American Monsters: Who Killed Carmen Wagner?
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning, Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening now. True crime with a
Speaker 1: dash of the paranormal, the garish, the strange, in the
Speaker 1: darkly comic. I'm Zevanodleberg, and you've found your way to
Speaker 1: kind of Murdery, a place that means more than just murder.
Speaker 1: It's my very own pocket dimension, home to a curated
Speaker 1: collection of bizarre and compelling stories. The unsolved, the unsettling,
Speaker 1: and the unbelievable. I cover it all just so long
Speaker 1: as it's kind of Murdery. Hey, everybody, welcome to Kind
Speaker 1: of Murdery. I'm your host, Zevan Odleberg. Thank you for
Speaker 1: deciding to be here. Some of you may remember from
Speaker 1: season two Kind of Murdery the Emerald Triangle that I
Speaker 1: grew up in Humboldt County, and I didn't just grow
Speaker 1: up in humbold County. Humble County, by the way, is
Speaker 1: far northern California is for redwood trees and marijuana cultivation.
Speaker 1: It is a beautiful wild place, not densely populated, to
Speaker 1: say the least. The largest town, the county seat of
Speaker 1: Eureka is about thirty five thousand. The town where I
Speaker 1: went to high school, Arcada, is about six thousand. The
Speaker 1: place that I grew up, a little hamlet called Maple Creek,
Speaker 1: isn't even really a hamlet. It's just the middle of
Speaker 1: the woods. I grew up an hour from the nearest town,
Speaker 1: off of sixteen miles of gravel road, behind two locked
Speaker 1: gates off the power grid all wood heating, wood cooking,
Speaker 1: solar and water power. I used to chop a box
Speaker 1: of wood before dinner every night. We were like a
Speaker 1: modern day Swiss family Robinson and so you can imagine
Speaker 1: that in such a wild, sparsely populated place, I don't
Speaker 1: tend to run into a lot of homies. When I
Speaker 1: go other places, maybe I'll meet somebody who's from Humboldt
Speaker 1: County or more likely went to humbold State University, but
Speaker 1: it it's super rare for me to meet somebody from
Speaker 1: Maple Creek who I don't already know. Where am I
Speaker 1: going with all this? Well, we're starting a new story today,
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, it takes place in Humboldt
Speaker 1: and it has an actual, honest to God, Maple Creek
Speaker 1: tie in. So for my family and my friends who
Speaker 1: I grew up with way out there in the boonies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not just Humboldt, not just Eureka, but actual Maple Creek
Speaker 1: plays a role in this story. And what's the story.
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep it simple. The story you're about
Speaker 1: to hear boils down to a single question. Who killed
Speaker 1: the beautiful eighteen year old huntress Carmen Wagner. That's right,
Speaker 1: who killed the beautiful eighteen year old huntress Carmen Wagner. Now,
Speaker 1: if any of you got a little burned out on
Speaker 1: the seventh part, Bonnie and Clyde, I hope you enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: I love doing it. But in case you got burned
Speaker 1: out on seven parts, don't worry, folks, this one's just
Speaker 1: going to be a two parter. You'll hear the first
Speaker 1: part today Thursday, September fifteenth, and we'll wrap it up
Speaker 1: this Sunday, September eighteenth. All right, buckle up, get ready,
Speaker 1: four Part one of Who Killed Carmen Wagner. You know
Speaker 1: the drill plug in your peevies, Turn up those fifty
Speaker 1: one fifties to eleven and lack beloved Eddie Munson. It's
Speaker 1: time to heavy metal. Kind of murdery starts right now.
