returned to Spokane and lived there for several more years.

From all reports the Vermillion family traveled extensively and in 1894 it was reported that  while they were away, their home in Spokane was burglarized by some youths.

“Dime novels have been responsible for the downfall of three 12- years old lads within the past three days, and one boy will find his  home in the county jail from the dime cause, if he is caught by the police. Two were caught in the act of burglarizing the residence of J.S. Vermillion in the Health’s addition yesterday afternoon by a number of ladies of the neighborhood. They were held at bay while an officer was sent for. The youthful burglars learned that Vermillion and his family were out of the city and proceeded to make the best of it.”

The family relocated to Dillon, Beaverhead, Montana by 1898. Dillon is approximately 350 miles southeast from Spokane and 350 miles northwest from Salt Lake City. Wilford’s father was “connected with the Northern Pacific railroad at Dillon.”

Dillon was founded in the Beaverhead Valley as a  railroad town in 1880. The town's location was selected by the railroad in part because of its proximity to gold mines in the area. Originally named “Terminus,” as it was temporarily the northernmost stop on the Utah and Northern Railway. The community was renamed for the Union Pacific Railroad’s President Sidney Dillon, who had directed the project of bringing the railroad through to Butte, Montana.

One of the first mention of Wilford Vermillion when he was 17 years old also revealed that the Vermillion family were members of the Presbyterian Church as noted in a social comment in a local paper from January 1898.

“The Poverty Social was given last Thursday evening by the ladies of the Presbyterian Church. All those present appeared costumed in old, discarded clothes, some of them looked much more ragged than the worst specimens of ‘genus hobo.’ A delightful programme was rendered and the Dillon orchestra furnished music ‘ad interim.’ A luncheon of coffee, sandwiches, doughnuts, baked apples were served. A march of poverty stricken gatherings was formed in a single file who passed in review before the judges. Wilford Vermillion who had an eye blacked playing football and Miss Morton carried off the cake as the worst looking specimens.”

This little bit of information showed that Wilford Vermillion was athletic and played football in high school as well as in college. “He came to San Francisco in the fall of 1901 and entered the Affiliated Colleges graduating this spring. While in school the young man played two seasons on the college football team being heavily built man an fond of athletics. He also had a baseball record earned while he was attending that school.”

Wilford was  described in various reports as  having a “striking physique” and being a handsome young man. Evidently he did not have interests in romantic relationships with women. His many male friends all affirmed that, “He had no love affairs to far as can be learned.” A love affair motive was also ruled out as a reason for his death as that “he never been crossed in love so far as his most intimate companions knew and had never kept company with any young woman.”

W A S Vermillion 

His closest friend Clarence Dallon stated, “He has never had any love affair nor any other kind of affair with women since I have been associated with him, so far as I know, I believe he would have confided in me had he had such an affair. He confided all his private affairs to me.”

His friends, “who knew him best,” testified that as far as they knew, “his private life was without a stain,” and a “love affair motive was ruled out as a reason for his death” in as much that “he never been crossed in love so far as his most intimate companions knew and had never kept company with any young woman.”

It was reported that his “habits were the best” due to his religious home life which probably contributed  to his temperance with alcohol and stimulants except for the use of tobacco, evidently his one vice. Dallon, his close friend stated, “He never took a drink, and I have known that he was not the victim of any kind of a habit. He was a heavy user of tobacco, which affected his heart to some extent.”

Wilford had a loving relationship with his family. “They were all on the most affectionate terms and seemed to love each other dearly.” His relationship with his father was reported that Wilford and his father were “devoted to each other and were as chummy as two school boys.”

The Vermillion’s seemed devoted to their children and allowed them the opportunities for higher education in distant cities from Dillion. The family placed a great deal of importance on education and were well off enough to financial send Wilford and Henrietta to college. Wilford attended college in San Francisco and their eldest daughter Etta went to school in Buffalo, New York. The mother Emma Pettitt Vermillion was often mentioned in the social comments of visiting her grown children where ever they were residing.

After completing high school, Wilford left home at the age of 18 and moved to Denver, Colorado where he found employment as a baggage handler for the rail road. An article from October 1898  reported, “Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Vermillion returned home Monday from a three weeks visit to Denver. They were accompanied by their Son Wilford who has been employed in the baggage department of the Oregon Short Line at that place.”

Later that November, J. Scott Vermillion was elected a Justice of the Peace in Dillion, a position in which he served for nearly six years. After this time he is most often referred to as Judge Vermillion.

In 1899 it was reported in local papers that the family had “relatives and friends” in Salt Lake City with whom Mrs. Vermillion and her daughters had visited. Emma Vermillion’s sister Rose Henrietta Edwards and her husband had just recently relocated from Rawlins, Wyoming, so the city was not unfamiliar to them and probably to Wilford who was working by then in Idaho. It was reported on 3 January 1900 in the Butte Daily Post  that “Wilford Vermillion who handles baggage between Pocatello and Huntington spent the holidays with his parents and relatives of this city [Dillon].”

The 1900 federal census for the Vermillion family was taken on June 4. It listed Wilford home with his family at his father’s residence on Washington Street. The home was owned free and clear of a mortgage. Wilford’s occupation was given as an “express messenger” and his father was listed as a “stationary engineer.”  Railroad stationary engineers were responsible for the safe operation and maintenance of a wide range of equipment including boilers and steam engines. Express referred to anyone who has the duty of packing, managing, and ensuring the delivery of any cargo.

In September 1900, Wilford Vermillion left to attend school in San Francisco, California. “Mrs. J.S. Vermillion and daughters Misses Henrietta and Marguerite and son Wilford left today [20 September] for San Francisco, where the young people will attend school this winter.”  Wilford was 20 years old and that day was his sister Etta was 19^th birthday.

It is not certain that Etta stayed in San Francisco with her brother however Wilford enrolled in

the  School of Pharmacy located at the Affiliated Colleges campus of the University of California in San Francisco. The school was begun by the California Pharmaceutical Society in 1872 became an affiliated college in 1873. The school buildings in which Wilford attended classes were fairly new, completed in 1898 on a 13-acre site called Sutro Heights donated by San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro. The completed Romanesque stone buildings of the Affiliated Colleges lined Parnassus Avenue .

Wilford found lodgings in San Francisco with the Newberry Family who rented out rooms at 1605 Turk Street about one and a half miles from the college. The location of the residence was  within walking distance to the University of California If he walked it would have taken him 25 minutes and by street car about 10. In 1898 the neighborhood was called “fashionable”.

The 1901 San Francisco City directory, compiled in 1900, showed that Wilford ‘Vermillion’ was rooming at 1605 Turk Street. He paid room and board to Mrs. Mary Ann Newberry, [1851-1921], the wife of James Newberry, a carpenter. He like Wilford was a native of Canada while Mrs. Newberry was a native of Missouri.

The Newberrys purchased the property in March,  as it was up for sale in January 1900 after the previous owner had died in 1899. The property was listed as “Turk Street Residence- 1605 Turk St. south line near Pierce St.; cozy bay window house of 7 rooms and bath; nice garden, brick foundation, stone walk etc. Lot 27 feet by 95 feet.”  It was 55 feet west of Pierce Street.

The 1900 federal census enumerated Mrs. Newberry  as a 48 years old woman with three teenage children living at home along with a young married couple and another young man as boarders.

In October 1902 while Vermillion may have been boarding with Mrs. Newberry one of her tenants, a twenty-three year old piano tuner and cripple named William Wanamaker, was crushed to death by  sidewalk elevator in front of the Heine Piano Company store on Geary Street,” where he was employed. “Mrs. M.A. Newberry of 1605 Turk Street, at whose home Wannamaker lived, spoke in the highest terms of the young man. He came to my house shortly after his arrival in this city about two years ago and has lived there ever since. He was a young man of exceptionally good habits an very thrifty.”

While attending the Affiliated Colleges  Wilford “played two seasons on the college football team being heavily built man an fond of athletics. He also had a baseball record earned while he was attending that school. When not at his studies and laboratory work, Vermillion assisted in the Standard Pharmacy company of 1800 Market Street and Bailey’s drug at Eddy and Scott streets.”

Wilford made friends while he lived in San Francisco most notably J.M. Maynard and Clarence Wilbur Dallon [1882-1924]. After Wilford left for Utah, Maynard stayed in San Francisco, boarding at 1614 Turk Street, in “Two large sunny rooms handsomely furnished rooms for gentlemen,” while Clarence Dallon returned to Salt Lake City probably at the same time Wilford did in the Spring of 1904.

Clarence Wilbur Dallon was reported to be “a college companion and constant chum” of Wilford Vermillion. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and the 1900 federal census showed that he was a railroad clerk boarding in  Brooklyn. He most likely moved to California to attend school where he met Wilford. They became close friends and Dallon followed Vermillion to Utah. Dallon told a Salt Lake Telegram newspaper reporter that “he felt the death of Vermillion as keenly as he would that of his own brother. They had been associated for years and had never had a misunderstanding.”

Another young man named George Stevens also attended the School of Pharmacy and who later came to Salt Lake City claiming to have known Wilford in college.

Wilford graduated in the spring of 1904 in  the pharmaceutical department of the Affiliated colleges. He remarked that when she heard of Wilford’s demise she “was visibly affected by the news of this tragic death..”

Wilford Vermillion was made a “commander” in the Masonic Order of  the Knight Templar like his father. For the Christmas holidays of 1903, Wilford went home to Montana and while there took the Knight Templar degree in the lodge  at Dillon Montana of which his father, who has some means , is an officer. Upon returning to California he had his photograph taken in San Francisco in his full uniform regalia.

For his last birthday present in 1904 the J. Scott Vermillion offered his son a drug store,  in either Spokane or Salt Lake City, his choice. “The young man decided to locate in the Mormon city,” most likely because he had relatives there, his mother’s sister and cousins.

Vermillion left San Francisco on Friday May 30^th, reaching Salt Lake City the following night and on the succeeding day took possession of the store in which he met his death.”

 Chapter Three

The Drug Store Enterprise

Helge A. Hansen, [1842-1920] was a Norwegian who for several years operated a drug store  at 511 West Second South, selling “Drugs Toilet Articles and Cigars. The city directory showed that in 1900 Hansen worked as a clerk for the “F. Auerbach & Brothers” department store however by 1903 he had opened a drug store at 174 South State and another at 511 West Second South. The building must have been constructed at least by 1902.

The Hansen drug store was located in the two story  brick building,  constructed after 1898 and before 1902 as the lot that had contained only an adobe building at 513 West in 1898. The legal description of the premises was “Beginning at a point which is 56.50 feet west of the northeast corner of Lot 6 Block 63 Plat A, Salt Lake City Survey, and running thence south 6 rods [99 feet]then west 40.0 feet thence north 6 rods thence east 40.0 feet to the point of beginning.” The building’s frontage was on Second South with two ground floor addresses and upstairs was a rooming house

At 509 West, the business adjoining the Hansen Drug Store was a Candy Kitchen operated by Martin B Smith [1854-1910] as early as 1904. The 1900 federal census showed that he and his wife and their three children lived at 210 South Fourth West Street which was actually Fifth West today. This would have been still on block 63. His occupation was then listed in the census as a butcher.

By 1903 he was listed as a confectioner still living at 210 South. His shop was in 1903 located at 531 West Second South but he probably relocated in 1904. A rooming house was located on the upper second floor of the building as 509 ½ West. Martin’s wife [Barbara Elizabeth “Libby”] Smith was listed as the proprietor.  The family of Martin B Smith occupied the upstairs of the building with Libbie landlady to boarders renting rooms from her.

The West Second South  drug store had also been a branch office of The Salt Lake Tribune for “some time”  where subscriptions and advertisements could be left there and papers bought.

Occupying the space next to the drug store was the family of a Welshman named James Sinett. His household consisted of a wife, two children, and a lodger. He and his teenage son were railroad laborers. His lodger was an train engineer. Later Sinett’s son would became a Salt Lake fireman.

To the east, at 507 West Second South was the headquarters of  Leonidas Skliris the Greek Labor Agent who basically would change the ethnicity of Second South in the first decade of the Twentieth Century.

In 1904 Skliris supplied the local railroads and the smelters at Murray and Bingham with Greek laborers and another Greek named “Dr. Peter George P Attias” who was associated with Skliris had recently arrived in Salt Lake City from Boston. Attias would later claimed to have been a close personal friend of Wilford Vermillion who bought out Hanson’s business. This claim was unlikely, as that Vermillion probably was not more than an acquaintance of Attias due to the prejudices against “foreigners” at the time. “Dr.” Attias reported that he “frequented” the drug store and “had all his ‘prescriptions’ filled there.”

In  April 1904 Hansen sold his drug store to 24 year old Wilford Vermillion [1880-1904],  his former clerk as that he was relocating to Richfield, Utah where he moved to in May. “Mr. Hansen expects to reengage in the drug business in Richfield.”

Wilford Vermillion had lived in Salt Lake City at various times or at least visited while going to school in San Francisco. His father stated that his son had been a resident of Salt Lake City for about two years  at the time of his death. Another report stated he was a resident of Salt Lake City for three years.

The 1903 City directory which must have been printed in 1902 listed Wilfred Vermillion employed as a clerk for “H.A. Hansen” while boarding at the Grand Pacific Hotel at 270 West South Temple. Vermillion’s best friend, Clarence Dallon, who was employed as  clerk for the Oregon Short Line Railroad, also boarded at the Grande Pacific Hotel most likely as Wilford’s roommate.

As that 1903 directory was compiled in 1902 it is likely Wilford resigned to return to California to attend the School of Pharmacy at the University of California in San Francisco.  After working for Hansen for several months, Wilford was back at the University of California in San Francisco where he took a post graduate course in pharmacy. He finished his degree with honors in the spring of 1904.

The 1904 Salt Lake City directory does not include Wilford Vermillion and showed that Hansen was still listed as the owner of the drug store at 511 West. The same directory showed that Clarence Dallon must have stayed in Salt Lake City as he was living at 734 East Second South still employed as a clerk and “treasurer” for the Oregon Short Line the depot which was located on Fourth [Fifth] West between First and Second South.

After leaving San Francisco, Wilford kept up his friendship with a young man named J.M. Maynard, corresponding often with him by letter. He was in the process of writing Maynard when he was killed. The last letter received by Maynard from Wilford Vermillion “came to hand a few days ago [August], in which the young man asked his friend to secure light housekeeping rooms for his father and mother who were coming to San Francisco to attend the Knights Templars conclave. For two years or more the son had been anticipating sending his father to the masonic gathering, to defray the expenses, as a compliment to his father for all he had done for him in his younger days.”

It was reported that Wilford Vermillion came to Salt Lake  in January 1904 with M.A. Miller, “both from Dillion, Montana” and registered  at the New Wilson European Hotel at 28 East Second South. This must have been a short visit as Wilford didn’t return to Salt Lake City until May after which he bought out the Hansen drug store with the  money his father had advanced him to “start in business.”

Wilford Vermillion stayed with his maternal aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. William Edwards, for a period at least through June when  to economize he occupied a bed room in the rear of the store.

Rose Henrietta Pettit Edwards [1854-1938] was Wilford Vermillion’s maternal aunt. She and her husband had moved to Rawlins Wyoming in the 1880’s and in the 1890’s had moved to Salt Lake City where William Edwards worked a train car painter for the Oregon Short Line. In 1899 they resided at 252 West South Temple.

The  Vermillion’s Pharmacy was in business by 8 May 1904 at 511 West 2nd South with a “phone 1838”, when the Salt Lake Tribune reported the newspaper the address  was still one of their Branch Offices. “Want Ads Cash Rates 10c per line first insertion. 5c line each subsequent insertion. No ad to occupy less space than two lines. Your want ad. Will be accepted and ‘phone to the Salt Lake Tribune office at regular rates by the followings agents.”

Wilford Vermillion was described as a careful sober business man and successful. “He made money. He was even paying his bills ahead of time to discount them. He was cheerful as to prospects.”  He did not drink alcohol nor “had no love affairs to far as can be learned.”  When he took the drug business Wilford  “assumed a note for $800 which the former owner had given.” He never seemed to have any financial difficulties and was never worried over his indebtedness. His friend Clarence Dallon remarked about Wilford, “He was invariably a cheerful companionable young man and the most happy man I ever knew. He felt greatly encouraged as his business steadily growing and he was paying off his indebtedness rapidly. His receipts ran between $15 and $20 a day.

Wilford hired a 15 year old boy named Tracy Gurley [1889-1958] as his “clerk” to help in the store and look after the place while away. Gurley had just finished Franklin School and was entering high school in the fall. Gurley remembered that Wilford “never had any trouble with any man over women so far as I ever knew. I never heard him quarrel with any person.” The boy usually worked until 7 at night and Wilford was then often seen sitting on a rustic bench in front of his store. Vermillion rarely spent an evening alone in the store as “one of or two men friends always ran in and spent the evening with him.” Tracy C. Gurley aged 15 clerk in the drug store collaborated the statements of Dallon in detail. He said that Vermillion was happy all day Monday because of the expected arrival of his father.

In July, his mother and two sisters arrived in Salt Lake City from Dillon, Montana to visit with Wilford. “Mrs. J.S. Vermillion and daughters have gone to Salt Lake where they will spend the summer.” They traveled from Montana by train and then rented a one story brick house around the corner from the drug store. The address was 210 Fourth [Fifth] West and here Wilford took his meals and his sisters would visit their brother and do light housekeeping like making his bed.

Their next door neighbor was Dr. Thomas H Hazel [1865-1952] who had  rented a house around the corner from Wilford’s business, who his own practice and drug store. The Hazel Drugstore was located at 501 West First South located at the corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and First South. Dr. Hazel was an unmarried man at the time and he himself  had just recently moved into 204 South Fourth [Fifth] West Street just to the north of the house rented by Mrs. Emma Vermillion

The residence Mrs. Vermillion had rented had been occupied by Martin B. Smith [1854-1910] a candy maker and his wife Libbie. The 1900 federal census showed that he and his wife and their three children lived at 210 South Fourth West Street on block 63. His occupation was then listed then as a butcher.

However by 1903, Smith was listed as a “confectioner” or candy maker, still living at 210 South. Martin Smith’s candy shop was located at 531 West Second South but he probably relocated his establishment in 1904 to 509 West when a two story complex was constructed. On the upper second floor, a rooming house was located with the address of  509 ½ West,  where his wife Libby [Barbara Elizabeth] Smith was listed as the proprietor. As that the drugstore was directly below the rooming house, Smith and his wife were aware of some of the activities beneath them. One of their lodgers, Charles Reinhardt Peterson [1876-1959] was said to have been “on intimate terms with Vermillion for several months.

Chapter Four  

The Missing Money

The Vermillion Drugstore was located in the “West Side” which was considered a rough part of town due to its proximity to the Railroad yards which attracted a criminal element. During the time Vermillion was in business, he had for several months missed money from his cash drawer as that he had trouble with his cash register, as “it was not in working order.”

The business in the drug store was such that Wilford and Tracey “frequently had to leave the front of the store and go back of the prescription case or into the back room. “Both he and his clerk were mystified how Vermillion’s till was frequently tapped for amounts ranging from $1 to $5.

Wilford repeatedly complained to his friend Dallon that he had a “great deal of trouble” during the past few months “as his cash drawer was frequently short. Someone had been “tapping his till for amounts that ranged for $2 to $5 and that these loses were a daily occurrence.”  Vermillion did not know who stole the money “but he had kept a close watch for the thief” but was never able to apprehend him.” He told Dallon that he suspected a certain person but would not tell him whom he meant. Wilford was worried as “he did not know how to explain matters to his father.”

After finding money missing from the cash drawer of his register, Vermillion began counting and checking his cash several times a day. “When it came 7 o’clock he would hide his money in a tin box in the back of the prescription case.” His sister Miss Henrietta Vermillion said that Wilford “always or nearly always locked his surplus money in his trunk after counting it. Occasionally he kept it on the prescription counter before he went to bed. And once in a while it was placed in a cupboard.”

Wilford was said to have “always kept a revolver under his pillow, “ which his sisters had seen it often when they made up his bed.

Wilford’s friend Clarence Dallon stated, “His habits with regard to his money were very regular. He would deposit his cash each day or each second day at the outside. He seldom had more than one or two days receipts in the store at once. He would go to his cash drawer at night and take all of the money out except $5 for change, which he would leave in the register. Then he would secrete the rest of it in a tin box back of the prescription case. He had a revolver but kept it under his pillow. I never saw it but once or twice. The last time I saw it was more than a year ago. I would not be able to identify it if I saw it.”

The night before the Ringling’s Circus came to Salt Lake someone stole Vermillion’s store keys. On 10 August 1904 Wilford Vermillion’s keys had been stolen and that on that date Vermillion had taken the revolver from under his pillow and put it under the counter near the cash register.

“He was highly incense and took his revolver out from the back room where had been keeping it. He said he did this that he might be prepared to deal properly with the thief who had been making all the trouble should the latter put in an appearance.”

Benjamin B. Search testified later that he found a bunch of keys at the Salt Palace on a “racing night” and returned them to Vermillion in answer to an advertisement. He received $2.50 as a reward.

Several times after the keys went missing, Wilford spoke of the cash register robberies which kept up at intervals, the highest amount taken being about $5. As he frequently complained that his till was being robbed,  he said to his friend Dallon that “he would make it a serious matter for the thief if he caught him in the act.” He informed  his young clerk  “that he would make it hot for any one whom he caught in the store stealing his money.” He even told his sister Henrietta, “that if ever he found a thief in the store he would fill the fellow full of lead.”

A newspaper account wrote regarding the location of the Vermillion Drugstore, “If we look carefully at the location of the store we will see that it is not far removed from the railroad tracks. Tough characters are to be found in that neighborhood.”  Adding, “It would not be a great stretch of imagination to think that one of the men of that class passing the drug store would look in and see the cash register.”

 Chapter Five

Suspect Frank Hagestead

When Wilford Vermillion started his business, a certain railroad man named Francis C. “Frank” Hagestead, often he would loiter in the store and Wilford and he were on unfriendly terms. “This man spent much time loafing in the drug store, and Vermillion had told him to not come in there anymore.”  Hagestead would later deny that Vermillion and he “had ever quarreled and that Vermillion had ever told him that goods and money had been missed from the store and denied that Vermillion had ever told him to stay away from the store and not loaf there.”

Wilford Vermillion’s disdain for Hagestead may have been due to his having been a convict. According to the 1900 federal census Frank C Hagestead was incarcerated in the Sugar House state prison. He was listed as 34 years old, born September 1865 in Wisconsin, and his occupation was given as ‘fireman,’ a railroad occupation. The 1904 city directory listed Frank Hagestead as working as a fireman for the Denver ad Rio Grande Railroad and residing in the rear of 533 West Second South. William Miller Ferguson had a barber shop at this address.

Nine years prior, in November 1895 Frank Hagestead was tried in Beaver, Utah for First Degree Murder of killing “Indian Wint” supposedly a friend.

When Hagestead was indicted by a Grand Jury in St. George in September, Native Americans wanted him hanged. However his trial was schedule for the next Judicial Term so he was transported under guard to the state pen in Salt Lake City to await trial in November. “Guards were necessary as there was fear that Indians might interfere and attempt to lynch him.”

At the November trial Hagestead was represented by an attorney named Peter M Baum. Lawyers were often referred to by appellation of “judge” in articles of the period. “Judge Thurman” was the prosecutor for the state.

The murder of “Indian Wint” was of great interest to local Native Americans. “Indians are beginning to show up in considerable numbers again in view of the Hagestead trial. Two or three of the big chiefs were occupying front seats in the courtroom today.” The ‘chiefs’ were at the trial for the entire process. “Two or three Indian chiefs have been attending court all through the trail and seem to be very much interested. After the court has adjourned they go down to their lodges and tepees and in solemn council rehearse to the other Indians what has been going on in court.”

The first witness for the prosecution was James Thornton who testified that “he was in the cardroom adjoining the saloon at Panguitch Lake on the morning of 25th July last. As he entered he saw Hagestead and two or three others sitting at the table and the deceased Indian Wint sitting on a bench opposite the table.”

Thornton and “his companion took their seats by the Indian” while Hagestead was “playing with a pistol and talking to those in the room.” Immediately after taking his seat, Thornton claimed he heard Hagestead say to Wint, “Do You want to die?” And a shot was fired.

Thornton startled, looked up just as Hagestead, “throwing up his hands,” exclaimed “Oh my God, who’d a thought it?” At the same time,  the Indian fell to the floor dead. Thornton afterwards “saw the wound which showed that the bullet had entered above the right temple ranging downward coming out just over the left ear.”

Thornton was subjected to a “scathing cross-examination by Judge Baum for an hour and a half,” the newspaper man reporting  “the witness held his story together pretty well until towards the last when he deemed to fall under the influence of Baum’s hypnotic power  and became considerably rattled.”

Next a “Mr. Henrie of Panguitch” testified that he was “well acquainted with Hagestead and in a conversation with him two or three days previous to the homicide, Hagestead told him he was going to kill an Indian before he left Panguitch.” Henrie thought that Hagestead “was only talking through his hat and paid no attention to it until after the homicide.”

A man named “Proctor a member of the grand jury” testified to “being present at counsel between Hagestead and his attorney and other witnesses of Panguitch, when he and others related the circumstances of the killing and in which defendant with others agreed that he asked the Indian immediately before the shot was fired if he was ready to die. The prosecution closed this afternoon.”

The defense team called Hagestead as its first witness. He stated that he was 27 years old, “had a fair school,  had been engineer on locomotives for about three years, and had been in Panguitch  for the last four years herding sheep and the like.”

He claimed he “had not drank anything on the night of the homicide but was around with the boys in the saloon playing cars some of the time. He was talking with others in the card room when Fotheringham who was sitting beside him, took an old pistol off the case board and was playing with it, when Hagestead asked him for it and began snapping it, as he had seen Fotheringham do and thought it was not loaded.”

“When to his surprise it discharged, and when he saw what he had done, exclaimed ‘My God I did not know it was loaded.”  Hagestead related the story of the killing “very much as the first witness but insisted he did not speak to the Indian at all much less ask him if he  was ready to die.” Hagestead stated  he had “known the Indian for some time and they were the best of friends.”

The defense then “put on a witness or two to prove the good character of the accused.”

 On cross examination Judge Thurman elicited the fact that Hagestead, “had been in rows with different persons and that on several occasions he made people come up and drink with him at the point of his six shooter.”

The sentiment of reporters was that Hageman if convicted would be for “manslaughter”  as that “all the witnesses, including those for the prosecution, lean strongly toward the defense and apparently made matters as light for him as possible.”

The Salt Lake Herald suggested, “As the evidence stands it will be very hard for the jury to say that the killing was done in any way other than accidental although there are some circumstances about the affair that look very bad for the defendant. The verdict will probably be involuntary manslaughter.”

“After nine hours of argument the case was submitted at 5 on Nov 20th. For some time before the opening of court this morning the room was largely occupied by ladies and the back part of the house was crowded with other spectators. Hagestead from the testimony seems to have been a hard character although he appears to have quite a circle of friends who are anxious about the verdict.”

“The jury was out all night but filed in this morning [November 21] and returned their verdict of guilty of murder in the second degree. The verdict was quite a surprise to the defendant and to a large portion of the people who have attended the trial but with another class it is believed to be just right.”

Hagestead was sentenced by the court to sixteen years in the state penitentiary for the Second Degree murder of Wint and as he was leaving the courtroom he complained that he would rather have been shot then sent to prison.

            The Salt Lake Herald reported, “The sentencing of Hagestead for shooting and killing the Indian int at Panguitch lake last summer, to sixteen years in the penitentiary with hard labor will meet with general approval. If white men murder Indians they should be punished for their crime. It has not always been so but it should have been for the law is no respecter of persons.”

However the Richfield Advocate criticized the jury writing, “The fallibility of the jury system has been again exemplified in the Hagestead case recently tried in Beaver. The assassin of the Indian Wint was convicted of murder in the Second degree. All the evidence in the case went to prove that the killing was either a most fiendish cold-blooded unprovoked murder in the first degree or else purely an accident.”

“Hagestead should either have been strung up high as Haman [a Persian minister in the book of Esther who is hanged after plotting a foiled massacre of the Jews] or allowed to go Scot free.”

“The jury probably at first disagreed and so in order to get home to sleep and eat, split the difference, and called it murder in the second degree. The result is now that a brutish murderer will get off with a light sentence or than an innocent man is being punished.”

On 24 November 1895, shortly after Hagestead’s conviction his own lawyer Peter M Baum was arrested for adultery for seducing a Parowan school teacher while still having a wife in Montana. He fled to California in April 1896 after being indicted.

Hagestead was released from prison between 1902 and 1903 and found himself on Second West in 1904. Little more is known of him except he filed for bankruptcy in 1906 as “Francis Hagestead , a carpenter  indebtedness $205.40 household goods $25.” He later did marry an woman named Maud who was one of people who lost all her possessions in the great Redman Warehouse fire of 1907 that destroyed $200,000 personal property of Salt Lake residents including the heirlooms of the Heber C Kimball estate.

Chapter Six

Fateful Day August 22

Clarence Dallon last saw his friend Wilford Vermillion on Monday, 22 August 1904   in the “afternoon at 3:30 o’clock up town. He was then in the best humor. He seemed filled with joy when I talked with him about his father’s visit’s with him.” Vermillion was said by  Dallon to have been in his “usual good spirits and had made plans for the future. He even bought camera supplies and made arrangements for the coming of his father.”

After departing Dallon said “as soon as his work was done he went to his room and had supper, remaining home all night until advised at 12:30  or 1 o’clock that Vermillion had been killed. The police told him at his room and Dallon stated that he had not been in the drug store that night at all.

That Monday night Wilford was all alone in the drug store after his young clerk “left at 7 o’clock for the first time in weeks. That evening Wilford  made up the cash as usual and then dismissed his clerk  until the next day.

As it would have been a warm August night a woman named Miss Mary J Forbes also called Jennie, said that at 10 o’clock Wilford was sitting in front of the drug store with a man whom she did not know. “Miss Jennie Forbes,” who lived across West Second South from the pharmacy  said she saw Wilford  at 10 o’clock who “was in good spirits.” She said she went to the store to buy “some corks for ketchup bottles” and that Wilford was “sitting outside at the time talking to some man” whom she did not notice. A “rustic seat where Vermillion often sat in the evening” was directly in front of the eastern of the two show windows at the front of his store

Vermillion was said to have “jumped up and opened the door for me. He looked for corks and brought out one, the only one he had. He said he would have more at 5 o’clock the next day. He laughed and talked in a bantering way as he always did. He followed me to the door, open it for me and took his seat beside the man to whom he had been talking. As I left he was resuming his conversation with this man. It lacked a few minutes of 10’clock when I left the store. I did not notice the man to whom the druggist was talking.”

A little later Charles Peterson who “had been on intimate terms with Wilford for several months” was in the drug store saying good night. He may have been the individual Wilford had been sitting with.

A night watchman named John Irvine who patrolled “the beat for the merchants in that vicinity” passed the drug store and continued down the street until he “saw two men” probably inebriated sitting in a ditch besides the sidewalk a half block west of the drug store.”  Irvine saw no one in front of the drug store.

Before retiring, at about 10:30 Wilford was at  the showcase counter writing a letter to his San Francisco friend J M Maynard  asking him “to come to Salt Lake and pay him an extended visit.”

In the last moments of his life Wilford was writing “an affectionate letter to a friend” and had started to write “the name of the friend and the name and number of his street on the envelope but before the name of the city was written, he was dead. He died with his fountain pen still dripping held in his left hand.”

A little more than three months after buying the drug store business, Wilford Vermillion, 24 years old and unmarried,  was mysteriously killed in his place of business on Monday 22 August 1904. “Wilford A. S. Vermillion fell dead behind the prescription case in his drug store at 511 West Second South Street  at 10:30 o’clock with a  bullet through his brain.”

The Fallen Young Druggist

On the night of 22 August 1904, the noise of a scuffle and then two gunshots aroused the inhabitance of the rooming house above the drug store some who were retiring for the night.

Martin B. Smith and his wife Libbie, the proprietor of the rooming house above the drug store, had just retired for the night. Upstairs were also their daughter Cora  and two lodgers, Charles Reinhart Peterson [1876-1959] and George Ristine [1860-1906].

According to the 1900 Census Peterson he was a 24 year old “order clerk” living with his widow mother and his younger sister. He had been born in Salt Lake City, the son of Swedish Mormon Converts. In 1904 Charles Peterson was identified as a “lineman’ and was said to have been “on intimate terms with Vermillion for several months. He had been in the drug store ten minutes before going upstairs.

Peterson later retired from ZCMI where he worked as a clerk. When he died, his Mormon Bishop filled out his death certificate, stating he had never married when actually he had been in 1922 for a brief time. He had no family of his own.

Ristine was a railroad carpenter who in 1900 was boarding at the Albany Hotel according to the federal census.

Libbie Smith had “extinguished their light only a few moments before, she “heard footsteps scurrying across the floor’ of the drug store below only “an instant  before the shots were fired.” Martin .B Smith said he had gone to bed and was asleep when his wife awakened him saying that “there was an awful noise in the drug store.” He then heard a brief scuffle then the shots.

Quickly out of bed they looked out of the widow but “neither she nor her husband who kept a close watch on the front door saw any one leave the drug store.”  Martin Smith, believing “that an attempt was being made to rob the drug store as there have been many burglaries and robberies in the neighborhood during the past two years,”  quickly dressed himself  and “hastily and ran down stairs.” When he reached the drug store, he found the front door standing open. However there were no signs of “any person in the street who could have left the drug store after the shots were fired.”

The Smith’s daughter Cora also heard the scuffle and gun shots down stairs as well as two lodgers, Charles Peterson, and George Ristine. Peterson stated he heard “noises of a short, fierce struggle but no outcry, and then two shots. He said he also heard a noise after the shots.”

After hearing the shots the men rushed downstairs along with the Smith’s to find Wilford Vermillion lying on the floor “gasping for breath and trying vainly to articulate some words which Peterson was unable to hear.”

The young druggist was bleeding from a bullet wound in his face, “the ball having struck him near the right nostril and passed through to the brain where it lodge.”

George Ristine noticed that Wilford still had a fountain pen still in his left hand. He took the pen out of the dead man’s hand and laid it on the on the counter near where there “was a partly written letter to a “school chum” in California.”  Upon reading the letter, Ristine saw that Vermillion had  written  to  a friend named Maynard asking him “to come to Salt Lake during the present summer and pay him an extended visit.”

Ristine would later argue, when suicide was suggested by the police as the cause of death, that there  was nothing in the letter that indicated Wilford Vermillion had “even remotely considered taking his own life or that he was in any way despondent.”

Someone immediately summoned Dr. Thomas H Hazel, as he lived around the corner. While Mrs. Libbie Smith  went to Dr. Ira W. Waite’s  house  saying that Vermillion had been killed. Dr. Waite was  one of the physicians who was called to attend Vermillion he said the call came at 10:34 o’clock. However Wilford Vermillion was dead within a few moments after Dr. Hazel arrived.

Dr. Waite entered the store through the back door but said he could not remember who let him in. Mrs. Smith said she did not know who let Dr. Waite in at the back door either. The rear door might have been left open for some time. “He made no search of the premises for an assailant” and said it was possible that someone could have slipped out the back door after his arrival without being seen owing to the excitement.”

It is not known who notified Wilford’s mother and sisters of his death bit it was reported “Mother and two sisters are nearly prostrated by the tragedy.” Henrietta Vermillion would the next day telegram J.M. Maynard  “Wilford killed tonight by unknown party.” 

Chapter Seven

Suicide or Murder?

            When the police finally arrived on the scene, they found that the shop’s cash register was opened but money from the day’s receipts was “still in the drawer.” They also discovered that  the cash register had been damaged by a shot that had hit one of the key tabs.

When Wilford Vermillion’s body was removed from where it lay, the police saw that “his cheap .32 caliber revolver was found beneath him.” The revolver had two empty cartridges and “the smell of powder still issuing from the barrel.” There was blood on Wilford’s right wrist though there was scarcely any on the right side of the body.

His broken glasses were also discovered near the body. The right lens was found lying under the prescription counter, about three feet from the corpse, while the other lay six feet from the other almost in the doorway between the storeroom and the room behind it. The broken glasses suggested to those who found Vermillion’s body “evidence of a brief struggle.”

Both Mr. and Mrs. Martin B. Smith told detectives that they did not see anyone leave by the front door of the drug store after hearing shots fired.

The police determined that as that no one was seen leaving the shop that Wilford must have been alone and committed suicide. The police concluded that Wilford committed suicide by shooting himself in the head as that no suspect was evident and that no money had been stolen from the open till.

The police determined that “the best evidence that could be obtained indicated that the young man died by his own hand.” They postulated after learning that Vermillion had a “great deal of trouble” during the past few months as his cash drawer was frequently short. The police detectives even suggested that as Wilford’s father, Judge Vermillion, was coming down from Montana the very next day, this “may have caused the druggist to commit suicide by disappointing his father. The detectives  assumed Vermillion “was afraid to face his father as that the judge had fronted the money for the shop.” The press echoed the police’s insinuation that Wilford Vermillion “feared his father” and that “he may have taken his own life as not to let on that his drug store was a business failure.

The Salt Lake police clung to the suicide theory while the idea was disputed by his friends who stated that Wilford Vermillion was not depressed. His friends vehemently denied that he and his father were at odds. The notion that Wilford Vermillion feared his father’s arrival was refuted by Tracy Gurley who testified that Vermillion had been happy all that day that his father was arriving in town to see him.

The death of Wilford Vermillion was a mystery to his friends. They claimed that they knew of no reason for him to commit suicide. His friends, “who knew him best,” testified before an inquest, that as far as they knew, “his private life was without a stain.”

Dr. Hazel reported to the police after they arrived at the scene, that he had heard the shots and had seen “a man run past his residence a few moments later” before being summoned to attend to the man shot. Dr. Hazel told the police “he thought little’ of the shots supposing that “a street car had made the noise.”  He had just come home from his own store and was in the process of undressing when he stepped on to his porch to investigate. As was he approaching toward his front door, he then saw a man was running close to his fence. “The man sped diagonally across Fourth [Fifth] West and vanished in the darkness.”

Dr. Hazel later would tell a reporter, “I informed one or two policemen upon their arrival at Mr. Vermillion’s drug store of what I had seen. I fully believe that if they had acted immediately surrounded the block to which the man fled and searched it, they would have apprehended the man who committed the deed. Instead they permitted valuable time to slip by thus giving the guilty one ample time to escape.”

He added “Why the police department has treated my knowledge of the occurrence that took place just prior to my being summoned to the drug store with so much reticence is beyond my comprehension.”

He then told the reporter for the Salt Lake Telegram  that “it is my firm belief that Mr. Vermillion was murdered, and not until the mysterious action of the man I saw running past my house a minute after hearing the noise is explained will I believe in the suicide theory.”

Chapter Eight

The Crime Scene

When Wilford Vermillion was shot, he fell behind the prescription case at the back of the store. Vermillion’s body was found behind the prescription case with the head opposite the middle case. The feet protruded about ten inches or a wood west of the end of the case. Near the head lay a  lens from his broken glasses and the torn envelope addressed to Maynard. The tin money box was still on a shelf in the prescription case.

The cash register was found partly open with some fragments of a .38-calber bullet in the compartment at the southeast corner of the till drawer. Another piece of this bullet had hit and broken a key. “The course of the bullet in the wood” indicated the projectile “came near the west corner of the prescription case.”

On either side of the prescription case were curtains . “The drapery on the east side was drawn nearly across the passage way at the time of the tragedy and thus concealed  the cellar door, which was found open after the murder from the view of any one where Vermillion had been writing his letter.

A bit of a bullet, found just inside the room to the rear of  the prescription case during the investigation on a hat brim,  “added mystery to the west side tragedy.” This “bit of lead” was about half the length of a .38 caliber pistol slug and is a shaving. It had apparently either dropped or placed on the hat brim on top of a shelf of the doorway leading to the cellar. Investigators thought it “may have been placed there by some one of the officers who picked it up the night of the shooting as that it was “hard to tell when it came, for no marks of a ricocheting ball exist on walls, ceiling or floor so far as can be seen.”

Evidence at the crime scene showed that two shots had been fired believed to have been from Wilford Vermillion’s .32 caliber revolver which was found beneath his body. To explain the two shots fired, the police  investigators thought at first that Vermillion had simply “tried to shoot himself in the heart but in some way missed fire,  the ball striking the cash register instead.”  The broken key in the cash register was explained during the police investigation from Wilford’s first shot having struck an iron bar beside the till drawer. The other half broke the key and fell on the floor near it.

Harder to explain, however, was that  Wilford Vermillion had died from a bullet hole in his cheek near his nose.

Searching for a “motive for the deed” the police investigators speculated that Vermillion was having financial troubles; “that the young man had become involved in a financial way.” Later from questioning 22 year old Clarence Wilbur Dallon, “a college companion and constant chum”, of Wilford Vermillion, the police detectives learned that Vermillion had “confided” to him about some “missing money and that he did not know how to explain matters to his father.” Dallon explained to the police that he knew this, as that the dead man “confided all his private affairs to me.” The police therefore thought that Vermillion had been “despondent and worried recently,” enough to take his own life.

Chapter Nine

Witnesses

Twenty one year old Paul A Carlin, residing at the White House hotel at the corner of Main Street and Second South also contacted the police upon learning of a death within the Vermillion Drug store. He  reported that as he was walking home on the opposite side of the Second South street to his hotel, from the Rio Grande Depot,  he heard gun shots across the street but saw no one leave the drug store. However he also admitted that just as the shots were fired “he looked to see what was the cause, but a street car passed at that moment shielding the drug store from his sight.”

He said the then hurried across Second South “as soon as possible but could see no one.” The passing street car evidently “could have obstructed the view of anyone from across the street of seeing anyone leaving the drug store.” Additionally the drug store was “situated at least 175 feet from the nearest corner light” which would have obscured much of the street in shadows.

Frank Gillam, [1864-unknown], who lived around the corner at a house at 241 Fourth [Fifth] West, just down from Dr. Hazel and Mrs. Vermillion, told police he saw a man running down the street about the time he heard shots.

Gillam operated a chili carne lunch and fruit stand at 479 West Second South on the east opposite corner from Dr. Hazel’s house. He claimed that he saw a man “run east from the drug store until he reached the corner” and then fled south, immediately after hearing shots.”

Gillam said he had just come to the lunch stand with his wife and daughter from Utahna Park. He left the two women and went out into the vacant lot behind the stand for a moment. While there he heard two revolver shots.

“I thought it was some saloon row and paid little attention to the noise. A moment later perhaps a minute or two, I saw a man come running past Dr. Hazel’s house. This man ran across the street and into the lot where I was at the time. He turned right east into the lot and ran, keeping close to the picket fence at its south end. He ran low and fast. He seemed to be running away from someone. I thought someone had been stoning Dr. Hazel’s house, because at that minute, Dr. Hazel had come to his front door.

“I came back into the stand and told my wife and daughter that some hoodlums had been breaking the doctor’s windows.”

“I was noticed that he was five feet five inches in heights and he hid his face and bent his form in the shadows. He escaped and before the arrival of the police was well out of the way.”

Gillam continued his description reporting, “This man was apparently of medium height and slim build. I cannot be certain as to his clothes. I think they were gray. I do not know for sure what kind of hat he wore. I would think he was clean shaven but cannot say for certain.”