Speaker 1: One of the strangest cases in California jurisprudence, if not
Speaker 1: in the criminal annals of the entire country, occurred during
Speaker 1: the tenure of District Attorney Arthur W. Hill at Eureka,
Speaker 1: Humble County, California. On the late afternoon of Wednesday, October seventh,
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty five, a young man and his girl companions
Speaker 1: suddenly vanished from their homes at Eureka, California. They had
Speaker 1: gone on a hunting trip together, apparently without the barest
Speaker 1: premonition of the horrible fate which awaited them in the
Speaker 1: densely wooded mountain. After several days of increasing suspense, the
Speaker 1: young couple had not returned to their homes, and the
Speaker 1: alarm was spread and a large posse of men was
Speaker 1: organized to search for the man and the girl. Two
Speaker 1: members of the posse, poking around in the mountainous regions
Speaker 1: surrounding a flat plateau known as Coyote Flat in northern California,
Speaker 1: suddenly stumbled over a grave which had been scooped hastily
Speaker 1: out of the earth behind a large rock. The searchers
Speaker 1: stood in horror, stricken at the site which met their eyes.
Speaker 1: They had, by the merest chance, found the body of
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner, an eighteen year old red haired girl, the
Speaker 1: owner of a popular beauty shop at Ferndale, who had
Speaker 1: vanished from her home in the company of Henry's Sweet,
Speaker 1: a young man to whom she had been reported to
Speaker 1: be engaged. A terrified Glance told the posse man that
Speaker 1: the young girl had been cruelly shot to death in
Speaker 1: a hasty attempt made to cover her body with earth
Speaker 1: rocks and leaves, before the bloody corpse been placed in
Speaker 1: a shep sallow grave. Raising his revolver, one of the
Speaker 1: possemen fired three shots, the signal to notify the other
Speaker 1: searchers that their worst fears had been realized and that
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner had been found dead. Then, during the silent
Speaker 1: hours of the night, the possemen stood guard over the
Speaker 1: body while other searchers made their way to the flat
Speaker 1: with the coroner to bring the corpse back to Eureka
Speaker 1: over the steep and dangerous mountain trails. District Attorney Arthur W.
Speaker 1: Hill was notified by wireless that the girl's body had
Speaker 1: been found. This was probably one of the first instances
Speaker 1: where radio had been used in the aid of forces
Speaker 1: of the law. So rough was the country that one
Speaker 1: of the possemen had taken his radio into the mountains
Speaker 1: and kept Hill in touch with every detail of the
Speaker 1: long search, which had ended with the finding of the corpse.
Speaker 1: The district attorneys set about at once to marshal the
Speaker 1: facts of the case for presentation to a jury should
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's office succeed in arresting the suspects. What a
Speaker 1: tragedy this killing was. Carmen Wagner, as a schoolgirl, was
Speaker 1: a beautiful young child with long braids of tawny red hair.
Speaker 1: With her parents and a brother, Logan, the girl lived
Speaker 1: in the mountains on the Wagner Ranch, some few miles
Speaker 1: from Eureka. The young girl was taught to handle a rifle,
Speaker 1: and she became an expert shot. Then the Wagner family,
Speaker 1: when Carmen was about thirteen years old, moved from their
Speaker 1: ranch to Eureka. It was with deep regret that the
Speaker 1: young girl left the ranch home in the mountains, but
Speaker 1: as time passed, she returned again and again to the
Speaker 1: locality to hunt and to climb the steep trails which
Speaker 1: chrisscrossed through the region. As of vocation, Carmen established a
Speaker 1: prosperous little beauty parlor at Ferndale, which became the meeting
Speaker 1: place of the bells of the neighborhood for various embellishments
Speaker 1: which delight the hearts of young women. Carmen became very
Speaker 1: popular among the younger set for pleasure. To relieve the
Speaker 1: hours of work she spent at her beauty shop business,
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner went on frequent hunting trips, on which she
Speaker 1: was accompanied by Henry Sweet, a young man who had
Speaker 1: lived for years in Eureka. Because of her unusual beauty,
Speaker 1: with bob auburn locks and a clear, healthy complexion, Carmen
Speaker 1: was besieged with masculine attentions. And I'll post a picture
Speaker 1: of Carmen on Instagram in case anyone is curious. But
Speaker 1: of all the wooers, she had chosen Henry Sweet. She'd
Speaker 1: been sweet on Sweet if you will, Sorry, can't help myself.
Speaker 1: I am compelled to tell every dad joke that presents
Speaker 1: itself to my obsessive mind. Carmen and Henry liked the
Speaker 1: same things, especially hunting and long walk through the woods,
Speaker 1: and often they enjoyed together the pleasures of camping in
Speaker 1: the mountains, both bringing down game with sure shots from
Speaker 1: their rifles. On these frequent hunting trips in the vicinity
Speaker 1: of the girl's old home, Carmen and Henry were always
Speaker 1: accompanied by the young woman's large yellow, brown colored Collie dog.
Speaker 1: The dog adored his mistress and answered her calls quickly,
Speaker 1: which led her to give him the Spanish name of Pronto.
Speaker 1: In the girl's last hour of peril, Pronto gave his
Speaker 1: own humble life in a desperate attempt to save his
Speaker 1: beloved owner. Not suspecting the danger which lurked nearby, Marie
Speaker 1: and Carmen made a rendezvous for their last hunting trip together,
Speaker 1: a rendezvous which ended in the mysterious deaths of both
Speaker 1: of them. On Wednesday afternoon, October seventh, nineteen twenty five,
Speaker 1: Henry asked Carmen if she would enjoy going on a
Speaker 1: hunting trip with him to Coyote Flat. Well, I'll have
Speaker 1: my car and I'll get some provisions and shells, and
Speaker 1: we can do a lot of shooting, said Henry, his
Speaker 1: faith reathed in smiles as he told the girl of
Speaker 1: his newly made plans. Oh I'd love to exclaimed Carmen enthusiastically.
Speaker 1: I'll meet you and we can have the whole day
Speaker 1: tomorrow to ourselves in the hills. A trysting place was named,
Speaker 1: and Carmen returned to her home to don her hunting
Speaker 1: apparel and to obtain her small Boer rifle. She bade
Speaker 1: her mother a joyous goodbye and hurried quickly to meet Henry.
Speaker 1: It was the last time that missus Wagner ever saw
Speaker 1: her daughter alive. As she left home, waving at her mother,
Speaker 1: Carmen glanced hastily at a small gold wristwatch because she
Speaker 1: did not want to be late and keep Henry waiting.
Speaker 1: The watch was an old fashioned time piece which had
Speaker 1: been given by missus Wagner to her daughter, who had
Speaker 1: made of it a risk watch by attaching a leather
Speaker 1: casing to hold it. This watch later was destined to
Speaker 1: become one of the most important links of circumstantial evidence
Speaker 1: in the murders of Coyote Flat. Carmen, thanks to her
Speaker 1: small watch, was on time for her appointment with Henry Sweet.
Speaker 1: The rays of the setting sun were slanting across the
Speaker 1: city of Eureka, as the girl and the young man
Speaker 1: started out on their last hunting trip together, although of
Speaker 1: course they didn't know it was their last hunting trip.
Speaker 1: Then around the swiftly moving automobile driven by the young
Speaker 1: man scampered the dog pronto. After watching the girl and
Speaker 1: the man disappear in the distance, a sinister figure left
Speaker 1: Eureka and struck out on a trail through the woods.
Speaker 1: The mysterious figure knew intimately every bypath and shortcut through
Speaker 1: the mountains, and could overtake any game, animal or human
Speaker 1: that he stalked. The young couple did not return the
Speaker 1: next day as they had promised. The girl's mother became
Speaker 1: uneasy about her daughter's absence, but consoled her mind with
Speaker 1: the comforting thought that she was in the company of
Speaker 1: a reliable and trustworthy young man who could take care
Speaker 1: of her. Hours passed without any sign of her daughter, however,
Speaker 1: and missus Wagner's worry increased until it became full blown fear.
Speaker 1: The family instinct is to return to the fireside at
Speaker 1: the close of the day, and any unaccounted absence strikes
Speaker 1: fear to the heart. Even an hour's absence of a
Speaker 1: beloved one makes his or her relatives apprehensive because of
Speaker 1: the fear that some harm may have come to the
Speaker 1: missing person. After hours had elapsed and Carmen had still
Speaker 1: not returned, missus Wagner told her son Logan that she
Speaker 1: believed her daughter was in danger and that the authorities
Speaker 1: should be informed so that a search might be started
Speaker 1: for Henry and Carmen. Logan tried to calm his mother's
Speaker 1: fears with the explanation that Carmen had always returned safely
Speaker 1: from other hunting trips and doubtless she and Henry would
Speaker 1: arrive home soon. They learned that sharef A. A. Ross
Speaker 1: was in the eastern part of the country on a
Speaker 1: business trip, but the Deputy's share of H. G. Reid
Speaker 1: was the official to whom they could tell their fears
Speaker 1: and appeal for aid in locating the missing couple. District
Speaker 1: Attorney Arthur W. Hill was also informed of the case.