He said that the man was “keeping out of sight as much as possible and seeming to endeavor to hide in the shadows and as he ran “stoop low as if to hide his face from observation.”

            At the moment Wilford Vermillion was killed, a Rio Grande Western street car, operated by “motorman “Jacob Hill, was passing the drug store the moment shots rang out. “The bright lights in the car dazzled the eyes of the passengers” who might have seen anyone “skulking in the shadows” until reaching the corner of Fourth [Fifth] West “some 160 feet away.”

At the corner of Fourth [Fifth] West, a mystery woman was said to have seen a man “as he was making his away.” The woman was sought by detectives as perhaps another witness who reportedly saw “the murderer as he left the drug store.”  A woman was seen waiting for a street car “at the corner of Fourth [Fifth] West and Second South and allegedly “heard the shots then saw a man leave the drug store and run east.” She then, however, “boarded her car and rode away.”

The “basis on which this woman’s existence is presumed” was that on the “morning after the murder” Vermillion’s younger sister Margaret, “then leaning from a second story widow over the store  heard a boy tell a companion that he knew this was murder” that “his mother had been waiting for a car and had seen the man run from the place. This boy went on to describe how his mother heard the shots.”

Upon learning of another possible witness, Coroner Frank Clark in charge of the Inquest into the death of Wilford, reported that he was anxious “that the woman who was waiting at Fourth [Fifth] West for an eastbound Rio Grande Western car the evening of the murder and who heard the shots and saw the man run from the drug store communicate with him. If either this boy or his mother will report to the Coroner, that official will be exceedingly thankful.” If anyone came forth it was never reported in the newspapers.

Chapter Ten

Autopsy and Inquest

Wilford’s corpse was removed to the morgue where Dr. Harry N May and Dr. T George Odell performed an autopsy which revealed that the bullet that killed him was “at least a .38 caliber.” The pistol that Wilford owned and found beneath his body, was a .32 caliber revolver.

Also it was also determined that the lethal bullet had struck him “horizontally” and had “traveled straight back from the point of entrance, near the base of the left nostril and severed the spinal column.

It was the opinion of the “surgeons that the powder burns  on the body showed that the .38 bullet was fired from “more than at arm’s length.”   The “scattering powder specks on the face of the dead man came from a revolver muzzle held several feet from the latter and that he could not have held the revolver himself and “strike him at that angle.” 

Yet the Salt Lake Police were still convinced that Wilford committed suicide as that no one saw an individual leave the drug store nor was there an indication of a robbery, as no money was missing from the tin box container or the cash register. The city police declared that suicide was “the only theory that can be accepted at this time.” The  Salt Lake Police were satisfied that Wilford’s death was “by his own hands.”

Although there appeared to be no motive for suicide, Salt Lake City Police Chief, William J Lynch, [1862-1931] supported his officers’ opinion  that Wilford took his own life. Chief Lynch was convinced that both shots fired that night were from Vermillion’s revolver, and “both are accounted for.”

Police Chief Lynch had only been appointed to that office by the mayor earlier in February 1904. His must have been a political appointment, as he had no law enforcement back ground and was listed in the 1900 federal census and also in the 1903 city directory as a bookkeeper. He only served as chief of police of Salt Lake City for a year before campaigning for city mayor in 1906. He was defeated by Ezra Thompson.

While the Salt Lake City Police considered Vermillion’s death a suicide, his family and friends believed his death was a murder. They insisted that he had “absolutely no motive for self-destruction existed.

A coroner’s jury was impaneled on Tuesday afternoon the day after to investigate the death of Wilford, “ the young druggist who was found dead behind the prescription counter in his store in Salt Lake on Monday night [22 August] to determine whether he died from an accident, suicide, or murder’. “Special efforts were made at the Coroner’s inquest to draw out if possible any facts that would tend to throw any color into the suicide theory” as the police maintained but throughout the two weeks investigation, suicide seemed more and more unlikely.

An inquest into the death of Wilford Vermillion was convened under the purview of Frank H. Clark, [1844-1909] a Union Civil War Veteran, Justice of the Peace and Salt Lake County Coroner. He was assisted by American-Norwegian James Ingebretsen [1876-1954], the county’s assistant district attorney.

The inquest into the death of Wilford Vermillion commenced on Tuesday August 23 and finished on September 3. A jury was convened in order to determine Wilford Vermillion’s “cause, time, and manner of death,” due to his death being “sudden, unexpected, and no attending physician was present.” 

Members of the jury selected to make a determination of the nature of Wilford’s death were three older businessmen, John T. Lynch, age 76 years, Roderick .D. McDonald age 62 years, and William Carroll, age 50 years.

John T. Lynch [1828-1908] a civil war veteran, was noted in Salt Lake Newspapers as being a “lady suffrage man from way back.” The 1900 federal census and the 1904 city directory both listed him as being a real estate agent residing at 854 First Avenue.

Roderick Dee McDonald [1842-1919] was according to the 1900 federal census a “mining man” residing at 767 South West Temple.

William Carroll [1854-1908] was said to have been one of Salt Lake City’s oldest architects when he died  and had been one of the city’s leading architects for Twenty-five years.

After the first day when the coroner jury viewed the Vermillion’s body, listened to evidence from several friends of the deceases, and the visited the scene of the tragedy, it was reported that “The Coroner’s jury, discovered that the task of determining the cause of death was “not a light one” as that they “discovered circumstances that seem in explicable” and “thus far, there has been no explanation offered that is satisfactory in the minds of the jurymen.”

The Investigation

The police interviewed Mrs. Vermillion and asked whether her son had “spoken of his suspicions” of who may have been stealing money from his cash register. She said that he had mentioned a Frank Hagestead. She said Wilford had told Hagestead not to come into the store as that Hagestead had stolen medicine and “that this was the reason for the trouble.” Also it was told to her that Hagestead had done time in the Utah Penitentiary for a shooting and was out on parole. However he had recently been laid off from his job as an engineer fireman on the Rio Grande. At any rate Mrs. Vermillion suspected Hagestead as a possible suspect in the death of her son.

The police then went and located Hagestead and interviewed him early Tuesday morning, August 23, but released him at the conclusion of the interview, as “he gave a good account of  his actions and whereabouts.”

The first witness called before the Coroner Jury on Tuesday afternoon was Clarence Dallon, “a college companion and constant chum of Vermillion.” Under oath he answered questions put to him by Assistant County Attorney James Ingebretsen, Coroner Clark, and the three jurymen regarding Wilford’s character and background.

Dallon informed the jurists that, ““Vermillion’s father, Judge Vermillion, furnished the money to start Vermillion in business at 511 West Second South Street.”

He stated that Wilford’s father also helped pay for his education and that he “was a graduate of the University of California and a few months ago went back there to take a post-graduate course which he completed with honors.”

            As to motives for anyone murdering Wilford, the question of whether he could have been killed by a spurned lover or rival, Clarence claimed that his friend “never had any love affair nor any other kind of affair with women since I have been associated with him, so far as I know. I believe he would have confided in me had he had such an affair. He confided all his private affairs to me.”

Clarence Dallon continued saying that Wilford had no vices or bad habits. “He never took a drink, and I have known that he was not the victim of any kind of a habit,” referring to an addiction. Still Dallon stated Wilford, “was a heavy user of tobacco, which affected his heart to some extent.”

As to a motive for suicide over either being depressed over money issues, Dallon commented, “I never knew him to be despondent and never heard him complain of anything. With regard to his money he was neither stingy nor over generous. He knew the value of money and  knew how to take care of it.”

“In answer to the question asked by Attorney Ingebretsen as to whether Vermillion had ever quarreled with any person so far as he knew, Clarence answered, that he had trouble with Frank Hagestead, recently released from the penitentiary having been convicted of Second Degree Murder.”

Tracy C. Gurley, the 15 year old drug store clerk was called to testify next. The youth “collaborated the statements of Dallon in detail. He said that Vermillion was happy all day Monday because of the expected arrival of his father.”

He mentioned however that on August 10, Vermillion’s keys were missing and believed to “had been stolen.”  He remembered the date because the Ringling Circus had just come to Salt Lake. Gurley remembered that on that date Vermillion had taken the revolver he kept under his bedroom pillow and “put it under the counter near the cash register.” He said to his young clerk, “that he would make it hot for any one whom he caught in the store stealing his money.”

When Gurley was shown the revolver “found under the body of the dying man” he was asked to identify it as his employer’s. He was unable to identify it as belonging to Vermillion but thought “it resembled the one he had seen in the store.”

When asked about Wilford’s habit of dealing with his receipts and especially about the missing money from the cash drawer over a period of weeks, “the youth said, ‘Vermillion used to count and check his cash several times a day. When it came 7 o’clock he would hide his money in a tin box in the back of the prescription case.’” He also said that Wilford said he trusted Gurley,  that he hadn’t been the one pilfering from him. “He said he thought he knew the culprit was and the would deal with him harshly of he caught him.”

Gurley also commented that Wilford spoke to his mother and sister “who were visiting him that during the past few weeks someone had been robbing the cash register.”

Tracy was asked whether Wilford had any enemies. He claimed that “he never had any trouble with any man over women so far as I ever knew. I never heard him quarrel with any person.”

Most of the “facts”  that had given to the jury by Clarence Dallon were also “corroborated by druggists in the city with whom Vermillion dealt and by many who knew him.”

After questioning the two “witnesses,” the jury traveled to Second South and “made a careful inspection of the place where the tragedy occurred.” When questioned by reporters the jurists “were unwilling to express an opinion in the matter until more witnesses are examined.”

One of the men, “who has made a careful observation of the case says it is one of the most peculiar that he has ever encountered in a long experience with criminal cases.” To a Telegram reporter he did reveal the complexity of the case. He said, “There are circumstances, two complete sets of them, one which points to suicide and the other to murder, with probably the greater strength in those that point to murder.”

It was speculated by reporters that Wilford Vermillion was murdered “presumably by a thief who had been looting his cash register during the past few weeks.” While the jury had not at all determine a final conclusion, the newspaperman wrote that murder was “the solution which Coroner’s Clark investigation has brought to the west side shooting mystery Monday Night. The police still hold to the suicide theory although they are working along the idea of murder at the same time.”

            Wilford’s sister Henrietta Vermillion sent a telegram to J.M. Maynard, the close friend  to whom Wilford had been writing when he was shot. Upon hearing of the death of Wilford he stated to San Francisco newspapers that it was his belief “it is a case of murder.” He stated, “Vermillion had no reason to kill himself. He had no woman entanglements and was too fond of the pleasures of life with a bright future before him.”  He added, “His disposition was too bright and sunny for me to ever entertain the idea that Mr. Vermillion took his own life. I do not believe it. He was killed.”

Clarence Dallon remained a close friend of the Vermillion family even after the death of Wilford and in 1905 became a brother in law to Tracy Gurley when Dallon married Gurley’s older sister. In 1917 Dallon acted as Best Man and his wife,  Matron of honor, at the wedding of Wilford’s sister Henrietta. Dallon, as an office secretary and clerk, worked for the Oregon Short Line until it was absorbed by the Union Pacific. He had worked for them for 25 years  before he retired in 1924 due to poor health. He died from heart disease with Tuberculous a contributing factor in that year in Salt Lake City.

Tracy Gurley moved to Seattle Washington where he continued to work as a drug clerk and married his first wife there in 1910. He served  in World War I from 1918 to 1919 as a First sergeant in Troop G 324 Cavalry. After separating from his first wife he returned to Utah where he remarried and lived out the reminder of his life. He died in 1958 having been a Shriner and Mason. He had operated a Variety Store on Fourth East and Seventeenth South prior to his death at the age of 68 and was a member of the Christian Scientist church.

Chapter Eleven

The Lethal Weapon

During the second day of the coroner inquest, Wednesday August 24, the jury heard testimony regarding the revolver owned by Wilford Vermillion and .38 caliber pistol found beneath his body. The gun was not in Wilford’s hands.

Dr. T. George Odell who assisted County Physician Henry N. Mayo in the autopsy made the following statement to the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper Wednesday morning. “I found that the bullet that caused Vermillion’s death took a course directly horizontal after entering the side of the nose and passing through the head stuck the first vertebra , breaking the bone.”

“The bullet was carefully weighed and it was found that it weighed exactly 140 grains. The ball was considerably battered and it was impossible to tell if any of it had been lost in its passage through the head.”

“I am positive that the young man could not have held the revolver and fired the ball to strike him as it did. The fact that the powder marks were widely scattered is proof conclusive in my mind that the gun was held at more than arm’s length when it was fired. It would have been impossible for him to hold it and fire in the manner that the wound and the powder marks indicate that it was fired.”

            An expert on ammunitions was called as a witness and he testified that a bullet “to weigh that much” as suggested by the weight of 140 grains, “must be a .38 caliber.”  The ammunition expert made a statement to the Salt Lake Telegram “with regards to the weights of the different sizes of pistol balls in common use today.”

He stated, “The weights of .32 caliber short revolver cartridges are as follows: Center fire Colt’s 50 grains, rim fire shorts .82 grains longs 90 grains.”

“The weights of .38 caliber short revolver cartridges are as follows: Smith & Wesson shorts 145 grains, Smith & Wesson longs 158 grains, M & H longs 145 grains, .27-.44 Smith and Wesson gallery revolver bullets weigh 70 grains and the same make of target balls weigh 146 grains.”

The testimony confirmed that the bullet that killed Vermillion was fired from a revolver larger than the one said to have been owned by Vermillion.

            Judge Vermillion, “father of the victim of the tragedy” had arrived in the city early in the morning  from Dillon, Montana, “over the Oregon Short Line” to comfort his grieving family and to make sure the cause of his son’s death was being thoroughly investigated. “He conferred for a short time with Coroner Clark. The result of this conference was a determination on the part of Mr. Vermillion to see the matter sifted to the bottom until, if possible, his son’s murderer is brought to justice.

            Judge Vermillion appeared before the coroner jury as a witness regarding Wilford’s revolver. Vermillion stated, “he believed his son’s weapon was an entirely different pattern from the revolver found beneath his son’s body.”

“The father said that his son’s pistol was of the Colt’s double action pattern of late date, with the cylinder dropping to one side for the ejection of cartridges. The revolver found under Wilford body was a .38 caliber breaking down like  a Smith & Wesson.”

Judge Vermillion stated he was convinced that his son met his death “in a hand to hand struggle with a robber in which the fatal shot was fired.” He recalled on the witness stand, a statement made by his son when he was employed as an express messenger, that he “would never be held up,” implying he would fight off any attempt.

Henrietta Vermillion the “sister of the dead man” was called to testify regarding her knowledge of her brother’s habits regarding his business receipts and his weapon. She stated that “Wilford always or nearly always locked his surplus money in his trunk after counting it. Occasionally he kept it on the prescription counter before he went to bed. And once in a while it was placed in a cupboard.”

Regarding his gun she added, “He always kept a revolver under his pillow.” She remarked that she had “seen it often when she made up his bed,” although  she  claimed she “had never examined it closely.”

The gun found beneath he brother’s body “was shown to her and she examined it minutely.” She remarked that the gun “seemed smaller than his. His seemed larger, the barrel seemed longer, and it seemed to be considerably heavier.”

She also commented that “Only last Saturday night” he brother had “told her that if ever he found a thief in the store he would fill the fellow full of lead.”

Margaret Vermillion, the “younger sister of the deceased was called” to testify and was shown the gun found in the drug store and asked if she could identify it. She stated that “the handle of her brother’s gun seemed heavier and thicker than the one shown her. The barrel also seemed longer.”

Then her “attention was called to the stains on the barrel of the gun found.” Margaret said she had never seen the stains on her brother’s gun.

When Police Chief Lynch was told of the weights of “various sizes of pistol bullets” he admitted that the said weight of the ball found to have killed Vermillion “tallied with the ordinary weight of a. 38 caliber pistol” but still insisted the death was a suicide.

The Salt Lake Tribune carried a bold print front page headline for their evening addition regarding the revelation regarding the weapon used to kill Wilford, “VIRMILLION KILLED BY A BULLET FROM A REVOLVER  LARGER THAN HIS OWN.”

The paper postulated, “Presumably, Vermillion caught this man trying to steal from the drug store till. The druggist ran back of the prescription case for his revolver. Then came a race for life. The thief won out, either securing the weapon first or quickly wrestling it from Vermillion’s grasp. He fired two shots. The first missed and struck the open cash register. The second struck Vermillion. As the victim fell the murderer threw away the revolver and fled. This is the probable story of the murder. It is probable for circumstantial evidence alone exits on which to base the details.”

 Chapter Twelve

More Witnesses Called Forth

Railroad lineman Charles Peterson, who roomed in the Smith’s lodging house above the drugstore and “had been on intimate terms with Wilford for several months” was called before the jury. He testified that he was in the drug store ten minutes before the tragedy. He had gone up to his room to retire for the night when he “heard noises of a short, fierce struggle but no outcry and then two shots.”

            He also stated that prior to the shots, “something struck the prescription counter so hard that the concussion was easily felt in the room above. There was also rapid trampling seemingly all in one place.” Peterson as “one of the first people on the scene said he called the police as soon as he saw the body.”

A night watchman named John Irvine, who patrolled “the beat for the merchants in that vicinity,” was called as a witness. He stated that he “passed the drug store a few minutes before the killing of Vermillion. He noticed Wilford through the plate glass window, “then at a showcase apparently writing.”  Irvine said he saw “no one in front of the drug store” but saw two men sitting in a ditch besides the sidewalk a half block west of the drug store.” 

Miss Mary J Forbes, [1881-1944] five days shy of 23^rd birthday  said that on August 22, at 10 o’clock Wilford was sitting in front of the drug store with a man whom she did not know. She went to the drug store to buy some cork stoppers for bottle containers. She was making ketchup, probably cooking at night when it was not so hot as in the day, it being August. She was boarding at 534 West on Second South most likely with widow Mary Eliza Brown Jones a Mormon pioneer who had lived on the street since the 1850’s. Forbes  was one of the last customer of Wilford. He said he but had one but would have more the next day so she left to return home.

A suspect in the death of Vermillion was described by eye two witnesses, Dr. Thomas H Hazel and Frank Gillam. These men “saw  him fleeing  from the scene of the crime.” This man, “hard on the sound of the two revolver shots, ran east along west  Second South past the residence of Dr. T. H. Hazel, then south east across Fourth West thence into a vacant lot on the east side of that thoroughfare. Across the lot he sped, stooping low and hugging closely a picket fence at it southern boundary.

Dr. Hazel was called before the jury and repeated that he also had “looked into the drug store at 10:30 and saw a figure at the prescription case who he could not say.”  Dr. T. H. Hazel who resided at 204 South Fourth [Fifth] West Street testified he heard the shots “Monday night and saw a man run past his residence a few moments later. The man ran close to his front fence and fled across the street.”

Dr. Hazel  “gave a graphic recital of how he saw a man run from the direction of the drug store immediately after the sounds of the shots. This man he said crossed Fourth West street going southeast and entered a vacant lot. The man was running as rapidly as he could. He wore a dark suit and dark hat and probably had a smooth face.”

He also “told of the widely scattered powder marks” on the body of Wilford after being summoned to the drug store. Dr. Hazel said that “this indicated that the revolver had been held at some distance from the face when it discharged.

Frank Gillam the proprietor a Chili lunch stand, also said he saw a man running from the direction of the drug store. He was called as a witness and testified that he saw a man run past Dr. Hazel’s corner, turning into Fourth West street from second South, into the vacant lot at the back of his lunch counter. The man “stooped low and ran fast,” and soon Gillam lost sight of him “in the shrubbery.”

 On the following day Gillam after hearing of the death of Wilford Vermillion, “went over the ground covered by the man.” He  said, “took pains to go out and look for the man’s tracks the next morning early.” By “good fortune” no one else appeared to have crossed the street. Gilliam followed the tracks of the running man almost all the way across the roadway. He told the coroner jury that he “found several foot prints plainly marked in the soft sand of the street.” They were apparently made by a No. 6 or 7 shoe with a pointed toe. The toe marks, according to Gillam were very well defines. He said. “In fact the man appeared to have run well on his toes.” He followed the foot prints until they could not be seen “beyond the sidewalk into the underbrush.”

Mrs. Libbie Smith, the land lady of the rooming house above the drugstore was called to testify and said she heard “sounds of a scuffle before the shots were fired . She told her husband she “feared a robbery being perpetrated.”

Mrs. Smith reiterated that “after the events narrated came the sound of running footsteps, heard by Mrs. Smith upstairs and by other lodgers, followed by an instance’s silence and then two pistol shots.”

One of the assumptions on which lead the police to believe that Wilford Vermillion had committed suicide, despite the testimony of  his upstairs neighbors that they heard scuffling and running prior to the shots, was  that no one saw a person within the drug store coming or going at the time of his death.       

            However speculation centered around the fact that someone could have entered the drugstore from the cellar unnoticed from the outside. The door  “was usually left unlocked but closed. On the night of August 22, the cellar door was found wide open after it had been locked.

            Dr. Ira Wait, who was summoned by Mrs. Libbie Smith to come to the aid of the dying Wilford Vermillion, was called to testify before the jury. Dr. Wait said he entered the drug store through the cellar door and testified “that he had not yet been able to fix in his mind the identity of the person who opened the door for him. He said when he had tried the door; it was locked. After he knocked twice and someone opened it for him.”

            Landlady Mrs. Libbie Smith also said she did not know who had opened the door for Dr. Wait when he responded to the call Monday night. “That ,she said, seemed a mystery to her.”

Chapter Thirteen

The Funeral

Wilford Vermillion’s funeral was held on Saturday afternoon, August 27. His casket was escorted by a funeral cortege marching band performing “Chopin’s funeral march,” from funeral director Sidney Evan’s parlors at 213 South State,  thence to a funeral service at St. Paul’s Episcopal church located on the southeast corner of Fourth South and Main Street. Rev. Charles E Perkins was the rector and most likely conducted the service. “Many friends were present and some elaborate floral offerings were sent.”

After the service, the “Knights Templars of this city” marched with the cortege of buggies and carriages as they made their way up the steep incline toward the Mount Olivet cemetery that overlooked the city at Thirteen East between Fifth and Sixth South. Mount Olivet Cemetery is the only cemetery in the United States established by an Act of Congress and signed by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1874 as “a burial place for all people.”

The Masons of Salt Lake conducted the final service beside the open grave. Wilford  was interred in plot Section 0-91 and his grave was marked with a granite memorial with the Templar Knights cross carved into the top of the slab

In 1909 his baby sister Florence who died and was buried in Rawlins, Wyoming was disinterred and reburied in Mount Olivet. The marker has both their names on it so may have replaced Wilford’s original gravestone.

Chapter Fourteen

The Forensic Investigation

While Wilford Vermillion’s funeral was taking place, “more material evidence” to the effect that Wilford Vermillion was murdered was gathered within the drug store on Second South. Coroner Clark and Assistant District Attorney Ingebretsen went to the scene of the crime  using “methods which savor strongly of those adopted by Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.” The purpose of their investigation was to “strengthen their belief” that Vermillion was “attracted by the sound of a thief behind the prescription case; that he ran from the cash register toward the sound, grabbled a moment with  this thief and was shot.”

            The fact that Wilford was found with a writing pen still in his hand from addressing an envelope to his San Francisco “chum” and that the cash register was open and yet no money was taken from the till puzzled the investigators. The pair of officials went to the drug store in the morning bringing along with them a “man weighing 205 pounds nearly an exact weight of Vermillion” and Detective Richard L. Shannon who was a “representative of the police department.”

The cash register was “experimented upon” by the investigators and “it was found that it was opened to its greatest extent when the shot was fired that broke the key.”  Coroner Clark was firm in his opinion that Wilford “had himself opened the cash register, probably to get a stamp for the letter which he was writing to his chum in San Francisco.” The cash register when examined, “in the compartment through which the bullet went, a torn stamp was discovered.”  This torn postage stamp was not in the section “in which the stamps were kept and the fact made the Coroner more positive than ever he as correct.

“It then occurred to the Coroner and Assist District Attorney that the partially addressed envelope which lay beside the newly finished letter, might not have been the only one Vermillion addressed.” Coroner Clarke reasoned, “A man often goes after a stamp with envelope in his hand.” The men searched and found beneath the prescription case, near where the body was discovered, “three torn pieces of envelope wrinkled and stained by drops of blood.” The torn envelope bore “the appearance of having been trampled upon.”

When pieced together “these bore the complete address of J. M. Maynard 1614 Turk Street, San Francisco Calif.”, the man to whom the newly finished letter was written.

“This is taken by Clark and Ingebretsen to indicate Wilford had addressed one envelope faultily and thrown it on the floor and that he had then gone to the cash register for a postage stamp with which to mail the other envelope.”

Evidently the police so certain that Wilford had committed suicide a thorough search of the store had never been done and the “place had not been swept since Vermillion’s death” five before.

            Police Detective Shannon then instructed Mrs. Libbie Smith and her daughter Cora Smith to step into the rooms upstairs into the exact places in their rooms where they were at the time the shots were fired and take particular notice of the sounds that they might hear.” “in which they were when they were alarmed by the sounds of running and a scuffle in the drug store.”

James Ingebretsen then “struggled for a moment” with the 205 pound man who was “thrown against the prescription counter. The women stated that while they heard the noises downstairs, “declared that they did not resemble those heard that night.”

The Assistant District Attorney  and the 205 pound man then “assumed different positions” with the “heavy man” standing at the cash register while Ingebrigtsen “the lighter one concealed himself behind the prescription case.

“When the larger man turned from the cash register and saw Ingebretsen, he hurled himself at him and they scuffled. Then one of them was thrown against the partition.”

When the women again were questioned again, “this time they each declared that the sounds were identical with the sounds they had heard, when they ran from their rooms on Monday, the night of the murder.”

The discoveries of the torn stamp, a ripped up envelope, and the noise experiments “made both officials more positive than ever that Vermillion had been taking a stamp from the register when he heard someone behind the prescription case that he ran to get this man and was shot down after a brief scuffle.

The men now speculated “that some person gained entrance to the rea of the drug store possibly through a cellar door that was found open on that night and concealed himself behind the prescription counter.”

Coroner Clark and “others investigating the affair” contended that “Vermillion stepped to the cash register to get a stamp, the addressed envelope to Maynard being in one hand and the fountain pen in the other. He heard someone behind the prescription case and suspicious that he was a thief ran to the spot.”

“ When Wilford saw him, after securing the stamp, it is thought he made a lunge for the intruder” and struggled against the prescription case.” 

“He grabbed with the man near the east end of the case, probably forcing him against the partition.

 “It has been shown that at times, Vermillion had his gun on the counter of the prescription case. This is thought to have been the case at the time and the intruder seeing that his presence was discovered saw the gun on the case and secured for the weapon. In the struggle the “first shot missed the mark but landed in the cash register, the drawer of which was still open, then a second shot was fired from “which Vermillion’s’ death wound was inflicted.”

“The assassin it is believed could have made his escape through the rear or through the cellar door which was open when the sisters of the dead man arrived at the drug store the night if the tragedy.”

“The nature of the shooting itself, together with a few facts which have been picked up and not yet given out for publication, make some of the officials sure that either a man, mad with drink or a reckless boy, committed the crime. Such a party must have known the place well and have been accustomed to entering and departing at some time or other from behind the prescription case.”

 Chapter Fifteen

Judge Vermillion Investigates

Judge Vermillion went on Sunday August 28 to his son’s drug store to look for clues to how an intruder might have enter the store unseen to dispel the police’s contention that Wilford had committed suicide. He discovered an “open area window leading into the basement” where “tracks leading to the cellar” were indicated.

Judge Vermillion learned from detectives “that either a boy or a drunken man committed the murder” was the belief of Frank Clark and James Ingebretsen who were “investigating the affair.”

The boy theory was strengthened “by the discovery of what seem to be traces of someone either entering or departing via the cellar window. Finger marks and knee prints were found in the dust near this widow.” Judge Vermillion examined the cellar carefully and discovered them rather than the police.

It was the Judge’s contention that “the thief, whose access to the cash register had been shut off during the week previous, grew desperate and made an attempt to get the tin money box” that was kept on the prescription case shelf. “When attacked by the druggist  he back away and fired.”

“The fact that the door from the cellar into the store was found open when neighbors came upon Vermillion’s body leads to the theory that the murderer left by that route,” and was the reason no one saw anyone leaving by the front.

Then Judge Vermillion was “informed of the discovery” of a suspect about this time, most likely from the Salt Lake Tribune. A reporter named Frank W Mulock, recently having arrived in Salt Lake and had written a few articles for the Tribune, received a statement from John Donovan who lodged at the same hotel. Donovan related a story of how his roommate George Stevens disappeared the day after the killing of Wilfred Vermillion. Steven had claimed to have known Wilford from college in San Francisco and in Salt Lake had been “touching” him for money.

Judge Vermillion made inquiries and while no one he interviewed at the store remembered having seen a man of Steven’s description, the Judge Thought “it was thought worthwhile to follow the clue to an end in the hope that corroborative evidence might be forth coming.”

Judge Vermillion learned from his sister in law Mrs. Rose Edwards, with whom his son  had boarded upon arriving in Salt Lake, “that the dead man had on one occasion causally mentioned a meeting with a fellow who claimed to have known him in California although he did not remember him.”

Mrs. Edwards remembered the incident and later told the newspapers, “My nephew was staying with us last June. He had taken hold of the drug store and was running it for himself. He came home one evening and said that a man who claimed to have known him in the University of California had dropped in and seem him. He said that he himself did not remember the man but latter claimed to have been in college at the same time he was.”

“ I do not remember his exact words but this was the substance of the conversation. At the time, the matter did not seem to dwell at all on his mind, in fact he did not mention it again. I do not know whether the man came to the store often or not; in fact, I left the city soon afterward and was away at the time of the murder. It was after the tragedy that I recalled the fact and I mentioned it to Judge Vermillion then.”

Judge Vermillion, knowing that the police was not following up on a murder angle, was  influenced in part by the tale that Donovan had told Mulock. He agreed “to look on Stevens” in an attempt to  find clues “probably leading toward the real murderer.”

  Chapter Sixteen 

The Inquest Wraps Up

The Coroner’s investigation continued to follow up on clues to how Wilford Vermillion came to his untimely demise during the last week of August until September 2.

            Clues surrounding the Drug Store’s cash register were examined. It was found that the cash register “could be opened without observation on the part of anyone” who was sitting in front of the place as Wilford often did. “Vermillion was accustomed to sit on a rustic bench just outside the store. By muffling the register bell which can be done with a set screw, the drawer was thrown open without being heard from the bench.”

            This discovery apparently cleared up the “mystery of how the thief who had been robbing the till prior to the murder accomplished his work.”

The Vermillion Drug Store reopened within days of Wilford’s death and it was determined that since the store was reopened, “registrations and cash on hand have tallied perfectly” revealing that that the “shortage of change was not due to any fault in the register’s mechanism.”

            The Coroner jury had to determine was Vermillion’s death an accident? It was explained by the autopsy report that the “position of the wound would in the first place exclude that theory.” There was no acceptable answer to the query, “What would he be doing with the revolver when he was engaged in addressing an envelope in which he enclosed a cheerful letter which he had written to a friend?” Also “if it were an accident how was it that one shot was fired into the cash  register  and an instant later another was fired into his brain?”

District Attorney Ingebretsen dismissed the notion that Vermillion’s death was an accident telling a reporter, “ It could not have been in my opinion an accident and so there are but two other theories to consider.” Those were that of suicide and murder.

            The Salt Lake City still believed Wilford’s death was by his own hand however Ingebretsen was dismissive of that theory. He said, “Here is a young man in the prime of life, successful in business, prosperous, and surrounded by friends in who he has every confidence. His relations have been shown to be of the most affectionate character, so far as his parents and his sisters are concerned. He loved them and they loved him with deep and tender affection.”

“Persons living in the close companionship with the young man say that he was always cheerful. He was a model young man. There were no women who he had any reason to fear and he had no known enemies. He had lost some money in his cash drawer and it worried him to a certain extent but not enough to cause him to be finically embarrassed. His financial condition was good.”

“He had missed money from his till for some time but this did not seem to dishearten him. He said he would watch for and catch the thief. He had never spoken or initiated that he would commit suicide to any of his most intimate acquaintances. If he had wished to take his own life, he would never have shot himself.”

Ingebretsen argued that Wilford being a druggist, “knew the active powers of certain drugs that he had at his fingertips. He would only needed a small dose of cyanide of potassium and he would have been died before he cried out for help. There were other drugs that he could have also taken and the result would have been the same, and infinitely less painful than run the risk of inflicting slight injury with a revolver of so small caliber.”

“Besides, if he had intended to kill himself why should he fire a shot through the cash register before firing the fatal one through his brain?”

            He continued to dismissed the suicide scenario saying, “I have made a careful study of suicide cases and I find that 50 percent of those who shoot themselves do so behind the ear. About 20 percent shoot through the temple and 10 percent through the mouth. The other 20 percent take chances on shooting themselves through the heart. There is rarely a case that is parallel to this one in the matter of the location and the nature of the wound.”

“Taking all of these things into consideration, it could scarcely have been a case of self-murder. There remains then, but one thing to consider -Murder.”

            Ingebretsen surmised “The first thing to establish in a murder case is a motive. Strike the true motive first and you are on the way to the discovery of the criminal.” He believed that there appeared to have been “but one motive that could have prompted this murder” and “That motive was robbery.” He stated that the drug store “business was such that they [Vermillion and Gurley]  frequently had to leave the front of the store and go back of the prescription case or into the back room.

            Ingebretsen speculated, “What may have occurred. The ruffian advanced to the cash register and Vermillion saw him. An instant before the shot was fired Vermillion rushed to the place where the revolver was kept. This accounts for the rush of feet heard by Mrs. Smith and her husband, an instant before the shots were heard by them.”

“Then Vermillion reached under the desk, drew his revolver, and fired a shot in the direction of the intruding robber. The shot was not meant to kill but to frighten. The ball struck one of the keys of the register which was broken off.”

“The ruffian surprised, prepared to hurl  himself on Vermillion who was still back of the prescription counter and before the young man could fire a second time a struggle ensured and in the fight the assailant managed to turn the revolver on Vermillion and it was discharged the ball killing him within a few minutes.”

“The revolver, which was dropped by Vermillion’s nerveless hand, after the shot was fired by the robber fell in such a manner that Vermillion fell over it when he went down. In the horror of the situation the murderer dared not turn the dying man over on his back to get the revolver  for two good reasons.”

“The first was the lack of time and the second was the thought that Vermillion possibly was not fatally injured and would be able to identify the face of the man who had shot him in case he were to recover.”

“The cash register was open but the murdered heard steps on the stairs and feared detection. In his horror and fright he forgot to secure the money that was in plain sight and made his escape.”

Ingebretsen concluded his summary of how he believed the events happened that led to Vermillion’s death saying, “These and a dozen other circumstances which have developed since the finding of the young man a few moments before he died have convinced me that he was the victim of a crude assassin who first motive was robbery and whose second motive was preservation of his own liberty even at the cost of a human life.”

Chapter Seventeen

The Verdict

Over the course of the two weeks investigation, “a hundred equally difficult questions” were  are asked by the jury, and “for the answers to these questions the members of the jury are groping in the dark as far from a solution of this deep mystery as they were when they were first summoned.”

Many conflicting stories were published in Salt Lake newspapers covering the inquest,  with newspapers reportedly discovering “no less than three different murderers,” while the police continually maintained “every known fact points to suicide.” 

The inquest took weeks as that there was presented to the jury “a dozen facts” suggesting suicide while there were a dozen more theories “in favor of murder.”

 Eye witnesses came forward to relate how they saw a mysterious man running past Dr. Hazel’s home darting across the street into a vacant lot. Dr. Hazel and Frank Gillam each testified that each after he had heard the revolver shots witnessed “man running away. The Salt Lake Telegram stated, “And the stories of both dovetail so nicely that they can be taken as absolutely reliable.”

Assistant District Attorney Ingebretsen after listening to witnesses and examining the evidence regarded the suicide theory as untenable. The friends and family also disputed the police’s version of events and insisted that Wilford was murdered by an intruder.

On Friday 2 September 1904  the coroner jury reached a verdict on the cause of death of Wilford Vermillion. “When the jury was called to order Friday morning, Justice Clark said that several trails had been followed,” and added that if the police had known “what is now in sight,” the nature of the killing might have been “flushed” and a suspect might not have “escape before tangible evidence could be secured that would arrant an arrest.”  He then told them, “that there was nothing further that could be safely brought before the jurors and recommended that unless they had other persons in mind who might be interrogated, it would be well for them to arrive a verdict.”

The jury “thereupon retired and in five minutes had prepared and signed its findings.”

“Verdict, “Death By Hand Of Assassin.” An inquest having been held in Salt Lake City in Salt Lake City Precinct , Salt Lake County, on the 23ed , 24th, 25th, 26th, and 29th of August and 2nd of September 1904 before Frank H. Clark, Justice if the Peace in Salt Lake City precinct in said county, upon the body of Wilford A. S. Vermillion, there lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereto subscribed, the said jurors upon their oaths do say that deceased came to his death at Salt Lake City and county, State of Utah on the 22nd day of August 1904 by means of a gunshot wound in his head, which was inflicted feloniously by the hand of an assassin to this jury unknown.

In testimony whereof the said jurors have hereunto set their hands the day and year aforesaid.”

            The Salt Lake Telegram exclaimed, “Murder Is the Verdict of the Coroner’s Jury In the Vermilion Case. Members Are Unanimous in Their Opinion; Officials on the track of Persons Suspected of the Crime.”

“The Coroner’s jury impaneled to inquire into the cause of the death of Vermillion, who was shot to death in his drug store on the night of August 22, returned a verdict in Coroner Clark’s court Friday morning to the effect that Vermillion came to his death by a gunshot wound in the head inflicted feloniously by the hand of an assassin to the jury unknown.”

“This verdict was signed by all of the jurymen, whose minds were made up when they entered the Coroner’s office at 9:30 o’clock to resume the inquest.”

“There was but a brief discussion of the case and the verdict was immediately drawn up under their direction and signed without delay.”

“The jurors thanked Coroner Clark for the aid he had given them and then thanked Assistant County Attorney James Ingebretsen for his painstaking care in following every lead that had been brought out, and for the skill he had exercised in questioning the witnesses who had been summoned.”

“Mr. Ingebretsen who has labored almost incessantly on the case since his attention was first called to it said ‘This is one of the most elusive and baffling cases with which I have ever come in contact and I believe that there has never been a criminal case in the State that can equal this in its mysterious elements. It has occasioned the most intense interest on the part of the public.”

“After rendering its verdict, the jury thanked The Telegram for the fair and impartial manner in which it had handled the case from the beginning. Coroner Clark and Attorney Ingebretsen also thanked this paper for its fairness and absence of partiality.”

“In preparing its verdict, the jury men stated that there were several points in the evidence the convinced them that Vermillion was murdered. One of these was the location of the bullet and the character of the wound that was inflicted. Another point was the fact that the revolver was found under the body, indicating to them that it had been placed there by the assassin after the shooting of Vermillion.”

“The scuffling sounds heard by those who were in the rooms over the drug store before the shots were heard was also a factor that helped them arrive at their conclusion.”

“About the strongest element that pointed to murder was the testimony of Dr. Hazel which so minutely corroborated by Frank Gillan with regard to the man who was seen to run away from the scene of the crime immediately after the shots were fired. Neither of these men the jury said knew the other before the inquest.”

“The [County] Sheriff and his deputies have been persistent in the hunt for the assassin since the crime was committed and there have been three or four deputies engaged on the case following clues constantly since that time.

It was learned Friday at noon that the deputies engaged on the case are now on a lead that promises good results in a short time.”

No information as to the character of information in the hands of the Sheriff and his deputies is given out for fear of alarming the person or persons suspected of the crime.”

“Sherriff Emery is still following up a number of clues any one of which may result in the apprehension of the assassin. He believes the westside druggist was murdered. The police still hang to the suicide theory although they have been at work looking up different clues which would tend to result in  the capture There is no longer any doubt as to whether the death of Wilford Vermillion the west side druggist was homicidal. New clues are discovered every day showing that it was plainly murder.”

“ Dr. P.G. P Attias, the close friend of the murdered druggist who has maintained form the start and in the face of the police who inclined to the suicide story, that it was a case of murder, has private detectives working on the case and he has every reason to believe that the murderer will have been apprehended before the end of the week.”

“Dr. Attias has almost completely recovered from the intestinal trouble with which he was afflicted soon after the murder  and is bending every energy to run down the assassin of his friend.

He says there is no evidence whatever in support of the suicide theory and that with the aid of Coroner Clark, the District Attorney and other officers he hopes to solve the mystery and avenge the death of his friend.”

Chapter Eighteen 

Salt Lake City Aftermath

By October 1904 Oscar Moline from Ogden was employed by Judge Josiah Vermillion in order to keep the drug store business open. Moline’s position was advertised as “the young druggist who conducts the Vermillion pharmacy on west Second South.”

Coincidently on the day that the Coroner jurymen found that Wilford Vermillion had been  murdered, it was reported to Coroner Frank H. Clark that a  three month old baby had died at 241 South Fourth [First] Street, the residence of James Gillam one of the witnesses in the Vermillion inquest.

It was determined that the baby had been accidently smothered to death “at an early hour this morning [September 2] by his mother Mrs. Emma Herbert and a Mrs. Pratt.”

“Just how the terrible affair happened no one seems to know, but the police are making an investigation and the case has been reported to the Coroner Justice Clark.”

“According to the statement of the police, Mrs. Herbert was visiting with Mrs. Pratt last night and concluded to remain there. It is claimed the two women had been drinking somewhat freely and went to bed together, placing Mrs. Hebert’s three month’s old baby boy between them.”

“About 5 o’clock this morning the women awoke and discovered that the child was dead, that the little one had been smothered to death. Dr. [Ira] Waite was hastily summoned but the child evidently had been dead for some time. And he could do nothing.”

“Acting Coroner Clark was notified and is making an investigation of the case. The police department was also informed of the shocking affair . Up to this writing Mrs. Pratt had not been located and her version of the occurrence could not be obtained. It seems that in some way the two women crowded the infant that he was smothered to death. Dr. Wait who was called immediately upon the discovery of the infant’s death said that death had undoubtedly occurred sometime before.”

            Emma Herbert was the wife of Clifford Herbert who resided at 360 West Second North Street  and it was reported that “the mother was in such a state of nervous collapse that nothing could be gained from her while  Mrs. C Pratt has been quite often in police court on the charge of drunkenness but she has been considered weak rather than in any degree vicious. Women made heavy by stimulants simply crowded upon the child until it smothered to death.”

            Later in the year, the residence of James Gillam was visited again by the police. In November 1904 the police responded to the report of a missing person. “Did L.C Clark meet with foul play or desert his wife and baby? Mrs. Clark came to the police station last evening and asked that the officers find out. The man disappeared yesterday morning with $1000 on his person. The couple lived in the Frank Gillam’s house on Fourth West near the corner of second South.”

The 1905 city directory listed the addresses at 511 West Second South as being “Josiah S. Vermillion Druggist,” who was actually still residing in Dillion, Montana in preparation for a permanent move to Salt Lake. The directory also listed that Wilford A. S. Vermillion “died Aug 22 ‘04 age 24.”

The Vermillion family moved to Salt Lake City after the death of Wilford and temporarily in 1905 resided at 118 South Fifth [Sixth] West.  Josiah S Vermillion was listed as a Druggist while his unmarried daughters Henrietta R and M. Margaret where listed as boarding with him.

Margaret Vermillion was listed as a high school student in the 1906 directory. Henrietta Vermillion may have been in San Francisco during the Great Earthquake of 1906 as she was listed in the Salt Lake Tribune list of found missing persons.

In 1907 Henrietta was a student at the University of Utah where she was studying Chemistry and in 1908 Henrietta and Margaret were mentioned as being among three licenses female pharmacists in Utah as result of the action of the state board of pharmacy in granting certificates.

            An article from 22 August 1910 mentioned the sisters. “That the young women of Salt Lake are in some instances quite as enterprising as their brothers was shown last Wednesday [August 17] when Misses Margaret M and Henrietta R Vermillion, sisters, and both registered pharmacists, opened up their new drug store at the corner of Ninth East and Fourth South Streets.”

“ The young women have lived in Salt Lake for about six years. Margaret at one time attended the High School and Henrietta for a time was a student of chemistry at the university. Both Henrietta and Margaret graduate from the Creighton College of Pharmacy at Omaha, Nebraska with the class of 1908.”

            “A year ago their first business venture buying out an established pharmacy on Second South and Fourth West. In June of the following year they sold out clearing enough money on the deal to take a pleasure trip through California. The young women believe that they have a big undertaking on their hands in starting their drug store in a new location.”

A newspaper article also listed a man named J. C. Reahr, an experienced pharmacist” as being in charge of the prescription department of the Vermillion pharmacy. Nothing is known of him.

In the 1910, the federal census listed the family of 61 year old Josiah Vermillion, as residing at 210 South Fourth West [Fifth West], basically at the corner of Second South and Fifth West today. In that year Josiah S Vermillion opened a “first class pharmacy  on the corner of Fourth South and Ninth East. His two daughters Henrietta Ruth and Margaret “Minnie”  were the only “lady graduate pharmacists” in the city according to the newspaper article. The drug store had a “beautiful soda fountain and cigar stand.”

The Vermillion family remained at 401 South Nineth West until 1924 when they sold their business and moved to Southern California. The 1925 Polk Directory stated J Scott Vermillion moved to Los Angeles. An A T Lingenfelter was shown as the propriety of the Vermillion Pharmacy. They may have moved to Mrs. Vermillion’s health as she died in 1928 at the age of 71.

J. Scott Vermillion died in 1939 at the age of 9o in Long Beach, California and was buried next to his wife in the San Gabriel Cemetery in Los Angeles County, California.

The Salt Lake Tribune carried the following obituary, “ Joseph Scott Vermillion 90, former Salt Lake City pharmacist and one of the oldest Masons in the west died Thursday at his home in Long Beach Cal., according to word received in Salt Lake City Friday [3 November 1939].”

“Mr. Vermillion , who left Salt Lake City 15 years ago, held card No. 1 in Utah chapter No.1 Royal Arch Masons.”

“He was born near Wheeling, W. Va., November 7, 1848 but lived in the west since he was a young man. He was a life member of Laramie lodge No. 3 F. & A.M.. Mr. Vermillion’s Masonic history goes back to the 1870’s. he had been a member of Dillion, Mont. No 8, Royal Arch Masons, and in 1887 was made a member of the Knights Templar, Wyoming commandery No. 1 at Cheyenne.”

“He was made commander of St. Elmo No. 7 Knights Templar, in Dillon, Mont. In 1899 and on November 21, 1906, became a noble El Kalah temple AAONMS. He was past commander in the Utah commandery No. 1 in 1914 by virtue of his commandership of the Dillon chapter.”

“Surviving are two daughters Mrs. M. [Henrietta]Wymore, Alhambra, Cal. And Mrs. AJ. [Margaret] Wiltse, Long Beah Cal. Both daughters were registered Utah pharmacists and practiced in the pharmacy operated by Mr. Vermillion at Fourth South and Nineth east Street.”

As that Josiah Scott and Emma Vermillion had no grandchildren from their daughters who married late in life, they had no posterity to remember them by and their families Triumphs and

PART THREE

Chapter Nineteen

Frank W Mulock Newspaper Man

In the meanwhile, Frank W. Mulock, [1867-1936], a 37-year-old newspaper man, had just recently arrived in Salt Lake City from Denver, Colorado and was staying at lodging house on First South and Fourth [Fifth] West possibly ran by Mrs. Anna Liday. In 1904 she was listed as the “Manager of Furnished Rooms at 110 South Fourth [Fifth] West.”

Frank Mulock’s life before Salt Lake was quite adventurous. His father William Mulock was a Civil War Veteran, who in 1862 at the age 23, enlisted in McHenry County, Illinois. He served in Company D of the 96^th Infantry until mustered out in 1865. William Mulock married and moved to Wisconsin where his son Frank was born in 1867 but was back in Illinois when William applied for a pension in 1873 due to an affliction that occurred during the war. Evidently he was partially paralyzed on his right side and suffered from Rheumatism and hydrocele, the swelling of his testicles.

William Mulock moved his family west to Leadville Colorado by 1880 where Frank was listed as his 11 year old son [1869] and here he was reared as an adolescent before becoming a young man. William Mulock’s main occupation was that of a barber. The family employed a 35 year old Irish woman as a “cook.”

Frank’s parents were separated by 1885. His mother must have left his father before the 1885 Colorado census as that record showed her not living with Frank and his father  in Arapahoe County. She had a son born 23 October 1886 in Denver she named Charles Artemous “Artie” Mulock. In other records he gives 1887 as his birth year. Evidently she never divorced William as she applied for a widow pension in 1912. Whatever was their relationship was after living apart, they were both buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

Frank stayed with his father when his mother left, as the 1885 state census listed him as 16 years old [1869] in Arapaho County. Until 1902 Denver was located in Arapaho County. The 1885 Denver city directory listed his father residing William W. Mulock residing at 763 California Street near 16^th Street.

For much of the rest of the 1880’s and much of the 1890’s, the father and son lived in downtown Denver in various residents most likely rooming houses between 23^rd Street and Fifteenth Street and Lawrence Street. His father had a barber shop on Market Street. His mother and father maintained separate residences. The 1886 Denver city directory listed  William W. Mulock residing at 327 Twenty-Third Street while his mother Della “D.M.” Mulock according to the 1887 Denver city directory lived blocks away at 732 Fifteenth Street.

By 1889 the Denver city directory listed Frank and his father residing together at 3217 Lawrence. Frank’s occupation  was listed as a “reporter” while his father was a “mining broker.”   However in 1891 William W. Mulock was listed again as a barber at 4047 Market Street. Frank was not included in the directory and as he was nearly 22 years old may have been away in school as the 1892 city directory listed Frank as a lawyer residing at 3217 Lawrence with his father who was still a barber at 4047 Market Street.

The father and son remained on Lawrence Street and Frank was listed as a lawyer whose office was in 26 Granite Building on the corner of Larimer and Fifteenth Streets. Sometime after the directory entry, Frank left Colorado and set up a law practice in Yukon, Oklahoma Territory between El Reno and Oklahoma City. “Frank W. Mulock Attorney at Law Legal papers drawn up.” He had advertised for business in December 1893. Yukon had only been established in 1891 only two years after the 1889 Oklahoma land rush, as a townsite for a railroad stop and was named for the Alaska Yukon River. The town’s newspaper. the Canadian County Courier reported on April 1, 1891, “that the city had 25 homes, one bank, two real estate offices, two restaurants, a lumber yard, a hardware store, a grocery, a livery stable, two saloons, a blacksmith shop, a printing office, a barber shop, and a second barber shop "about completed."

In 1893 William W. Mulock remained a barber at 4020 Market however his disability may have worsen as he is no longer listed in the city directory, instead his estranged wife “Mrs. D. M. Mulock” was listed as a “barber” whose shop was at 912 Eighteenth Street from 1894 until 1895

Frank Mulock left Oklahoma Territory in early 1894 and relocated to Dallas, Texas and had changed his profession from lawyer back to being   newspaper reporter.

An article from April 1894 reported that Mulock had been beaten and assaulted while in Dallas. “A B Pickler who ran a saloon in the First Ward was charged with assaulting Frank Mulock a newspaper man from Denver for which he was put under $500 bond. The article did not mention Mulock further however Pickler “jumped bond” and “taking with him a thick-set woman” escaped in a buggy and fled to Louisiana.

Frank returned to Colorado in 1895 after his adventures in Texas and moved in with his mother. According to the 1896 city directory “Mrs. Delia M Mulock, barber 912 Eighteenth, rooms at 1828 Arapahoe.” Frank Mulock was listed at the same address. His father probably at this time may have already gone into a home for Union Veterans with disabilities back in New York State. His disability became so severe that in 1897 that he was admitted to a national homes for disabled volunteer soldiers, located in Bath, Steuben County, New York.

His mother would have been raining his ten year old brother. Frank remained in Colorado through 1897 when he is no longer listed in the city’s directory.

While he stayed in with his mother, he went to work for the Denver Post “in its struggling days.” The Denver newspaper had been established in 1892. After leaving there, he “then rambled to California to take a fling at Pacific Coast journalism.”

Gold was discovered in Alaska in 1896 and “when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it triggered a stampede of prospectors.”  Mulock was nearly thirty when the “gold rush carried him to Alaska, where he worked on one of the first newspapers in the far north.” From 1897 to 1900 Frank Mulock was most likely in Alaska, perhaps Nome, where the Gold Rush attracted thousands of men hoping to become rich.

The 1898 city directory for Seattle listed Frank Mulock as the manager of the Seattle-Klondike News Bureau  at 308 Washington Street.

After the Gold Rush venture in Alaska did not pan out for Frank he returned to Denver. The 1899 city directory listed a Frank “Mulok” as a laborer rooming at 1754 Larimer Street in Denver. In 1900 he was listed in the city directory as a “news dealer” and his mother “Delia” Mulock operated a “notions” store.

According to the 1900 federal census, which listed him as being born in 1867, not 1869, in Wisconsin Frank gave his occupation as a “lawyer.”

Frank was boarding with a widow named “Birdie Parks” and her aged father in down town Denver at 1817 Arapahoe Street near Eighteenth Street. Birdie Park was the proprietor of a Cigar and Bookstore. Three addresses away at 1829 Arapahoe Frank’s mother was listed as “Della Lee” a 45 year old widow and Cigar Store owner. Residing with her was her 13 year old son “Artie Mulock” born in October 1886. Oddly, she listed that she was the mother of only 1 child, when her adult son was living just a few addresses away. Several families near them on Arapahoe and Eighteenth Street were Chinese indicating that they lived in a mixed ethnic portion of Denver.

His father, William, may have still been back East in 1900 but did return to Colorado at least by 1906. The 1910 federal census listed him as “married but living alone in Englewood City, Arapaho County, in the 1910 federal census. He died in 1912 in Englewood, Colorado. His wife “Della Mulock” was listed in that census as “married” and running a rooming house still residing on Arapahoe Street. He son Artie was a department store salesman. After the death of William Mulock she must have inherited the Englewood home as she was listed as the owner in the 1920 census living with an aged woman boarding with her. Della Mulock died in 1922.

The 1901 city directory listed Frank still residing at 1817 Arapahoe and owning a “books and stationary” shop. In 1902 he was listed as unemployed residing at 1829 Arapahoe but managed to find work by June 1902 as a “special correspondent of a syndicate of eastern Newspapers” An Idaho newspaper wrote regarding him, “after spending a few weeks in Boise, left yesterday [May 31] for Red Rock and Salmon City to write up that route to Thunder Mountain for eastern papers. He is greatly pleased with Boise and expects to return.”

He found himself in Wyoming in 1903 as a reporter during the Tom Horn's trial in October 1902, in Cheyenne, “which filled with crowds attracted by the notoriety of Horn.” The Rocky Mountain News “noted the carnival atmosphere and great interest from the public for a conviction.

Tom Horn, “scout, Indian Fighter and stock detective” was a notorious gun for hire who killed several men during the range wars in Wyoming. He was convicted of shooting a fourteen year old boy and sentenced to be executed by hanging 9 January 1903. His case was appealed to the Wyoming Supreme Court which upheld the decision of the District Court and denied a new trial. Horn was executed 20 November 1903 in Cheyenne.

While in jail, Horn wrote his autobiography, “Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter, Written by Himself, mostly giving an account of his early life.” He also wrote letters to “several leading witnesses for the state who gave damaging testimony  against him,” requesting them to give affidavits that their testimonies were false. Among them mentioned to whom he wrote were “Frank Mulock of Denver” and “Charles Ohnhaus of Cheyenne.” Ohnhaus was a stenographer who was secreted to record Horn’s confession  for which he was tried. Mulock’s connection to the trial is not known.

The 1904 Denver city directory listed Frank’s mother and younger brother “Artemus C Mulock” as a clerk in the Denver Dry Good Store. His mother was listed as Mrs. “Dollie Mulock” owning a notions store. Both mother and son resided at 918  Eighteenth Street. Frank is not located in the directory unless he was the “Frank W. Mulick” residing in room 5 at 315 Fourteenth Street. However this man’s occupation was given as a “brakeman” who would have been employed by the railroad.

This occupation however may have been the reason he ended up in the Rio Grande District of Salt Lake city by the summer of 1904 where he made newspaper accounts in various national papers with contributing to finding a witness to a murder in Nevada.

Between August 12 an August 20 the Salt Lake Tribune ran an advertisement in the “Wanted -Information” from the Sheriff of Humboldt County, Nevada seeking the whereabouts of a man named Albert Waldman. The ad was also posted in the San Francisco Examiner but Frank Mulock was in Salt Lake and he read the ad and knew where Waldman was staying. Waldman was lodging at the Lincoln House located at 63 East and First South and most likely Mulock knew him from there. The Lincoln House was advertises as having a “Barber Shop, Baths, and Free Library”

The Reno Gazette carried the headlines in large bold print, “ALBERT WALDMAN HAS BEEN LOCATED. Through the Medium of Classified AD Important Witness Is Found. Will Give Strong Evidence Against the Humboldt Quartet , Alleged Murderers of Jack Welch.”

“Salt Lake City, August 20.- A small “want’  advertisement in a Salt Lake paper may be the means of bringing to trial for murder four men in Nevada. About 10 days ago the following advertisement appeared in the Tribune: “Wanted -Information of Albert Waldman. Information of the whereabouts of Albert Waldman, occupation steam or gas fitter, will be thankfully received, and suitable expense allowed. Address Sheriff Lamb, Winnemucca, Humboldt county, Nevada. Humboldt County, Nevada.”

“Frank W. Mulock, an Eastern newspaper correspondent, saw the “ad.” He met Waldman and learned he had gone to one of the nearby mining camps. Acting on that information, Mr. Mulock began his search an finally located Waldman.”

“Waldman says he was one of the victims of a hold-up and robbery at Winnemucca about a year ago in which his friend Jack Welch was killed. J.B. Severner, Jake Linderman, Tony Rizt and Fred Gorman were convicted and sentenced to hang for the crime but were granted a new trial by the Nevada Supreme Court. Waldman’s presence is much desired as chief witness against the accused and he will leave for Winnemucca today.”

The article was also printed several newspapers as a human interest story in the Los Angeles Times, the Fresno Morning Republican, the Sacramento Bee, the Spokane’s Spokesman-Review, the Boise Idaho Stateman, The Butte Daily Post,  The El Paso Times, among others, probably to tout the value of advertising.

The Deseret News  printed the want ad story just two days before the death of Wilford Vermillion. “Witness Was In Utah, Left Salt Lake for Nevada Today to Testify in Important Murder Case.”

“About a year ago at Humboldt County, Nevada, four highway men held up and robbed Albert Waldman and Jack Welsh, and in the encounter which occurred between the men, Waldman was badly beaten up and Welsh was killed.

“Later George Severner, Jake Lindman, Tony Rizt and Fred Gorman were arrested, charged with the murder, and after a long and sensational trial, were found guilty and sentenced to capital punishment. The condemned men had relatives of wealth and influence and a new trial was secured for them on the ground that one of the trial jurors had expressed an opinion as to the guilt of the defendants before the trial.

As the time for the rehearing approached , however, it was discovered that Waldman , the principal witness for the state , and without whose testimony it was though a conviction could not be had, had disappeared and his whereabouts could not be found.

After a long and almost hopeless search   Waldman was located at the Lincoln House in this city, and it was learned was about to start for his early home in Philadelphia. When told he was wanted in Nevada to assist the state in the second trial of the alleged murderers and with the rough treatment he had received from the accused still fresh in his mind, he said he was only too willing to take the witness stand against the prisoners. He left for Winnemucca today.”

Welsh and Waldman were viciously attacked 19 August 1903 by the four men while riding on top of a freight train box car. Waldman man was beaten and thrown from the train while Welsh  “clung to the ladder on the side of the car and begged for his life, they stamped on his hands and shot him until he fell from the car to the ground that was training 35 miles an hour.

Chapter Twenty 

John Donovan Tells a Tale

After learning of the death of Wilford Vermillion, John Donovan, a railroad laborer, who roomed at the same lodging-house as Mulock, contacted him about some information he thought might be useful as “they were on friendly terms.”

This John Donovan was probably the same man who, while drunk, fell into a street gutter on August 11. An article in the Salt Lake Tribune printed on August 12 read, “Donovan Couldn’t Swim. Rescued From A Watery Grave on State Street.”

“John Donovan, 50 years old and very drunk, was leaning against a package mailbox at the corner of State and Second South streets about 7 o’clock last evening, when the box veered beneath his weight and Donovan fell with a splash into the street gutter, which was running full of clear cool water from City Creek. But the water did not have the effect of restoring Donovan’s ability to take care of himself for he is actually paralyzed in one leg- aside from having been paralyzed drunk in the other. The man lay sprawling in the gutter until help came and he weas lifted bodily to his feet, and had the accident occurred at a time of night when no one was on the street he might have easily drowned. Policeman Armstrong and Patrol Driver Seger [Seager] were called to the scene with the wagon and Donovan was taken to jail.”

The Salt Lake Telegram also reported on the incident added that “Donovan rolled into the gutter, where he was unable to help himself, as one of his legs is paralyzed. Bystanders pulled him out of the gutter as his head was beneath the water.” He was jailed for public intoxication.

The mysterious death of Wilford Vermillion was the talk of the town and when John Donovan “learned from Mulock that he occasionally wrote for the Tribune,” and had perhaps even knew of Mulock’s locating the missing Waldman. “Thinking to be of service to his friend,” Donovan confided to Mulock the suspicious conduct of his roommate George Stevens, who had suddenly left the city.

Donovan informed Mulock that he had been “intimate with Stevens for several days” and “from time to time Stevens had appeared with small sums of money.” George Stevens related to Donovan that “the cash had been given to him by his “friend,” Wilford Vermillion, whom he claimed to have “known at school in California.” Donovan reported to Mulock that one day, Stevens even  “wore a pair of new shoes” and told him “that the footwear had been given to him by Vermillion.” Donovan, however, suspected that Stevens had been stealing money from the Vermillion Drug Store.

Early in the evening of August 22, Stevens told Donovan that he was going down to the Vermillion drug store to “make a touch,” for money from Wilford. He said he would meet up with Donovan later that night at 10:30 and the pair “agreed meet later” at the corner of the post office at 115 West Second South.

Donovan said he went to the Dooly block where the post office was located at the appointed time to meet up with Stevens however Stevens “did not come.”  He waited “until 11 o’clock” then Donovan gave up and returned back to his room and “went to bed.”

The next morning, Donovan left his room  “about 7 o’clock,” and met up with Stevens at the Black Hills Saloon located at 87 East Second South. The Black Hills Saloon was located near the corner of State Street and Second South, a city clock south of the Lincoln House. In the saloon Stevens displayed $3 in silver to Donovan who “suggested that he buy them a drink” but reportedly Steven said to him, “I can’t do it. I have only this money and I must get out of town. I think I will go to Ogden tonight.”

Donovan observed that Stevens “had a bruise on his face and a scratch on his hand,” and noticed that when Stevens left the saloon, he bought a newspaper. Steven then proceeded  to “cut out the story of the Vermillion case.”

Donovan told Mulock that he thought it odd that Stevens was anxious to get out of town as that he had a job prospect and was expecting some money that was owed him.

Mulock after receiving this statement from Donovan, most likely went to the Salt Lake Tribune with the story. Then Judge Vermillion was “informed of the discovery” and made inquiries.

In the meanwhile a Peter Attias, who promoted himself as  a “doctor” and who filled his patients prescriptions at Wilford’s drug store, stated he was “someone deeply affected by the death of the young druggist. ”  He insisted that the young druggist had not committed suicide as that he claimed to have known that Wilford was “making money” and that  “he was cheerful all the time.”  Attias expressed the same opinion as Wilford Vermillion’s family and friends that Wilford  had to have been murdered. and that the “murderer would be ferreted out,” a sentiment that was heartedly excepted among residents of the Rio Grande District.

Peter Attias learned of Frank Mulock’s discovery of a suspect and knowing about Mulock’s reputation for finding Waldman, approached Mulock with the claim “he had seen Stevens in the drug store several times but he had left the Salt Lake City near the time of Vermilions death.”

Attias within days of Vermillion’s death promoted the newspaper man as someone who had information on the slaying. Attias then claimed that he hired Mulock as a “private detective” to track down the George Stevens “as that the Salt Lake Police had run out of leads and suspects.” Actually Mulock was more like an investigator reporter following leads where ever they took him.

While Attias was publicized in Salt Lake newspapers as the man who “hired” Mulock actually it was more likely that the Salt Lake Tribune who paid the newspaper man’s expenses for his dispatches  sent while in pursuit of the alleged killer of Wilford Vermillion.

            Thus Attias and Mulock, both supposedly journalists in their 30’s living in the Rio Grande District having recently moved to Utah from various places. They both considered themselves adventurers, while this may have been legitimate  for Mulock almost certainly it wasn’t for Attias who fraudulently was claiming to be in the process of writing a book of his alleged adventures as a world traveler. In actuality Attias was a charlatan and confidence man, who posed as a round the world traveler and as a physician, who “made some pretense of practicing his profession” to swindle and dupe. He proved later to be “one of the most polished of the around-the-world con artists. While pretending to be ag great friend to his fellow countrymen, instead he caused great damage within the “Greek colonies” of Utah whom he preyed upon.

Frank Mulock, left Salt Lake City on Friday August 26 to locate George Stevens to bring back to Salt Lake City  for questioning after learning that the man “had from time to time secured money from Vermillion’s drug store and had left the city suddenly after the murder.”

Mulock who had never seen a likeness of Stevens left with only “a good description of the suspect,” and as that he was said to have been a college friend of Wilford, Stevens was more than likely about the same age.

It was reported that on August 30 “Attias leader of the Greek colony was stricken with prostration, threatening to develop into brain fever.” It was reported that “Since the murder, Dr. Attias has gotten more nervous day to day until last night the breakdown came. He was attended by Dr. [Ira] Wait, and other physicians were called later in the evening. His condition is regarded as serious.”

His ailment was determined to be “as a result of overwork and worry brought on by the Vermillion murder. A close friend of the victim of the tragedy, Dr. Attias  has hardly slept since its occurrence. He has not only actively interested himself in assisting in the hunt for the murder by his own efforts but has gone do far as to contribute from his own pocket.”

 Chapter Twenty-One

The Hunt for George Stevens

 Frank Mulock, left Salt Lake City on Friday August 26 to locate George Stevens and to bring him back to Salt Lake City for question after learning that the man “had from time to time secured money from Vermillion’s drug store and had left the city suddenly after the murder.”

Mulock “followed his quarry to Ogden and assisted by the Salt Lake Tribune correspondent at that place picked up the threads of the clues.” In Ogden Mulock was informed that Stevens had sold his new shoes with the pointed toes after the murder, for a small sum and was able purchased an old pair of shoes. The pointed shoes were said to have corresponded to the tracks found by Frank Gillam.

Also in Ogden Mulock learned that Stevens had “made the round of the employment agencies” and “in looking for work had shown great anxiety to get out of the country.” Stevens also, said while intoxicated, informed an employment book agent  that “he had made the mistake of his life in Salt Lake City.” It was discovered by Mulock that Stevens had “received employment on a sheep ranch near Pocatello.

The chase after Stevens was a sensational one with the “Salt Lake Sleuth” reporting dispatches to the Salt Lake Tribune that at times he was “but one day behind Stevens.

Riding in a box car to Pocatello, Mulock located the sheep ranch where Stevens was hired only to discover that “his man had left the place, it is alleged, after borrowing a small sum of money from his employer.”

            Stevens left Pocatello and had traveled to the town of Blackfoot, in Custer County, Idaho, nearly 25 miles to the north of Pocatello where he found employment again herding sheep on a ranch between Blackfoot and Mackay, Idaho. MacKay is 85 miles from Blackfoot near the Sawtooth Mountains.

While working at this ranch, young Stevens began using the name “Charles Hawthorne” and was  “engaged in love-making to a maid,” before he took off again.

On September 3, Stevens disappeared, “deserting his fiancé of but a few day’s acquaintance.” His “desertion of the girl, who he promised to wed, led the irate father to engage the Blackfoot constable named Love to help run down the fugitive.” Also from a Blackfoot rancher,  Stevens had stolen a saddle and bridle.

He reached Idaho falls, about thirty miles north of Blackfoot where Mulock “learned that Stevens had left there for Montana and with the newspaper man but a day behind him. Stevens was heading north, probably working his way into Canada.

George Stevens was traced from Idaho to the community of Warrick in northern Montana nearly 500 miles from Blackfoot. Warrick Montana was described as a “little settlement in the Bear Paws, in Chouteau County at least 35 miles from a telegraph office.

At Warrick, Stevens again sought work upon a sheep ranch, but instead he was taken into custody on September 7 for the theft of the saddle and bridle. “Constable Love from the state of Idaho arrested George Stevens Wednesday afternoon on a sheep ranch near Warrick, Montana on the charge of stealing a saddle two weeks ago from a farmer near Blackfoot, Idaho. Stevens is also suspected of being the murderer of Druggist Vermillion of Salt Lake.”

Constable Love charged Stevens with theft of a saddle and until his identity could be definitely determined kept him prisoner. Stevens at first “stoutly insisted that his name was Charles Hawthorne” but finally admitted,  under “rigorous sweating of the officer” that his true name was Stevens and allegedly he admitted he had been in Salt Lake on the night Vermillion was murdered.

News of Stevens’ true identity was then forward to Blackfoot, Idaho, and that “Constable Love and his prisoner are on their way to Great Falls where he was will  be taken by train to Butte thence to Blackfoot Idaho.”

Frank Mulock arrived in Butte, Montana on the morning of September 8 in order to meet Love and his prisoner however while Love was transporting Stevens, the prisoner “made a daring but unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide while he was being taken form a sheep ranch near Warrick to Fort Benton a distance of about forty-five miles.”

“While in a buggy with Constable Love of Blackfoot Idaho, Stevens drew a kind of a combination penknife and ink eraser from his pocket an slashed the arteries in his writs while his hands were concealed beneath a heavy lap robe.”

“The weather was bitterly cold and though Love noticed that his prisoner appeared deathly pale and faint, he attributed it to the man being chilled and gave the matter no further thought until within four miles of Fort Benton , Stevens swooned away.”

“Lifting the ropes, the constable found the blood spurting in streams form the wounds in Stevens wrists and hastily tearing a grain sack in which was fodder for their horses, the Idaho officer quickly bound the strips tightly around the prisoner’s arms and in a measure was able to staunch the flow of blood.”

“Lashing his horses into a run, Love tore into Fort Benton with his apparently lifeless charge. Dr. Craig was hastily summoned and after an examination pronounced the man in no immediate danger , though extremely weak from loss of blood.”

After being treated the sheriff and Stevens continued on to Great Falls. There, “barring complications”  Love wired Butte where Mulock was informed that the sheriff  by train “will be able to start south with his prisoner”  Sunday night September 11 night and would arrive in Butte, Monday at noon with Stevens. Love stated that for some unspecified reason he refused “to turn his captive over to the Butte authorities” but held him “for Sheriff Emery of Salt Lake.”

After the arrest of Stevens, Salt Lake County Sheriff C Frank Emery, who had  “followed the murder theory from the start,” was “eager to get the man in his jurisdiction so that his conduct may be thoroughly investigated.” Sheriff Emery wired Sheriff John J Quinn of Silver Bow County  Montana requesting him to hold Stevens in Butte until he “could be sent for.”  Sheriff Emery expected an answer to his telegram from  the Sheriff of Silver Bow County but did not receive one for several days.

In the meanwhile in Montana, it was decided after Stevens reportedly “confessed to having killed Vermillion,” that the larceny charges against him were dropped, as that “the suspect will be turned over to the Utah authorities.” It was alleged that Stevens even consented to return to Salt Lake without extradition papers.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on September 10 that Sheriff Emery heard “nothing from Montana concerning George Stevens the alleged slayer of Druggist Vermillion of this city for the reason that the prisoner was traveling overland in the company of Deputy Sheriff Love, who arrested him at Warrick Mont Thursday [8 Sept]. Warrick is a long distance from the railroad and the officer and his charge were not due to reach Great Falls before 5 O’clock this morning. It is expected that they will arrived in Butte sometime during the day and Stevens will be held there awaiting word from Sheriff Emery of this city.”

“As soon as Love and the prisoner reach Butte the officer and Frank Mulock the representative of the Tribune and Dr. Attias of this city will commence to compare notes in regard to the information in their possession tending to connect Stevens with the crime of murdering his college mate and friend and largely upon the result of this comparison will be based the action of Sheriff Emery.”

“Mulock’s only communication with the arresting officer has been by long distance telephone from Butte to Warrick.”

“According to the information gained by Mulock in that way, there is no question in regard to the identity of the prisoner as the man Stevens. Who for several weeks prior to the murder had been either stealing or borrowing small sums of money in both ways from Druggist Vermillion who left this city under suspicious circumstances very soon after the murderer to be chased over a good part of Idaho and Montana by the Salt Lake newspaper man.”

“The Warrick officer even indicated to Mulock that Stevens had confessed to the crime. If this is true the man will, of course, be brought to this city at once, and if he should have concluded upon reaching Butte to fight the murder charge, it will be necessary to rely upon the evidence in possession of Mulock and Sheriff Emery to secure a requisition. There is no doubt in the minds of those who have been following the case that the evidence is at least sufficiently strong to warrant a complete investigation.”

“Stevens was arrested at Warrick on the charge of stealing a saddle and bridle in Blackfoot, Idaho but the charge was brought for the purpose of getting him in custody for investigation in connection with the more serious crime.”

 “He insisted at first that his name was Charles Hawthorne but under pressure finally admitted that he was George Stevens, that he had known Vermillion and that he left this city right after the murder. These admissions were followed by others still more damaging. It is claimed the full import if which will doubtless be known today.”

“Corroborative evidence to support the clues leading to the arrest of George Stevens, on suspicion of having murdered Wilford A. S. Vermillion , is already beginning to materialize in Salt Lake City. Mrs. William Edwards, an aunt of the murdered man, told a Tribune reporter yesterday afternoon that her nephew had spoken to her of a man presumed to be Stevens. This man had called upon Vermillion and had claimed to have known him in California .”

The paper also reported on September 10, “Frank W. Mulock, the Salt Lake newspaper man, engaged by Dr. P.G.P Attias, leader of the Greek colony in Salt Lake, to run down the suspected murderer of W.A.S. Vermilion this afternoon received word from Fort Benton that Stevens had made a daring but unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide.”  

When Salt Lake Newspapers questioned Sheriff Emery regarding the delay of his going to Montana to retrieve Stevens, he told reporters “I have no definite information of the alleged confession of Stevens. But from what information I have received, I am of the opinion that the actions of the man were at least suspicious and I think that he will be given a chance to explain his whereabouts and actions at the time of the death of Vermillion. I have not yet asked for extradition papers for the man to be brought to this State and shall not ask for them until I receive further information.”

While waiting to hear from Montana authorities, the arrest of Stevens was reported as “the culmination of a long chase” conducted by  Frank Mulock, “begun on a few slender clues which the Tribune and Dr. P.G. P Attias, a friend of the murdered man, considered worthy of investigation.”

These “slender threads” were that it was believed that George Stevens had known Wilford Vermillion at the University of California, that he “resurrected the acquaintance and had gotten money from Vermillion at different times, that Vermillion had given Stevens a pair of pointed toe shoes that matched the footprints found in a vacant lot across the street from Dr. Hazel’s residence, and he had planned on staying a day or two in Salt Lake City as that he had prospects of employment and was expecting money from the east when he suddenly departed.

The Butte Miner Newspaper commented on the arrest of George Stevens writing, “Stevens and Vermillion studied pharmacy together and during his stay in Salt Lake he had been receiving financial assistance from Vermillion. On the night Wilford met his death it was said that Stevens was known to have called upon him for money. It is supposed that a quarrel followed and that in the altercation,  Stevens killed his friend. Frank w. Mulock  was deputized by Wilford’s friends to hunt down Stevens who stole a valuable saddle.”

Mulock, anxious to speak with Stevens, decided to leave Butte  for Great Falls, “where he will meet Constable Love and his prisoner upon their arrival in that city and proceed with them south.”

“Mulock is jubilant over the capture of the suspected murderer and declares that from what evidence he has gathered he feels no doubt but that the murderer of Vermillion is in custody.”

“A feature of the chase was Mulock’s box car ride of several hundred miles in the effort to locate his quarry, who he supposed to be a member of a gang of hoboes hitting the road. Another time the Utah scribe did hay-pitching and sheep herding stunts in his effort to land the fugitive.”

The Great Falls Tribune  wrote on September 10, “Nothing can be learned in Montana concerning the reported arrest of Stevens. The little settlement of Warrick is in the Bear Paws , Chouteau county at least 35 miles from a telegraph office. It is said that the arrest was made by a constable named Love.”

Finally on September 14 Sheriff Frank Emery received an enigmatic telegram from Sheriff John J Quinn of Butte in which he learned why the delay in hearing from Butte. Sheriff Quinn said that  he had “heard nothing of the arrest of George Stevens” and at the time of sending the telegram, Sheriff Lane “had not arrived in Butte with his prisoner.”

Suddenly all information regarding George Stevens ceased in newspapers with only the briefest announcement on September 16, that “Arrest of Montana Suspect in Vermillion Come to Nothing.” There was no explanation why other than, “Notwithstanding the assertions of Frank Mulock, that George Stevens was in Salt Lake at the time of the murder, the Montana authorities have become convinced that Stevens has never been in Salt Lake and that he knows nothing about the crime with which his name has been connected. In view if this development no charge will be preferred against the Montana suspect.”

As that Stevens never reached Butte, authorities in Great Falls must have been the ones to have freed him. The Great Falls Tribune reported on September 17, “Frank Stevens, arrested in Montana on suspicion of being the murderer of W.A.S. Vermillion, who was killed in his drug store on the night of August, 22, has been released from custody as it has been proven that he is not the man wanted. The Montana authorities have been convinced that Stevens was not in Salt Lake at the time of murder was committed, and that he knows nothing of the crime which was suspected.” Why the paper referred to Stevens as Frank is not known. 

The release of “Frank” Stevens added to the mystery surrounding the death of Wilford Vermillion. An announcement reported; “This leaves the case exactly the same condition it was before and the search for the guilty person will be continued by the relatives of the dead man nearer home. Nothing can shake their certainty that Wilford was murdered and they are still confident that the truth will sooner or later come to light.”

The Salt Lake City police, still clinging to the theory that Wilford Vermillion committed suicide, claiming “the absence of any proof of murder,” did not followed up on further leads and the case remained unsolved for the grieving Vermillion family.

Although the search for the murderer of Wilford Vermillion became a “cold case,” in 1905 Utah’s Governor John C Cutler offered a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the murderer of Wilford Vermillion but it was never collected and his death remained a mystery and unsolved. case.

Chapter Twenty-One

Mulock Post Salt Lake City

After 1904 Frank W. Mulock was located in the 1905 city directory of Los Angeles but moved frequently afterwards back and forth between Colorado, Washington,  Montana, and Nebraska among may other places. He does not appear to have lived in Utah except for the short period in 1904.

Newsman Frank Mulock’s failure to locate George Stevens had him disappear from the Salt Lake scene and he moved to  Los Angeles California by 1905 residing at 1112 East 7th Street. Finding no work there, he returned to Denver Colorado in attempt to practice law again. The 1906 and 1907 city directories showed him residing at 1802 Arapahoe Street. The 1906 directory showed that his father and mother were also residing together at the same address.

            In 1908 he returned to Los Angeles California and by 1910 he was a reporter again residing at the New York Hotel in El Paso, Texas covering the Mexican Revolution.

        From 1913 through May 1914 Mulock was reporting for the Deming Headlight in Deming New Mexico before leaving that paper for the Sun in Yuma, Arizona. An article published in March 1915 stated that Mulock was appointed by the Arizona Governor to represent the state at a press conference in San Francisco. “Frank W. Mulock who was formerly connected with the Deming Graphic and who is now on the editorial staff of the Yuma Arizona Sun has been appointed by Governor George W. P Hunt of Arizona as a delegate to represent Arizona at the International Press Congress to be held from July 5 to 10 at San Francisco within connection with the Pan-Pacific exposition”

The 1917 Denver City directory listed the 53 year old reporter rooming 1424 ½ Larimer  Street as well as at 3217 South Broadway the home of his widowed mother. The following year Mulock moved to Glasgow, Montana to work for the Glasgow Courier.

The World War I draft registration of 1918 stated that Frank’s younger brother Artie Mulock was the manager of the Rex Theater in Greeley Colorado. He died in Los Angeles California in 1957 around the age of 71.

An article from April 1918 stated Frank Mulock was visiting Wahoo, Nebraska where the newspaper Independent wrote;  “Frank W, Mulock, an old time newspaper man, recently a member of the editorial staff of the Denver Times is spending a few days in Wahoo visiting friends and was a welcome caller at this office Wednesday. Mr. Mulock’s experience as a newspaper reporter in Mexico and the Pacific Coast country as told by himself is certainly entertaining. Mr. Mulock goes to Washington D.C. where he has a fine post with the American Press.”

He was staying in Wahoo with the Adell family while visiting. “Judge Frank W. Mulock an attorney and special newspaper writer of California who spent las week in Wahoo, as the guests of Mrs. Emma Adell and daughter, Mrs. Edith Marks, left last Monday [April15] for Washington D C where he will be attached to a leading Washington news bureau. Mr. Mulock before his departure expressed himself as most favorably impressed with Wahoo and the many nice people he had the pleasure of meeting during his short sojourn.

In September 1918 at the age of 55, Frank Mulock married in Spokane, Washington for the first time, a 36 year old divorcee named Edith Adell Marks [1882-1936]. “Frank W. Mulock of the press Editorial Staff and Mrs. Edith Marks of Wahoo were married Sept 21 at Spokane Washington. Mr. Mulock is a Denver man having practiced law for some time there, he is also a newspaper correspondent and special writer on the coast.”

Mrs. Marks had five children by her first husband who all but the eldest Maybelle went to live with their father. They were still married as of 1917 when the city directory of Lincoln listed the couple as living there.

In March 1918 Mrs. March was mentioned as working for the Red Cross during World War I, “Mrs. Edith Marks of Wahoo spent Sunday in Lincoln as guest of friends. Mrs. Marks has recently returned from Camp Funston, where she has been engaged in Red Cross work and while there took special care to look after the Nebraska Boys at Fort Riley.”

Mulock was a reporter for the Spokane Press in 1919 but by 1920 he moved to Omaha, Nebraska most likely to for his new wife to be close to her family. He managed to get a job as reporter for the Omaha Bee.

The 1920 federal census enumerated Frank Mulock with his wife Edith and stepdaughter “Mabel” as living in Omaha, Nebraska as of January. He gave his occupation as Newspaper reporter. Edith’s four other children were listed as living with their father in Wayne County, Nebraska. He listed his marital status as divorced.

A news blip mentioned that in May 1920,  “Frank W. Mulock connected with the editorial staff of the Omaha Bee was a Wahoo visitor spending the day with his wife and daughter who are spending the summer with Mrs. Mulock’s mother,  Mrs. Emma Adell. Mr. Mulock expressed himself greatly impressed with the street improvements of Wahoo and predicts a growing future for the town.”

From 1921 to 1923 the Omaha city directories listed Mulock as a reporter for the Omaha Bee with the family residing at the Millard Hotel. His stepdaughter in 1923 was listed as being an usher for the World Theater.

In 1923 Edith Mulock sued her ex-husband Charles J Marks for custody of her minor children and perhaps at this time Frank Mulock and Edith separated. Frank Mulock was listed in the 1924 city directory of San Diego as a reporter for the San Diego Union while residing at 511 F Street. He would be listed in San Diego also in 1925.

Edith Mulock remained in Nebraska where she was said to have been an invalid. In August 1925 it was reported in the local Wahoo newspaper, “Mrs. Mulock and daughter are going to Texas to spend the winter in hopes of benefitting her health.”

Whether the Frank and Edith were simply separated or divorced is unknown. He may have even deserted her. He never had children of his own his wife apparently was an invalid. Edith Mulock listed herself as a widow in the 1930 census living with her grown children. More than likely she was divorced from Frank Mulock as he was registered to vote in California in 1930. She would die in Omaha in July 1936 some six months prior to Frank’s death.

After separating from his wife, Frank Mulock became a “roving reporter.” In October 1924 a news brief from Winston-Salem, North Carolina mentioned Frank Mulock “of the editorial staff of the San Diego Union daily publication of San Diego, California” as “spending a few days in this city and the state observing conditions as they exist in child labor employment.

“Mr. Mulock is making a tour of the country gathering data to be used in presenting the child labor conditions and needs in connection with child labor legislation pending in the various states of the Union. He had not only touched industrial communities in many states in this country but has also visited points in Canada including Montreal and Toronto.”

By January 1927, Mulock was writing for the Press-Courier in Oxnard California and in 1929 was a reporter for San Jose Evening News. He was rooming at 49 Street Second South in San Jose, California and continued to reside in the same location in 1930 although he was missed on the 1930 federal census.

By December 1930 Frank Mulock had relocated to 538 Wall Street in Los Angles where he  placed an advertisement, “I will gladly lend to any person suffering from arthritis, neuritis, or rheumatism the use of a violet ray machine who will communicate with me.”

It appears that the Great Depression left 61 year old Frank Mulock in hard times. In 1932 he lost $30,000 in a failed theater business with his brother Artie Mulock and afterwards they became estranged. The 1930 federal census enumerated Charles A Mulock living in Denver as a motion picture operator. Later the 1933 city directory of Fort Collins, Colorado listed “Charles A Mulock as the manager of the Fox Rialto Theater.

The last city directory in which Frank w. Mulock can be located was in Atlanta Georgia for 1935. He was rooming at 30 Capitol Square which was a boarding house.

A newspaper commenting on the death of Frank Mulock wrote aptly, ““The closing chapter of his colorful life is a sad one.”

By June 1935 Mulock made his way to Kansas City, Missouri, “nearing the end of a long colorful career”  where he found himself “a penniless, sick, old man.”  As that he had no home, the “charitable organizations of the city took him in.”  He remained at the transient shelter “until the federal government disbanded it,”  and he was sent to Springfield, in Greene County, Missouri where the only federal camp was left in the state.

 The federal transient camp at Springfield was only for the “unemployables, old, and ailing men without homes.” It was established in January 1936, just north of Springfield, Missouri, “for unemployables who have no home or dependents.”