Speaker 1: Reid paid close attention to the story of the couple,
Speaker 1: who now had been missing in the mountains for three days.
Speaker 1: Several theories were advanced to account for their strange absence.
Speaker 1: Had the young couple become lost, had they been injured
Speaker 1: in a fall? Were they starving in the dense woods
Speaker 1: which clothed the mountains. Had something sinister happened to the
Speaker 1: girl and the man, something which prevented them from firing
Speaker 1: three signal shots which would have brought huntsmen to their
Speaker 1: aid at once. Reid decided immediately to organize a large
Speaker 1: posse to search through the mountains. He knew that time
Speaker 1: must not be lost if the girl and the man
Speaker 1: were to be found and brought home safely. Reid saw
Speaker 1: something mysterious in the fact that neither young person had
Speaker 1: been able to return to Eureka, and neither had they
Speaker 1: sent the dog Pronto to his home with a message
Speaker 1: tied to his collar, which would have summoned aid immediately.
Speaker 1: The theory that they had fallen and suffered severe injuries,
Speaker 1: or possibly had been killed, was the strongest belief. It
Speaker 1: was hardly possible that sweet and the girl had become lost,
Speaker 1: because both knew the mountain trails almost like open books.
Speaker 1: Deputy Sheriff Reid notified the citizens of Eureka that a
Speaker 1: large posse was to be formed to conduct the search,
Speaker 1: and volunteers responded immediately. Nearly every able bodied man answered
Speaker 1: the summons. As everyone knew Carmen and Henry, and they
Speaker 1: were all anxious to do everything possible to find the
Speaker 1: young people. The district attorneys studied the case and decided
Speaker 1: to gather all information possible should it be discovered that
Speaker 1: a crime had been committed, But of course, at this time,
Speaker 1: neither the DA nor the officers had any intimation of
Speaker 1: the tragedy which was to come. Meanwhile, the sinister figure,
Speaker 1: who they were destined to discover later, had followed Sweet
Speaker 1: and the girl across the mountains, had returned silently and
Speaker 1: unobserved to Eureka, where he walked the streets in broad
Speaker 1: daylight and even joined the posse for a short time.
Speaker 1: During the search for the girl and the man, Deputy
Speaker 1: Sheriff Reid took charge of one group of possemen, while
Speaker 1: Captain Clyde Randall of the California State Traffic Police directed
Speaker 1: the other group of searchers and outlined the territory for
Speaker 1: his men to cover. Captain Randall advanced a startling and
Speaker 1: disquieting theory as to the disappearance of the girl. Well,
Speaker 1: I believe that Carmen Wagner has been abducted and hidden
Speaker 1: in a cabin of an insane mountaineer, declared Captain Randall.
Speaker 1: We must bend every effort to find her, and I
Speaker 1: hope that we will do so before we are too late.
Speaker 1: Wow jump straight to cabin of insane mountaineer. Huh where
Speaker 1: there are a lot of known insane mountaineers in the area.