The state was running out of money and closed shelters and consolidated transient work camps within Missouri. The Springfield camp was specifically for the old, infirmed, and those who could no longer work; not for “transients or other relief workers of the state.”  The federal “transient division of the state relief administration provided a home for 250 unemployables sent from other camps in the state that were being closed.”

It was reported that after Mulock first came to the camp his health seemed to improve but only for a short while as that “Mulock’s strenuous life took its toll” on him. At the camp Frank Mulock “still wanted to write” and someone supplied him with a typewriter and “he turned out a few articles, none of them ever published.”

Frank W. Mulock died Sunday 27 December 1936 at the age of 67,  after an adventurous life as a reporter but at the end a penniless transient. “Among his personal effects were a receipt for a $100 Community Chest contribution in a distant city, $5000 in worthless bonds on a Louisiana Bank” and a scrapbook containing photographs of  him as a “Natty smiling newspaper man.” His scrap book showed that  had “worked on newspapers in Alaska, Canada, and nearly every state in the union,” and that he knew  President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Arthur Brisbane, one of the best known American newspaper editors of the 20th century, Jack Dempsey who reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926, Pancho Villa the Mexican Revolutionary. He also kept copies of poetry he had written over the years.

Donn Daily, a camp case worker, “made a vain attempt to find relatives.” There was not a single relative who could be contacted. His brother Charles was alive several years ago; Mulock lost touch with him even before that. “A camp orderly said Mulock told him he had lost $30,000 in a theater venture with his brother.” Efforts to find the brother were futile although Charles Artie was living in Colorado.

 The Springfield Leader and Press reported on 30 December 1936, “Funeral services for Frank W. Mulock, 67, veteran reporter and former newspaper editor who died Sunday in the federal transient camp north of Springfield were held at 2 o’clock this afternoon at the Herman Lohmeyer chapel.”

Frank Mulock “would have been buried in “potter’s field this afternoon had it not been for the kindness” of a Springfield newspaperman who knew his former circumstances. The anonymous newspaperman, “knowing Mulock’s record” paid for Mulock’s funeral expenses. He “guaranteed the difference between the cost of the funeral and $20 fund usually advanced by the camp.”

Frank W. Mulock was buried in the East Lawn cemetery in Springfield however without a tombstone to mark his grave.

The news of Frank W. Mulock’s death was carried in many national papers as a human interest story of a once highly regarded veteran newspaper man who died penniless in a “transient camp.” Most of the articles were copied from the United Press account, adding a few additional details. The only Utah paper to mention his death was the Ogden Standard Examiner which carried the UP announcement of Mulock’s death. “Pal of Greats To Be Buried. An unsuccessful venture in the theater operation ruined him financially, it was learned.”

Another mention of Frank Mulock’s death was published in the “Great Falls Tribune of Montana” where Mulock stayed while hunting the alleged  suspect in the murder of Wilford Vermillion, detailing more of Frank W. Mulock’s career.

“Roving Newsman, Former Glasgow Paper Editor, Dies. Springfield, Mo December 29, An aged man who died in the federal transient camo north of here this week was identified by a book of newspaper clippings he carried as Frank W. Mulock. Where he was born is not known. It is know that he “came west” from somewhere to the Denver Post in its struggling days. He then rambled to California to take a fling at Pacific Coast journalism.”

“The gold rush carried him to Alaska, where he worked on one of the first newspapers in the far north. He returned to become a statehouse reporter on the Denver Times, then went to the Mexico border in 1913-1914 as special correspondent for the Associated Press. He was at one time editor of the Dallas Times-Herald, special correspondent at Reno for the New York World, managing editor of the Glasgow, Montana Courier. These are only a part of the jobs he held. How many more is not known.”

He knew Arthur Brisbane who preceded him death by two days, knew Jack Dempsey when he was just another fighter in the sticks.”

“He had personal letters from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alf M. Landon. Mulock told camp officials he knew Roosevelt when he was assistant secretary  of the navy.”

“Having been a sports writer for many years he knew all the big names in sports, Connie Mack [the longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history], Tex Rickard [American boxing promoter], John L. Sullivan [the first heavyweight boxing champion] Jim Corbett [heavy weight champion boxer who defeated the great John L. Sullivan] - the list is endless.”

Frank W. Mulock died in 1936 in a federal “transient camp” in Springfield Missouri during the Great Depression. An article regarding his death stated, “Veteran Reporter Dies Penniless at

Another mention of Frank Mulock’s death was published in the Great Falls Tribune of Montana, detailing more of Frank W. Mulock’s career. 

PART FOUR

 Chapter Twenty-Two

Dr. Peter George Attias “Greek Rogue of the West”

Peter George P Attias [1873-circa 1938], maintained that he was a Greek physician who was an  associate of Leonidas Skliris the Greek Labor Agent. Skliris had an office to the east of  Wilford Vermillion’s drug store.

Due to the sensational daily newspaper accounts of Wilford Vermillion’s mysterious death,

Attias saw an opportunity to seek publicity. He claimed to have been “one of the dead men’s most intimate friend” which was patently false as that Attias had only recently arrived in Salt Lake City a month before the young man was murdered. More likely, Attias,  talented at self-promotion, was simply trying to get his name into the newspapers, a ruse he used successfully for at least five years.

Attias promoted himself as “someone deeply affected by the death of the young druggist whom he insisted had not committed suicide” as that he said Wilford Vermillion was “making money and he was cheerful all the time.”  He  expressed the opinion that Vermillion had to have been murdered and that the “murderer would be ferreted out,” a sentiment that was heartedly excepted .

“Dr. Attias,” as he called himself, within days of Vermillion’s death promoted the newspaperman Frank W. Mulock as a private detective who had information on the slaying. Mulock, like Attias had just recently arrived in Salt Lake City from Colorado. Mulock was hired as a private detective to track down a man suspected of killing Wilford Vermillion. It was touted by Attias that he “hired” Frank Mulock to investigate the murder “as that the Salt Lake Police had run out of leads and suspects.”

While Attias was accepted in Salt Lake newspapers as the man who “hired” Mulock actually it was more probable that the Salt Lake Tribune paid the newspaper man’s expenses for his dispatches while in pursuit of the alleged killer of Wilford Vermillion.

Attias and Mulock were both men in their 30’s, living temporarily in the Rio Grande District having moved to Utah from traveling from various places. Mulock was kind of a freelance reporter and Attias professed to have been a journalist who was at the time in the process of writing a book of his alleged adventures as a world traveler. They both considered themselves adventurers, and while it may have been true for Mulock almost certainly it wasn’t for Attias.

In actuality Attias was a charlatan and confidence man, who posed as a round the world traveler and as a physician who “made some pretense of practicing his profession.” Peter Attias proved to be “one of the most polished of the around-the-world con artists. He caused great damage within the “Greek colonies” of Utah whom he preyed upon.

Shortly after Frank Mulock’s elusive  hunt for George Stevens ended, Peter Attias was embroiled in a conflict with his former colleague Leonidas Skliris over their influence within the “Greek Colony,” of Utah. Prior to the death of Vermillion, Attias exploited the death of a Greek miner, named “Bill Farro  “who died as the result of a dagger wound inflicted by Mark Zizcich”  in early August. Bill Farro was one said to have been “one of the most popular members of the Salt Lake-Murray Greek colony. Attias promoted himself as a champion in finding the man responsible for his death by raising a $300 reward for Ziscich also known as “Marko Zigich.”  At the Mount Olivet gravesite of Bill Farro, attended by “several hundred friends and relatives,” a week before  Vermillion’s death, Attias, becoming a local celebrity Attias, gave an address.  

Chapter Twenty-Three

Attias’ Origin Story

Peter George Paul Attias’ life is shrouded by the falsehoods he told about himself to reporters in his ruse to promote himself as a world famous explorer and traveler. There are only a few documents and newspaper accounts, however in which he did not narrate his own history.

            He was not unique as during the late 1800s, “people from various countries started to attempt to walk around the world for attention, money, and fame. In 1873, Jules Verne published his classic adventure novel, Around the World in 80 Days, “which captivated imaginations of the possibility of traveling around the world in a given time and the wonders that could be seen.”

The “World Runners Association” has set a standard on far is it to walk around the world “Today that it must be at least 16,308 miles. Early pedestrians were estimating that it would be between 14,000-18,000 miles. Today the fastest known recognized time is 434 days returning to the point of origin.”

By 1894, “dozens, if not hundreds of walkers,” started to participate in an “around the world on foot”  as “Pedestrianism, competitive walking, was in its heyday.”  For many it was a legitimate attempt, “but for most it was just a scam to travel on other people’s generous contributions. Attias was among the frauds.

“The typical scam went like this: They claimed that they were trying to walk around the world to win thousands of dollars on a wager, but they had to do it without bringing any money. They needed to be funded through the generosity of others, get free room and board, and free travel on ships. Walkers came out of the woodwork and the newspapers were fascinated by these attempts.”

            The notoriety of so many charlatans had one reporter commenting, “A great majority of these wanderers upon the face of the earth are men who would rather do anything than work.” Another perceptive reporter identified these imposters as “frauds, traveling over the country practicing a smooth game in order to be wined and dined.”

Most American transcontinental walks and for most early attempts to circle the globe on foot, “involved fraud and fabrication”,  nevertheless their tales are still fascinating to the public at the time.

Peter George Paul Attias invented so many stories about himself, chiefly from 1899 to 1900, that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. His assertion of having traveled around the world several times, from having made various lucrative wagers with European Sporting Clubs was his chief scam. In all his reports he claimed to have walked long distances in short periods winning thousands of dollars for his accomplishments. None of these stories were true but were part of his confidence scheme to bilk money from the gullible and he especially exploited the uneducated Greeks in various American cities. The usefulness of his many interviews in various newspapers is primarily for determining his location during his travels.

All that is known for any certainty regarding Attias was that he said he was Greek although his enemies and detractors also accused of him of being a “Syrian” in order to disparage him.

His presence must have been impressive as his physical and other characteristic were described by admiring American reporters. It was said that Attias was extraordinarily intelligent and also was very strong physically.

“Described in his passport as of medium height and fair complexion grey eyes, high forehead and regular features but these particulars give no hint of the extraordinary intellectual and physical powers contained within.

On several occasions reporters commented on his physique writing, “His muscles are like bars of steel, and his mental activity is almost bewildering.”

“Looking younger than he really is, possesses muscles like iron, and a head screwed on pretty tightly.”

“His muscles are like bars of steel and his mental activity is almost bewildering to minds accustomed to proceeding at an ordinary pace.”

“Although English is, he says, the least familiar to him of the twelve languages he knows, he pours forth in it a perfect torrent of ideas, speaking much more rapidly than do most English people.”

“There are few subjects on which he cannot speak with fluency and knowledge, for although only 28 years of age he is a keen observer and had had unequaled opportunities for acquiring knowledge of the world.

“Dr. Attias is a verry rapid talker but speaks excellent English, though marked with a puzzling accent. He claims to know twelve languages.”

Upon arriving in Montreal, Canada in 1900, the reporters Attias encountered there were not as flattering described him as not having “a marked personality beyond his intense nervousness.” Another reporter said he was “slender and a volatile Greek.” His personal characteristics were given as being 28 years old, “slightly below medium heights, fair complexion  and peculiar gray eyes.”

Eventually as Reporters realized he was a confidence man he was described as “one of the most polished of the around-the-world con artists” and was a habitual liar.

Attias gave both Athens Greece and Alexandria, Egypt as his birthplace depending on his audience. Whenever Attias was given the opportunity to be interviewed by reporters, at various times he would claim to be the “scion of a wealthy Athenian family.” More often, however he claimed to have been born in Alexandria, Egypt of “wealthy Grecian parents.”

In several newspaper interviews, Attias affirmed that he was born at Alexandria Egypt on 29 May 1872, “his father being a wealthy Greek merchant.” On a 1906 citizenship application, Attias stated he was born in Egypt as did his 1909 marriage application. In the 1910 federal census he also said he was a native of Egypt.

 Attias stated that his father was “Paul F Attias” a “banker” and his mother’s name was “Alexandria Zeoronos Emil Rigo” on  his 1909 marriage license application. He asserted, that “his parents were educated and wealthy Greeks, engaged in trade between Africa and Greece.” At other times he reported that his father was a banker and was on “various boards of trade of Europe.”  From these statements Attias made it appear that his father was a wealthy Greek merchant broker who traveled widely and who died before Attias was 21 years old circa 1893.

            Attias professed that he attended various colleges and universities in Europe all before 1892 when he would have been 20 years old. He asserted that he was “given every advantage in his youth that money could supply. He was educated in the best schools of Europe and insisted that he  studied in Paris, France, at Geneva Switzerland, at Berlin and  Leipzig, in Germany, at Vienna, Austria, Rome, Italy, and Madrid Spain.”

Claiming to have been educated in Paris, “when a mere boy,” he told reporters that he received a Bachelor of Arts degree there. He said he was a “botanist and geographer” having graduated at the “Lyceum” University of Paris, later maintaining to have received a medical degree in France, as a “graduate of the French Institute of Medicine and Surgery at Paris.” He later argued with detractors in Utah that he had a “medical diploma in Paris and that he practiced medicine in Europe.”

While Attias used the appellation of “Doctor” and was referred to as Dr. Attias in most reports of him, at first he maintained that he had received a doctorate from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, receiving a degree of “doctor of science.” in science. He sometimes refereed to having “the degree of geographer”  and at other times  as having a degree of doctor of geographical science.

Attias maintained as that he  was educated in Europe he spoke twelve languages although some reports claimed he mastered fourteen languages. Attias told a San Francisco reporter that he wrote and spoke “fluently in fourteen languages” due to his education.

In 1900, Attias told a Louisville Kentucky reporter how he became a world traveler. “To begin with I am a Greek. I was born at Athens. Of an exploring temperament, I launched into the work early and during the first part of my career conducted expeditions for a number of European scientific societies of Paris, Vienna, Munich, and other cities. These trip led me through Africa, Asia Minor, and Central Asia.”

Attis’s boasts of being educated in Europe as a young man conflicted with his tales of being in California between 1890 and 1892. Attias  asserted in an early newspaper interview that, “from 1890 to 1892 he trained and broke horses in California.” As that in 1890, Attias would have been a youth of 18, therefore it is not likely that he was in California there at all, even though he said, “His father early, encouraged his desire to visit manty countries.” In another interview he stated that he “spent two years in America from 1891 to 1892 living in California.” Attias would embellish his tales of being a youthful adventurer saying, “For a time he was engaged in California as agent of the British government in the buying of horses.”

This California narrative conflicted with the two tales he told about being in London and “thrown to his own devices by death of father” before  being 21 years old, and that of in 1892 leading an expedition into Central Africa .

Attias would constantly explain his lack of funds in two ways, either due to a lack of inheritance from his father or that he was traveling without means due to a wager’s contractual agreement.

In the first account, Attias maintained that before “his majority,” which usually meant the age of 21, “business reverses threw him on his own resources,” due to his father’s death .  He asserted that “After he had received his education he found himself in comparative poverty and placed upon his own resources owing to the disastrous financial speculation of his father.”  Attias lamented that, “Instead of millions in back of him, as he supposed, he suddenly awoke one morning in London conscious of the fact that only a few thousand dollars separated him from absolute poverty.”

Attias additionally alleged that in 1892, at the age of 20, “on recommendation of the Geneva University, he was appointed chief of staff of Prince Zamourim, a wealthy Russian exile for a  series of explorations in Africa.”

Attias said left he then for Central Africa, and avowed that by 1894, when he was 22 years old,  he was the chief of the expedition “to the gold mines of Kilimanjaro and Rovensonry in Uganda province.”  

While in Africa, Attias said he “was intimately acquainted with Cecil Rhodes and had many business transactions with him. He had visited the diamond fields of South Africa and at one time was financially interested in them.”

Cecil Rhodes was a British diamond mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He was an ardent believer in British imperialism and was a world renown figure, while any record of a Russian Prince named “Zamorin  or Zamourim” is nonexistent.

Attias stated that while in Africa, he had “many adventures with beast and natives” and carried “two bullet wounds and a sword scar as souvenirs of encounter with the natives.” He additionally claimed that the adventures of his African hunting experience “would make a good size volume.” There is no collaborating reports or documents to show that Attias had ever gone to Central Africa except for his own story telling.

Many Callings, Always Roving

At this point the time line of Attias’ claims of achieving fame as a “pedestrian” traveler become murky. From the time between 1896 and June 1899 he claimed to have walked on wagers from Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire to St. Petersburg, across the Balkan peninsula, and walked around the world twice.

Attias continued to spin a tale of a life full of adventure and of long journeys made on foot  beginning in Syria. Attias would use narratives of  these arduous “pedestrian” journeys as a way to convince newspapers reporters to interview him where to promote his lectures and writings.

He maintained that “In spite of the solicitations of his relatives he persisted in his determination to lead a life of adventure and began in Syria, long journeys on foot.”

He would use the ruse of having various “Sporting clubs,” which in the parlance of the days were “betting clubs,” wager that he could not travel a certain distance on foot without purse which explained why he was always without funds to reporters. He would  that  it was part of the “wager contract” that he should “travel by his own wits.”

Attias asserted that in 1896,  at the age of 24, he “undertook his pedestrian” meaning his walk, which for heightened effect said, “resulted almost fatally in the moment of accomplishment.”

There was not any actual documentation of Attias’ assertions being a renown “globe trotter” until  arriving in the United States until June 1899 when his name began appearing in American newspapers, although declared in the 1910 federal census of having immigrated to America in 1895.

The first known reporting of Attias as a world traveler was by a gullible Baltimore Sun reporter to whom Attias asserted that he  “won his fame” shortly after leaving Syria and “walking from Smyrna to St. Petersburg,” for a wager of  £800 by the “Sporting Club of Smyrna”.

The distance from Smyrna, in what was then the Ottoman Empire, to St. Petersburg in Russia is a distance of nearly 2,000 miles although Attias exaggerated the distance to be 5000 miles. The so called wager was for him to walk the distance in 78 days,  which if  it was actually 5000 miles and if he walked 11 ½ hours a day which he affirmed, this  meant he walked 5.5 miles an hour. If he actually did make the journey, which is doubtful, he would have only needed to walk 2.2 miles an hour to reach St. Petersburg from Smyrna which would have easily been accomplished.

Attias then claimed his second ‘pedestrian” feat was to cross the rugged Balkans. He stated he was “first to walk across the Terrible Balkans,  at Stranga,”  and therefore defeated the other “pedestrian champions of Europe.” He boasted that was “decorated by Emperor Nicholas II of Russia” for the trek and showed reporters “a jeweled decoration of the Order of Chevalier” which he declared was  presented to him by the czar for walking across the Balkans.

Attias biggest scam was his ascertain that he had a wager with the London Sporting Club after “One day he awoke one morning in London aware of the fact that only a few thousand dollars separated him from absolute poverty. He tried to think of something that might repair his fortunes when several wealthy sporting men offered to make him a wager.”

“While lounging about the London Sporting Club one day, he says, trying to think of something that might repair his fortunes, several wealthy sporting men of London, offered to make a wager with him that he could not make a tour of the world in three years without a dollar of capital to start on.”

On 1 January 1898, at the age of 26, Attias claimed to have started a walk around the world as a wager with the London Sporting Club for $25,000. He said he needed to go 40,000 miles by land and 28,000 by sea, “an impossible accomplishment,” traveling only be foot and ship. An itinerary was planned with certain distance to be traveled in each country within three years which would have been January 1901. He would tell reporters that this journey around the world started from Cadiz, Spain from where he then “walked through Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Russia.” From St. Petersburg he stated he crossed through Finland and from “Aboe” reached Stockholm, and walked through Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, then by ship to London and Scotland” and finally from “Penarth” Wales where he departed for Baltimore, Maryland in the United States.

What is known for a certainty is that Attias was in Cardiff Wales in June of 1899 before embarking for Baltimore, Maryland. Newspapers accounts from the Baltimore Sun stated that Attias arrived in Baltimore on 11 June 1899 “on the steamer Dufferin from Penarth, Wales which had left South Wales on May 30,  as “a member of the ship’s crew.”  He arrived in the United States nearly a year and a half from his supposed starting date of 1 January 1898.

Immediately after arriving, Attias began relating his fabricated tales of adventure to reporters intrigued by the concept of a young man traveling around the world on a wager without “purse or script.”

As Peter Attias self-promoting publicity tour grew, he was being referred to as “the young Greek explorer and sportsman.” It was then that he began asserting that the “London Sporting Club”,  engaged Attias “in the remarkable feat of visiting all the principal countries on foot”  for “a purse of £5,000” or $25,000.

In June 1899, Attias sought out a Baltimore Sun reporter, who referred to him as  a 26 year old “young Greek explorer, and sportsman” and “of fine physique.” The article’s by-line read, “Travels Without Money- Mr. Attias, An Egyptian, Making a Tour of 40,000 Miles Afoot.” The piece stated that “for a purse of £5,000 offered by the London Sporting Club,” he was “engaged in the remarkable feat of visiting all the principal countries on foot.”

Attias declared that “Captain Harry Maill of the Lord Duffrin”  brought him to Baltimore at the request of “Mr. D. T. Philips, formerly of Baltimore,  consul at Cardiff, Wales, a courtesy he tendered for the American representative.”

Attias then asserted he had spent £3,000 already for the past 16 months that he had been traveling and supported himself on his journeys “from lectures publications  correspondence to newspapers and traveling without money. He claimed that he was the editor of a newspaper called “the Universal Traveler Without Funds” which he sold by subscriptions, but actually there was no proof he never published such a paper.

The paper also reported without proof  that, “Mr. Attias is accompanied by two dogs and a private secretary on his trips. The secretary and dogs are in New York, having been sent over from Southampton with all their expenses paid, while he had to accept, as his contracted demanded, a passage for which he could pay nothing.”

He maintained that “although traveling without money, manages to live in the best style,” and he had traveled in “first class cabins” on Pullman palace train cars, and stayed at Waldorf -Astoria Hotels. He asserted  that while traveling alone, “all correspondence to him went through the “Greek Consul of his various stopping places.”

The article continued repeating Attias’ itinerary. “Mr. Attias proposes to spend two days in Baltimore and then pay a visit to Washington where he hopes to have an audience with President McKinley. He will then go to New York, where he will begin his pedestrian tours across North America, through Chicago to California, the southward through parts of South America; then by sea and land to Australia, Japan, Philippines and India  to finish in Aden and then terminate his 40,000 miles in still humble condition of a traveler without money.”

The Baltimore Sun newspaper then reported a few days later, that Attias left for Washington “having a letter of introduction to President McKinley. He will walk to New York and thence there start across the continent. From California he will walk south to Mexico and the Central American states and from a South America port he will sail to Australia. Then will follow tramps through Japan, China, and India.”

On 14 June 1899, it was reported that Attias “called upon the District Commissioners of Washington for the purpose of paying his respects and to obtain their certificate that he has visited Washington.” Attias would continue to acquire documentations and newspaper articles along his way to use as a source for the legitimacy of his statements.

In a newspaper interview he argued, “You have others traveling about begging and they ‘claim’ to have walked so far. I do not claim. I prove. I have been several times around the world so I know how to do it now. And I travel in an aristocratic manner. I have three men to arrange details and I have two dogs. I have spent $17,000 already. I earn money. I do not beg. I travel in the interest of science.”  Attias  described himself in American newspapers as “a botanist and geographer.” 

Another journalist account stated that Attias passed through Buffalo, New York in June 1899. He must have stayed nearly three weeks as in an article from 19 July 1899, it detailed that his “private secretary Ernest Rocchi” had joined him and Attias was making “around $1100 a month” before starting for Chicago which he reached on 1 August 1899.

  In Chicago Attias now asserted  that “in order to win the purse he must support himself , his secretary and the three men who accompany him.” He again remarked that “his trip was more in the interest of science than to win the purse and that he was collecting material for a scientific work which would be published when he reached home.”  He additionally asserted that he was “collecting material for a book of the customs and manners of the various civilized inhabitants of the world.”

By 17 August 1899 Attias had reached Omaha, Nebraska “accompanied by his secretary and two great St. Bernard dogs.”  The distance from Chicago to Omaha is approximated 470 miles which he took sixteen days to make the trip.

Attias reached San Francisco by the end of September, 1899, “making the trip across America in a little more than three months, averaging a very unbelievable 40 miles per day with scant news coverage.”

Attias was in San Francisco by 29 September when he was a lecturer for the “The Hellenic Mutual Benevolent Society’. Attias was featured as representing the “London, Cairo and Havre Geographical societies”  and gave his lecture “divided into three parts each in a different language. As Mr. Attias is a master of twelve languages this is not a difficult feat.”

Attias was reported as being back in Great Britain by  21 April 1900 seven months after appearing in San Francisco hardly enough time for him to have completed his “40,000” mile journey around the world. In great Britain Great he was interviewed by a journalist from the Western Mail newspaper of  Cardiff in South Glamorgan Wales. The byline read, “”Dr. Attias The Greek Explorer, Adventures In South America. Impressions of the New Worlds Affairs”

“P.G.P. Attias is an explorer who has crammed a vast amount of experience into his twenty-eight years of life. Looking younger than he really is, possesses muscles like iron, and a head screwed on pretty tightly. His principal occupation is traveling about mostly on foot with literary excursions thrown in between.”

Attias made not account as why he was in Wales after the last known report of his being in San Francisco, California. He alleged that between  October 1899 and February 1900 he traveled from the United states through Mexico, Guatemala, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile.

Attias gave his impression of each country he allegedly visited, starting with the United States , the “supreme ambition is the dollar, but the American is inclined to be cold hearted and inhospitable.”  He added, “A poor man in the States, even when of great merit, has not any social position, but if the same man had $20,000, he would be introduced to a respectable merchant, invited to dinner, and might marry the heiress of his unexpected friend. Life is full of material ambition.”

He admired Mexico saying it “is rich and looks prosperous, ” but further said , “In my rapid journey I have been convinced that the inevitable future for Mexico is to belong to the Yankees,” and predicted that it would soon be taken over by the Americans. “The construction of the railway that has been made to unite the capital of Mexico with all that capitals of the United States is a signal of that future.”

Attias then claimed to have headed southward through Central and South America. He avowed he met with the Presidents of Guatemala and Ecuador and that Columbia was experiencing a revolution. He said, “they live only to triumph in war.” He said he found Peru to be a beautiful rich nation and very but “you will find there a people very effeminate,” and having a “mixture of Mongolian blood.”  He called Chile, “the most flourishing nation of the Pacific.”

Attias embellished his previous tale of a carriage accident high in the Switzerland Mountains placing the incident in the Andes Mountains of South America. He contended that while he was in the town of Los Andes in Chile he, “learned that in order to catch a boat at Monte Video, it would be necessary to travel across country by break.” A brake also spelled break was a horse-drawn carriage used in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The trouble with Attias geography is that Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay on the eastern side of the Andes on the Atlantic Ocean some 960 miles from Los Andes in Chile. He said he was trying to catch a boat for Australia from a Chilean port. Attias maintained that as he was traveling from Los Andes, to a town fifty miles to the south called Rio Blanco, a village just north of Santiago, Chile, when he experienced a serious accident that killed all members of his party, including his two St. Bernard dogs. The Welsh reporter related the incident as related by Attias.

“A vehicle was chartered and at eight o’clock one evening in February, he set out with a break and four horses, and with a guide on horseback proceeding it. The party included himself, Mr. P. V Solanas , his secretary, a young Englishman named William Wood, engaged as servant, a man in charge of the break, and the driver.”

“Somewhere about midnight with three kilometers from Rio Blanco the guide shouted back that there were obstructions on the road, and the break was pulled up. They found that they had been traveling along a mountain side road with the mountain rising high up one side, a precipice on the other side and the bottom of the precipice was a rapid running river.” Attias gave no explanation as to why they were traveling at night on such a dangerous road.

“Just as they pulled up, a rumble was heard and a huge rock was seen tumbling down towards the break. Attias jumped from the break, but not in time to escape the shock. Break Horses, occupants and Attias were hurled over the bank, but Attias was found unconscious by the guide some time afterwards, lodged on the bank a few feet from the water’s edge, having fallen a distance of about 100 English feet. After conveying him to the bank he rode to a ranch and assistance was obtained but the valuable contents of the break and the four men were swept away.”

“Mr. Attias was severely injured and after undergoing treatment for his wounds he made his way back to Cardiff where he is resting  and endeavoring to recover his strength before proceeding on his journey.”

In another version  of this story, had the accident occurring on a northern route from Los Andes to the port of Valparaiso, a city known by sailors as "Little San Francisco" and "The Jewel of the Pacific".

“The most dangerous occurrence with which he met a dangerous pass in the Andes mountains coming from Valparaiso, Chile. The foot journey had ended with a visit to the last recognized seat of government on earth and the travelers was hugely enjoying a ride in the coach with his four servants and an experienced mountain driver. A guide was on horseback ahead to give signals in the nighttime with a lantern so that the driver might be sure of the road. At some point it was only a narrow shelf on a rocky mountain ledge.”

“Suddenly an avalanche of earth and rocks overwhelmed the carriage with the occupants and four horses. Only the guide on the horse ahead escaped the rocky deluge. He party was carried into the river bottom below down a precipitous declivity a distance of about 200 feet. The occurrence was the more terrifying because it was after nightfall, and it was sometime in that desolate neighborhood before the guide could even make a start to rescue the occupants of the coach.”

“The doctor was found the next morning unconscious near the edge of the river. He was so severely injured that it was sometime before it was certain he would survive. His four servants , the driver of the coach and the four horses were all killed, the bodies of two of the men being found some distance away down the river.”

“Besides the loss of life there was a serious property loss, as the coach was loaded with chests and boxes containing valuable presents that had been given to the traveler by governors and other officials un South America. Many of these objects were either lost or destroyed. One of the presents was a large, jeweled tobacco box that was valued at several thousand dollars. In all the doctor lost may thousands of dollars’ worth of presents through the most unfortunate accident.”

Attias never elaborated how he made it back to Great Britain after the loss of his fortune if he indeed ever went to South America.

Attias reported a similar story to a Pittsburg, Pennsylvania journalist published 1 September 1900 placing the event in the Alps in Europe.

“While traveling through Switzerland however he met with an accident that nearly cost him his life. Four of his assistants were drowned and all the valuable manuscripts and photographs which he had gather in various countries were lost.”

“The party was driving along a mountain road and the horses became frightened and ran off. The carriage was thrown over the hill into a Mountain stream and the four men drowned. Dr. Attias saved himself by jumping just in the nick of time.”

While claiming to have walked, “given the pace he made his way through the countries it is very evident that he did not travel by walking, covering more than 8,000 miles in only four months as Attias claimed that he completed his trek one month before the specified time accomplishing the terms of the wager. Attias later claimed that he finished his trip in London with thirty days to spare and netted more than $100,000.

 Chapter Twenty-Four

A Honeymoon Excursion

While in London. Peter Attias came up with another scheme to convince people he was a “Globe Trotter” on a wager again by the London Sporting Club. What may have set Attias apart from other pedestrian to reporters in Canada and the United States in 1900 was how he tended to stay at expensive hotels, his natty attire of a top hat and Prince Albert coat, as well as traveling with a fashionable dressed and bejeweled young bride.

Attias told a Pittsburg reporter “it was while in London after this trip, he met a woman who afterwards became his wife. He decided to stay in London but when the proposition of taking this trip was made, his wife was enthusiastically in favor of it and the set out.”

After his April Welsh interview, by June 1900 Attias had met a 22 year old,  “sweet pretty-faced” woman. She was referred to as “Mrs. Anderson James” in an article from November 1900. In  other reports Mrs. James, was referred to as “Miss Moulton of England, the daughter of an English Army office,” also as “a daughter of the English Major General, Mayo Moulton. Her Christian name was never given.

“The couple were married in June 1900 in London, England and Attias convinced his bride to honeymoon, traveling through Canada and the United States and then around the world.”

Attias’ bride was said to have been “born in a small town near London and was educated in the great English center,” and  in 1900 she “resided with her mother and two little children, one 3 ½ years of age and the other barely 2 ½ years.”  There’s no further information on her marital status and was probably a widow. Divorce took an act of Parliament and she could not have remarried due simply to desertion. She would have married her first husband most likely in 1895 at the age of 17 and was a widow by 1898.

Mrs. Anderson James evidently was well off enough to have possessed “some ready money and jewelry of the rarest make,” which possibly was what was as attractive to Attias as her looks. He would use her money and jewels to finance an extravagant lifestyle traveling in the United States and use as an excuse his concern for his wife for not traveling as a “pedestrian” on his new wager to go around the world.

The young Mrs. Attias while rather financially as well, she was emotionally naïve. She stated that she didn’t even know the value of her jewelry collection but that it was possibly worth $5,000. She believed Attias was “infatuated with her” and “to her the association was of even more value than the gold.”

 Attias convinced her that he owned landed estates in Egypt and Switzerland. He said he would take her mother and her “two little children to Switzerland” and provide for them. Mrs. James said later that the reason she agreed to marry Attias was that “I imagined I was doing something wonderful for my children. But Alas.”

Although her mother did not want her to “come away from her and with this man,” Mrs. Attias  avowed that “somehow I believed what he said of the estates and his wealth in Egypt and Switzerland, and I thought it would all be so fine for my babies when they grew up.”

It is possible that his wife believed the story of journeying around the world for a wager but perhaps not, as he had told her “that he had a remittance coming from Egypt and that his London bank account was short owing to the delay.”  Believing him to be independently wealthy she left England with “several hundred dollars in cash, four trunks of fine clothing” and “rare old jewels” which she used to pay for their honeymoon.

In Liverpool Attias began to pawn the first of his wife’s possessions, a “bangle and chain” and bought steerage passage for the couple to Montreal. She later lamented, “My jewelry began to go before we left Liverpool.”

Attias and his wife left Liverpool England on August 1, “traveling by steerage” on the steamer “Lake Megantic.” They arrived in Montreal,  Quebec,  Canada on 10 August  1900. On the ship’s manifest Attias gave his age as 28 [1872] and occupation as “Mining explorer.” According to a story told to a Montreal reporter, on the day following the arrival in Montreal, he asserted, “my wager began” to circumnavigate the world within a year’s time and accumulate $25,000 while doing so. He also said, “according to its terms we started with just an English sixpence, ” a former British monetary unit. This was the first of many lies as he was traveling on his wife’s money and jewelry.

To explain why his wife was accompanying him, Attias related that he and his bride were on their “honeymoon.” Additionally he said he was traveling with “a private secretary, a Greek who speaks little English,” probably a falsehood as that later reports the man was named “Joseph R. Giudici” as his Private Secretary.

Attias maintained a fabrication that he would repeat several times during his travels, that “We were allowed what baggage we wish to carry but the sporting club had it inspected and all articles of jewelry and other things of value which we might feel tempted to sell in case we got hard up were barred and sent back. To make this trip within the year and earn the $25,000 enroute I am dependent on my wits.”

To explain how he was able to afford to travel he claimed, “To pay my way, I am carrying out the following scheme: First I publish a paper called “How to Make a Fortune.” This will be published at the large towns along my journey. The subscription for the entire trip is $10. Then I make lithographed postal cards at each place of interest where I stop and mail them to those who have subscribed  for them.”

“ Also I lecture before scientific and sporting clubs along the route. I have already cleared considerable money on my paper and expect to make a great deal more. The postal cards also net me a handsome sum, as the number of those who have fallen in with the fad is amazing.” It was noted that “It seems to be a fad in Europe to collect postcards from different cities.”

The Greek’s scheme was actually “to print in every city, a paper filled with local advertisements and to relate his thrilling adventures while footing around the world. One daring tale was of an attack of brigands in an Asiatic desert.”

“But the American public did not appear to be deeply interested in the fakir’s schemes, for the funds grew shorter and the drafts from Egypt never came.” The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) accepts as standard English the use of “fakir” to mean an impostor or a swindler.

Although claiming to come to Montreal with only an English  “sixpence” actually his wife’s funds and jewelry were “dropped in Montreal” to pay expenses and  “on down the trail the trunks and costly ornaments  kept dropping off to pay hotel bills. Now and then a trunk of clothing was left behind.”

Attias to have circumnavigate the world by 12 August 1901 who would have had to travel nearly 70 miles a day and kept moving each day. However the couple remained in Montreal for 10 days until around August 22 at which time Attias declared to reporters “to have cleared $1300”  by the sale of his broadsheets of his adventures  which he said he sold “for ten cents a copy and he sold 1500 copies.” His wife was said to have “sketched and wrote articles for the publication.”

Press notices in various newspapers of town Attias traveled through, made it possible to  track his journey from Montreal to New Orleans.

The Ottawa Citizen featured a notice of Attias’ arrival in the Canadian capital. He was interviewed on August 21 at the Russell Hotel by a reporter who seemed infatuated with the Greek, remarking on his “extraordinary intellectual and physical powers”  and of  having  muscles like “bars of steel.”

The correspondent commented that Attias’ party had arrived in Ottawa by “motor car” but “on its arrival was found not to be in good working order and the party will proceed by the usual routes until he can secure one that will prove satisfactory.”

He further reported that the “Party will remain some three days in Ottawa”  and proceed by the Canadian Pacific Railway and steamers “with the occasional use of a motor car by way of variety. He also wrote as to explain why a celebrated pedestrian was not traveling by his own two feet, “When a man has traveled the world several times on foot, and not only the beaten paths of it, but a good many which, at infinite risk, he has had to lay out for himself, he is entitled to make the next journey, as Mark Twain did, by rail.” He quoted Attias as saying, “I wouldn’t mind walking thirty miles myself but should hate to have my wife compelled to do so.”

Attias claimed to be “a practiced journalist acting as a correspondent for eleven European and American newspapers and issued a paper of his own entitled The Universal Traveler.”

The Attias’ entourage stayed nearly two weeks  days in Canada before crossing into the United States. In later accounts he would state that he was traveling with a private secretary named “Joseph E. Guidici,” a valet, and two servants, passing himself off as a gentleman.

“The doctor left Montreal for Ottawa for a day and then to Toronto where he stayed three days before going to Buffalo.”

The Deseret News years later would remarked on Attias’ bunko scheme to swindle by persuading people in various cities and towns to buy his nonexistent newspaper. “This man appeared a few years ago in New York as a pedestrian and as a publisher of a newspaper,” that is, he would advertise it “during his travels throughout the different cities and collected the subscription of the said newspaper, but never published it.”

Attias, his bride, and private secretary arrived in Buffalo, New York, he said on August 26,  which would have made his stay in Canada 16 days. Buffalo was some 400 miles from Montreal.

 He immediately sought out reporters to whom he represented himself as an adventurer who “made a wager to go around the world within 12 months by steamer, rail and motor car” which he would have to pay all expenses himself on route, to win $25,000. If he failed to achieve the goal he said that he would forfeit “the $25,000” he posted with the London Sporting Club.”

The Buffalo Courier on August 27 announced, “Possibly the most remarkable hotel arrival in Buffalo yesterday was Dr Peter George Paul Attias a Greek who has won a worldwide reputation in sporting circles and who is now spending his honeymoon endeavoring to make good a unique wager. He has put up $5,000 with the London Sporting Club go around the world in 12 months  paying his own expenses and clearing a net profit if $25,000 on the trip.”

Dr. Attias is a keen intelligent man of small stature, but large muscle. He was found by a courier reporter with his charming young English wife and a Greek private secretary at the Hotel Vendrome last evening. She has “unbounded faith in the ability of her husband to perform the feat to which he has applied himself. She is an educated woman with that fair complexion and fresh hue for which English women are famous. Dr. Attias is famous in the world of science as well as in athletics.”

The Courier continued to expand on Attias alleged credentials repeating that he had a “Degree of doctor in geological science. He speaks 12 languages “ and is “altogether a man of extraordinary intellectual as well as physical powers.”

Attias was said to speak with the “vivacity of a Frenchman” and Attias and his bride’s attire was commented on reporting that he “wears no jewelry” while “Mrs. Attias wore a large duchess hat, with a wealth of dark ostrich plumes. Over her light colored summer waist hung a gold chain and among her rings a diamond sparkled. She wore a dark silk dress with black lace.”

Attias showed the silver coin Sixpence that he claimed was all he had on him when he arrived in Canada. He said, “I wouldn’t part with it for a good deal,” as he considered it his lucky piece. Still he said lived on $30 a day even after “My bank account stopped,” and “produced hotel bills from three Canadian towns. He asserted “I must have regard for my wife who is a great encouragement on my trip.”

He was able to afford such luxurious accommodations as he claimed that “in one night he realized $1300 in Montreal” from the sale of his newspaper.

“A copy of the four-page journal on “How to Make  Fortune was produced. It’s frontispiece is a picture of Dr. Attias as the celebrated Greek explorer.” It contained “interesting articles by Mrs. Attias” on “English Married People and their Homes” and “The Countess D’Emullard.”  The last named is the first of a series on society belles.

The principal contribution in the newspaper was “a thrilling story from the doctor’s pen entitled Captured by a Band of Brigands. This is  true story of the doctor’s adventures in Asia Minor.

“In his present enterprise, he makes report every two week of his progress to the London Sporting Club” and  he expects to remain in Buffalo eight or ten days and to interest the public in “How to Make a Fortune” a Buffalo edition of which will be published.”

The Courier also stated “Buffalonians will remember him a year and half ago on that notable journey, accompanied by two fine St. Bernards and four servants.”

The rest of the article contained Attias’ basic narrative starting with Syria and his journeys on foot “which have made him the world’s most famous pedestrian.” He related adventures with the African adventures with Prince Zambourim’s explorations, and a wager of $25,000 with  the London Sporting Club, a 68,000 mile tour of the world on foot all within three years.”

The Buffalo Morning Express also wrote of Attias arrival in the city, “According to a story, he is engaged on a most uncommon journey, an enterprise worthy of Jules Verne’s invention.” The paper reported that Attias said he would forfeits $25,000 to the London Sporting Club if he failed to complete the journey in the specified time.

Mentioning the novelty of taking a wife along with him on his worldwide trek, the Express commented, “Mrs. Attias regards the present trip as a most novel sort of honeymoon and has engaged to contribute sketches of her travels to several English periodicals.”

Attias told the Express that his itinerary was, “From Buffalo he will go to Pittsburg and then to St. Louis and follow the line of the Southern Pacific westward. From San Francisco he will visit in turn Australia, Japan, India  Egypt strike into Russia through Odessa, visit St, Petersburg and then back to London through North Germany.” In reality he only made it as far west as Louisville, Kentucky before turning southward towards New Orleans.

The reporter reminded readers that “Dr. Attias passed through Buffalo last June on a long pedestrian trip also made with the London Sporting Club. Starting from Cadiz he walked the length of Europe, took steamers to India and walked through that country and China thence to Japan and Australia. He returned to England by boast  and sailed for Baltimore where he resumed his pedestrian exercise and walked to San Francisco then southward through Mexico and Central America  to the western coast of South America to Valparaiso. He stated task was finished there one month before the specified time.”

Attias also related the celebrated Andes disaster where his “four secretaries,” “voluminous notes of his travels,”

and   all his “photographs and manuscripts” were lost.

The Buffalo Evening News reported was not as impressed with Attias in his article and appeared to be more of a  skeptic. “Globe Trotting Greek. On an Alleged Wager- “Dr.” Attias is Making One of Those Getting-Very Tiresome-Around -the-Word Trips”

This article instead of taking Attias assertions at face value wrote, “Says he started from London on August1 without a cent. He is accompanied by his wife and a servant. He claims to be B.A. of the University of Paris and has the degree of Doctor of Geographical Science from the University of Geneva Switzerland.”

Attias did not remain in Buffalo for more than a few days perhaps not finding the city welcoming. He left Buffalo, New York  to journey 210 miles to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

The Pittsburg Press stated that Attias’ party “arrived in this city this morning” 1 Sept 1900. Attias and his “Private Secretary Joseph R. Giudici  were seen at the hotel this morning and to a press representative gave information.” The Press reported that Attias was “traveling with a staff of four assistants” with his party, “ being at the Seventh Avenue Hotel.”  The newspapers penned that “Both Dr. Attias and his wife are well educated people and are evidently enjoying the novel trip.”

While reciting much of his same narrative background information he claimed that he would win a “wager of $100,000 if he returns to London within a year with $25,000.”

Attias, the paper reported, was “an experienced newspaper man” and the name of his paper was “How to Get Rich.”  As reported in Buffalo Attias asserted that “An edition of this paper will be printed in Pittsburg” He told the Press that he “and his assistants write the articles for this publication and his wife contributes stories of the English life and customs..

When questioned how he manages to travel without funds, Attias gave the same reply that “in addition to his income from the paper which he gets out, he is a correspondent for eleven papers in England and this country and will write letters from various countries which he visits.

Ten days after staying in Pittsburg, Attias continued west into Ohio. The Steubenville Herald Star on September 11 announced his arrival. Nearly a month after arriving in in Montreal, Attias found himself no further then Steubenville, Ohio on “his journey around the world.” He had travelled the distance of 640 miles which would have been 21 miles a day if he had been traveling each day instead of having extended stays in Canada, New York, and Pennsylvania.

The Herald Star wrote, “a novel traveling party arrived at the Imperial Hotel this morning from Pittsburgh. It consisted of Dr. Peter George Paul Attias, a Greek and his wife, private secretary, valet, and two servants.”

“Mrs. Attias is a handsome woman of 22 years.”

The party came with a two horse team purchased in Pittsburgh, and after breakfast and a few hours rest left for the West.” The Herald Star also penned, “Besides a wedding journey, this trip is the result of a wager with the London Sporting Club of $25,000 that the Doctor would go around the world in one year.”

In an interview with the reporter Attias showed him “the original sixpence with which he started” and affirmed that he had “won $25,000 on a three year foot journey around the world.” However his wager was to travel without funds except what he could earn along the way. “Being a scientist, the Doctor expects to derive considerable revenue from Lectures.”

Attias related that he had already made two trips around the world. “My first trip around the world was to demonstrate that such a journey could be made in a limited time, and the next to prove my physical ability. This trip is to show what I can do with my brains.”

Attias still insisted that his itinerary was to travel to the west coast before embarking to Australia and Asia. “From Steubenville the party goes to Cincinnati and thence via the Southern Pacific road to San Francisco from there to Japan, India, Australia, Egypt Russia and home.”

“The trip to Cincinnati will be made in a carriage by Dr. Attias, his wife and private Secretary Joseph R Giudici, the others by rail.”

A blurb in the Columbus Sunday Dispatch mentioned, “Mr. Joseph R Guidici, a private secretary to Dr. Peter George Paul Attias, a Greek, who has traveled extensively and who married a daughter of the English Major General Mayo Maulton , of England, arrived in the city last night from Steubenville. His party will arrive tomorrow in carriages.”

The Lexington Kentucky’s Herald-Leader carried the same information only adding much more details. “Around Globe. Dr. Attias, a Greek Travels on a Wager of $25,000. A Honeymoon Trip”

Columbus, O., Sept. 17- Joseph E. Guidici, private secretary to Dr. Peter George Paul Attias, a Greek, who has travelled extensively and who married a daughter of the English Major General, Mayo Moulton, of England, arrived in the city last night form Steubenville. His party will arrive tomorrow in carriages. Besides the doctor and his wife, there is a valet and two other servants.”

“The doctor is really on his honeymoon and is on a race around the globe on a wager of $25,000 made before the London Sporting Club. To win the wager the doctor must go around the world in 12 months by rail, steamer, horseback, carriage, automobile, street car or plain foot.”

“He was to start without a sixpence and is to clear $25,000 on the trip. To make money the doctor is publishing a small journal, an issue of which he gets out in each city where he stops. He also has an illustrated postal card feature and in addition gives lectures. His wife contributes to the journal and so far the venture has been a success. In fact the secretary last night registered at the Chittenden Hotel. He came ahead of the party by train.”

“The doctor has already made two trips around the world, the first one being to test his energy, he being given a certain time in which to make the trip. The next journey was to test his endurance and was made on foot.”

“This time, he left Liverpool with only sixpence in his pocket and landed in Montreal. Here the doctor began his trip and began to look for the money end of the affair. From Montreal, where he made money, the party journeyed to Ottawa, Toronto, and Buffalo, living at an average rate of $30 per day.”

“Each week he has to report back to London and to show his bills receipted. When he arrived in Pittsburg he had paid all his bills and had money ahead.”

“Before the party left for this side of the water, the club in London inspected all the baggage and even sent Mrs. Attias jewelry home so there could be no selling of trinkets to pay expenses on the way. In Montreal, the doctor took in $1,300 from the sale of his paper.”

All this hype was told by Attias. In reality Attias was financing his journey from pawning his bride’s jewelry and the $1,300 was probably the amount he received for some of them.

Attias had reached Columbus, Ohio by September 17 some 700 miles from Montreal, obviously he was behind schedule. To have been on schedule, he should have traveled 1750 miles by that time.

By the end of September 1900 Attias and his bride had reached Louisville Kentucky  and days later were in New Orleans Louisiana. An article from September 23 stated that Attias had reached Louisville six days after he was in Columbus” a distance of nearly 210 miles. This would suggest he only stayed one day in Columbus. To have kept on schedule Attias should have traveled 420 miles, twice the distance.

Lexington and Louisville  Kentucky newspapers  printed articles on September 23 and 24 September, stating “Wedding Trip On Wager” and “Attias Reaches The Fall City.” The press releases were virtually identical with the only detail differences was that in the Louisville Courier-Journal, it stated the couple were staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel while the Lexington Herald Leader stated they were at  the First Avenue Hotel.

“Dr. Peter George Paul Attias, the Greek Globe trotter, and his wife, Mrs. Attias, on their honeymoon trip, which is  a jaunt around the entire world, or that portion of it where man is not molested by savage tribes, has reached Louisville and is now stopping at the First Avenue Hotel.”

“The trip as previously announced in The Leader is being made on a wager of $25,000 and Dr. Attias must return to London, England by August 12, 1901, before he is declared to be the winner.”

Attias had made it as far as Louisville, Kentucky where a trusting reporter interviewed him and took him at his word. “A reporter sent up his card to Dr. Attias at the Fifth Avenue last evening and in response to queries, the magnetic young man gave a succinct history of his undertaking and the thigs which led up to it.”

His newspaper printed the article with the by-line, “Their Novel Wedding Trip  Started Out With 12 Cents To Go around the World in A Year and Earn $25,000 on a wager’”

“A honey moon trip without any money would be to most married couples nowadays equivalent to a honeymoon trip without the honey. No so with Dr. P G P Attias who with his bride is stopping at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in this city.”

“My present trip, says Dr. Attias, “is being made on a wager with the London Sporting club for $25,000. The wager was made shortly after I married Mrs. Attias last June. She did not object but so far has found the trip a delightful novelty, despite the fact that according to the wage, was started without money.”

“Wagers like this have been heard of before but none of the have been made on a scale of such magnitude and none have undoubted genuineness of the one projected by Dr. Attias.”

“Dr. Attias then described his trip as far as Louisville. He is allowed to go as he pleases and started from Montreal in an auto mobile furnished by a factory of that city. Before he left, he made a large amount of money. The automobile broke down and he sent it back.

Proceeding the remainder of the distance to Pittsburgh by rail with frequent stops, Dr. Attias issued in the Smokey City his first issue of his novel paper. He obtained hundreds of $10 subscriptions.”

From Pittsburg the adventurous Greek accompanied by his wife, secretary and three servants drove overland to Columbus Ohio where his horse broke down. The journey to Cincinnati and thence to Louisville was made by rail.”

The Attias party arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 26, and stayed at the St. Charles Hotel where Attias signed the register as “Dr. P G P Attias, Around the World, Greece.” The St. Charles was one of the first of the great hotels of the United States.

A New Orleans’ paper announced,  “Dr. P. G P. Attias, who with his bride, his secretary and three servants, stopping at the St. Charles hotel, is making a tour of the earth under extraordinary conditions.”

A reporter for the Times-Democrat on September 26 described Attias’ trip “as far as New Orleans.”  It was written that “From Pittsburg, the adventurous Greek drove overland to Cleveland where his horses broke down and were dispensed with. The journey to Louisville and thence to New Orleans was made by rail.”

Attias was quickly depleting his wife’s assets and blamed his financial situation on not being able to advertise his alleged newspaper. “The doctor told the reporter that the papers always gave him columns and that he would print one of his sheets in this city. But he never got column notices in the New Orleans papers.”

The couple left the St. Charles for the Hotel Denechaud to save on expenses where Attias was exposed as  being “a monstrous impostor, faker, fraud and tramp,” in an expose by a Picayune Tribune Reporter.

On the night of September 28 the reporter confronted Attias in front of the Denechaud along with a colorful character known as Count Rocco Dianovich, “who styles himself king of the tramps and thirty-four years on the road.”  

Count Rocco stated in various places that he was born in 1852 and his home was in Lissa, an island in the Adriatic sea, forming part of Dalmatia, in Austrian Empire. He stated he left home in 1867 perhaps due to the war between Italy and Austria. In 1866 there had been a sea battle at Lissa.

Count Rocco first comes to the media attention from an Associated Press piece dated 1 December 1897. The piece mentioned Count Rocco Dianovich as “a Count Disguised As a Tramp.” The article was carried in at least fifteen different newspapers probably more as a human interest story.

“Count Rocco Dianovich, of Austria, who for thirty-four years [from 1863] has disguised himself as a tramp and travelled all over the world. Is in this city. He makes a specialty of prisons, and says he has either as a prisoner or a visitor has been in every prison in the world. When he was a prisoner it was in consequence of feigning drunkenness.

He worked the treadmills in England, swept the streets with the chain gang in Peru, joined the penal colony of Tasmania and been locked up in Australia and Africa.

Africa he says is bad but Australia is the most brutal and most vicious place in the world. They treat prisoners worse than anywhere else. I have seen them tied to a cross and given thirty-nine lashes for disrespect to an officer.

The count expects to go from Chicago to Texas and from there to New York. He came to Chicago from California and took thirteen months to make the trip.”

His named appeared in various newspapers over the years and in April 1900 Count Rocco was in South Carolina on his way to Columbia. “He is a tramp of an unusual and peculiar type and an interesting character for all points of view. He is a member of a prominent Austrian family and has proof of his title of nobility.”

“He left home when a young boy and has been on the go  ever since having visited very country in the world except Canada. He served in the Unites States navy and was discharged after completing his term of service at the Norfolk navy yard, twenty Seven years ago  [1873]. When Ship Congress, he served under Admiral,  then Lieutenant W. T. Sampson.

“Count Rocco came to New Orleans fully eight weeks ago and his local history began at the Commercial Hotel. He captured Mobile Alabama before coming here.”

“Once in town Rocco began to investigate the city. He stopped at the St. Charles for about a week, then at the Tulane, and later served a twenty days’ sentence in the parish prison for blocking Royal street and refusing to move on.”

Count Rocco reportedly “read the brief statement for Dr. Attias case in Thursday morning’s Picayune and he decided to look him up. As that he asserted “I am something of a fakir myself,  and I want to see this man who can travel around the world three times in four years. I have been of the road thirty-four years. I have been in jail fourteen times, and I want to see the man who talks about Greek Brigands.”

The 48 year old Muttonchops whiskered “Count Rocco was in earnest.”

It was reported that “By accident there was chance meeting of the doctor and count in a confectionary on Canal Street, but that was unsatisfactory.

The reporter wrote of the encounter as a “ludicrous interview between Dr. Attias and Count Rocco Dianovich in which each called the other a monstrous imposter, fakir, fraud and tramp, a report of which appeared in the Picayune.”

The reporter “tongue in cheek” wrote of the confrontation as if it was a prize fight. “Count Rocco and Dr. Attias- Austria and Greece met. The meeting was warm. It lasted for more than a half an hour.

“The conference took place in front of Hotel Denechaud last night [Sept 28] at 8:30 o’clock, and the performance lasted after the 9 o’clock bell.”

Object: To get the count and doctor to size each other up and pass judgment upon each other’s scheme, which they did to the great amusement of half a hundred witnesses, who gathered at the hotel.”

“Dr. Attias struck the city Wednesday night [sept 26]. He put up at the St. Charles Hotel and beneath his name he wrote, Around the World. That attracted some curious attention, although an old hotel clerk vouched for the opinion that labeling a man’s business on a hotel register always gives the snap away.”

“Anyhow, Dr. Attias, when seen by the reporters, said he was traveling around the world on a $25,000 wager laid down with the London Sporting Club. The conditions were that he should leave without a farthing, make the journey in twelve months, and return to London with $25,000 in stock.”

“Dr. Attias said he was a Greek and that the novelty of this trip was in the fact it was his honeymoon.”

Count Rocco evidently had written an account of the Boers of Cape Town Africa and was seeking to sell to Attias. “I will sell him my history of the Boers for $50, said Rocco, and if he puts that in his paper, he will have something worth reading. Understand me, sir, something worth reading , yes, sir.

“The conference was planned and executed. Rocco walked to the Denechaud Hotel to which place the Greek, the doctor had moved during the day, carrying his cane, his hand bag with his testimonials, letters of encouragement from Mobile and Governor W.W. Heard and the famous history of the Boers. He presented a formidable front.”

“The reporter went unarmed.”

“At The lobby entrance the doctor was encountered coming out. He wore a high silk hat, a Prince Albert Coat, and a small drug bottle in his hand.”

“The conference opened with sparring and the passing of mutual compliments, nit.”

“Rocco had no high hat, instead his noble pate, which he alleges first felt the sun at Lisa, Austria, was covered with a straw helmet. He wore a heavy double breasted winter coat and stripped trousers. His cane and the history of the Boers and the letter form Governor Heard were his credentials.”

“Count Rocco Dianovich—Dr, Attias” said the reporter by way of introduction.”

“I’ve had the pleasure. He’s one fine fellow, responded Dr. Attias, laughing heartily. He says he has traveled for thirty-four years but-”

Count Rocco taking Attias meaning as an insult retorted, “You can say you have traveled around the world three times in four years-what pray, tell can you know from such travel? How did you travel? How did you live?, Broke in the Count.”

As the exchange became heated  Count Rocco’s “ history of the Boers and the testimonial from Louisiana’s governor were forgotten in this lively introduction.”

“Rocco tapped his cane on the tone banquette for emphasis and declared: You write in your paper of brigands capturing you in Asia Minor, who ever heard of them where you say? I have travelled that country all over and was never molested either by day or night, understand me , sir?”

Attias responded to Dianovich’s history of being incarcerated by stating, “When I wish to visit the jail of a city, I go out and take thirty minutes to go through it, ejaculated the doctor. I do not have to serve imprisoned to learn about prison life.”

“The roasting continued.”

“By this time fully fifty people had stopped and found comfortable resting places for the free show. It was the liveliest thing going.”

 “Dr. Attias took off his plug hat and held it in his laps. The doctor ventured the belief that Rocco was no more a count than he himself and he laid no claim to any such distinction.”

“The count retorted something about a sky-scraping hat,” that Attias wore.”

“Everyone laughed to beat the band.”

“The Count thought of the history of the Boers and his state papers form Governor Heard. I am an advocate of prison reform, he said. I entertained the governor at Baton Rouge for two hours and fifteen minutes and here is his testimonial of me.”

“He flashed the big golden seal of the state and the executive papers signed by the governor and Secretary Michel. It was a surprise- It was Rocco’s high card. No one thought he possessed such a document.”

Dianovich continued, “It you want to sell 10,000 copies of your paper in New Orleans, said Rocco to the doctor, getting a trifle confidential, I’ll let you have my History of the Boers, my name, my title, and all for $50. Yes you can take it all for $40. Or I’ll tell you want I’ll do, being that you’ve gone around the world three times in four years, you can have it for $10.”

Attias refused saying, “Bosh my dear tramp, rubbish. I wouldn’t print second hand stuff. It would take an hour to read this.”

The heated exchange when on with Count Rocco questioning Attias’ veracity. “You print,  got in Rocco, that you travel with secretaries and servants. Where are they?”

Attias asserted, “I have them,” and Dianovih rejoined saying “We don’t see them anywhere.”

Attias explained, “They are at a lodging house. I can’t afford to keep them in the hotel,” at which “he count laughed loudly and swung his cane.”

“You talk of Nansen, the explorer, pursued Rocco. Fridtjof Nansen was an Danish explorer of the north and south polar regions.

“Well?” asked Attias.

“He is an imposter, a fraud. He is a fake. I exploited him in the auditorium at Chicago.” However there is no evident that Nansen who became famous was ever fraudulent.

On 23 November 1900, the Times Picayune wrote an expose on Attias. “Greek Explorer Prince of Fakirs – He Even Duped the Woman Who Married Him. And Who is Now Stranded in This City. She tells the Tale of His Trail of Debt- Secured by Her Jewels and Clothing , from Liverpool to Mobile.”

In New Orleans, at a public lecture, he was accused by a partner for an hour of being “a monstrous impostor, faker, fraud and tramp.” Attias ditched his wife and she thought he was on the way to Mexico. She called him “the greatest rascal I ever knew.”

On Attias may have returned to Louisville or the paper there had a delayed story. On 4 October 1900, another blurb regarding Attias appeared in a Louisville, newspaper. “Dr. PGP Attias who with his bride is stopping at the Fifth Avenue hotel in this city in on  a wager with the London Sporting Club of which he is a member. Dr. Attias is now on his fourth tour of the world, which he hopes to encompass  in twelve months, to earn $25,000 and by win his bet of $25,000.”

“Dr. Attias will remain in Louisville for about three days disposing of his newspaper, postal cards and soliciting advertisement for  How to Make A Fortune. He is already carrying large advertisements for Montreal factories. Leading newspapers in Cincinnati Pittsburg and the East have written up his journey, the authenticity of which is further furnished by papers and documents covering his route from the starting point to this city.”

In November, 1900, it was revealed that Attias was a “con, a fakir, and he deserted new wife” in Mobile, Alabama after her money evaporated.

“The true story of Dr. P G P Attias, the self-styled celebrated Greek explorer, who came sweeping through this city a few weeks ago, now comes out, and it appears that he is one of the rarest and most picturesque fakirs that ever struck the road.”

“The doctor’s dodge was performing a tour of the world on foot. The last heard of him was ‘walking towards Mexico’ and as close to the Mexican line as possible.”

“But not until he had wrung the last penny and the last jewel from a sweet pretty-faced woman he induced to marry him in London, England, five months ago.

“She was left stranded in Mobile, while her rich jewels and trunks were strewn all the way down the line from Liverpool, England to New Orleans, Louisiana, beheld by pawnshops and seized by proprietors to satisfy unpaid hotel bills of the great explorer.”

“After her last experience in Mobile she made her way to this city and yesterday found some modest temporary apartments in a quiet street downtown but not until she had called at Hotel Denechaud to make sure that some jewels left there for the doctor’s bills were still in the possession of the hotel management.”

“However another report stated that on October 5 Attias and his wife left the Hotel Denechaud and went to Mobile Alabama  the woman putting up sufficient jewelry to satisfy Attias bills.”

“Meanwhile scores of people in this city learned to know the pompous Greek. He dressed lavishly, usually wearing a long Prince albert coat with high silk hat. He was an inveterate smoker of cigarettes.”

“The Greek Colony of New Orleans has reason to know him. He frequented several places on Canal Street and it is alleged was a smooth one on the borrow, always forgetting the return.”

“I don’t like to talk of this awful matter, pleaded Mrs. James, when asked for a statement of Attias’ latter-day progress. “My mother will be heart broken. You know she did not want me to come away from her and with this man but somehow I believed what he said of the estates and his wealth in Egypt and Switzerland, and I thought it would all be so fine for my babies when they grew up.”

“So I left London and came with him. My jewelry is scattered all over the country and he holds the tickets for most of it. The last I knew of him was in Mexico, but I do not know where he is now.”

“ Yes I have been in Mobile ever since I left the Denechaud Hotel. I have valuables held up in both Mobile and this city. My mother does not yet know a word of my sad plight but I wrote her a letter yesterday telling her the truth. She will get that in a week or such a matter and will know all.”

“His dodge with me was that he was to receive a remittance from Egypt but they never came. A short time since a letter came from there to him which fell into my hands. It was in Greek and I had it translate. It seems that his folks were expecting money from him and instead of writing for money he had written putting them off. The letter scolded him for not sending aid.”

“Oh that man is the greatest rascal I ever knew.”

“At the Denechaud Hotel, Manager Justin F. Denechaud was asked if he remembered the Greek explorer. With distinctness, was the reply.”

“ We now hold some jewelry and articles of value for the settlement of the bill.”

“Attias told me that the newspaper roasts in this city killed his chances; that the Picayune pronounced him a fakir, and that he was turned down by the people he approached. He gave that as the reason for not being able to pay his bill.”

 “He told me he would publish a paper and would have lectured here; that New Orleans was a good town for him, but the papers killed his scheme. He said if we would accept the valuables for his bill that he would redeem them in thirty days. That time will not be up until Dec. 5”

No more is known of Peter Attias or of his deserted wife until he would show up in Boston, Massachusetts in 1903.

Records showed that Attias sailed from Southampton, England on  27 December 1902 and arrived in New York on 4 January 1903. The ship’s manifest he listed him as  a “28 year old single male. He avowed to be an American citizen, yet said he was born in Egypt and that he was an American citizen going home.” He gave his occupation as a journalist.

Not long after arriving in the United States he traveled to Boston where he married on 3 May 1903  a 27 year old divorced woman named  Emily Garlock [1875-1947], the daughter of Charles Garlock. He would also desert her and she remarried another in 1905.

As for Count Rocco Dianovich, he continued his travels around the world. On 2 July 1902 the New York Evening Post, printed, “A queer bird of passage was released from Ellis Island Saturday Morning. He calls himself Count Rocco Dianovich and claims to be a Dalmatian and a nobleman of ancient lineage. He arrived in port from Havana and because he had no baggage and only a few dollars in his faded linen cloths he was detained for examination by the board of special inquiry. He convinced members of the board that he was capable of taking care of himself. He has credentials from consuls, petty rulers, police officers, and minor government officers showing that he had fared afoot along practically all of the world’s great highways and from many out of the way places of the habitual world. He claims to be the possessor of 9,709 letters from potentates and officials.” 

In 1903 an English paper noted him in a piece called “The Aristocratic Tramp.” It related that Dianovich left London after 17 days and went to Calais, France “where he will walk to Paris enroute to his home at Lissa Austria.” The article commented on the “marvelous collection of 9000 credentials gathered from distinguished” people around the world.

The known  mention of Count Rocco was from an English paper in 1906. “There are globe trotters and globe trotters and one who is now at Zurich {Switzerland] probably holds the record. He is an Austrian Count- Count Rocco Dianovich and he has spent the last 38 years in tramping on foot over every accessible corner of the globe. Although the count is no longer young, he is still fresh looking and full of vigour and has sheaves of stories of his own adventures to tell. He has made his wanderings self-supporting by means of lectures and by the exhibition of his ten thousand certificates which he holds attesting’s his pedestrian exploits.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Attias Comes to Utah

After Peter Attias deserted his second wife in Boston he made his way to Denver, Colorado by1904. He no longer was using the scam that he was on a world traveler but was simply claiming to be a medical doctor who was in the process of writing a book of his adventures having transverse the earth. Attias said that he was the editor of the Roma, an Italian newspaper published in Denver.   The Salt Lake Tribune first mentions Attias in a piece printed on 24 July 1904. “Among the visitors in Salt Lake is Dr. PGP Attias, a young Greek who now claims Denver as his residence. But six or even years ago [1897-1898] Dr. Attias was in the city, having just completed a most thrilling tour of the world, during his transit many adventures happened to him.”

And even on his trip from Denver to Salt Lake he met with quite an experience. He is publishing a book, The Ups and Downs of Life, and to study the life of a ranchman on the desert, he walked from Grand Junction this way.

But he lost his trail and wandered about on the desert without any water for a long time until finally picked up by two people who live in Cisco. In their home he was nursed back to consciousness and then resumed his trip to Salt Lake, this time however taking the train of the Rio Grande. He will be here several days.”

As it turned out Attias would remain in Utah until January 1905.

By 1904, the hundreds of newly arrived Greek immigrants, brought in mainly by labor agent Leonidas Skliris, [1876-1964] were settling in rooming houses and hotels extending from Third West to Seventh West and from Second South to Sixth South. This stretch land on the west side of Salt Lake, was known as the "Greek Quarters," and became the center of activity for Greek immigrants.

This section of Salt Lake City soon filled with Hellenic laborers who were mostly unmarried young men, or men who left their spouses behind in Europe.

As the demographics of Second South began to change after 1903, the Polk directories reflected the shift in the ownership of businesses from mostly American owned, to mostly Greek and Italian owned on the street. The street became a “vibrant and active” but separate part of Salt Lake City.

It is easy to see why Attias would gravitate to this section of Salt Lake.

The Salt Lake Herald wrote on 29 July 1904, “Dr. PG P Attias of Denver who visited Salt Lake Yesterday on a business to Bingham. He is looking after the mining interests of Boston Capitalist

Headquarters presently in Denver. He announced last evening that so many of these investments were in Utah Mines,  that he intended to open an office in this city in the near future and he hoped to make Salt Lake his home for at least a portion of the year.”

“Born in Northern Africa. His parents were educated and wealthy Greeks, engaged in trade between Africa and Greece. He was given every advantage in his youth that money could supply. He was educated in the best schools of Europe and is a graduate of the French Institute of Medicine and Surgery at Paris. He studied at Berlin, Leipsing Germany, at Vienna and Rome, Italy, and Madrid Spain. He writes and speaks fluently in fourteen languages.”

            Attias then repeated the story of his involvement with the London Sporting club one day, wagering he could not walk around the world in three years. He told the Herald that he  “met all the crowned heads of the leading empires of the world and formed the acquaintance of many leading men in all nations. He was entertained at the White House by President McKinley and by Governor Roosevelt at Albany.” More impressive was the fact he claimed the trip “netted him over $100,000 besides the wager.”

            To explain why he was shirt of funds he explained, “After his return to England he was successful he says for several years in various business enterprises. The temptation to speculate on the London Board of Trade proved too strong and in a few months his money was quickly lost.”

“Again thrown upon the resources of his wit, he emigrated to America, He spent several months in Boston, New York, and Baltimore, where he formed favorable business connections with men interested in western mines.”

            Although Attias had already narrated to a reporter at the Herald that he came to  Utah with a business interest in mines, on 5 August 1904, the  Herald wrote a blurb, “Greek Loses His Way-Wanders on Desert En Route From Grand Junction.”

            Dr. P.G. Attias, the Greek traveler who is touring America and who has been visiting sat Lake , has had another thrilling experience. He attempted to walk between Grand Junction to salt Lake but lost his way.

            After wandering over the desert and suffering intensely from the heat and thirst, he was rescued by ranchers near Cisco, who put him aboard a train and sent him on his way to Zion.”

            Cisco was “started in the 1880s as a saloon and water-refilling station for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. As work crews and, later, travelers came through, stores, hotels and restaurants sprang up to accommodate them. Nearby cattle ranchers and sheep herders in the Book Cliffs north of town began using Cisco as a livestock and provisioning center.”

            Attias upon arriving in Utah gravitated to the emerging Greek community of laborers in Bingham Canyon and the Murray Smelter where the majority of Southern Europeans were employed. However he set up his headquarters in Salt Lake City in the Rio Grande District where he promoted as a translator for Dr. Ira Waite. By his association with Dr. Waite he was able to persuade the mostly uneducated laborers that he was a medical doctor also and he had prescriptions filled at the Vermillion Drug Store where he became acquainted with the young owner.

 “Attias dropped into Salt Lake in April 1904 to make a name for himself in the burgeoning Greek community of second South. In the Rio Grande District area, “he gained some dis-reputation through a hotel row and later some notoriety through his connection as a sleuth in a mysterious suicide case that of William vermillion.”

            After Wilford Vermillion’s death he claimed that Wilford and he were intimate friends although Attias had only arrived in Salt Lake City a month before the druggist’s murder. Attias was able to promote himself in Salt Lake newspapers as hiring a detective newspaperman to find the Killer of Wilford and bring him to justice.

            However by the middle of September Attias switch tactics and promoted himself as the great friend of the Greek laborers and attempted to rival Leonidas Skliris. The two men positioned themselves as the true leaders of Utah’s Greeks and Skliris held a more favorable position as a labor agent for the railroad and mining owners. Attias attempted to leverage himself by becoming involved in local Greek labor disputes.

The Deseret News wrote Attias, “now comes forward as a political leader in Salt Lake, and as an organizer of labor unions. While it is well known that in no way do the people of Utah and Colorado sympathize with such unions or the Western Federation, Attias comes out in one of the newspapers against Mr. L. Skliris, the interpreter, because Skliris annihilated Attias’ schemes.”

            Skliris as the “Greek labor agent” supplied the local railroads and the smelters at Murray and Bingham with Greek laborers. His labor agent scheme was a way for Skliris to extort a fee from Greeks seeking employment in Utah. Attias on the other hand saw an opportunity to ingratiate himself in the “Greek Colony” as a labor organizer.

Attias’ scheme was to organize Greek workers and incorporate them into the “Western Federal of Miners” the results would have deprived Skliris of his fees. In October 1904 Attias and Skliris feuded and became enemies over who would control the Greek labor market.

Attias asserted in newspapers that “every Greek that gets a job with the Short Line, The Rio Grande railroads, and the smelters have to pay toll to Skliris in the sum of $5 or more down and $1 a month as long as he holds the job. He maintained that it is unjust they have to pay toll of their work.”

            Skliris was incensed and retorted that  Attias was “turning upon the one who befriended him when he first came out here, penniless, and friendless and that he is trying to deprive Skliris of revenue because he would not let Attias in on it. He argued  that he does a great deal for his countrymen and that he only gets his just dues of looking after them and protecting their interests.

            Attias met with A.W. Charter, the secretary of the Western Federation of Miners union, and convinced him that he had a “Deep interest in the welfare of his countrymen” and offered to assist him especially as a translator in persuading the Greeks to join the labor organization.

            On October 13 Attias and A.W. Charter held a meeting in a  downtown Salt Lake Hotel “for the purpose of forming an organization affiliated  with the Western Federation of Miners.”  The next day Attias went with Charter to a meeting held at “Bingham Junction” to “consider the question of the admission of Greeks to the Union.”

            At the close at the close of a meeting of the Western Federation of Miners, “the life of  Dr. P G P Attis who has been very active in organizing his countrymen was threatened.”

A group of Greeks were heard to yell “Shoot him!” and “Kill him!” A. W. Charter Charters alarmed at the potential danger “thought it advisable to secure the protection of Deputy Sheriff Ira Beckstead.” The sheriff escorted Attias back to Murray, “because six Greeks led by Frank Soter threatened to do him bodily harm.” Leonidas Skliris may have been behind the threats as that Frank Soter [Soteropoulos] worked as a bartender in a saloon owned by Skliris on West Second South.

The Western Federation of Miners then “voted unanimously to admit the Greeks to membership in a subordinate job.” James Soter was the first Greek admitted who was made secretary of the Union and interpreter “with instructions to enroll his countrymen.” Attias was admitted to Union with an “honorary membership in recognition of his service in the matter.”

Upon hearing the outcome of the vote Attias told reporters, “that the Greeks will very generally avail themselves of the opportunity to join the union.” However it was “feared in Murray after the meeting that threats which had been made against Dr. Attias might be carried out therefore Deputy Sheriff Ira Beckstead was called upon to escort him from town,” back to Salt Lake City.

Leonidas Skliris and Peter Attias became adversaries fighting over who had more influence over the growing Greek population in Utah. Even the rival Deseret New and the Salt Lake Tribune were said to have taken sides. Skliris was accused by the Tribune of being aided by the Deseret News in an effort to keep the Greeks in “ignorance and subjection” while Attias and the Western Federation of Miners were accused by the Deseret News of seeking to ‘herd foreigners to the polls to help the anti-Mormon American Party.

The Deseret News also accused Attias of “being a professional labor agitator.” However A.W. Charter defended Attias’ motives,  saying they “became acquainted when he needed an interpreter in order to organize the Greeks to overthrow Skliris’ “vicious padrone system” by which Skliris held “their living in his hands.”

On October 16, the Salt Lake Herald commented, “The fight which has been in progress for the past two weeks to determine whether the 1200 Greek laborers would become members of the State Miner’s Union or should continue to pay patronage to Skliris. Attias charged Skliris with grafting Greeks left and right charging $5 to $15 for securing a job. Skliris claimed Attias masqueraded in different parts of the country under different names. Claims he is practicing medicine without a license and that he is not a Greek.”

On the same day, the Salt Lake Tribune printed, “Dr. P G P Attias whose work in organizing the Greek smelter men has provoked the wrath of the Deseret News and Louis Skliris, the Greek labor agent, is accused by Skliris as being an Assyrian faker and of practicing medicine without  a license.”

The charge seems trivial to Americans but it seems Assyrian is a term of reproach among Greeks and Dr. Attias hastens to repudiate it. He says he has ample evidence to prove that he is of pure Greek parentage, although born in Africa.”

“On the third count the doctor says that he has been acting as assistant chiefly as an interpreter for Dr. I. W. Waite a licensed practitioner.”

“In the meantime the Greek colony is becoming very much wrought up over the strife.”

Leonidas Skliris charged Attias on October 17 with practicing medicine  without a license. “Complaint Is the Outcome of the Attempt to Organize Greek Laborers Into A Union- Warrant for arrest.” Attias claimed he had “unselfish motives” in attempting to help the Greek men and Skliris attacked him for it. “He maintained it is unjust they shall have to pay toll on their work.”

“ Skliris on the other hand, says that Attias is turning upon the one who befriended him when he first came out here, penniless, and friendless and that he is trying to deprive Skliris of this source of revenue because he would not let Attias in on it.”

The warrant for Attias arrest  “had not been served by October 20” as that Attias could not be found. A.W. Charter told reporters, “Dr. Attias has not skipped out because of this charge. It was issued at the instigation of the labor agent Skliris simply because Skliris wants to hamper any movement which will make the Greeks independent and self-respecting workingmen and citizens. Don’t worry about Dr. Attias.”

Shortly after these remarks, Attias was arrested “on charge of practicing medicine without a license, which “throughout it all he posed as an injured man. He made friends and appeared to be fairly well stocked with coin.”

He accused Skliris for his arrest, “whose income by handling Greek laborer’s for the smelters and railroad” was “imperiled. The Greeks had organized and allied themselves with the Western Federation of Miners  union, largely “accomplished through Attias acting in conjunction with A.W. Charter of the federation.”

Attias was arrested in his apartments in a First South Street lodging house. Mr. Charter was with him at the time. The Western Federation posted the bond of $100 in cash for Attias release. Attias remarked about his arrest, “So far as Skliris is concerned, he is welcome to bring up anything he can find against me. I have no cause to fear the publicity of my past history.” Attias said he blamed “Skliris and the Deseret News for attempting to stop my work in behalf of my countrymen.”

Union organizer A. W. Chapter said he had been “drawn into the imbroglio” between Skliris and Attias “through his negotiations with Dr. Attias for the organizing of the Greeks.”

            Chapter believed Attias claims of being who he pretended to be, as that he showed Charter “a passport issued to Attias in 1900 by the Greek authorities on the occasion of the bearer’s visit to Chile.” The passport was most likely a fake. Charter also defended Attias against the charge of practicing medicine without a license, saying “he only interpreted for Dr. Waite” and he believed Attias held a medical diploma from a foreign college.

            Attias’ charges were dismissed November 23. “In the contest for supremacy in the leadership of the local Greek colony, Dr. P.G.P Attias yesterday [November 23]  scored a strong point over his adversary Leon Skliris when Justice of the Peace J.J. Williams dismissed the suit brought against the doctor in which he was charged with practicing medicine in the state of Utah without a license.”

            However the next day Attias was “arrested and arraigned in Judge Diehl court on a charge of practicing medicine in Salt Lake City. The complaining witness this time was John Touloriouskis [Toualoukis].   Attias was released again on bond as that he appeared in Murray at a meeting held to expel Greeks from the town.

On 28 November 1904, “at a mass meeting in the town of Murray”, called by Mayor J. H. Stratton, it was decided to form a committee to “confer with the immigration bureau of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in an effort to bring in white immigrants to supersede the Greeks and Austrians now employed at the smelters.”  By “Austrians” he meant the Slavs who were then under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Stratton, acting as chairman, stated the purpose of the meeting was “to devise a peaceful means of ridding the town of the undesirable foreign element. He stated that a letter had been received from the authorities of the Mormon Church offering assistance by encouraging other immigrants to come to Utah and this displacing Greek and Austrians. He stated that the employers at the smelters had expressed a willingness to hire other men than Greeks and Austrians if these others were imported.”

            A. W. Charter and Peter Attias attended the mass meeting. Charter “objected to other foreigners being imported to supplant those already in the country.”  He asserted that “Leonidas Skliris the Greek labor agent is working a similar graft. He practically makes slaves of the uneducated Greeks who come to this state. He gets them to work and has them discharged at will. The Greek being unlearned and without friends either has to dig up in order to get a job or else starve.”

            Charter also said in order to protect the rights of union members and to disparage Skliris, remarked, “At the rate Greeks are coming into this state, before long Skliris had made his boast that another year will see the number of Greeks in Utah increase from the present total of 1,200 to 5,000. Greeks are being shipped right along from San Francisco and Chicago to Utah,” and speaking of Skliris character, “When a man becomes so low that he will force a laborer to pay him money for a job that should be offered free, he will do most anything.”

Charter the introduced  Attias  who “spoke but briefly as the crowd which had commenced to straggle out during Charter’s speech began leaving in large numbers.” Attias stated that “Greeks and Austrians should not be accused of committing crimes without proof. He stated that in many instances his countrymen the Greeks had been treated unjustly.”

            To that accusation, Mayor Stratton “remarked hotly that the Greek had not been treated unjustly in Murray  and said that for some time the Greek fruit stand had been allowed to run on Sunday while the American store was closed.” Charter refuted Stratton claim and said, “the Greek fruit peddler had his store close last Sunday by officers while the American Store had been allowed to kept open.”

            Mayor Stratton insisted, “We want the foreigner to build themselves homes here and not live six or more in a ten by twelve room that reeks so with filth and ordinary person cannot stay in it five minutes. Our fight is not against the smelter owners but for a better class of labor. There are lots of Greeks in the country who are good at heart They only need educating to make them upright citizens. But there is a class of foreigners in this community that it costs more to protect the people from than the aliens are worth.”

Mayor Stratton then “formed a committee to confer with immigration bureau of the Mormon Church in regard to solving the question of doing away with Greek labor.” The Committee made up of Albert Sanders, John P Cahoon a former member of the state legislature, George Granter [1856-1935], R. Williams and Mormon Bishop Eugene Miller.”

            Their intent was to convince the Mormon Church’s  “immigration bureau”  to only allow northern Europeans into Utah. The notion was refuted by Mormon Church authorities. John R. Winder of the First Presidency replied that the Mormon church had no “immigration bureau” and the church “had no labor at their disposal to be employed at the smelters. General Bishop Robert T. Taylor remarked that “the proposition of the Murray meeting preposterous” and W.C. Spence, transportation agent of the church in charge of bringing missionaries and emigrant converts from foreign lands, said, “The proposition is beyond the sphere of the church.”

The trial of Attias was held November 29, “with only one witness on each side.” Skliris was present at the trial, “not only as a witness but sat beside Assistant District Attorney Ingebrigtsen throughout the proceedings.” 

The trial was attended by hundreds of Greeks who “clustered in the corridors of the police headquarters building,  they filled the courtroom, and they gathered on the sidewalk discussing this phase of the present fight between Attias and Leon Skliris  for prestige among them.”

 John Toualoukis  testified that Attias “gave him two bottles of medicine to take on September 10. The bottles were produce, bore label of a drug store but witness maintained that Attias produced them from his own room. He claimed he paid Attias $25 for this and averred that he was very anxious to see Attias go to jail.”

Attias denied knowing or ever meeting Toualoukis. “On cross examination he said he had gotten a medical diploma in Paris and that he practiced medicine in Europe. He maintained he never practiced in Salt Lake but only acted as an interpreter for Dr. Waite.”

The Salt Lake Herald reported that Attias was found not guilty Friday December 2 in “Judge C.B. Diehl’s court. Once of the convincing items for acquittal was that the bottle which Toualoukis claimed Attias gave him “bore date nearly two weeks in variance with the date on which Toualoukis testified he obtained it.”

            Immediately upon acquittal Leonidas Skliris was arrested “on a warrant charging him with violating the license law in that he was conducting an employment agency without a license.”  He pled not guilty” and asserted “he ran no employment agency in any sense of the word. Claimed solely to be an interpreter to Greek laborers and said was paid for that alone.”

            Although Attias was acquitted Skliris inquiries regarding Attias’ background began to damage him. It was reported in the Salt Lake Tribune on December 12, “The fight against Dr. Attias and his attempt to organize the Greeks of Utah and bring them into the Western Federation of Miners has taken a queer turn.”

“His opponents used Greek paper  in the eastern States to misrepresent what is going on in the west. To the detriment of Dr. Attias prestige at the other end.”

“ The Atlantis a well-known and widely circulated sheet contained articles saying Attias was doing time in the county jail and was responsible for driving the Greeks from Murray when he was one of those who went to Murray to oppose the movement to drive out the Greeks.”

            After this last report, the Salt Lake Tribune cut all ties with Attias and he is never mentioned again unlike the Deseret News.

            On 10 January 1905  Tuesday, the paper wrote, “No  Word from Attias- Salt Lake Greek Doctor Leaves Town- Countrymen Makes Charge.”

“According to allegations made by an Ogden Greek, Attias  has disappeared taking with him about $100 which he collected to insure Ogden countrymen jobs. George Johnson an Ogden Greek vouches for the truth of the statement preferred public charges was in Salt lake Saturday December 31 leaving the following day for Ogden Since no word have been received of his whereabouts.”

            Again the Deseret News wrote on 13 January 1905, “About 20 Greeks were seen huddled together on Twenty-fifth street this morning swearing vengeance on Attias  who say has swindled them out of $150 and made his escape to parts unknown. It is believed he has gone to California. He last visited Ogden on Friday 6 January. Since then he has not been seen or heard of anywhere. He has left creditors in Salt Lake City who are hot on his trail.”