Speaker 1: Based on my own personal experience growing up there, magic
Speaker 1: eight ball says, signs point to yes. The territory into
Speaker 1: which the young couple had vanished was composed of steep trails,
Speaker 1: deep valleys, high mountains, and in some places was almost
Speaker 1: inaccessible because of the rough terrain. A unique method of
Speaker 1: communication was established between the posse and the District Attorney's
Speaker 1: office for possibly the first time. As I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: a radio was used to keep the District Attorney's office
Speaker 1: in constant touch with the POSSE, and the DA received
Speaker 1: every bit of information as the search progressed. The posse
Speaker 1: man relaying radio messages to the DA was Kenny Kilburn,
Speaker 1: a photographer and amateur radio operator who made a hobby
Speaker 1: of wireless radio. Kilburn carried his small radio sending apparatus
Speaker 1: into the mountains and sent important news of the search
Speaker 1: directly to the DA's office in Eureka. Today, of course,
Speaker 1: radios are almost universally present in police vehicles and even
Speaker 1: on police uniforms, but it's believed that Kenny Kilburn was
Speaker 1: one of the pioneers of using the radio to aid
Speaker 1: the forces of the law. Meanwhile, the posse continued to
Speaker 1: search every part of the mountains. In the posse were
Speaker 1: several young men, including Kenneth Buck, two half brothers, Walter
Speaker 1: David and Jack Ryan, and Kenneth Walford, who had known
Speaker 1: Carmen for some time. Sidney S. Pixton was a searcher,
Speaker 1: and he and Buck kept close together as they searched
Speaker 1: about the plateau known as Coyote Flat. Walter d David
Speaker 1: and Jack Ryan were half Native Americans who had lived
Speaker 1: in the district for years, Ryan at one time having
Speaker 1: attended the same school with the missing Wagner girl. The
Speaker 1: brothers made their living by working odd jobs on their ranches,
Speaker 1: breaking stubborn horses, and Ryan frequently acted as a guide
Speaker 1: for tourists who went on sightseeing and hunting trips in
Speaker 1: the mountains. Jack Ryan was known as the best horseman
Speaker 1: in the county, and he also was a crack shot
Speaker 1: with either a rifle or a pistol. Logan Wagner, the
Speaker 1: young brother of the missing girl, also was a member
Speaker 1: of the posse. He was an expert woodsman, and his
Speaker 1: knowledge of the country an ability to find his way
Speaker 1: through the dense growth and steep trails added impetus to
Speaker 1: the search. No traces of the missing couple were found,
Speaker 1: and fear began to clutch at the hearts of the searchers.
Speaker 1: They began to feel that something terrible had happened to
Speaker 1: Carmen and Henry, and the question was asked, will we
Speaker 1: find them dead? Kenneth Walford, who'd known Carmen for nearly
Speaker 1: four years, was one of the most tireless of the
Speaker 1: large army of searchers. Walford was only a youth, being
Speaker 1: just twenty years old, but he devoted long days to
Speaker 1: an effort to find the missing girl. He had joined
Speaker 1: the Posse immediately when she was reported missing, and in
Speaker 1: his old, battered automobile, he had started out for Coyote Flat,
Speaker 1: but the machine was aged and it would not climb
Speaker 1: the steep roads, so Walvard abandoned it and struck out
Speaker 1: on foot to aid in the search. Meanwhile, searchers continued
Speaker 1: to scour the mountain sides, the valley beds of small streams,
Speaker 1: and the trails, several of which led up to Coyote Flat.
Speaker 1: After the search had been underway for some time, several
Speaker 1: of the men one day decided to travel over one
Speaker 1: of the paths. They started out slowly, poking over every
Speaker 1: foot of the way. As they walked up toward Coyote Flat,
Speaker 1: the path made a crooked turn and there lay the
Speaker 1: body of Henry Sweet. Blood had gushed from his side
Speaker 1: and mouth, and the body was sprawled as though Sweet
Speaker 1: had fought in his death agony. Had he been murdered.
Speaker 1: The body was examined hastily, and it appeared to the
Speaker 1: possemen that Sweet had died from a violent hemorrhage caused
Speaker 1: by packing a heavy deer. What if his death was
Speaker 1: accidental from his exertion, then perhaps Carmen was still safe,
Speaker 1: But there's been no mention of there being the carcass
Speaker 1: of a heavy deer in the pathway next to him.
Speaker 1: If he had died from an exertion hemorrhage due to
Speaker 1: a heavy deer, which sounds extremely unlikely for someone who's
Speaker 1: probably twenty years old, then wouldn't the carcass have said
Speaker 1: deer be lying right next to him. I mean that
Speaker 1: sounds like an absolutely absurd conclusion to leap to, but
Speaker 1: I suppose when you're desperate to believe that someone you
Speaker 1: love is safe, you can leap to almost any conclusion.