“The manner in which he obtained the money from the Greeks in the city as told by one of the unfortunate was as follows:  As soon as he learned that all of the laborers at the Ogden -Lucin cut off has been paid up, he came to Ogden. The Lucin Cutoff was a 102-mile railroad line which ran from Ogden to Lucin. The most prominent feature of the cutoff was a twelve-mile-long railroad trestle crossing the Great Salt Lake; in use from 1904 until the late 1950s, when it was replaced by an earthen causeway. In Ogden, Attias and proceeded to bunco the Greeks there “leading them to believe that he represented a powerful labor organization which they might join by paying him $5 and .50 cents per month thereafter. He told them further that if he could secure a band of 30 men he would ship them right on to some construction work in the state of Idaho.”

“It took but a short time for the men to think this over and secure 30 men. After Attias had the V’s [fives] he departed for Salt Lake saying he would be back on the very next train with the necessary papers and union badges. That was last Friday . Well the  men are still waiting.”

The Deseret News summed up Attias’ career in Utah by writing, “The very much known imposter Attias, who sometimes appears as a pedestrian, other times as a doctor, and other times as an enterprising person, arrived in Salt Lake some time ago and started dissension among the Greek laboring men in that city. If they knew him well, they would drive him out of town with a club without any doubt.”

Attias’ departure left Leonidas Skliris the undisputed “Czar of the Greeks but his troubles were not over with the defeat of Attias for leadership of the Greek Community as that seven years later he also was forced out.

Skliris as a “labor agent” for all Greeks seeking employment in the Carbon County coal mines, Bingham Canyon’s Utah Copper company, and for the Western Pacific and Denver and Rio Grande Western railroads were forced to present notes from Skliris’ office on Second South. “In return, Skliris charged each immigrant an exorbitant fee of from twenty to fifty dollars, a percentage of it going to mine bosses.”  The 1910 federal census counted 4,062 Greeks in Utah, but that the figure was probably low and inaccurate.

For years Greek men had been questioning the right of Skliris and his enforcers to live off their labor and Greek businessmen accused him of being a “padrone”  someone who exploited  immigrant laborers by controlling the allocation of their pay. Leonidas Skliris denied the charge and vigorously defended his “fifteen years as a labor agent in the West,” insisting that he would pay $5,000 to anyone who could prove the “padrone charge”  leveled against him.”

Charles Moyer, Union President of the Western Federation of Miners, stated it was “unequivocally true that Skliris as the employment agent of the Utah Copper Company was exacting pay from Greek Miners for getting their positions.

While many Greeks were angry at Leonidas Skliris’ kickback schemes, the mine bosses looked the other way until the Bingham Utah Copper Company strike of 1912 which was ultimately what lead to his downfall as a power broker in the Utah Greek community.

According to the immigrant inspector's report, the hated Padrone System was one of the main causes of the Bingham labor strike of 1912. “The exploitation of foreign labor in this State by professional agents is an evil that should be eradicated. It was one of the causes that figured in the Bingham mining camp strike.”

On 1 May 1912, the Western Federation of Labor had called for a strike at the American Smelting and Refining Company in Murray, demanding recognition of the union and an increase in wages. The strike was broken by Greeks from the Island of Crete, sent to Murray under orders of Skliris.

Later in September 1912, workers at the Utah Copper Company in the Bingham Canyon Mines , walked off their jobs. The “Greeks from Crete” were the largest single group of workers striking and they were joined by large number of “Italians, Austrians, Japanese, Finns, and English, along with Bulgarians, Swedes, Irish, and German.” 

Skliris played on Hellene cultural differences by bringing “mainland Greeks” to replace the Cretan workers “some who were still in the mines” and were still paying Leonidas Skliris for their jobs.

After being “accused of the practice of peonage by charging foreigners a fee for jobs he secured for them, ” Skliris was so despised that the Greek strikers "declared with vociferous acclaim" that they would go back to work “at the present scale if Utah Copper would refuse to have anything to do with Leonidas G. Skliris."  Union President Charles Moyer told the Utah Copper Company they had to get rid of Skliris. “There will be no compromise of that issue. To the Greeks it is a more important issue than the wage scale, if possible.”

Leonidas Skliris was then forced to resign as employment agent of the Utah Copper Company The strike of 1912 had “broke the power of Leonidas Skliris” and he left Salt Lake City but kept business dealing for at least a decade more.

 Leonidas Skliris was living at the Waldorf Hotel in New York City, in September 1918 when he registered for the World War I draft. However while stating he was a “naturalized citizen” he said his employers were the “Utah Fuel Company” and the “American Smelting Company” of 509 West Second South in Salt Lake City. The address was that of  the former “American Lunch Room” while his labor agent office had been at 507 West which had been torn down by 1910.

A Greek man named Andrew A. Suliotes who was alleged to have been a gambler and “frequenter of coffee houses and card rooms” on Second South. Between 1916 and 1917Suliotes  roomed at the notorious Macedonia Hotel located at 528 ½ West  in 1916 and 1917 and worked American Lunch Room. He immigrated to New York City from Greece in 1906 and Utah Newspaper accounts reported that he came to Salt Lake City in 1910. He applied for citizenship in 1916 giving his birthplace as Argos, Greece, born January 1888 and was employed in a restaurant.

In March 1922 “Andy Suliotis” was arrested in connection with the death of a man whose nude body was found in the Jordan River. Suspicion fell upon Suliotis by the police when it was learned that he had bought a bottle of chloroform a few days, probably from the Richmond Drug Store, before the body was found in the river and his car tires matched those tracks found on the banks of the Jordan River at the location the body was found. A bottle dredged from the river near the body was thought to have contained chloroform.

The police had a theory that Suliotes and another man named Jesse Sedillo, age 30, were involved with the death of the nude man who died before being placed in the river.  The police detectives also believed that dead man “was a comparative stranger in the city” and may have made a “display of a large sum of money” that attracted the attention of certain crooks who then lured him to a room. There “he was bound, chloroformed, and robbed according to theory.”

Investigators also believed that “there was no Intent to kill the man but that he died suddenly while under the effects of the anesthetic.” Therefore, “in a panic the robbers stripped the body in an attempt to prevent Identification according to the detectives' opinion.”

Prior to finding the nude man, a call was made to the “O'Donnell undertaking parlors” that there was a dead body behind the Paramount Theater. Police believed that the robbers made the call but then “changed their plan and decided to throw the body in the Jordan river.”

Suliotes was required to furnish a $1000 bond that his friends and relatives raised and “vouched for his appearance any time required by the police.” Sedillo was also held in connection with the case but he was jailed “unable to furnish bonds.”

The Salt Lake City police detectives “worked energetically upon the murder mystery and produced several promising clues.” However they admitted that the “identity of the murdered man” proved “elusive.” A landlady of a local rooming house visited the undertaking parlor where the dead man was taken and stated, “that she believed she had seen the victim on one occasion but did not learn his name.”

The police were firmly convinced that the man was “lured to Salt Lake for the purpose of robbery and that his murder was accidental.” They believe that he was bound chloroformed and robbed and his body cast into the river.

Newspapers reported nothing further on the incident and it is doubtful that Suliotes and Sedillo were ever charged with the death of the man. Nothing more is known of Sedillo.

 By 1920, the federal census listed Leonidas Skliris as back in Utah, living in the town of Dragon, in Uintah County. Drago, now a ghost town, bordered on the Colorado state line and in 1920 the town had less than 500 residents.

Eventually, Skliris left Utah altogether and in 1930, he was residing at the Montezuma Hotel in Nogales, Santa Cruz, Arizona, where he was involved in a copper mine venture. Skliris then reportedly moved to Mexico where he became part owner of another mine.

Skliris was in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1964 when he died of a heart attack at the age of 79 years. As that he was a naturalized citizen of the United States, his death was reported to the American Consul in Guadalajara, where he was buried in the municipal cemetery. Skliris’ last known address was the Hotel La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Never having a family of his own, his niece, Mrs. Sophie Skliris Turner, who was listed as his next of kin, was notified of his death.

 Chapter Twenty-Six

Attias’ Life After Salt Lake City

Peter George Paul Attias left Salt Lake after “borrowing considerable amounts of money from many of his countrymen” and continued to live his life as a con artist. He continued to “borrowed money that was never paid back” and “gathered investors for companies or projects that never materialized.”

            After absconding from Utah Attias for a short time in the later winter and spring of 1905 resided in Reno, Nevada. Several Salt Lake City newspapers, especially the Deseret News, continued to follow the “career” of Attias for several years. The Deseret News more extensively, perhaps as a way to vindicate their opinion of him in their contest with  the Salt Lake Tribune but eventually as the public lost interest in the fraudster, even the Deseret News lost track of him.

The Reno’s Nevada State Journal, on page 3 of their March 2 paper featured a picture and  a large article on Peter Attias.

“A MAN WHO WALKED AROUND the WORLD- Dr. P G P Attias, Greek Explorer Is In Reno- Has Been Here for the Past Three Months at Work on His Book of Travel, Entitled ‘Ups and Downs’”

The article basically reported the fabrications that Attias continually told to deceive reporters and therefore the public at large. Attias asserted he was “a scientist of note, having had the degree of B.S. conferred upon him by the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He is also a  physician , a graduate of the University of Paris, with a degree of M.D. In addition he is a member of the Royal Geographical Society of London and attached to the Greek government as an explorer.” The paper reminded its readers, “it was in 1899 that he first passed through Reno on his long trip. At that time he was accompanied by four secretaries”

The journalist commented that “the doctor can talk for hours, recounting his trials, triumphs, and pleasures in the different countries of the world.”

He made the same claims to the newspaper of his having walked around the world on a wager,  winning the gamble with a month to spare. Only this time he said he spent $55,000 on his travels but made $80,000 along the way besides collecting the $25,000 wager.

“Dr. P. G. P. Attias, the celebrated Greek explorer, is in Reno. He has been here for the past three months and until a few days ago his identity was not learned, The doctor has been engaged in completing his book, The Ups and Downs. He began this work in the early nineties. It was not until a few days ago that he completed it. The work is now ready for the publishers. It recites the many experiences Dr. Attias has met with in his eventful life as an explorer and traveler.” Attias recounted to the correspondent, that “every country in the world was visited by the intrepid traveler, and he has met with many exciting experiences and had a number of close calls from death. It is of these that he is telling in his book The book will be in six volumes and will contain a treasure house of information that can only be obtained by actual experience.”

 Summing up the interview, the reporter wrote, “The doctor has many friends in Reno and is being entertained in a jolly manner. Whether he will stay he has not decided. It is probable however that he will first visit Tonopah and Goldfield before deciding upon plans for the future. In the meantime he may be prevailed upon to lecture in Reno. During his stay here he has been the guest of his friends Dr. an Mrs. Cassaccia.”

            The Salt Lake Herald having read the Reno paper’s interview, printed on 4 March  1905, a type of rebuttal. “Again Dr. P.G.P. Attias- Hellenic Hot Air Is Being Dispense by ‘Explorer’ in Reno Nevada.”

            “Once again has Dr. P G P Attias stepped into the calcium, in the role of writer and explorer, this time in Reno Nevada. He is presenting his time honored skit for the benefit of the Nevadans, the same in which he appeared in Salt Lake.”

“Attias dropped into Salt Lake a little less than a year ago. He gained some dis-reputation through a hotel row and later some notoriety through his connection as a sleuth in a mysterious suicide case that of William vermillion.”

“He became involved in a local Greek labor dispute, which ended in his arrest on a charge of practicing medicine without a license. Throughout it all he posed as an injured man. He made friends and appeared to be fairly well stocked with coin.”

             “Some months ago he announced to his friends that he was engaged to a young Salt Lake Woman. The wedding he confided had been set for early this year.”

“ About two months ago, without warning he suddenly disappeared. Certain Greeks in Ogden said things that would indicate  Dr. Attias desired to avoid seeing them longer for reasons of his own.”

“That in brief is the history of the well appearing Greek who is now being feted  according to advices from Reno in the Nevada metropolis. He is spinning that frayed yarn of the adventures he means to set forth in print, adventures, he retells, encountered during a walk around the world.”

“He may be prevailed to lecture says one Reno Daily, before writing his book. Salt Lakers who are promised autographed copies of Dr. Attias book, “The Ups and Downs of Life” will be pleased to learn that it is now ready for the publisher, the same condition by the way in which it has been for the past twelve months.”

News of Attias in Reno appeared next again in the Nevada State Journal where he claimed he had to leave Salt Lake because he had exposed secrets of the Mormons. The Journal used the alleged attacks on Attias’ character as a means to vilify the Mormon Church. Nationally in 1902, Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot was elected to the U.S. Senate and from 1904 through 1907, Smoot and the LDS church were investigated for crimes alleged committed in a major Senate hearing.  

The church had also just excommunicated Frank J Cannon editor of the Salt Lake Tribune for criticism of the Church President Joseph F Smith. Cannon was the son of George Q Cannon a former Mormon Apostle.

On 9 March 1905, the Journal printed, “An Attempt At Blackmail Mormons of Utah Endeavor to Get Even With Attia, the Explorer”.

“Dr. Attias, the Greek Physician, famous globe trotter and recounter, is being persecuted by the Mormon church. The Deseret News, which is back of the whole thing, was not content to let the doctor alone after he had left Salt Lake but has had some of its paid emissaries and spies follow the doctor to Reno and attempt to besmirch his good name.”

“A scandalous article published in the Deseret News some time agon in regard to the doctor, which was immediately refuted by the Salt Lake Telegram, was almost the cause of Apostle Penrose, editor of the Deseret News and husband of nine wives, to go to the Mormon finality and meet Brigham Young and the other saints who have gone before.”

“The News it is said caused to be sent an anonymous communication to a city official and yesterday Chief Leeper received a telegram from Salt Lake to the effect that the doctor was highly respected in that city and that he entire Gentile population were glad to call him their friend.”

“Among other things that the doctor has done as a correspondent of foreign papers is that he has written several facts about the Mormon Church which have earned the most bitter enmity, and almost anyone who has ever read anything about the Mormons may understand in part what it is to incur their displeasure.”

“The recruits of the Mormon Church, among the foreigners of which there are many, are brought to Utah by the missionaries under the presumption that Zion is a land of milk and honey and that paradise is only five minutes’ walk from the Mormon Temple.”

“When the doctor opened the eyes of some of the perspective Mormons to be, of foreign lands, the church marked him as a victim and the old Danites have had him in their minds very since.”

“However the anonymous communication won’t work and since the thing has been thoroughly investigated the doctor stands more highly than ever among his friends.”

“The Mormon Church is the worst sort of an institution that was ever allowed to be fostered on the American people. The heads of the church say they have stopped the practice of polygamy. They are liars; every one of them. They are usurpers of anything and the head of the church has its members cowed down until they are in more object slavery than were the serfs of Russia. They use the poor, ignorant foreigner as a tool and he has no part whatever in the affairs of the church except to pay his tithing.”

“The Mormons are getting some kind of foothold in Nevada and to stamp it out at once is the only possible solution to the matter. Salt Lake or Zion as the Mormon Apostle call it is a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.”

            The Nevada State Journal continued to advertise Attias lectures and printed on 17 March 1905 a notice of Attias speaking in Reno. “Will lecture March 24th Dr. P. G. P. Attias, the Greek explorer, scientist, and physician, has at last yielded to the entries of his many friends in Reno and will deliver a lecture at McKissick’s opera house one week from tonight. Dr. Attias will choose as his subject, “On Foot Around the World,.” This lecture is replete with interest, every detail being from the personal experience of Dr. Attias. In addition of the lecture a musical program will be rendered. For this some of the best local talent will take part.”

            While residing in Reno, Attias must have become acquainted with Mrs. Ellen C. Brunswick. Ella Gleason as she was known became a young widow in Reno, Nevada while Peter Attias was also in the city promoting himself as a Globe Trotter and scamming the Greek community. He would have been aware of the pretty young widow through the many newspaper articles regarding her popular husband’s sudden death from pneumonia in late March.

            Attias must have lost confidence in his ability to scam Reno any longer as that on 30 April 1905 the Salt Lake Herald  printed the following about the grifter:  “Leaves Reno In a Hurry.”

 “Dr.” P G P Attias, who figured in Salt Lake some time ago as a promoter among his Greek country men, but who has been recently living in Reno, Nevada has left that city for some place at present unknown in California. According to information from Reno, Dr. Attias managed to get away with quite a sum of money which he collected from his countrymen.”

“When Attias left Salt Lake in such a hurry one foggy morning he went to Reno where he followed the same tactics. There it is claimed he married a widow. About a year ago he married Miss Gleason of San Francisco and it is now stated that there is another Mrs. Attias living in Boston who obtained an interlocutory decree against the debonair Syrian.”

“In the suit filed, this woman claimed that she had evidence to prove that Attias had married her before getting a divorce from still another Mrs. Attias. Incidentally, it will be recalled that this moral Attias was a man with whom the American Party is alleged to have entered into negotiations to deliver the Greek vote on election day so that “the pernicious hierarch” could be overthrown or words to that effect.”

“While in Salt Lake Attias made all kinds of representations that was about to marry a charming young lady residing on West Second South when the news expose  him and his methods. This young lady was reported at the time to be very indignant over the aspersions that were cast on the character of her “Greek Nobleman.”

“Dr Attias had a very meteoric career while in Salt Lake. He was here during the mysterious murder of young Vermillion the druggist, who was shot down in his store. Attias frequented this store and had all his “prescriptions” filed there. After the murder he undertook to run the murderer down and during the process furnished the Tribune with some exclusive scoops on the whereabouts of this mysterious thug that made that paper the jest of the town.”

“There are at least 100 Greeks in Salt Lake who would be delighted to clasp the hand of Dr. Attias once more and the assurance is given that once clasped they would not release their hold until the globe-trotting grafter was safely landed behind bars.”

It is interesting that the paper mentioned Attias marrying a “Miss Gleason of San Francisco” in this April article however the paper’s information about them marrying in 1904 is misinformation.

Attias had two previous wives Miss Moulton also known as Mrs. Anderson James who he married in June 1900 in London England and Emily Garlock [1875-1947], the daughter of Charles Garlock on 3 May 1903 in Boston.

“Miss Gleason” was actually Ellen Catherine Gleason [1881-1954] the daughter of Patrick F. Gleason, an Irish immigrant. She was sometimes referred to as “Belle” and at other times as Ella.

Ella Gleason was born 6 February 1881 in San Francisco, California, where her father owned a grocery store and saloon on the southeast corner of Twenty-fifth and Harrison Streets. Her mother died when she was about 13 years old and her father died in January 1905 when she had already married a man named Tony August Brunswick [1865-1905].

The 1900 federal census listed Ella Gleason as having been born in 1881 in California and living in San Francisco with her father and brothers Eugene and Martin. Her father ran a Grocery store at 2901 Harrison Street. 

The San Francisco newspapers mentioned her father’s death as that he died from gas poisoning while he slept. “P.F. Gleason Suffocated- P.F. Gleason, a retired saloon keeper, 63 years old, residing at 1907 Oak Street was suffocated by illuminating gas last Monday night. His daughter Mrs. T. Brunswick found him dead in bed yesterday morning, with gas issuing from the partly opened burner. His family believes that his death was caused by an accident as there were no evidence of suicide.”

Other papers added the details “The other four jets were closed, and it is thought that death was purely accidental,” and “Gleason was a member of the St. Patrick’s Mutual Alliance.”

Ella Gleason’s first husband, Tony Brunswick, died in March 1905, a little more than two and a half months after her father.

Tony Brunswick was listed as a saloon keeper in San Francisco city directory in 1900 and had just recently arrived in the city from Los Angeles where he worked as bartender. He was said to have been one of the first member of the Elks Fraternity in Los Angeles when it was organized. He “held card no 3 of the Elks in Los Angeles” and  “about 6 years ago [1899] came to San Francisco.”

The 1900 federal census listed Tony Brunswick as married with a wife of 14 years named Jennie. Her name was Sarah Jane Gallagher and had divorced her first husband, a policeman by who she had one daughter. Tony and Jennie themselves must  have divorced, perhaps in 1903 as she applied for a marriage license to another man named Hanahan in February 1904.

In San Francisco, Brunswick worked  in the Lacy Saloon at 624 Market Street opposite the Palace Hotel while he was married to Ella. The Lacy Saloon was later destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire.

 Brunswick was 16 years older than Gleason when they married most likely sometime in 1904. Within weeks of  the death of her father in January 1905, Ella Brunswick moved to Reno Nevada with her husband. “When the Hotel Golden started, he was prevailed upon to come to this city.”

In Reno, Tony Brunswick and his partner Charles Grant were hired to work at the Wine Room and saloon within the newly refurbished Hotel Golden on Center Street and also seemed to have had an interest in a silver, copper and gold bearing mine outside of Reno. Brunswick’s boss was “Fred Sommers, one of the best know liquor men in the West” who had “complete charge of the wine department.”

The Hotel Golden had a grand opening on 1 February 1905 with “ninety-six rooms, everyone supplied with steam heat, hot and cold water and electric lights. Special bather being put in.” It was advertise for catering to a “First class trade  close to all trains and in the very center of town. When it was opened, “Every lady in Reno” was “invited to the grand opening of the Hotel Golden on the second floor and the lower floor the gentlemen guest will be entertained.” It was reported that the “ best known society women were present.”

Certainly the gala opening of the Hotel Golden would have attracted Attias as part of his charade posing as an eminent doctor.  

An article from February 6 mentioned, Tony Brunswick, “who with Fred Summers is helping make the Golden, Reno’s most popular resort, was formerly with the Lacy of San Francisco and is introducing metropolitan methods to Reno.” Tony was said to have been the night manager of the “Golden Wine rooms” with the Golden Hotel.

A newspaper also reported in February, that “A fine plaster of Paris cast of the features of Tony Brunswick has been on exhibition at the bar of the Hotel Golden for the last few days. The life like appearance attracts general attention and admiration. This cast was made at the instance of the proprietor of the Lacey Saloon in San Francisco where Tony was long a familiar figure and popular man behind the bar.”

In March, Brunswick suddenly became ill. “Tony Brunswick, the genial mixologist on the night force of the Golden wine rooms, was taken ill yesterday and is now confined to his room. During his illness Charles Grant is officiating at the Golden Bar.”

He died suddenly on March 27, 1905 “surrounded by his faithful wife and brother.”  Ella  was pregnant at the time of her husband’s death. “Mrs. Brunswick, brave little woman, is in a delicate condition and this coupled with her great misfortune has prostrated her.”

The news of Brunswick his death had papers printing glowing eulogies of Brunswick’s character as he appeared to be genuinely admired. “Tony came to Reno less than two months ago. In that brief time he learned to know almost everybody here and everybody liked him.”

“He was plain Tony Brunswick to everyone, whole-souled, genial fellow and to know him was to like him.

“Those who knew him in life will never know a truer hearted fellow.”

It is not known when Peter Attias and Ella Gleason Brunswick began living together. A Salt Lake Newspaper reporting on Attias wrote regarding him, “Arrested here for practicing medicine without a diploma. He tried to organize a Union . After collecting various sums in Salt Lake and Ogden, Attias was next heard form in Reno where he was said to have married a rich widow.”

It was also reported that, “When Nevada got too hot to hold him went to Los Angeles and followed similar tactics Greek papers in America have from time to time contained warnings against the fellow.

Attias had left Reno, Nevada by 30 April 1905 when the Salt Lake Herald  printed the following about the grifter:  “Leaves Reno In a Hurry.”

Rather than Los Angeles,  Attias probably went to San Francisco with the widow Ella Brunswick as that the San Francisco Call newspaper on 15 June 1905, wrote, “Praised By Local Greek. Delyannis Was Greece’s Greatest Statesman Says Dr. Attias.”

“Dr. P G P Attias a leader on the Greek community of San Francisco speaking yesterday of the assassination of Premier Delyannis, “Tomorrow I purpose to cable a message to his Majesty King George, expressing loyalty and sympathy in this hour of national grief. Being directly associated with the bereaved family of the late Premier I have already cabled not only my personal condolence but that of my compatriots in the State of California.”

At the end of July, Attias was again promoting himself as a “leader in the Greek Community.” On 31 July 1905, “A meeting was held last night at 121 Eddy Street [San Francisco]  for the purpose of organizing the Greek American Political Party. There was an enthusiastic attendance of 500 which was addressed by Dr. P G P Attias leader of the Greek Community. The club will support the Labor Party for Mayor.”

Attias came up with a new scam promoting himself as a doctor providing a type of medical insurance. He created a business called “the International Benevolent and Protective Society” which was advertised to provide “medical service at home for $1.00 a month.” The business’  Headquarters was at the “James Blood Building San Francisco” with “President Dr. P G P Attias.”

In the middle of August advertisements began being printed in various newspapers for nearly a year stating “Every Man and Woman in Napa Should join the International Benevolent and Protective Society, Medical Service at home $1.00 per month. Organized  a branch in Napa 45 persons had already joined the Society. The advertisement would run almost daily in a Napa newspaper until June 1906.

In October 1905 the San Francisco Call Newspaper featured an article in which Attias claimed to have been robbed. “Greek Globe Trotter Claims He was Given Knockout Drops- Vallejo, Oct 7- Dr. P G P a Greek Physician who has quite a reputation as a globe trotter and who is president of the International Benevolent and Protective Society, claims that an attempt was made to rob him in a roadhouse between here and Napa several days ago. He says he was given knockout drops but managed to fight off the effects of the drug long enough to make his escape. The doctor does not know in which resort he was given the dose.”

When the San Francisco obituary for Ella’s 17 year old brother Martin J Gleason was printed on 11 September 1906, she was listed as a sister “Mrs. Ella Attias.”

Another newspaper report from 1907, stated “Dr. Attias was united in marriage with a native daughter of California, Miss Ella Gleason. The ceremony took place in San Francisco thirty days before the great earthquake [18 April 1906] and the couple were enjoying a honeymoon trip to South America at the time of the dreadful occurrence.”

The whereabouts of Attias is murky while in California in 1905 and 1906. News paper advertisements indicate he was in northern California in San Francisco, Napa and Vallejo. “President of the International Benevolent and Protective Society.

However another account from a 1907 Salt Lake City newspaper said that Attias in October 1905 fled to Mexico from Los Angeles. The paper most likely confused the year as that the  Los Angeles Evening Post published on 17 November 1906, “Think Attias Is In Mexico. It is believe that Dr. P G P Attias, who left Los Angeles about five weeks ago, has gone to Mexico. Dr. W.E Pritchard 453 ½ South Spring Street applied Friday [November 16] for a warrant for Attias, on a charge of embezzlement, but found that nothing could be done with the fugitive on that count.”

The 1906 Los Angeles City Directory listed as Attias as a “Physician” at 453 ½ Spring Street in Los Angeles. The 1907 directory which was information was gathered in 1906 stated that Attias’ office was at 453 ½ Spring Street  while residing at 1714 Vargas Street

On 7 September 1906 Peter Attias was amazingly granted U.S. citizenship in Los Angeles, California as that he had no criminal record. The following month he fled to Mexico.

His wife Ella may have went with him as he would later claim he went to South America on his ‘honeymoon’.

On 22 November 1906 the Deseret News printed, “Dr.’ P G P Attias Bobs Up Again- Appears in Los Angeles and Follows Usual Dishonest Tactics- A fugitive From Justice- Borrows Various Sums of Money and Disappears Leaving Many Bills Behind-One Charge More Serious.”

“Dr. P G P Attias who attracted considerable attention in Salt Lake a couple of years ago posing as a globe trotter, author and lecturer and later skipped out leaving a trail of debts in his wake, and a small army of Greeks thirsting for revenge, has stepped out into the limelight again, this time in Los Angeles. He is now a fugitive charged with obtaining money under false pretenses.”

“Apparently he followed the same tactic as he did in Salt Lake for chief among the long array of complaints against him is the accusation that he practiced medicine and took fees without being either registered or a qualified  physician.”

“The suave Syrian succeeded in borrowing considerable money in Southern California and in addition ran up a number of bills with utter disregard to the settling day. The police also believe that from the story told by Mrs. Belle Attias, formerly Miss Gleason of San Francisco that they may be able to prove the versatile doctor a bigamist.”

“Attias appears to have no originality about his methods for he seems to have duplicated his performances in Salt Lake in Los Angeles. When he was exposed by the “news” and incidentally strenuously defended by the Tribune, the organ has defended crooks, it will be recalled he threatened to bring a libel suit for a million or so more or less. It only remains for him to take the same action against the Los Angeles papers and his career in Southern California will be practically identical.”

“Doctor Attias was in Salt Lake three years ago when  he came here he posed as a globe trotter and declared that he was writing a book on his travels. In Paris he was wanted by the police for a diamond robbery. His fellow countrymen published articles denouncing him as a fraud and a grafter.”

Attias pops up next in Portland, Oregon early enough to be included in the city directory. He was listed as a “promoter and labor contractor.”  He had business dealings in Portland, Astoria, and Seaside by  August 1907  when a newspaper account stated that “Astorian Judge Gantenbein ruled judgment and foreclosure of a mortgage given by the Eastern Candy Works for $500, in favor of PGP Attis. The mortgage was executed to secure a loan falling due in June in which remains unpaid. The property covered by the mortgage is located at 3469 Washington Street Portland and at Astoria and Seaside.

Peter G. P. Attias appeared 11 September 1907 on the Civil docket as a “Confidence Man”  and the case of P G P Attias versus M.R. Pomeroy, Sheriff of Clatsop County appeared before the Astoria court 13 February 1908, 11 June 1908, and 17 September 1908, however Attias was long gone by that time and living in Butte, Montana

The Deseret Evening News on 24 December 1907 ran a story on Attias’ later career with some glee as with “Dr. Attias Heard From: Protégé of the Tribune Skips with $10,000 from Portland”

“Dr. Attias, the Greek grafter, who was exposed by the ‘News’ and naturally championed by the organ of the crooks in this city some three years ago, has been again heard from.”

“This time he has succeeded in pulling the wool over the eyes of the residents of Portland Oregon to the tune of $10,000. When last heard from Attias was in Butte for a few hours enroute to the east.”

“This versatile son of classic Athens pursued his old tactic only changing his name to that of Dr. Cecia. In addition to practicing as a physician ne started two confectionary stores and borrowed from all with whom he came in contact. “When time was ripe for disappearing Dr. Cecia dropped out of sight with as much money as he could take with him.”

“Dr. Attias as he was known in Utah cut quite a swath in Salt Lake for several months posing as an author who was traveling around the world. He was vigorously championed by the Salt Lake Tribune who engaged him as a special correspondent to run down a mythical murderer in Idaho.”

“Attias ‘delivered the goods so well’ that the Tribune’s scoop is numbered among the stella bad breaks of local newspaperdom.

 “Following his career as newspaper correspondent Attias was arrested here for practicing medicine without a diploma. He then turned his attention to his fellow countrymen whom he tried to organize into a union. After collecting various sums in Salt Lake and Ogden, Attias was next heart from in Reno, Nevada where he was said to have married a rich widow,

When Nevada got too hot to hold him, Attias went to Los Angeles and followed similar tactics. Since that time the Greek papers in America have from time to time contained warnings against the fellow.

The 1908 Portland City directory listed “Peter G P  Attias & Co.” residing at 109 18th North as a “Promoters and labor contractor” working out of  “214 -215 Fliedner Building”. He was no longer in Portland as he had left for Butte, Montana by August 1907.

Attias stated in a November Article about him that “Shortly after coming to Butte three months ago”  he “was stricken with an acute attack of appendicitis. For a time it seemed that he would not survive buy an operation performed proved entirely successful.”

He insisted that he had “delivered a number of thrilling interesting lectures on his wide travels,” however “On account of ill health has not attempted to practice medicine for some time. Devoting himself to promoting a certain promising mining interest and is very busily engaged  in that employment at present.”

It was in this article that Attias claimed, he  “was united in marriage with a native daughter of California Miss Ella Gleason. The ceremony took place in San Francisco thirty days before the great earthquake and the couple were enjoying a honeymoon trip to South America at the time of the dreadful occurrence. Dr. and Mrs. Attias are very well impressed with Butte now that he has recovered from his critical illness and the expect to make their future home here.”

It was more probable that he and Ella were living together in 1905 before leaving Reno, Nevada.

The Butte Miner Newspaper mentioned Attias  29 October 1907 as a court appointed interpreter in the murder trial of an “eighteen year old” Greek man named Theodore Cantelony [Catteloneos 1880-1936]. “The defense was assisted by Dr. P G P Attias, the present leader of the Greek Colony.” Attias was 35 years old at the time and must have kept his looks as he was described as “a young Greek physician.”

Cantelony was described as a “slight young man with a pale complexion and straight black hair. Looks to be 22 or 24. He is a Greek and speaks little English. Since coming to Butte recently he made a living at nights by peddling hot tamales, peanuts, popcorn, and sandwiches on the street.

The accused man was charged with the fatal stabbing of a prostitute named Mollie Quinn in “Butte’s Red Light District on Mercury Street.” The prosecution stated that Quinn was stabbed “while attempting to defend a girl named Gussie Clark who Cantelony attempted to beat her after quarreling. Clark ran to a room of Sadie McAndrews and Mollie Quinn  and when Quinn said, ‘Don’t beat that little girl’, Cantelony drew a five inch long pocket knife and slightly cut McAndrews but inflicted a fatal wound on Quinn.”

Cantelony said in his defense, “he was grabbed by the three women and was very much frightened and thought they intended to rob him. He said he was a poor boy and the $1.50 he gave Clark was much money to him. He said the only thought of it the time was to make an escape and he felt sorry when he heard Quinn was seriously cut. He said he carried a knife to cut open tamales.”

The accused young man said he was “in country 13 years, could not speak English,” and his “testimony was given with the aid of Dr. Attias who was sworn in as interpreter.” He had no immediate relatives in the country.

The Anaconda Standard newspaper reported, “Four Greeks testified that Canteloni was a young man of peaceful disposition. P G P Attias, a Greek whose card says he is a doctor and “leader of the Greek colony” was very active for the defense gathering witnesses and keeping track of them. He was offered as an interpreter and accepted. All of the Greek witnesses talked good English. Attias explained to the jury that it was difficult to translate Greek into English literally and that some witnesses  ‘were not scholars, although Grecians.”

Five attorneys appeared in court to represent Cantelony and a Attias serving as his interpreter, encouraged him to say that he was only 18 years of age when he later reported he was at least 21 possibly as old at 24.

Theodore Cantelony confessed to the crime but not to homicidal intent. The murder trial  was less than four hours  “which is said to break the record for a murder trial in Butte.”

When the trial judge asked Cantelony how old he was at his sentencing, Cantelony answered, Twenty-one.”  When the judge replied, “Did you not testify that you were 18?” Cantelony admitted, “ Somebody told me.”

The judge asked, “Who told you to say you were 18?”

“My interpreter. I don’t know exactly how old I am.”

Cantelony was sentenced to ten years in prison for the manslaughter murder of Mollie Quinn, a “woman of the underworld.”  The 1910 federal census listed him as a twenty-five year old inmate in the state prison in Deer Lodge City.  After being released from Prison he was then sent to Warm Springs for care in the Insane Asylum there,  where the 1920 federal census listed him as a 40 year old inmate of the Montana State Hospital at Warm Springs in Deer Lodge.

The State Hospital was poorly funded with care costs in 1938 of $.60 per day per patient were the lowest in the nation. In 1924, Montana State Hospital made headlines when it was discovered that 11 inmates had been forcibly sterilized. “Hospital staff reported that all sterilizations had been approved and that eugenics was necessary for Montana’s future. A total of 256 people were sterilized by Montana’s eugenics program from 1923 until 1954.”

Cantelony remained in care there for 23 years and 14 days before succumbing to heart disease and pulmonary tuberculosis on 12 Apr 1936. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the State Hospital Cemetery. “The authorities of the hospital will not allow anyone to go into the cemetery and take photos of the graves for privacy issues. Very few markers or headstones exists in the cemetery.”

By November Peter Attias had made a name for himself in Montana and on 11 November  1907, “A meeting of Greek residents was called by Attias to organize a Greek-American club. More than two hundred responded. Intention to start a night school as soon as possible for his countrymen who are employed in the daytime to learn to read and write English.”

The Butte Miner on 10 November 1907 even featured a large article on him,  “Noted Globe Trotter Takes Up His Residence In Butte. Dr. P.G. P Attias has Been the Recognized Leader of Greek Communities in a Number of Large Cities In this Country- He encourages His Countrymen to Become Citizens of the United States.”

Attias made the same claims of being “a medical practitioner, literary man, and traveler, who once made a notable pedestrian trip around the world arrived in Butte recently from San Francisco to take up residence here.”

“ Although he has been here only a few months, Dr. Attias already recognized as the leader and spokesman of the Greek community, here, just as he was in San Francisco and other cities where he has lived. “native of that famous city of classic renown, Athens. He is very proud of that fact  and takes great interest in the natives of Greece wherever he goes although he states he finds many of them in a woeful state socially in this country.”

“Scion of a wealthy Athenian family. Educated in England and owing to his proficiency and knowledge of the work of eminent explorers, he became a member of the Royal Geographical society of London. He made a wager that in the space of three years he could make a pedestrian and steamboat trip around the world, his journey to include a visit to the capital of every kingdom, empire, and republic in the world.

The plucky young man walked 40,000 miles and traveled 28,000 miles by sea  completing his allotted task in the prescribed time. He expended $55,000 on the trip and got $80,000 in return. The venture cost the lives of six human beings, four horses and two fine large St. Bernard dogs that accompanied the doctor.

The doctor started on his long walk in 1897. Two servants and two secretaries accompanied him. He went from London to St. Petersburg and through Siberia, Manchuria, China, Japan, and Australia. Then he doubled on his trail by sea to London and came to the United States winding up his long tramp in South America.

On land trips his secretaries and servants traveled by coach meeting him by appointment at various places.

He was entertained by President McKinley at the White House. President Roosevelt who was then governor of New York  met the doctor on his arrival in Albany and welcomed him to the capital of New York.

In San Francisco and other large cities of the country he visited, the noted traveler was welcomed by mayors and other city officials and many banquets were given in his honor.

In traveling through Mexico the doctor missed a faithful valet, who failed to keep his appointment. After a search he was told that a stranger had been found shot to death . He visited the morgue and identified the dead man as his servant. The body had been riddled with no less than thirty-six bullets from the guns of a band of robbers, The unfortunate man had little of value on him so that his murderers got little plunder for their awful work.

His impression of this country was so favorable that after returning to England an settling his affairs there Dr. Attias came to America to make his permanent home.

As soon as possible under the law he became a citizen, and he has done everything he could to influence as many as possible of his countrymen here to follow his example in that particular.

In an interview with a  Miner representative yesterday [9 Nov] Dr. Attas said: The trouble with the Greeks, the same with many other immigrants from Europe, is that few of them come to this country with the view of making their permanent home here. They do not marry here, and those of them who married before they came are still worse off both as regards themselves and the wives that they left at home. Such marriages usually turn out to be very unhappy and unfortunate for both parties

In the cities in which I have lived in this country I have organized Greek clubs, the chief object s of which are first to promote naturalization among the members and then encourage them to become married.

Statistic show that at present time there are about 144,000 natives of Greece in this country and of these scarcely one thousand are married men. Since coming to Butte  have been able to do little on account of a severe illness but I have prevailed upon a number of Greeks to declare their intention and take out their first citizenship papers. I believe it would  be a good thing for this country and for the foreigners themselves of some such movement as this could be started among the residents of various nationalities, many of whom, are in the same condition as I have described concerning the Greeks.”  The article went on to that there were “250 Greek residents of Butte” and that Attias had

The 1908 Butte city directory listed Attias as “President of the New Comstock Gold  & Silver Mining Company and residing at 100 West Copper Street. He may have used some of his ill gotten gains from Portland to ingratiate himself in society in Butte.

The Butte Miner printed on 8 January 1908, “Christmas occurred yesterday for all persons affiliated with the Greek church and the occasion as privately observed. A noteworthy feature of the day’s observance in Butte was a banquet given by Attias. The affair was held at his home, Alaska and Copper Street and a considerable number if guest were present among them being Dr. and Mrs. Witherspoon, Dr., and Mrs., Kistler, Judge and Mrs. Lippincott and  T J Nerny. During the progress of the banquet music was played. The affair was delightful in every particular and was greatly enjoyed by those present.”

Attias appeared to have left Butte several times in early 1908 as an article from 4 March 1908 stated he “returned yesterday from Chicago where he went on business.”

On 7 April 1908 Green Bay Gazette of Milwaukee, Wisconsin wrote, “Entertains Famous Pedestrian. Dr. P. G. Attis in the Cream City Secured Fortune when he Walked around the world.”

The notice mentioned that Attias was in Milwaukee today. He is at the present time manager of a large mining corporation in the west. At the time Dr. Attias walked around the world he secured $25,000 from a London Sporting club and it is said it made a total of about $150,000 the entire trip.”

By 1909 Attias’ confidence game in Butte began to come apart. The Anaconda Standard on 9 Jan 1909 wrote, “The New Comstock Gold and Silver Mining Company, which was organized in Butte a year or more ago by a human meteor Dr. Attias, who called himself  “leader of the Greeks”, has filed an annual statement for record. It shows that the lease and bond on some property has been lost, that $3,735 was paid into the company for stock, and that the company has an indebtedness of $351.20. Dr. Attias went east to sell stock and on other business and is still in the East, although some of his friends and associates in Butte are not aware of his present whereabouts.” He actually had moved to Detroit, Michigan where his daughter  Emilee Catherine was said to have been born on 25 November 1908.  Emilee was known as “Attias” in 1910 and Bates in 1920. Attias was posing as a physician residing “in rooms at 114 Gratiot avenue.”

Attias left a trail of unpaid bills in Montana, and The Butte Daily Post on 29 March 1910 mentioned a lawsuit “against Dr. Attias” by the McKee Printing company “to secure payment for a bill of stationary ordered”,  and “the verdict of $17 for the plaintiff was returned in 15 minutes.

Attias “was not present and was not represented by counsel during the trial.”  His former attorney who appeared for “Attias when the matter was first taken up”, said “his client was in a penitentiary in the east and had not received his fee and did not know that he would and thought he should not be called to pay the court’s stenographer’s fee of $3.

In Detroit “Attias was one of the revivers of the Cosmopolitan Club, resurrected in Detroit  for a brief time last winter. When the club fell through he organized  another called ‘Bohemians from Everywhere’ which had considerable vogue among foreigners with intellectual aspirations.”

On 5 April 1909 Peter Attias and Ella Gleason Brunswick only marriage record was recorded in Essex, Ontario Province, Canada under the named Pierre G P Attias and Ellen C Brunswick. They traveled about twenty miles south from Detroit to Essex, Canada to marry.

Attias and Gleason had a daughter born in November 1908 and the much of  information provided on the 1909 Canadian marriage license was probably false, perhaps to simply legitimize the child. In all census records this daughter Emilee stated her father was in born in Greece or Egypt, however she may have never known her real father.

Attias said he was a 33 year old bachelor when he was actually 37 years old. He gave his occupation as a physician, his residence as Detroit Michigan. He gave his religion as “Greek Catholic” and stated his father was a banker. Ella stated that she was a 28 year old widow whose maiden name was Gleason, residence Detroit. She said she was a Roman Catholic.

In Detroit, Attias experienced frequent lawsuits and arrests when he was charged with obtaining money under false pretenses posing as a doctor and selling worthless stocks in the Global Radiator Company. After trying to flee prosecution to New York, he was finally taken into custody.

            Attias was arrested on 16 June 1909 in Detroit, on a warrant charging him with practicing medicine without a license. "Dr." Peter G. P. Attias, alleged physician and promoter, with offices at 706 Penobscot building, was arrested by Detectives High and Sullivan, in his office, yesterday.”

According to the story Giuseppe Valenti, 291 Monroe avenue, told the police, Attias posed, as a physician in rooms at 114 Gratiot avenue from last November [1908] until the latter part of March. Valenti and a friend visited the office.”

“According to the police, Attias told Valenti that he was suffering from a cancer and would be dead within five years. The ‘doctor’ is also alleged to have informed Peter Bucellatto, Valenti's friend, that Bucellatto was a consumptive.”

“Neither of the men derived any benefit from the treatments given them by Attias, they declare. He charged them $160. After taking treatments from another physician both men recovered their health rapidly.”

“They say the ‘doctor’ offered them 10 per cent of the money paid to him by any patients they might bring to him for treatment. The police say they have inquired into the case in detail and find that Attias is not registered as a physician in this state.”

“Attias told the police after his arrest, that he graduated from a. medical school in Paris and that he has a diploma.”

“After abandoning his office on 114 Gratiot avenue, Attias branched out as a promotor. Installing himself in huge offices in the Penobscot building he began passing out cards describing him as ‘President of the Globe Radiator company.’ Yesterday Attias told the police that he was merely promoting the radiator project and that no company had been formed. He claimed to have a million dollar interest in a pressed radiator plant.

 Several members of the Ypsilanti board of commerce, who entertained Attias, are maintaining a mysterious silence as to their dealings with Attias as the promoter. It is said the plan was to bring the plant to Ypsilanti  The board members are looking rather gloomy now however.” Ypsilanti was a town nearly 50 miles west of Detroit

Attias argued that “no one can show a prescription I signed or produce a bill I rendered for my services. Because of my large knowledge of languages, the foreigners come to me for advice and influence when they are ill. The charges that have been brought against me amount to nothing.”

The article continued stating, “Since the warrant was issued Attias made desperate efforts to frighten the Italians who have alleged they turned over their cash for medical consultation. In the Italian rooming house at 215 St. Antoine Street a large crowd of foreigners gathered and frantically discussed the actions of Attias.”

The Detective who arrested Attias commented, “Even though Attias says we can produce no evidence in the shape of signed prescriptions or bills, all we need know to show is that he used the title doctor and that is plainly printed on his cards. Attias gave his address as 63 Stimpson place, when he was registered at police headquarters.”

            Attias managed to post bail and fled to New York State where on 14 August 1909,  “Detectives armed with a warrant charging fraud are searching for Dr. P G P Attias, promoter of the Globe Radiator company. The complaint alleges the doctor promoter obtained $200 from  J.W. Droishagen by representing himself as an officer of a company already well started. Attias is said to be in New York.”

            Nearly a week later in August Attias was arrested in Geneva New York “at the request of the Chief of Police of Detroit and charged with obtaining money under false pretense.”

The Democrat and Chronicle newspaper of  Rochester New York printed on 31 August 1909, “Detroit Officer Takes Dr. Attias- Removed from Geneva by a Detective. Extradition Is Granted. Governor Hughes Gives Papers Allowing Taking A Man Accused of Getting Money Under False Pretenses to City of Detroit.”

“Dr. Peter G P Attias who was arrested one week ago [August 21]Saturday, charged with procuring money in Detroit under false pretenses and was confined in the local police station until last Saturday [August 28] when he was released on habeas corpus proceedings by Judge Thompson in Canandaigua and was again arrested on a Lehigh Valley train when he was about to leave this city for Buffalo, was taken this evening [August 30] to Detroit, the extradition papers having been signed by Governor Hughes.”

“Chief Kane who assumed charge of the police department this morning after his vacation  received a telegram from Detective Larkin of the Detroit Police Department to the effect that he was leaving Albany and would arrive in Geneva late in the afternoon.”

“Detective Larkin upon his arrival was met by Chief Kane who accompanied the Detroit officer to the Attias residence and the allege fugitive was turned over to him.

Attias and his wife baby and several others left for Detroit accompanied by Detective Larkin. Attias’ lawyer William S Moore was also at the depot to give advice to his client.”

            Attias remained in the Wayne County Michigan jail for defrauding stockholders of the Globe Radiator Company until his trial. His bail was increased from $500 to a $1000 as he was considered a flight risk. “His wife has followed him back from Geneva New York where he was arrested and visits him daily.”

On 4 September 1909 he complained, “I am behind these bars only through the machinations of enemies who have worked to obtain my ruin for the last two years. I am absolutely innocent of all attempt to defraud. I promoted the Globe Radiator company and my agents sold the stock. Which is today worth all the money paid for it.”

Attias told reporters that he had nine children probably to gain public sympathy and it was reported that he had “established a reputation for generosity with the other prisoners in 10 minutes after his confinement. Noticing one prisoner was literally ‘on his upper’, he handed him $300 for a new pair of shoes and another dollar bill for incidental wants.”

            A preliminary hearing was held September 11 and “Dr. Attias’ pretty wife and other relatives spent an hour  or so in police court awaiting an opportunity to confer with his lawyer as to the bail of $1,000. Eugene Gleason, secretary of the Globe Radiator company and Ella Attias’ brother was called to be the principal witness in Attias’ defense.

Attias’ trial began on October 16 charged with selling worthless stock by Joseph Droigsgen the complainant. Droigsgen alleged that Attias obtained $200 from him and a Greek named Antonio Paetrongetos lost $1500.”

            Only one witness for the defense took the stand for Attias, his brother in law Eugene P Gleason who stated he stated he was sort of assistant-secretary of the firm. Gleason, “the solitary person who took the stand in behalf of Attias” declare “that the board of commerce at Ypsilanti had prevailed upon the council of that city to grant the Globe Radiator company some land  on which the firm was to build a plant. He said at first that there were orders for radiators in the office of the firm but after being pressed his statement dwindled to the admission  that he believed there were for more than two radiators.”

“Gleason once stated that Gladstone V. H. Cairns was chauffer for Attias. Lodge corrected the witness, substituting the word “driver” On cross examination the wisdom of the change became apparent as Gleason admitted that the automobile was the property of Cairns who naturally drove the machine.”

On 23 October 1909 Attias was “convicted by a jury of obtaining money under false pretenses.” He asked his attorneys to comfort his wife.” It was a “Sad ending for the stylish little Greek and of  many Detroiters, mostly Italians, who sank their money in the Globe Radiator business of which Attias was president. The complaint on which Attias was convicted  was only one of a dozen or more made by Detroiters who invested sums from $150 to $1500 .”

            The federal census taken 20 April 1910 showed Attias as a prisoner in the Wayne County, Michigan Jail. He gave his age as 34 [1876] and his occupation as a Physician. He also said he was born in Egypt and emigrated in 1895.

His wife Ella C Attias was listed in the same census on  April 16 as age 29 and that she had been married for five years. She said it was her first marriage and was the mother of two children with  only one  still alive,  Emily C Attias age  1 year and four months 4/12 years old. Emilee was born in Michigan Ella listed Emilee’s father was listed as born in Egypt which was crossed out and Greek written instead.

Ella Attias was residing with her brother Eugene and sister Alice. She and her sister had no occupation listed but her brother Eugene worked as a clerk in a laundry.

An article from the Detroit Free Press on 19 November 1910 wrote “Court Paroles ‘Doctor’ Attias-Year’s jail sentence considered sufficient Punishment for Alleged swindler.”

“Judge Connelly stated to the swindler that he must realize that does not pay to be dishonest and h believed the year he spent in jail had convinced Attias of that fact.

Tears flowed freely from the cultured eyes as the judge lectured hi. Attias promised to work and refund money taken from his victims. The judge said if at the end of the two years his conduct  was good he would suspend sentence but that if he was not good the prisoner would be sentenced to the limit 14 years.   

The 1911 Detroit city directory listed Peter G P Attias as residing at 734 Second Avenue. Michigan with his brother in law Eugene Gleason.

Attias had no intention of staying in Detroit but left for the west coast and again found himself in Portland, Oregon. In 1911 he was listed as one of three teacher’s at Oliver C. Fletcher’s Western School of Chiropody located at 306 Alisky Building. He remained there until at least 1913 when he left the country.

The Western School of Chiropody was a health care facility that assessed and treated foot conditions. “Dr. Oliver O Fletcher 305 Alisky Bldgs. Treats all ills of the foot, without danger of infection Corns, bunions in growing and atrophied nails, flat foot and bunions a specialty 22 years specialist.

In 1913 Attias was listed as among British passengers leaving “Port Said, Egypt for Plymouth England.” At that time he claimed Egypt as the country of his last permanent residence.”

At this point Attias disappears from newspapers  and while some genealogical sources state that he died in 1919 in Oregon however there is no documentation of it.

Peter Attias and Ella Attias had separated after he left Michigan.  After Attias and his wife separated, Ella changed her name to “Mrs. Bates” to distance herself from Attias.. The 1920 federal census she was listed as Mrs. Ella Bates, working as  a stenographer for the Michigan Central rail road. Her 11 year old daughter was also listed with the surname Bates, and he’s father was listed as being English. They may have changed their last name to Bates due to the criminal activities of Attias. Emilee’s death certificate listed her father as Dr. Bates of Cairo, Egypt.

            In between those two censuses of 1910 and 1920, Ella and her daughter’s whereabouts is unknown but she probably continued to live with her siblings, Eugene and Alice for a period. Alice Gleason married Guy Mack Springer in 1912 while in Galveston, Texas and in 1917 the couple moved to Jamestown, North Dakota.

It is reasonable to assume that Ella Attias moved to Texas with her sister before going with her brother in law to Jamestown. Her brother Eugene P Gleason in 1918 was in Sedgwick Kansas and later in Palestine Texas.

The 1920 federal census Jamestown, Stutsman County North Dakota enumerated “Mrs. Ella Bates” as a widow residing with her brother in law and sister in Jamestown.  Her occupation was given as a stenographer for the Midwest Central Railroad. Guy Springer was the  Traffic Manager for the MCRR in Jamestown.

Ella married for the third time on 20 August 1921 in Jamestown, Stutsman, to a prominent lawyer and politician named John W. Carr. He had become a widower in 1920 with children. How they became acquainted in unknown but more and likely attending the same church services.  It is doubtful that John Carr knew Ella’s full background. It is unlikely that Ella Gleason confided in her new husband, her previous marriage with Peter Attias as she was posing as a widow of a man named Bates. It is possible that even her daughter was unaware of who her real father was.  Certainly her sister Alice Gleason knew the truth as she was in Detroit during Attias’ trial.

A newspaper account from Jamestown noted, “A quiet Wedding was solemnized Saturday at the home of G.M Springer on Fifth avenue north at 9:30 o’clock . John W. Carr and Mrs. Ella C. Bates, both of this city were united in matrimony in the presence of a few intimate friends of the contracting parties. Rev. C. P. Drew of the Episcopal Church officiated.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Springer acted as Best Man and Bridesmaid and the children of Judge Carr and Mrs. Bates were present at the ceremony.”

“A wedding breakfast was served at 10:30 and the newly married couple left soon afterwards for a ten day trip to the Minnesota lakes going by auto. The groom is one of the best known attorneys of the city. The bride is a sister of Mrs. G.M. Springer and with her little daughter, has resided in the city about five years [1916].”

In 1922 John W. Carr was elected to the North Dakota state legislature, serving until 1928 when he was elected Lieutenant Governor of the state. “During his last term in the house Mr. Carr was elected speaker of that body and his eminent fairness, both there and as presiding officer of the senate by virtue of his office as lieutenant governor, made him an ideal official and established friendships without number all over the state.”

The 1930 federal census listed “Ella C Carr” as 48 years old married to John W. Carr, age 56 , “a lawyer”, with her daughter  21 year old “Emilee B Carr”. Her father’s birthplace was listed as Egypt. Ella said she was 18 years old at the time of her first marriage which would have been to Mr. Brunswick. 

Emilee Carr was actually a student in the Jamestown College at the time of the census and she graduated in 1931 and moved to by 1932, Houston, Texas, “recently employed as a technician at St. John’s Hospital.”

John W Carr withdrew from politics in March 1932 due to failing health. He died in June 1932. His obituary stated, “Gov. Shafer and State Officials Here For Rites-John William Carr, one of Jamestown's most prominent citizens and Lieutenant Governor of the state of North Dakota, succumbed Tuesday afternoon to a lingering illness, which has confined him to his home for the past year, and which refused to respond to medical science.”

While friends knew for several months that it was only a matter of time until Mr. Carr would have to answer the final summons, his death on Tuesday came more or less in the nature of a shock to all except the family and intimate friends.”

Funeral services will be held this afternoon at the Masonic Temple, with Rev. N. E. Elsworth, rector of Grace Episcopal Church, as chaplain. Members of the Knights Templar, of which he was a member, will form an escort for the deceased at the services. George Thorp, Fargo, former Jamestown attorney, will give a short eulogy to Mr. Carr..”

            “Among the state officials here for the services are Governor George S. Shafer, the entire personnel of the state supreme court, W. E. Byerly, state land commissioner, W. S. Graham, motor vehicle registrar, Burnie Maurek, state game and fish commissioner, all of Bismarck. Others present are F. H. Hyland, Devils Lake, I. V. A. candidate for governor, and L. L. Twitchell, Independent campaign manager, Fargo.”

            “Flags in the city were at half mast, while business houses were closed during the services.”

In John W. Carr’s obituary Ella Gleason was listed as “Mrs. Martha Ella Bates” of this city and Carr “also leaves a step daughter, Emily Bates Carr of Houston, Texas, who was unable to be present.”

            After the death of John W. Carr, Ella Carr relocated to Texas to be with, “Emilee Bates Carr” who married on 12 August 1933 to Daniel Vann Russell who worked as a federal meat inspector in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio for many years.  They had just one daughter Mrs. Anne Pankratz of Wichita, Kansas, who is Peter Attias and Ella Gleason’s only granddaughter.

             Emilee Russell died in 1950 at the age of 39 in San Antonio, Texas. Her mother Ella died four years later in 1954 and is buried next to her daughter.  

 PART FIVE   

Chapter Twenty-Seven

511 West The Richmond Drug Store

The drug store at 511 West continued to be known as Vermillion Pharmacy until John Sheldon Richmond’ took over this location in July 1909, then the store was renamed The Richmond Drug Store. In the 1910 federal census John Richmond was listed as a 36 year old single man lodging at 509 West.

The 1910 federal census also listed Martin B Smith as a 56 year old “confectioner” living at 509 West Second South with his 48 year old wife Barbara [Barbara Elizabeth “Libby’] and an 18 year old son, Oliver “Ollie”. Three unmarried men were listed as ‘lodgers’ within this household. They were 36 year old John S. Richmond “Druggist”, 28 year old James Hansen “car repairer”, and 25 year old Alfred Landenagen “Mining company clerk.”

Martin B. Smith died in 1910 and his wife Libbie continued to rent rooms upstairs.

In November 1910, The Richmond Drug company at 511 West Second South Street reported to police that it had been beaten out of $4.90 by the short change game. A man entered the drug store, made a purchase amounting to ten cents, and gave a $10 gold piece in payment. After his change had been laid on the counter he remarked that he had a dime and asked the clerk to return the $10 gold piece to him. As the clerk turned his back the man slipped a $5 gold piece that was in the change on the counter into his pocket, took the $10 from the clerk and left the store.”

Liquor must have been sold out of the drug store as well as that in 1911 John Richmond and his clerk were arrested on charges of selling liquor on Sunday.

The Richmond Drug store became the place where men went for gunshot wounds. In October “A poker game played at 425 West Fourth Street , “in which the players were colored folks”  resulted in a shooting affray. One of then  men shot “ran two blocks to the Richmond drug store from where the police were called.

By 1913 there was an accidental shooting involving a barber named Tony Kladis and a bartender named Peter Calagis. Kladis was a barber employed at the Salt Lake Barber Shop at 515 West Second South and Calagis, was a bartender at the Athens Bar also as the “William Cayias Saloon” at 513 West .

Shortly before midnight, the pair, who were friends, “was examining a revolver belonging to the barber while the two were standing in the saloon at 513 West Second South when the weapon “accidentally discharged, the bullet wounding Calagis in the side.” Calagis was taken to the Richmond Drug Store at 511 West and was treated for his wound.”

A Patrol officer named F. C. Anderson reported the incident, saying “I went to the Richmond drugstore, 511 West Second South street and saw the two men come from behind the prescription counter. I could not learn that anything occurred until yesterday that I heard one of them has accidently been shot and that the wound had been dressed at the drug store. I understand it was not serious and so stated in my report. The men seemed to be good friends but I could not get anything out of them. When the Tribune reporter visited the drugstore the story that a wounded man had visited the place, it was denied by the clerk.” The barber was said to have been back at work as usual.”

In 1923 John Richmond shot Jose Ramirez “alleged leader of a gang of Mexican bandits”  According to the police robbers were at work “looting the Fardell clothing store at 509 South  when fired upon.” I did not mean to kill anyone nut merely to frighten the intruders.”

Richmond married between 1920 and 1930 but had no children but left a widow.  John S. Richmond died in 1938 at the age of 63 years and his store was acquired by William Alfred Hilton [1915-1992]. He was buried in Denver Colorado

William Hilton kept the name The Richmond Drug store as it had been on the block since at least 1909.  Hilton owned and operated Richmond Drug in Salt Lake City for 20 years until about 1959 before moving to Nevada. 

511 West Second South · 1940-1949 Richmond Drug Store

The Richmond Drug Store existed at this address for the entire decade, owned and operated by pharmacist named William “Bill” Alfred Hilton [1915-1992]. He acquired the store by 1939 from the estate of John S. Richmond soon after Richmond died in 1938. The Richmond Drug Store had been a fixture on the block since 1916 so Hilton kept the name of the store and operated the store for 20 years before moving to Nevada where he died.

Most of the incidents associated with the Richmond Drug Store were related to burglaries as that Second South was a high crime area

Benny J Flake

In 1941 a teenage African American, named Benny Flake, [1922-1990] was arrest and charged with “second degree burglary” at the Richmond Drug store. He was actually “nabbed” by the police while within the store. Flake, who lived on 560 West 300 Third South, was a r

ecent high school graduate and was “well known in intermountain region boxing circles” as a professional “colored” boxer.

At an early morning hour, Flake had broken into the drug store wearing a “home-made gas mask” of heavy cloth with holes for eyes, nose, and mouth. When captured he told the police that he had made it “in fear he would be trapped and forced to ward off tear gas.” The law officers pointed out to Flake that the mask “would afford little protection from tear gas. The boxer shrugged when it was called to his attention.”

Police officers had been summoned after a shattered front window was spotted by a passerby. The police surrounded Flake who gave himself up “after vainly seeking an exit.” In his coat pockets was $11 in nickels.  The money was obtained from a smashed marbles game machine.

Flake admitted to police investigators that he had started his burglary career when he was 11 years old “specializing in wolf lone jobs”. He confessed that he had pulled more jobs than he could remember.

Flake was sentenced to prison for one year for second degree burglary and was released in 1942. He then joined the U.S. Army in 1943

In 1947 Benny Flake boxed in a sporting event at the “new fairground arena” with world boxing champion Joe Lewis acting as a guest referee.  He continued to box professionally well into the 1950’s.

Herman Woodrow Turner

In 1943 Herman Woodrow Turner [1912-1964] was sentenced to one to twenty years for burglary at the Richmond Drug Store. He was originally from Tennessee where he broke an engagement to get married before becoming a “hobo.”. He was released from the Utah state prison in July 1948 after serving 5 years. However,  he was arrested again less than a week after his release and incarcerated in the Tooele County jail. There he hack-sawed his way out of the jail with the help of an accomplice who said he “hated cops” and had given Turner three hack saw blades. After he was captured, he was sent back to state prison and not released until 1950.

He left Utah by 1951 and was later incarcerated in Florida for larceny. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison when in 1957, he with four other convicts sawed through some steel bars of their Pine Island Prison work camp barracks and was soon on the run. After several weeks, Turner was captured after sleeping on the lawn of a hotel in Key West. When returned to the work farm he was placed in solitary confinement “dungeon” for escaping.

In February 1964 Turner was in Louisville, Kentucky where he had his driver’s license suspended for drunk driving. He died in Cincinnati, Ohio in April that same year.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

509 West Second South The Rio Grande Clothing Store

A Lebanese man named George Kattar [1881-1937] operated a man’s clothing store at 509 West until his death.  Kattar was a Christian, born in Tyre, which when he immigrated in 1902, along with the Boyer family, was part of Syria a province of the Turkish Ottoman

When he died in 1937 his widow Mary Elizabeth Boyer Kattar, [1899-1969], also a Lebanese Syrian, continued to operate the store under the name Rio Grande Clothing Company.

George Kattar and his brother Mike owned several retail businesses on 200 South for most of the 1920s into the 1930s.

George Kattar, in 1915, was a wealthy man when he married Mary Boyer. The Salt Lake Tribune on December 20 reported on the wedding celebration of Kattar and his bride. It was said 300 people attended the celebration in the pool hall above his clothing store at 553 West. When the store at 509 West became available George Kattar’s men’s clothing store relocated there during World War I.

In 1935 Maria Medina was listed as operating a Billiard rooms at 509 West which was the location of a Kattar’s men’s furnishing establishment. She was listed as living at 557 West. She is not listed in the Polk Directory after this time and may have returned to Mexico.

George Kattar was a well-known figure within the Syrian Community and a member of the Moose Lodge.  When he died his widow Mary Boyer Kattar also a Syrian continued to operate the store as the Rio Grande Clothing store until 1947.

The Rio Grande Clothing store was burglarized many times according to news accounts and in 1947 a “frightened stray deer ran down Second South, pursued by a police officer”, who cornered the “critter” in front of Kattar’s shop. The deer however deer jumped through the plate glass window and then back out and avoided capture “by running away.”

Mary Kattar resided her entire  life around the corner from her shop at 214 South Fourth [Fifth] West located on Lot 6.  This was her residence up until the time of her death in 1969. She was buried in the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

Working out of this store at 5009 West was a Jewish Pole named Louis L. Tasem [1886-1973]. He was a tailor in the  “Men’s Furnishings” business at 509 West. The 1920 census stated he had immigrated in 1914 and was the proprietor of a clothing store. However the 1910 census showed that Louis Tasemka had immigrated with his father in 1904 from “Russia” and was living in the Bronx, New York City until at least 1906. In 1925 his place of business was at 509 West 200 South. In 1931 his wife was robbed in a tailor shop at 509 West of $180 when she alone in the place. By 1935 Louis Tasem had relocated to Los Angeles, California where he died.

Jackson’s Food Product Company 1948-1949

Sidney Pitt Jackson [1905-1986] and his second wife Blanche Cameron [1911-1985] leased this space owned by the Kattar family for their “Jackson’s Food Product Company”.

Jackson graduated from West High School and from the University of Utah before becoming was a salesman for the Sweets Candy Company. He had joined the service during World War II and served as a 2nd Lieutenant.  After a divorce from his first wife he had married Blanche Cameron while they were stationed in Kentucky. She was an army nurse and served as a Captain in the Army Nurse Corp during World War II from 1943 to 1946. She received several decorations for merit.

After the war the couple returned to Utah where Blanche Jackson worked as a nurse in the Salt Lake Veteran Hospital. Both Sidney and Blanche Jackson died in Salt Lake City but are buried in the Fairview Lutheran Cemetery in Bolivar, West Virginia.

Their business did not stay long as by 1950 the San Antonio Café was operating out of this location.

 Chapter Twenty-Nine

509 ½  West Second South the San Pedro Hotel

The former rooming house upstairs at 509 ½ West from the 1920’s onward became more of a “flop houses” than respectable lodging houses. After the Smith’s family vacated a  Greek man going by the name  of “Gus Atlas” whose real identity was “Theros Kiskires” became the proprietor of the rooming house.  In 1913 Atlas along with five other Greek men associated with Second South, were arrested by a United States Inspector of Immigration on charges of “moral turpitude” and pandering.  A newspaper reported, “The Greek population of Salt Lake is to be reduced by the number of six by process of deportation of undesirable. On information furnished by the police and later verified by D.A. Plumly, United States Immigration Inspector, five Greeks have been found fit subjects for deportation because of profiting from the earnings of fallen women. Three were until recently proprietors of rooming houses.

The newspapers stated regarding the arrests, “The deportation of the five Greeks including the former keepers of rooming house is a source of much satisfaction to the police as it is considered much more desirable as a solution to the problem than local prosecution of the men would be. It is thought that it will also tend to prevent promoters of vice of foreign birth from plying their trade in Salt Lake.”

Gus Atlas had operated a rooming house at 519 ½ West Second South which was later known as the San Pedro Hotel. Atlas had his license to operate a rooming house denied 10 Feb 1914.

The remaining “hotels” on Second South were becoming “flop” houses or rooming houses. These ran down establishments offered lodging at a very low cost.  From the 1920’s onward the hotels were more like “run-down boarding houses” than respectable lodgings. Those that remained during the 1930’s were the San Pedro Hotel at 509 ½ West, operated by a series of Japanese managers.

The San Pedro Hotel, was managed mainly by a series of three  Japanese men, named Sam Date, Shijazo Miyoshi, and  “Joey” Soshin Kazura. The hotel had a very sordid history for decades with many newspaper accounts of robberies, knifings, suicides, drug dealing, and prostitution taking place over many decades. It was one of the few rooming houses in Salt Lake which rented rooms to people of color.

The San Pedro Hotel was more of a rooming house for hard luck people and had a notorious reputation for years as a place of drugs, prostitution, suicides, and even killings. It’s sordid history was recorded for decades, in numerous newspaper accounts of robberies, knifings, suicides, drug dealing, and prostitution occurring on the premises.

In 1923 a man “of Indian descent” named W.H. Hickman was shot and killed in the hotel by a Greek named James Morris. Morris claimed self-defense when Hickman had attacked him with a knife. Hickman was shot in the head after brandishing a knife and threatening to kill Morris and other roomers at the hotel. Hickman had beaten his wife and threatened to kill her and the landlady, when Morris intervened. Morris was charged with first degree murder until the judge dismissed the charges after hearing witnesses testify that Morris killed Hickman in self-defense.

In 1934 a San Pedro Hotel roomer was arrested when two marijuana cigarettes were found in his room. In 1936 another man who also lived in the San Pedro Hotel was arrested on the corner of Sixth West and Second South when deputy sheriffs tried to buy 3 Marijuana Cigarettes off of him. He was said to have had 10 “reefers” in his possession.

Nina Valdez

The San Pedro Hotel was the last residence of an African American woman named Nina Valdez. In an article called,  “Negress Injured in Mysterious Mishap” it stated that Valdez, age “38” was picked up by a police patrol car after she was found “staggering” near the San Pedro Hotel in February 1936. The police knew Valdez by reputation and simply took her home, however later a friend called a hospital and said Valdez was in intense pain. A police ambulance came and took her to the hospital where it turned out she had a fractured skull. She said she had been hit by a car before lapsing into a coma and dying. Nina Valdez was probably buried in a pauper grave as no record of her burial has been located.

Nina Valdez, if that was her real name, age was given in various newspaper accounts from being 35 to 45 years old. The only record of her outside of newspaper accounts of her arrests was in the 1935 Polk directory where she was listed as the wife of “Vincent Lopez” residing at 535 West 100 South which was a drug and brothel..

Valdez was probably a prostitute as that she had several “run ins” with the law during her time living in Ogden as well as Salt Lake City. While she was never charged with soliciting, she was arrested many times charged with theft from men who came to the Rio Grande area from elsewhere.

In April 1933, she first shows up in newspapers mentioned in an account of the mistrial of “John Wilson, 45, negro”.  She was living at a house located at 535 West First South Street. Wilson was charged with having stabbed Nina Valdez “during an asserted argument over a letter received by the woman through the mails.” John Wilson was also known as Charles “Hard Boiled” Edwards alias Charles Williams alias John Wilson.

By May 1933, Nina Valdez, age “36” was arrested in connection with the theft of $60 from a man named Frank Paton who was “staying at the Western Hotel” more likely the Westside Hotel.  He told the police, that he was robbed by two “negresses”, identified as “Mrs. Joe Valdez” and “Mrs. James Thomas” while at Nina Valdez’ residence was given as 535 West 100 South. The two women were arrested in Pocatello, Idaho and were returned to the Salt Lake City jail. The woman identified as Mrs. Joe Valdez was probably Estelle Sauceda, who was living with Joe Valdez at that address. Joe Valdez was also known as “Joe Sasinvo.”

Later that summer, in August Nina Valdez, age “36”, and an African American named Frank Williams, age 43, “alias Dollar Bill” were arrested for robbing David Murdock at First South and 3rd West [400 West]. Murdock alleged that Williams held him up at gun point while Valdez stole of $17 from his wallet. Williams was arrested according to the newspaper at “533” West 100 South but this may have actually been 535 West the address of Nina Valdez. She was arrested at 3rd West and North Temple and Murdock’s money was recovered.

“Frank L.” Williams who gave his address as 535 West 100 was convicted of the robbery of Murdock in October and sentenced to five years to life in the state prison in Sugar House. This is odd as that a year later Valdez and Williams was reported to have had an altercation at the West Side Hotel in September 1934.

This Frank Williams had a criminal history dating back several years, well into the early 1920s. He was living in Ogden, Utah in 1930 according to a newspaper article called “Negro Shot in Hotel Fray.” Evidently he had been a trustee at Ogden jail but walked away only to was shot by the proprietor of the Lincoln Hotel. He had gone there to see a “white woman” whom he said was his wife and who had just been released from jail having been charged with vagrancy. Vagrancy was the usual charge for prostitution. When the woman screamed, the hotel proprietor order Williams to leave and when he wouldn’t he shot him. The woman told police that she had lived with Williams for several months in Salt Lake City.

In October 1933 while Frank Williams was in jail waiting for his trial for robbing Murdock, “Joe Valdez, 44, a Mexican”, “Estelle Sauceda, 27, Negress”, and Nina Valdez were arrested and questioned regarding the murder of a Mexican named Joe Lavato.  In this account, Nina Valdez was listed as 45 years old [1888] “Negress”,  account which would have certainly made her old enough to have even worked out of Belle London’s old Stockade which was located just west of Valdez address on 100 South.  Another newspaper account regarding the same event of the trio’s arrest gave her age as 44. Valdez was arrested at her residence at 535 West 100 South while Joe Valdez and Sauceda were arrested at the Westside Hotel in Second South.

The trio were arrested by police for questioning because Sauceda had misidentified the murdered man as Luis Perez, a “salt Lake Mexican known to police,” however they were released when Lovato’s true identity was confirmed by his wife.

Estelle Saucedo at the time of her arrest also told police that she had been stabbed earlier in October “during a quarrel with another colored woman” at 174 North 300 West.  She had been stabbed in the chest with an ice pick by an African American woman named “Vita Thomas”.  This woman may have been the “Mrs. James Thomas” with whom Saucedo had arrested with in Pocatello.  Vita Thomas was convicted of stabbing Saucedo but she was given a suspended six months sentence.

Nina Valdez was reported to have been arrested several times, charged with theft from men she was “engaged with” in the area between 100 South and Second South, usually at her home which was “well known to Police.”

In June 1934 charges of petty larceny were dismissed against Nina Valdez, age “35” for lack of evidence. She was accused of stealing $27 from Edward Douglas of Midvale.  When she was originally charged her age was given only as 30 years.

From a September 1934 article, it was reported that Nina Valdez was still associated with Frank S. Williams “better known as “Dollar Bill” to police. Valdez and Williams had been in a fight in a room of the West Side hotel wherein “Dollar Bill” was stabbed by Valdez because according to the Salt Lake Telegram he “stepped out on his lady friend.” The article identified Valdez, who “was held in the city jail as the knife wielder”, as “35, also colored.” “Police said she used a small pocket knife to carve Dollar Bill.”

The Salt Lake Tribune account of the incident also listed Valdez as 35 years old but said the dispute was over “money matters.”

It began when a Special Officer found Nina Valdez “bleeding profusely on the street near 529 West Second South Street”. She was taken to the emergency hospital and when the police returned to the West Side hotel, they found “Dollar Bill” with knife wounds in his left arm and chest. He was taken to the emergency hospital then removed to the general hospital after treatment for a bruised and lacerated mouth by emergency hospital. Dollar Bill suffered two deep cuts in his shoulder but was released from the hospital the same day “as his wounds are not serious”.

Nina was held In the city jail booked for investigation and drunkenness however she didn’t appear to have been charged with stabbing Frank Williams.

Later in November 1934 Nina Valdez, age “39”, was charged with stealing $101 from a man named John Nelson. He told police that “because he and a friend decided to see  the sights”, he went home with Valdez for drinks. Nelson who refused to give out his address told police that he and a friend were “furnished” with several drinks and afterwards “his wallet containing the money was gone.”

Nina Valdez never went to trial for any of these charges of theft perhaps because the men did not want the notoriety of having to testify why they were with her at her house.

A news story reported that Nina Valdez home at 535 West 100 South was burglarized, on New year’s Eve, by a 38 year old man named Fred Tate. Charges against him were dismissed in January 1935 however.

In September 1935 “Frank Franklin” age 33 of 229 West Second South was arrested, and charged with assault with a deadly weapon after an “altercation which Nina Valdez in her home at 535 West First South streets.” She suffered nine cuts on her right arm and neck. At first she was unable to tell officers the name of her assailant.

By 1936, Nina Valdez life was over. She may have been anywhere between 40 and 48 years old.

On New Year Eve 1939 the body of Leo Ramanaf who committed suicide in his room at the San Pedro by taking poison was discovered.

Soshin  “Joey” Kazura [1871-1949]

At the beginning of 1940, the San Pedro Hotel was managed by an elderly Japanese man named Soshin “Joey” Kazura [1871-1949]. Kazura  had immigrated from Japan in 1907 and by 1930 he was enumerated as a laborer in a Garfield Utah Copper Mill; living in the “Japanese Camp”. However by the 1935 he had moved into Salt Lake where he became the proprietor of the San Pedro Hotel. Kazura lived elsewhere, on First South and Second west in the historic Japan Town area . 

The 1940 U.S. Census listed “Joey Kazura” as the “hotel keeper” of the San Pedro assisted by his son Nobumichi [Nabuyaki] Kazura. There were 17 lodgers listed in the hotel, five of whom were women; all of which but one were in their 40’s. They would have been packed in as that there were not that many rooms upstairs above the Richmond Drug Store and the San Antonio Clothing Store. The San Pedro Hotel consisted of six rooms, one bathroom and one washroom. There were no “kitchen facilities.” The common hallways, washroom and bathroom were jointly used and the “six rooms were open and freely accessible to all the occupants.” 

The youngest man in the hotel was 26 years old. He was a Mexican who gave his occupation as a farm laborer but the majority of the other men were middle aged. Most did not give an occupation probably unemployed, however one said he was dentist, one worked in a junk yard, one was a bartender, and one was an operator in a coal mine. Only two people in the hotel were native to Utah. The majority of them, seven, were from various places in the United States, while four were Greeks, three were Japanese, two were Mexican, and one was a Russian.

Kazura and his son were never involved with any issues with the law but after the United States and Japan went to war, many of the residents of “Japan Town” were looked upon with suspicion mainly due to their ethnicity.

In July 1942, Joey Kazura, age 72, and his son Nobumichi, age 40, were attacked by four Mexican youths belonging to the “Dead End Gang.” The ring leader,  Ray Valdez Campos, was age 18 at the time and had just registered for the draft in late June 1942, two weeks before the attack on the Japanese proprietors of the San Pedro Hotel.

Campos said he was angry when he was refused a room at the hotel. He called his hoodlum friends to come attack the proprietor as “Japs”. Campos slashed the men with a knife and beat them.  Joey Kazura suffered a skull fracture as well as knife wounds during the assault. His son was stabbed.

Campos and his 19 year old pal Joe Elizonda, age 19, were eventually convicted of the assault on Kazura and they were sentenced to “no more than 5 year each” in the state prison. However before sending the youths to prison, Judge Albert Ellett stayed their sentences giving the teens  a week to make an attempt to join the army in order to avoid a prison term.

However the Ninth Commanding Officer of the U.S Army however told the judge that convicted felons were ineligible for service in the Army. Disappointed, Judge Ellett complained, saying all the young men did was “start a private war with some Japanese.” Evidently Campos avoided any lengthy incarceration, as that in November 1943 he and others attacked and robbed another man.

The 1946 Polk Directory listed Soshin “Joe” Kazura married to Narae Kikuchi. They lived at 157 West First South. However his 1949 death certificate stated he was a widower. He was still the proprietor of the San Pedro Hotel at 509 ½ West at the time of his death and his death certificate stated he still was a citizen of Japan and that his race was “yellow”. He was a Buddhist and he was cremated.

His son Nobumichi [Nabuyaki] Kazura was born in 1902 in Osaka, Japan. He was only five feet tall according to his World War II draft registration. He must have closed down the San Pedro Hotel as a business as it was not listed in the 1951 Polk Directory when three Latina women were living at the address of 509 ½ West.

In the 1965 Polk city Directory, Nobumichi Kazura was listed as residing at 117 South First West. There’s no indication that he ever married or when or where he died. His property that he inherited from his father at 157 West  First South was condemned in 1966 by the city for the “civic auditorium complex” which became the Salt Palace Arena. He was paid $42,000 for the property.

Ray Valdez Campos [1923-1978]

Ray Valdez Campos was of New Mexican descent, born in Colorado, but came to Utah with his parents. His father worked at a copper smelter in Garfield, Utah. Campos evidently had a rough home life. In 1936 his father was arrested for a strong armed robbery and in January 1941 there was a report that someone fired three shot at the home of Ray Campos’ family where Ray was sleeping.

The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the day before his 18th birthday, Ray Campos and his young friends were in a car accident; “blamed indirectly on the current war crisis.” The “occupants were busy talking about the war with Japan, when the driver, 20 year old Ernest Guevara,  over corrected and the car overturned. Campos suffered “a broken pelvis and back injuries” and was taken to the hospital. The other occupants of the car Joe Elizonda, Dan Carrillo, Tony Tafoya, Ann Russell and Virginia Leonard were all injured in the roll over as well.

Campos’ father, just a month prior to the accident  was in police court fined for causing a traffic accident. The car he was driving with his family inside collided with another vehicle. Occupants of both cars were injured.

In November 1943 there was an account of a robbery of a 58 year old Wasatch County sheepherder named Joe B. Aragon. Arrested in the investigation were Carlos Ramos age22 , Mike Joe Puente's age 22, Ray Valdez Campos age 19, and Edward Santillanes age 25. All of these men listed their addresses as 56 West Second South Street.

Aragon was robbed of $75 in the washroom of the Union Inn at 227 South West Temple at 10 at night. Puentes and Campos followed Aragon in to the washroom, beat him and took his money. Puentes and Campos were later sentenced to 5 years to life in prison in December 1943,

Campos was part of a group of prisoners who attacked Guadalupe Vasquez in 1944. Vasquez was serving a prison sentence also for second degree murder that occurred across the street from the San Pedro Hotel in from of the Macedonia Hotel. Campos sentence was terminated in 1947.

In 1950 Ray Campos’ married sister was stabbed to death in a quarrel over some new clothes by another woman. The assailant was sentenced to 18 years in prison by Judge Albert Ellett the very same judge who had sentenced Ray Campos to prison in 1942.

Evidently he turned his life around. He married, became a father and served in the United States Army in 1958, stationed in Germany.

Chapter Thirty

The 1950’s

The Richmond Drugstore owned by Bill Hilton continued doing business at 511 West while next to it was a Mexican restaurant. The upstairs space occupied by the “San Pedro Hotel” was closed by 1951 but a city directory showed two Latinos named Mrs. Nellie Trevino Gomez [1912-1975] and Guadalupe “Lupe” Castillo [1932-1999] residing upstairs both had moved away by 1952.

Nellie Trevino, 38, and Alfredo “Fred” Ruiz Gomez 41, were married in December 1950 in Salt Lake City however they had lived together since at least 1946. In 1943 Nellie Trevino reported the theft of $800 from her home at 158 Woodbine Street in Block 64. “She told officers she had withdrawn the money from the bank to pay her mother’s hospital bill and had hidden it in an overcoat. When she returned for the hospital she could not find the money she told the officers”

The following year in 1944 a bench warrant was issued against “Nellie Trevino, 31, 158 Woodbine street, when she failed to appear in court on a summons for possession pf more than one liquor permit. She was alleged to have had eight permits. ,

The 1946 city directory listed Alfredo R Gomez as a laborer for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad residing at 334 South Fourth [Fifth] West. Also “Fred and Nellie Gomez” were listed as living at 157 South Woodbine. The 1948 city directory listed them as  “Alfredo R and Nellie T Gomez” residing at 157 Woodbine Court. He was now a laborer for the Bamberger Railroad line. He was listed as a laborer. An Ogden news paper Alfred R Gomez asked for a divorce from Virginia S. Gomez in 1944 “alleging Cruelty. 

 In February 1951 Albert R Gomez filed for an annulment of his marriage to Nellie T. Gomez for “mental cruelty”. Nellie was awarded real and personal property and restoration of her maiden name, Trevino.. In the space below was the Mexico City café  perhaps operated owned by Gomez and Castillo. The pair had moved away by 1952. The 1959 and 1960 city directories listed “Mrs. Nellie Trevino was living in the rear at 557 West Second South.

A newspaper article from 1954 mentioned a man named Jessie “Costello” probably the father or at least relative of Lupe Castillo who was robbed while cleaning the Mexico City Café. “A 52 year od man was severely beaten early Saturday by a burglar he surprised in the act of ransacking a west side café. The victim, Jesse Costello, 541 West Second South, had entered the establishment for the day’s business. He told police the burglar hidden behind the counter, leaped at him with a knife as he came upon his place of concealment.

Mr. Costello said he picked up a small metal waste paper basket and hit the man in the head with it. He then grappled with the intruder who beat him about the face and head until he momentarily lost consciousness.

During the struggle Allen Jackson 560 West Second South who helps Mr. Castello clean the café came to the front door of the establishment. He was unable to render assistance because the door was locked.

Meanwhile the burglar had fled through a hole he had made by removing a panel in the back door to gain entry. He left his knife and $17.50 in coins he had taken from the juke box on the counter.

Police called to the scene by Mr. Jackson combed the area but were unable to find the fugitive.

 A short time later however Officers W L. Cone and F. M. Atkins arrested a suspect in the laundry room of a hotel at 563 West second South.”

A few days later a follow up article stated “ Two complaints Tuesday charged Herbert Starrish, 23, Ogden, with second-degree burglary and assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the theft of beer from  Mexico City Café, 521 W. 2nd South early Saturday. The complaints were signed by Loupe Costello, 521 W. 2nd South before Judge Arthur J Mays who set bail at $1,000 on each of the two accounts. Starrish was arrested Saturday in a hotel at 562 West 2nd South after an employee at the café was attacked by the burglar.”

In 1952 Herbert C Starrish [1933-2001] was listed as age 17 of Alaska one of ten teenage inmates from the Utah State Industrial School in Ogden who had escaped but was recaptured  within six hours.

By 1957 Lupe Castillo was operating the Mexico City Café at 537 West Second South. In 1960 Lupe Castillo was mentioned as Mr. and Mrs. Lupe Castillo with a daughter Catherine residing at 541 West Second South.

An article from 1960 mentioned the Mexico City Café reporting, “An ‘empty’ gun scored a bull’s eye Sunday night in Mexico City Café at 537 West Second South  police reports show. Charles Peterson had just purchased a new .22 caliber rifle. He was told it had never been fired. He aimed it at the backbar mirror and pulled the trigger. The gun discharged and put a hole in the mirror.”

In January 1961 the Café was still operating at 537 West when burglars forced open a vending machine at the Café. However in 1965 Castillo was working as a porter in the Three Aces Bar at 579 West Second South owned by James Shulman.

The San Antonio Café 1950-1951

In 1951 the San Antonio Club was listed at 509 West adjoining the Richmond Drug Store. In January 1951 it was reported that “Juveniles were believed responsible for a series of three burglaries which netted about $25 cash and merchandise of undetermined values Tuesday. Heaviest loss was suffered by San Antonio Café 509 W. 2nd South where a rear door was forced open by thieves who escaped with $20 cash and merchandise including three pies, a cake, several hot tamales, three cartons of chewing gum and three cartons of cigarets”

The 1952 city directory showed this address was vacant and remained empty for several years. However Lupe Castillo by 1956 was the proprietor of the Mexico City Café at 521 West Second South. In 1960 the Mexico City Café had relocated to 537 West still owned by Lupe Castillo. 

The Acapulco Cafe

By 1958 the city directory listed another Mexican restaurant called the “Acapulco Café” at the same location. Mrs. Mercedes Murillio Corona [1895-1965] was the proprietor. In 1960 she continued operated the Acapulco Café but in later directories the address was listed as vacant.

In 1941 the city directory listed “Marcedes Bital” as operating a Mexican restaurant called the Los 5 R’s Café at 528 West Second South. Her true names was Mercedes Murillo Corona, wife of Vidal Corona, both natives of Mexico. In November 1939 “Bilda [Vidal] Corona and wife Mercedes” were convicted on narcotic charges of selling “marihuana”. Vidal Corona was convicted on two accounts and Mercedes on one count.

In December Vidal Corona was sentenced to one year in the McNeil Federal penitentiary and Mercedes Corona was sentenced to one year in a “federal reformatory” for women.. Their five children and one grandchild were turned over to the Salt Lake County Welfare department for their care.

In August 1941, on the recommendation of the health department, the city commissioners suspended the restaurant license of Mercedes Corona at 528 West. In 1942 the Los 5 R’s  café was gone but Mercedes Corona was still listed as residing at the address. She was listed as “Mrs. Corona Marcedes Vidal.”

The building with the addresses of  511 West and 509 West Second South was listed in the city directory as vacant in 1960 through at least until 1965 

PART  SIX

Chapter Thirty-One

The 1967 War on Prostitution on West Second South Street

A survey study released by the American Social Health Association based in San Francisco, a national health organization, ranked Salt Lake City in the top third of cities of its size for prostitution. Donald Clough, a western regional director and Bryon Haslem of Utah State Health Departments met with Salt Lake Civic leaders and law enforcement officials to discuss how to cleanup of the city’s image of being soft on prostitution even though the city had passed a tough anti-prostitution amended ordinance in February 1967.

The ordinance passed unanimously by city commissioners stated, “It shall be unlawful for any person convicted of prostitution…[to] be on or about the streets, alleys, parks or public places of Salt Lake City without reasonable necessity therefore between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. of the next day within the two year period subsequent to any such conviction.”

At this meeting, Clough claimed there was a serious situation with venereal disease, drug addiction and abuse which he attributed to the “community attitude of accepting prostitution rather than fighting it.” Clough however blamed the courts for their “laxity” rather than police enforcement.

Judge Maurice Jones resented the accusation saying that “it was not that the courts weren’t interested or concerned with the rising cases of prostitution ,but that it was Utah’s laws which allowed prostitutes to appeal their convictions” so as that they were entitled to two hearings and juries. He said that “appeals by persons convicted of prostitution was killing us”, meaning the courts ability to prosecute prostitution.

The health department at this meeting reported that there was an “eighty per cent increase in venereal disease over last year” and noted that there was a “twofold rise of gonorrhea, mainly in Salt Lake County.”

The ages of prostitutes arrested in Salt Lake city were shown to be between 15 and 24 years of age, and that between $10 and $25 was what was being charged to customers “plus the cost of a $3 room in which to have sex.”

Salt Lake Police Chief Dewey Fillis announced that new programs were being developed to “eliminate problems of prostitution, homosexuality, and drug addiction in the city.”  He stated that “homosexual prostitution” was an activity “seen in two downtown bars.” He also stated that “prostitutes have one major base of operation, a westside hotel” without naming the establishment, but certainly it was the Harlem Hotel at 528 ½ West Second South. Most of the rest of the city’s prostitutes were also located in the West Second South area.

As a result of the acknowledgement of the abundance of prostitution in Salt Lake City, Police Chief Dewey Fillis called for revocation of all business licenses of establishments catering to vice on West Second South in a “concerted effort to control the proliferation of prostitutes in the city”. Salt Lake City Mayor J. Bracken Lee called for police officers to “harass street walkers” until the problem was reduced.

However the city’s effort to curtain prostitution was in July invalidated the Utah Supreme Court. Portions of Salt Lake City’s ordinances were not in line with the state’s ordinances. In August, the previous February ordinance on a two year curfew for convicted prostitutes in the city was ruled invalid.

City Safety Commissioner James L Barker claimed the city then had been overrun with prostitutes since the city’s anti-prostitution ordinances had been over turned. A new ordinance was proposed that would have made it “unlawful for a prostitute, a courtesan, lewd woman, or any person to solicit for immoral purposes or make insulting or licentious advances.” This new ordinance was deemed effective in the arrest of homosexuals as well as prostitutes.

A few days after the new ordinance was adopted, on 16 September 1967, Salt Lake City’s Vice Officers, led by Sgt. Gene P. Young,  commenced a “Morals drive along the 500 block of West Second South with a massive round up of prostitutes”.   Police Chief Fillis had assigned “eighteen rookie” to clean up “skid row.” In one sweep 10 prostitutes were arrested for soliciting, half of which gave their address as 528 ½ West Second South which was the Harlem Hotel.

Due to the attention that city officials directed towards the blighted area, David H. Jackson, a neighborhood aide for the Community Action Program’s Central City Project, met with sixteen business owners on West Second South in order to improve business there, by fighting “prostitution, muggings, and other neighborhood crime.” He proposed meeting weekly to patch up the “deteriorating physical and social conditions” of the area.

A 31 year old  African American man named Richard Keyes, the manager of the Harlem Hotel, proposed that a committee be made of West Second South Street proprietors to “set some basic rules by which everyone would comply with”  and would then meet with city officials.

A committee of seven “West Second South businessmen” agreed to meet with Police Chief Dewey Fillis and James L. Baker, the Salt Lake Public Safety Commission, along with John Florez, coordinator of a nonprofit  Community Action Program. Florez was the coordinator of the Central City Project which speared headed anti-poverty programs.  David Jackson who had been meeting weekly to discuss the area with west side businessmen also attended the meeting.

The Committee of West Second South business men met with Police Chief Fillis and Commissioner Barker and told them that “Elimination of prostitution and ‘soliciting’ would be the most the effective step towards cleaning up Salt Lake City’s ‘Skid Row’.” The committee identified five major problems for the area, which were; “prostitution, illegal sale of alcohol, gambling, robberies and ‘roll jobs’ [muggings], and carrying concealed weapons.” These representatives of businesses on Secon South stated that “If Prostitution were eliminated most of the other problems would clear up.”

Chief Police Fillis commended the businessmen saying, “this was the first time you people had tried to establish rapport with the police department. This was a fine thing you were doing.” Commissioner James Barker added,  “You business men, develop this, where [then] law abiding citizens will want to go down there and spend his money”.

The Committee stated in order to clean up the area, the city needed to provide a cross walk, trash bins, and new curbing to the street. The crosswalk issue stemmed from the fact that fines for “jay walking” in  the “area known to police as Harlem” on the “West Side” was $10 compared to other parts of the city of which the fine was only $5. The difference in the fines was meant to “control prostitutes for crossing the street illegally.”

The Business owners pledged at the meeting to cooperate with the police in “stamping out prostitution, sidewalk gambling, fighting and vandalism in the area.”

With the attention that cleaning up the morals of Second South was given, it also came with a more serious scrutiny of violations of city health codes. In November six businesses on Second were told to clean up or be shut down. Violations were mainly “dirty walls and floors, cockroaches, and general unsanitary conditions.” 

            One of six businesses that were given a few weeks to comply was Jeff’s Grocery  located at 511 West, These businesses were told to clean up violations by the end of the month or be closed.

In December 1967 a Third District Judge voided Salt Lake City’s September anti-prostitution ordinance on the “constitutional requirement for due process” and prostitution continued unabated on West Second South and even flourished.

A newspaper account stated that the total amount of arrests for soliciting sex for hire, from January 1t until May 1968, were 73 people.  Men arrested were mostly being charged for soliciting sex from female police decoys as a way to try and stem prostitution in the area.

In May 1968 seven men were arrested on the “500 West block of Second South” for soliciting a female police decoy for sex. They were held in the city jail and forced to undergo venereal disease checks before they could be released out on bond.

The total amount of people arrested in Salt Lake City in 1968 for prostitution or soliciting  were 71 women and 25 men as compared to 1967 when there were only 42 arrests of which none of them were men.

In January 1969 the Utah legislature passed House Bill 59, an anti-prostitution statute, that applied to both men and women and added “sexual perversion” as to acts declared to be a crime. The law was sought by Salt Lake City to curb prostitution as the old state anti-prostitution laws mainly applied to “houses of ill repute” and not to present day methods of prostitution.

Roger F Cutler, assistant city attorney for Salt Lake, recommended a proposal to put “decoy” prostitutes on the streets to arrest men seeking sex acts for hire. “It would involve part-time decoys hired by the County Health department with the city paying for their training and salaries.” Concern about the “high rate of venereal infection” among persons arrested for soliciting sex acts prompted the Health department to become involved.

            A draft of a contract between the city  and the health department was studied in August by the Salt Lake City Commission as part of “a crackdown on prostitution” along West  Second South. “The decoy system would tend to “inhibit” prostitution and discourage potential  customers from seeking out prostitutes,” Cutler argued. Salt Lake Police said they intend to arrest both prostitutes and customers by using decoys.

A “crack down on prostitution” on West Second South in October 1969 resulted in the arrest of 75 people on “sex for hire” charges. Of that number 62 of them were male solicitors after the police started using the city’s “meter maids” as decoys. This amount of arrests was in stark contrast to the amount of people arrested from January 1969 to the beginning of October when 184 people had been arrested with only 82 of them being men.  Also it was dramatic compared to October 1968 when only 6 women were arrested and no men at all.

The use of Meter Maids to increase the number of arrests on West Second South was not without controversy and was  discontinued in November 1968 after complaints of “Moral and Legal issues arose” after a Meter Maid requested “overtime pay.” 

In December 1969 an appeals Third District judge ruled that the city’s ordinance that the police could arrest men for soliciting sex ‘for hire’ from police decoys was invalid as that “for hire” assumed that the decoys were indeed for hire, when naturally they were not. He ruled that the way the ordinance was written it should have only been applied to prostitutes and not to the men.

The police had arrested over 80 men on West Second South in late 1969 under that invalid portion of the ordinance.  An additional 34 men were waiting to be tried when that portion of the anti-prostitution ordinance was voided. Men, who had been arrested, were fined between $75 and $100 with a 30 day jail sentence usually suspended.

However the city used another section of the same ordinance to continue arresting men seeking sex, from females as well as from males well into the 1970’s. The portion of the ordinance used to arrest people read as follows: “It shall be unlawful for any person to be in or near any place frequented by the public or any public place for the purpose of inducing, enticing or procuring another to commit a lewd act or an act of sexual intercourse for hire or moral perversion.”

In July 1970 Salt Lake City studied again a way of using “decoy prostitutes” to arrest men as part of another a crackdown on prostitution on West Second South spurred by the high rate of venereal disease. Chief U.S. District Judge Willis Ritter in August 1970 called prostitution in Salt Lake City along West Second South a “stinking mess”.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Jeff’s Grocery ]

In 1965 an African American named Willie Lee Jefferson [1913-1970] leased the building from its owners, the Equitable Life Insurance Company. Jefferson opened “Jeff’s Grocery” a combination grocery  store, boarding house, and restaurant.  The grocery store was on the ground floor at 511 West and a restaurant combination pool hall was out of 509 West. He rented out the rooms upstairs.

The building at 509 and 511 West Second South was listed as vacant in 1960 through at least 1965 when an African American named Willie Lee Jefferson  leased it and opened “Jeff’s Grocery” on the ground floor and rented out the upstairs. Jeff’s Grocery Store was a combination grocery, boarding house and restaurant.  The owner of the property however was the Equitable Life Insurance Company which leased the building to Jefferson.

Willie Lee Jefferson the son of Moses and Vendora Collins Jefferson, married “Miss Lillie Mae Walker” in Kansas City Missouri in 1935. They swore they were both single and unmarried. He listed his age as 24 and she listed hers as 18 and her real maiden name was Asbury.  

His parents Moses Jefferson and Vendora Collins were married in 1904 in Hope, Arkansas. Moses was age 27 and Vendora was 21. Vendora was the daughter of Jake Collins born in Atlanta Georgia and Sophie Hamilton born in Arkansas and both who were born into slavery in 1854 and 1860.  

Willie Lee Jefferson gave his birth year as 1913 but the 1910 federal census of Hempstead County, Arkansas stated he was 1 year and five months old as of April 19. He listed as the grandson of “Sofa Collins” age 50 a native of Arkansas whose occupation was that of a washer woman and cook. Vendora Collins was listed as Sofa’s daughter age 23 who worked as a cook for a private family. Willie Lee Jefferson had a 6 year old sister named Marie. It is doubtful that Willie Lee’s parents were still married in 1910 as they were living apart. By 1920 Willie Lee had left his mother’s home and was living with his divorced uncle John Collins who was a 48 year old farm laborer.

The “World War II Draft Cards for Young Men” listed Willie Lee Jefferson as born 10 May 1909 in Hot Springs, Arkansas and that his nearest relative was his uncle John Collins. He was working in Monroe, Louisiana at the time. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall weighing 165 pounds with a scar in the center of his forehead.

Lillie Mae Asbury [1917-2000] was the daughter of a share cropper named Sam Asbury [Asberry] born in 1875 in North Carolina from Tombs County, Georgia. Lillie Mae Asbury’s mother, Carrie Thompson 1895, was the granddaughter of Joseph Thompson who was born enslaved between 1830 and  April 1835 in Georgia according to the 1880 and 1900 federal census. Carrie’s father Tom Thompson was born free in 1868 however the 1900 census he listed his birth  as in May 1877 which is the date he used for social security.  He died in June 1969 possibly a 100 years old .Between 1900 and 1910 the family of Thomas Thompson changed their name from Thompson to Thompkins. After Willie Lee and Lillie Mae separated she remarried in 1964 Arthur White.

By May 1968 the location of Jeff’s Grocery at 511 West Second South was cited as being used for  prostitution.  Willie Lee Jefferson was named in complaint  for maintaining a house of prostitution above his residence. The charge stemmed from when shortly after midnight “an undercover police officer arrested a woman on suspicion of being a prostitute at Jeff’s Grocery.

In February, 1969 a ‘drug bust” called the “largest  single operation ever staged in the state” occurred with the arrest of eighteen men and women, including a thirteen year old “go go dancer” from Spokane, Washington. She was arrested at “Big Jim’s Lounge” at 559 West Second South, using a fake I.D. stating she was in her twenties.  Three of the men arrested roomed on Second South and two others were arrested while selling or possession narcotics, usually simply marijuana. Jefferson was one of the men  arrested for the possession of Marijuana.

Jefferson died 6 April 1970 of “natural causes” at the University of Utah’s  hospital and while his death noticed stated he was to be buried in Salt Lake City Cemetery he actually was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, San Diego, California.

Eventually the address of 509 West was abandoned after Jefferson died and the new owner of Jeff’s Grocery sold out to Willa Mae Walker, who opened a restaurant called Dell’s Cafe

There is not much background information regarding Jefferson’s interest in the property at 511 West or his family. An item recorded in Salt Lake County records, in June 1978, mentions the “estate of Donmarie Kent  also known as Don Marie Jefferson Kent deceased” to Joseph S. Kent Jr in regards to the property.

Don Marie Kent [1932-1972] was the wife of Joseph Sia Kent and daughter of  Willie Lee Jefferson. An obituary in the Kansas City Times of Missouri from August 1972  mentioned a “Mrs. Joseph Kent”.

“Mrs. Donmarie Jefferson Kent, 40, San Diego, formerly of Kansas City died Tuesday at a Santee, California hospital. Mrs. Kent was born here and lived here about 18 years. She was a clerk for the San Diego Police Department. She attended Lincoln University in Jefferson  City. She leaves a husband, Joseph Kent and a son LeAnthony Kent both of the home; a brother Donald Lee Jefferson, with the Marines at Camp Lejune, North Carolina and her mother Mrs. Lillie Mae White. Burial will be Monday in San Diego.

Raymond Roscoe Lytle [1911-1979]

A man named Raymond Roscoe Lytle was residing at 509 West in 1965 probably upstairs and was listed as being  “retired.” He would later be charged with procuring prostitutes. Lytle was a veteran of World War II and had been a barber since 1930 in Topeka Kansas and Salt Lake City. His father had been a peace officer for 42 years in Topeka and was at one time, a Kansas state Fire Marshall.

In 1968 Raymond Roscoe Lytle, 57,  residing at 519 Catherine Street [1440 West] was charged with keeping a “house of ill fame.”  He was arrested at 131 Second West where “a notice of nuisance was filed on the premise” as it was “used for purposed of lewdness, assignation, and prostitution.”  In May 1968 the charges of keeping a house of prostitution were dismissed “because  of insufficient evidence.”

In 1970 Lytle would be arrested again along with Nolan Jones who had acquired Jeff’s Grocery, charged with keeping a house of ill fame.

Nolan T. Jones [1934-1997]

The 1970 city directory listed “Jeff’s Grocery” still  at 511 West only now with an African American named Nolan Theodore Jones Jr as proprietor. Jones had served in the military from 1956 to 1958 and enlisted again from 1960 to 1965. Jones was arrested along with nineteen others in 1969 during a major drug bust along West Second South. He was age 35 at the time of his arrested for possessing a narcotic drug. He resided at 314 South Rio Grande [440 West].  

Jeff’s grocery store had a business license “for billiards and pool, to sell smoked and cured meats, a milk vending machine, a cigarette machine, a musical device, an amusement device, and restaurant license, and a rooming house license.” Jones also “charged $3 for use of rooms in his establishment” but kept “no registration book for guest.”

The city directories for 1970 through 1972 listed Nolan Jones as operating the “Player’s Choice and Pool Hall” out of 509 West. 

When in July 1970 the city began to study the concept of using decoy prostitutes again to arrest men as part of a crackdown on prostitution due to the “high rate of venereal diseases, the city’s vice squad division also stepped up their surveillance of West Second South. The city requested “businesses, taverns, and rooming house” on Second South to “cooperate with police in curbing prostitution.” The city commissioners “ordered that those who fail to cooperate could face the loses of their license.”

Nolan Jones found that  his business license was in jeopardy and he and his lawyer appeared before the Salt Lake City Commission according to an article;  “Hearing Set In Sex Crackdown- Two west Second South businessmen were given hearing dates Tuesday by the city commission to give reasons why their business license should not be suspended.”

Salt Lake Police Chief Calvin C. Whitehead told the city commissioners, “police agents have made several arrest at Jeff’s Grocery Store for soliciting sex acts for hire and that several prostitutes have been frequenting the place.” He also said that a tavern called “Mr. Bs” was used “extensively by prostitutes and procurers.”

Dates for a hearing on the matter were granted after Police Chief Calvin C. Whitehead recommended the commission “take action immediately “on license issued to Nolan Jones business at  511 West Second South and William Douglas Bond’s bar called Mr. B at 517 West Second South. “Mr. Jones who operated Jeff’s Grocery Store was given July 22 and Mr. Bond operator of a tavern known as Mr. B’s was given July 23.”

The day after appearing before the commission, the Police “arrested two women in a rooming house at 511 West 2nd South.” It was “part of increased action against prostitution in west Second South area.” The police also arrested “two men and charged them with operating houses of prostitution.” The men named in charge were Raymond Roscoe Lytle [1911-1979] and 37 year old Nolan Jones, residing at  the Westside Hotel located at 529 West second South.

At the end of July 1970, Jones’ business license was suspended for 60 days according to an article “Anti-Prostitution Suspension Stirs Row.”  The Police claimed that five to fifteen known prostitutes had been seen within the grocery store. The hearing may not have been mentioned in the newspaper except that after  “presentation of sworn testimony” that prostitutes had been seen on the premises “at various hours and dates,” a “heated exchange of words between a woman and Mayor J Bracken Lee occurred after she called prostitutes in Salt Lake City, as “Mayor Lee’s Gals.”  She accused Lee of taking bribes to allow prostitutes and vagrants to exist.

Jones’ lawyer appealed the suspension claiming it “would be caused irreparable damage in that he will be required to close his grocery store and rooming house and close his source of livelihood.” The attorney also sued that the commission had no legal right to close a business   arguing “that none of the women in question had ever been convicted of prostitution  and none of the terms of the store’s business license had been violated.” The revocation was not carried out “pending the Third District Court ruling whether the city’s actions were legal.”

The last mention of Jones as manager of Jeff’s Grocery Store was in September 1970 when he reported to police that seventeen “car stereo tapes valued at $102 were stolen form his car” while parked on West South Temple.

Jones must have lost his business as that in January 1971 the building’ contents at 509-511 West Second South were sold to Thomas Sidney Walker and Willie Mae Walker for $27,000 while the building and land was still owned by the Equitable Life Insurance Company .  In deed of assignment between Willa Mae Walker and “First Thrift and Loan Company from 27 April 1971 Walker was listed as a “widow.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Dell’s Café

Wille Mae Walker also known as “Willa Mae” and “Dell” opened “Dell’s Café” at 511 West which featured a “Restaurant, Soft Drinks, Billiards and Pool” at least by July 1971 when a newspaper blurb mentioned, “Cafés Cash Taken- Police reports Monday said $25 was taken from Dell’s Café, 509 West Second South. David Moran told police the money had been taken from a coin pool table that had been forced opened.”

  The business license to operate a rooming house above the café was not renewed.  However Willie Mae Walker “allowed her friends to live on the upper floor" of the old San Pedro Hotel  "free of charge when they did not have money for rent.”

The upper floor consisted of three bedrooms, one office, one storage room, one bathroom and one washroom. “None of the three bedrooms had a separate bathroom or kitchen facilities” and  “all shared a  common living room which contained a  “pool table area and a private upstairs bar.” The common hallways, washroom and bathroom were jointly used. There was only one room with a functioning lock which the office. The other six rooms were “open and freely accessible to all the occupants.  

Little is known about Willie Mae Walker’s background except that Thomas Sidney Walker was said to have been her husband but there is no record of him except for the contract to buy the contents of the building from the estate of Willie Lee Jefferson. In county records she is called a widow.

Newspaper accounts list her age in various reports as being born in 1929 or even 1935. She may not have even known her age. There is a “Willa Walker” located in the 1940 federal census in Salt Lake City as a three year old African American orphan listed in the “Children Friendly Service Society of Utah.   In 1940 the Children Service Society cared for 325 children.

The Society was formed in 1884, to “organize a day nursery in Salt Lake City to help the working poor and provide a safe place for their children while the parent worked. In the early days, the mission of the society was to provide relief to destitute children and “to obtain such temporary and permanent homes as may be practicable”.

“Local merchants donated bread, meat, produce, and milk. Children in daycare were admitted as early as 5:30 a.m. and remained as late as 6:00 p.m. Parents were charged 10 cents daily for one child and less for each additional child.”

She may have had a son according to an article in the Utah Daily Chronicle from February 1973 which stated that during the time Walker was incarcerated in 1972, “her son a Chicago policeman came to Salt Lake and ran Dell’s Café for her.”

In 1976 there was an obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune for a 21 year old woman named “LeJoye Walker” who was said to be the daughter of  “Thomas and Willie Mae Calvin Walker.” She was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery under the name “Joyce Walker”.

Willie Mae Walker was arrested and convicted in 1972 of charges of prostitution at her place according to the Chronicle article. “Ms. Walker is presently free on appeal. She has spent $1500 to $2000 on legal defense.” The article also said,  “At any given time there are usually five or six prostitutes sitting in Dell’s.”

In November 1972 she was listed as owning a clothing and wig store. ”Dells’ Super Styles Willie May Walker 551 West Second South Retail clothing and Wigs."

The Utah Daily Chronicle newspaper article from February 1973 called the southside of 200 South as the “Gold Coast” of local prostitution in Salt Lake City. Two homes at 214 South and 216 South 500 West,  owned by heirs of the Mary Kattar were referred as decrepit “trick houses” While the residences were  condemned “prostitutes still use them.

In March 1973 Dell’s Café’s Class B Beer Liquor consumption license was revoked  for “allegedly permitting operation of a ‘bawdy house’ in the same building where beer and liquor is consumed.”

The 1975 city directory listed Ruther Lendis Wade as manager of the Dell’s Café at 511 West Second South through 1979. By that year the address of 509 West had disappeared and the building’s address was simply 511 West. Wade’s wife’s name was Lydia but newspapers from that time do not contain any information on the couple. The couple are not listed in the 1972 city directory. Ruther Wade was listed as manager during the time Willie Mae Walker was in trouble with the law.

In June 1975, there was a three a.m. shoot out at the Dell’s Cafe were  the “owner” and customer were wounded  in an early morning robbery. Walker was not mentioned in the article only twenty-four year old “Ardiste Tann” who was said to be the Café owner but more than likely he was a manager or bartender. “He was wounded by .22 caliber gunshot pellets in his left arm, lower-left portion of his chest and right thing.”  Tann told the police “no one came to his aid, although at least six other persons were in the café and witnessed the encounter.” However the article also said, “Patrons chased the robber out the back and towards railyards east of the area.”

An African American woman named Ophelia Morris Buford [1929-1997] known as “Mama FeFe” was employed at Dell’s Café as a cook but probably did not live there.  In 1990 was arrested for” distributing drugs for value” and committed to the State Prison in July but was paroled in October 1991. Rev. France A Davis, of Salt Lake City’s Calvary Baptist Church, officiated at her funeral and she was buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery without a marker.

Willie Mae Walker's boyfriend was a man named Robert Westley who lived upstairs with her. In February 1976 Nolan Jones listed as age 42 of “176 North Redwood Road” and Robert Westley age 50  of “511West 200 South”  along with five others had charges for Gambling when arrest in January at the Beehive Lodge of the Fraternal Order Elks sometimes referred to as the “Black Elks” at 248 West South Temple

The following July 1976 fourteen Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputies led by the Salt Lake Sheriff’s Narcotic Squad seized $3000 worth of heroin, cocaine, and cash during a 10 p.m. raid on Dell’s Café. Wille Mae Walker 46 [1930] and her boyfriend  Robert “Billie” Westley 49 [1927]  both of 511 West Second South were arrested along with 25 year old Dale Allen and Gwendolyn Faye Campbell age 23 [1953]. Westley and Walker were booked in the County Jail for “investigation of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute for value.” “Seized were $1,653 in Cash, sixty $30 balloons of suspected heroin, $1,000 worth of suspected cocaine, assorted guns, numerous pills, and about 100 syringes. Allen was released however Campbell was charged with possession of a controlled substance.

“At the time of the search, which was made pursuant to a warrant, Walker was detained by the police in the adjacent restaurant where she was working.” The police testified that they entered the upstairs rooms as there was “no outward appearance to indicate the upper floor” was  used as a “hotel, apartment or rooming house.

Walker “was initially arrested after the search of a building, owned by her, uncovering a brown prescription bottle filled with 56 balloons of heroin. The upstairs portion of this building contains three bedrooms which shared a common living room area. None of the bedrooms have separate bathroom or kitchen facilities and a common bathroom and washroom are used jointly by the occupants. The upstairs also contains an office-bedroom in which the plaintiff kept the various records of her restaurant business. Only this latter room had functioning locks on its door.”

The police “searched the three bedrooms, one of which was used by the plaintiff as her residence.” While upstairs they found “Billie Westley” who was  “dressed in pajamas.”  A search of Westley “uncovered 4 balloons of heroin” and he was then “placed in custody and the search moved to the office-bedroom.”

“Finding this room locked, the police entered the room by breaking down the door.” Once inside the narcotic squad found a “prescription bottle containing heroin in a nightstand next to the only bed in the room.” They also found in the night-stand two letters addressed to Willie Mae Walker. “Other areas of the room contained furs, jewelry, women's clothing, a cash box and business receipts,” all of which were identified as belonging to Walker.

“After what one of the police officers characterized as a thorough search of the room” Walker  was “read her Miranda rights and questioned about the room where the heroin was found.”

Willie Mae Walker claimed that she did not use heroin herself but one of the occupants of the upstairs rooms, Louie Shelton, she said “used heroin.” 

Police officers would later testify that they when searching the locked room they “did not find men’s clothing or shaving gear” in the room although Walker testified at her trial that “clothing and toiletries belonging to Westley were in the room.”

The trial of Willie Mae Walker began 1 September 1977 in the Third District Court and lasted two days.

Walker’s defense attorney, Richard Leedy, argued that the heroin filled balloons found in the locked office actually belonged to Robert Westley “who was living in her building.” Walker “denied making a post-arrest statement, testified to by the police, in which she allegedly indicated she had exclusive control over the locked room and possessed the only key to that room.” Her defense “was grounded upon the premise” that Billie Westley “had use and control of the room” in which the heroin was discovered. She argued that “Westley was using the room as his residence prior to and at the time of the search.” In support of this argument, Walker “testified Westley had clothing and toiletry articles in the room at the time of the search.”

To refute Walker’s testimony, “the prosecuting attorney, Spencer Austin, elicited testimony from two of the officers present at the time of the search and arrest to the effect that no men's clothing or toiletries were found in the locked room.”

In his closing argument and final summation to the jury, Austin “referred to this testimony and the lack of any evidence corroborating the plaintiff's defense.”

The State’s prosecuting attorney Spencer Austin told the jury that “despite the fact that Salt Lake County Legal Services Chief Investigator Ed Barton testified that he was an acquaintance of Walker and that Deputy County Attorney Jim Housely was a good friend of hers, the defendant possess the drug” and intended to sell heroin valued at $1680. Austin pointed out that the heroin “was not held for personal use” and Walker “testified she was not a user of the drug Austin pointed out

On Friday September 2, 1977, “after deliberating for two hours” the four man and four woman jury convicted Willie Mae Walker “of possessing heroin with the intent to sell.  Walker’s sentencing was set for September 26, and she remained “free from Salt Lake City County Jail on $5,000 bail while waiting sentence.”

Richard Leedy told reporters that the verdict “was a horrible mistake, ”  and “that the defendant is a member of a minority group and lives under a different system.”

On September 26, 1977, in the Third District Court, Willa Mae Walker was sentenced for the “possession and with intent to sell heroin from her room.”  Judge set an appeal bond at $25,000.

Walker was convicted by the jury and sentenced to an “indefinite term from zero to fifteen years as provided by law in the Utah State Prison, and “ordered her commitment to commence forthwith.”

Almost two years later Dell’s Café, while under the management of Ruther L Wade, was raided again in June 1979 by twenty police officers armed with a search warrant “for illegal liquor, gambling paraphernalia and small amounts of drugs.  The “two story establishment was site of illegal liquor sales, prostitution related incidents, and large scale after hours activities involving gambling.”

Salt Lake City Police Vice Squad Officer B. D Hutchinson said surveillance on the two-story establishment indicated it was the site of illegal liquor sales, prostitution related incidents and large-scale after hour activity involving gambling.

The article had a picture of the raid with the caption, “Officers load cigarette machine into van carrying items confiscated after a surprise raid, Thursday on Dell’s Café 511  West Second South. Police from several agencies searched for evidence of illegal; activity including gambling, illegal liquor sales.”

Officers entered the establishment at about 7:30 p.m. and showed the proprietor the search warrant sworn Thursday by Officer Hutchinson before Fifth Circuit Court Judge Raymond S Uno.

The warrant allowed officers to search for evidence of illegal; liquor sales, gambling and narcotics.

After serving the warrant officers signaled other agents , who rushed into the two-story building. One person was arrested and several others were frisked.

Officers dismantled furnishings in the tavern and hauled off tables, bar stools, bottles of liquor, a pool table, booths, juke box, stereo speakers and other items,

Police also found gambling paraphernalia and green felt marked for use in games of chance.

Officer Hutchinson said that a small amount of marijuana was found early in the road and that officers were conducting a search for other drugs into the night.

Deputy County Attorney  Michael Christensen participated in the raid and briefed officers on their legal rights to search patrons and seize property.

Fourteen city vice squad officers, five city uniformed officers, four city narcotic officers, and several sheriff’s deputies and detectives and state agents participated in the raid.

Officer Hutchinson said the month long surveillance of the tavern, which is licenses to sell bottled beer only, has involved use of an informant.”

“A police informant ha notified investigators of “extensive” after hours activity involving liquor and gambling at the west side establishment.

Walker agreed to forfeit ownership of the property and plead guilty to one count in exchange for a pledge by prosecutors to drop the other two counts brought against her. Illegal sale  provided  for a minimum fine of $299 and a minimum jail sentence of three months I jail upon conviction.

In August 1979 Willa May ‘Dell’ Walker plead guilty to one count of illegal liquor sales “allegedly made through her tavern Dell’s Café 511 W. 2^nd South”

She was charged with three counts . Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Mike Christensen said walker, 49 has agreed to plea guilty to one of the counts and forfeit ownership of property confiscated by police during a June 21 raid on the café.”

Willa Mae Walker originally pled guilty in court to only one of three accounts but later she was ordered to stand trial in October on a charge of illegally selling liquor and from her beer tavern as that the judge said she backed out of plea bargain  arrangement stemming from the June 21 arrest when police “confiscated several bottles of liquor and gambling paraphernalia. She was convicted on November 20.

A six-person jury found Willa May ‘Dell Walker, 49 guilty of selling liquor by the drink at her beer tavern. Walker was charged with making three illegal liquor sales to an undercover Salt Lake City police officer . Judge  dismissed one of the illegal liquor sales counts because a chemical analysis of a sample  showed contained less than 3 percent  alcohol Beer contains more alcohol than the sample

Informant kept the sample in his mouth for a period of time  diminished  forcing a chemical reaction  defense attorney Walter Budgen

After this the business was closed for good.

In 1980 Louis Sanone owner of of Dewey’s Bail Bonds released back to Willie Mae Walker after valued was received for the property at 511 West.

Walker appealed her conviction to the Utah Supreme Court, which upheld her conviction until “following her conviction and our decision on appeal, the plaintiff discovered the fact that during the trial the prosecution was made aware of and failed to disclose certain evidence which Walker contends was favorable to her defense.”

Walker “became aware of evidence known by the prosecution which supported her contention that Westley had access to and actually occupied the room in question.”

In January 1981 the Utah Supreme Court ruled that Salt Lake County’s Attorney office prosecutor, Spencer Austin, was culpable  for “prosecutorial misconduct” in the Walker trial and  “was chastised.”  Austin had failed to make clear during the trial of Willie Mae Walker “where a set of men’s clothing was found.”

The Supreme Court ruled that “We reverse the judgment and remand the matter to the District Court for further proceedings in conformity” with the opinion that the “State’s case was circumstantial and existence of men’ clothing in the room in question was pivotal in those circumstances and pivotal in the conviction itself.”

The prosecuting attorney had convicted Walker on the notion that only she had access to the locked office room where the heroin was found and that only her possessions were in the room at the time.

Ophelia Buford also known as Mama FeFe , “who worked at the plaintiff's restaurant at the time of the search, explained the police had asked her to come upstairs and take possession of jewelry and money found in the locked room. Once upstairs she asked if they were going to take Westley to jail in his pajamas. When questioned about the location of his clothes, she, according to her affidavit, explained they were in the locked room where he had been sleeping. She further explained in the affidavit that Sheriff's Deputy Duncan then entered the room with Westley where certain articles of clothing belonging to the latter were found in diverse areas of the room.”

“Sheriff's Deputy Duncan confirmed the fact that after arresting Westley he accompanied him into the office-bedroom where Westley's clothes were located. Furthermore, at the petition hearing the prosecuting attorney, Spencer Austin, testified that Sheriff's Deputy Duncan informed him during the second day of the trial of the existence of the clothes in the room.”

Spencer Austin, the prosecuting attorney withheld “knowledge of this evidence on the second day of the trial and, thus, at the time of his closing argument. The findings also stated the prosecuting attorney did not, at the time of his initial discovery, nor at any later time, disclose this evidence to the plaintiff or her counsel.”

“The prosecuting attorney solicited testimony from two of the officers present during the search of the building. This testimony indicated the room in which the heroin was found did not contain men's clothing. Furthermore, the testimony was in direct conflict with the position advocated by the plaintiff.”

“Whether or not the prosecution was aware of the fact this testimony was incorrect at the time it was given, he was later made expressly aware of that fact during the course of the trial. Yet, the prosecuting attorney failed to disclose the contradicting testimony to the plaintiff or the court, and instead deliberately relied on the false impression created by the original testimony in both his closing argument and summation to the jury.”

“It is an accepted premise in American jurisprudence that any conviction obtained by the knowing use of false testimony is fundamentally unfair and totally incompatible with "rudimentary demands of justice."

“In a similar manner the prosecution's reliance on the false impression created by the testimony of the two police officers also represents a corruption of the truth seeking function of our criminal trial process.”

“In his role as the State's representative in criminal matters, the prosecutor, therefore, must not only attempt to win cases, but must see that justice is done. Thus, while he should prosecute with earnestness and vigor, it is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.”

“In the present instance the State's case against the plaintiff is based on circumstantial evidence. The heroin was not found on the person of the plaintiff or in her living quarters. Instead, the heroin was found in a separate room which the plaintiff used as an office. The position advocated by the State imputed possession of the heroin to the plaintiff because of her control over the room in which it was found. In support of that position the State introduced police testimony crediting the plaintiff with a post arrest statement in which she allegedly stated she had exclusive control of that room and the only key to its locked door. The police testimony concerning the absence of any men's clothing in the room was presented in direct support of this testimony and the prosecution's case and in direct contravention of the plaintiff's contentions.”

“This latter testimony which was allowed to stand uncorrected by the prosecution created the false impression that no men's clothes were found in the room at the time of the search. Although the prosecution was aware of the false character of that testimony, he did nothing to correct the false impression created in the minds of the jury. Rather, he expressly relied on this false impression in his closing arguments. It is possible that the prosecution's misleading statements relating to this issue and his manipulation of the evidence had an effect on the jury's determination.”

“The false impression which the prosecution knowingly fostered in the present case constitutes prosecutorial misconduct which seriously interfered with the trial court's truth seeking function. We believe this to be analogous to the prosecution's knowing use of false testimony and therefore subject to the same standard of materiality used in those cases.

“Applying this standard to the present case, we believe there exists a reasonable likelihood the false impression fostered by the prosecutor could have affected the judgment of the jury.”

“Therefore, the prosecution's actions have deprived the defendant of a fair trial and constitute a denial of due process” and “the defendant is entitled to have that error rectified. The judgment of the District Court is therefore reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.”

Willa Mae “Dell” Walker “owner of Dell’s Café” was “charged with three counts walker who resides upstairs from the café was arrested convicted November by a six person jury  in 1981 walker won retrain on the 1976 heroin case.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Artspace Bridge Project

Eventually the Dell’s Café and the building at 511 West was demolished along with all the former addresses of 501 West through  515 West on Lot 6 of Block 63 in order to make room for developers to build a four story apartment and retail complex on the south west corner of Second South and now Fifth West.

Artspace, a nonprofit group founded by Stephen Goldsmith in 1979, started in 1983 renovating parts of west Salt Lake City in the Rio Grande District by “retooling old warehouses.”  In March 1999 Artspace developer Stephen Goldsmith announced plans to build “a neighborhood from the ground up” instead of “repurposing old warehouses”. His plan was to construct a new edifice  across from Boyer’s Gateway Development Artspace called “The Bridge Projects”.

At 500 West and Second South, however, the site  was considered located in a “marginal block west of the homeless shelter.” Nevertheless, Artspace touted the self-contained neighborhood construction to be “an exercise in community building that will revitalize everything around it.”

The Bridges Projects hoped by “maximizing on the symbolism of the $18 million project’s name” that the westside neighborhood would “connect affordable apartments with a day care center, a market with retail space, and a new Buddhist Temple with a multicultural center.”

Artspace began construction on Phase I of the Bridges Projects with ground breaking occurring in the summer of 1999. On 28 September 2001 Phase I was  dedicated. Due to Goldsmith leaving the Artspace non-profit to become Mayor Rocky Anderson’s city development planner, the project had been scaled back from $18 million to the price tag of $12.4 million.

The final Bridge Projects of Phase I involved the construction of 62 affordable housing units as well as office  and commercial building. The apartments consisted of two and three bedroom apartments priced at $350 to $700 a month for low income tenants.

    Artspace’s Phase II was to have been built at the location of the "City Center Storage Building" which was once used as a ZCMI warehouse located in Lot 7 just south of Lot 6 which entirely fronted Fifth west with a Buddhist Temple and fifty "rent to own apartments" for “young professionals including teachers and police officers.” Also the development envisioned a parking structure, art galleries or retail spaces, and classrooms to teach art to children of poor families.  

However, the Salt  Lake City Council Members “nixed” Phase II’s “affordable housing project because they didn’t like who it catered to and they felt it wasn’t being built quickly enough.” Four members of the city council argued that Phase II would allow “too much affordable housing.”

Council members “balked at plans to build affordable housing for residence with restricted incomes” as that the City’s Redevelopment Agency demanded that money used  to be build apartments should rent at “market rate units.”  Art space refused and Phase II which was originally scheduled to open in 2001 along with Phase I “for low income tenants” was stalled.

Councilman Dave Buhler said he did not want “to turn the Depot District west of downtown into a low income quarter.” He and Council woman Nancy Saxton wanted only about half the existing and planned housing to be low income with Saxton suggesting “we need a higher income area” in that part of the City.  

 Councilman Carlton Christensen had voted in August 2002 “to have the city’s Redevelopment Agency buy the group’s warehouse at 500 West 200 South and then find another developer.” However in September, he and three other council members decided to give up the city’s rights to buy the warehouse, “letting Artspace do what it wants with the price tag of $10.9 million to build 50 rent to own units. Councilwoman  Jill  Remington Love was one of the councilmembers “who didn’t want the RDA to buy the building and voted against walking away from the project.”

The Artspace Plan was to start building in the spring of 2003  and finish within a year. Phase II however was unable to cobble together the necessary funding and was never completed.

The Phase I complex is across the street from the Old Greek Town TRAX station operated by the Utah Transit Authority. The station opened on 27 April  2008 and  is one of three additional stations that extended TRAX from Arena Station to the Intermodal Hub in 2008. The Intermodal Hub at Sixth West was the original location of the Denver & Rio Grande Train Depot in 1882. 

Located less than a block from the Gateway, the Artspace Bridge Projects still provides affordable apartments for households between 35-55% of area median income. The business address of the Bridge Projects Phase I complex also  is still listed as 511 West Second the only historic address left entirely in Lot 6 of block 64 Plat A