Speaker 1: And the possemen hoped ardently that Carmen was still safe.
Speaker 1: This optimistic outlook raised the hopes of the possemen that
Speaker 1: the missing girl could be found alive, but these fond
Speaker 1: hopes were to be dashed to pieces. An autopsy was
Speaker 1: performed on Sweet's body, and the DA was informed that
Speaker 1: he had been shot to death, the bullets from the
Speaker 1: gun striking him in either side and the back. The
Speaker 1: mysterious killer or killers had taken the life of their
Speaker 1: first victim. Kenneth Walford learned of the discovery of Sweet's
Speaker 1: body with mingled feelings of fear and impotent anger. Because
Speaker 1: of his helplessness in trying to find Carmen Wagner, he
Speaker 1: spurned the offer of giving his aid to the posse
Speaker 1: determined to search alone, feeling that he could cover more
Speaker 1: territory faster than if he searched the direction of an officer.
Speaker 1: The Tuesday following the discovery of Sweet's body, Walford left
Speaker 1: for Coyote Flat at night. He later would tell the
Speaker 1: DA how he had set out alone to find the
Speaker 1: missing girl. Okay, can I just say that sounds super suspicious?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm I'm just gonna go searching, which means
Speaker 1: wandering because it's night. I'm just gonna go searching at
Speaker 1: night by myself through nearly impassable mountains and forests in
Speaker 1: search of the possibly murdered girl in the pitch black alone. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that sounds either simple or really guilty, because if
Speaker 1: you've got no idea where the girl is, what possible
Speaker 1: hope do you have of finding her alone at night
Speaker 1: by yourself in the dark. On the other hand, if
Speaker 1: you know exactly where the body is, alone by yourself
Speaker 1: under the cover of night, sounds like a pretty logical
Speaker 1: time to go try to dispose of it, doesn't it. Well? Anyway,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't be convicting Walford in a kangaroo court here,
Speaker 1: so instead we'll hear his testimony to the DA at
Speaker 1: the preliminary hearing of one of the suspects in the
Speaker 1: mysterious murder right after the break. Remember, I said when
Speaker 1: we returned, you'd be listening to the preliminary hearing testimony,
Speaker 1: and this is the preliminary hearing for one of the
Speaker 1: suspects in the mysterious murder. We don't know who that
Speaker 1: is yet, but we are going to jump to the
Speaker 1: testimony of Kenneth Walford, he who left in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night to go search the woods by himself
Speaker 1: in the dark. Not for nefarious reasons, sure, but it's
Speaker 1: not for us to judge yet. Here is Kenneth Walford.
Speaker 1: He says, I left Eureka at seven forty five PM,
Speaker 1: and I arrived at the old Wagner Place near Showers
Speaker 1: Rock sometime between twelve o'clock and two o'clock in the morning. Wow,
Speaker 1: so we're talking a five to six hour drive combination
Speaker 1: hike here. On my way there, says Walford, I met
Speaker 1: two officers, Deputy Sheriff Reid and Captain Randall, who were
Speaker 1: going in the opposite direction. I continued to the place
Speaker 1: where I wanted to search, traveling in all about four miles.
Speaker 1: No one was near the Wagner Place. It was deserted
Speaker 1: and ghostly in the dark. I built a fire near
Speaker 1: the old house to get warm. Then I became thirsty
Speaker 1: and I decided to go up to the spring in
Speaker 1: front of the house to get a drink of water.
Speaker 1: I had a flashlight and I used the light to
Speaker 1: find the spring, and just as I was leaving the spring,
Speaker 1: I made a discovery that took my breath away. I
Speaker 1: saw dog tracks and the footprints of Carmen Wagner. I
Speaker 1: knew at once that the missing girl had been at
Speaker 1: the spring because I recognized the footprints as belonging to
Speaker 1: the girl, and the dog tracks were made by her
Speaker 1: Collie dog Pronto. The prints were made by a lady's shoe,
Speaker 1: and I was pretty certain that they were made by Carmen.
Speaker 1: I followed the tracks in the direction they were going.
Speaker 1: They looked fresh because they were in the mud around
Speaker 1: the spring, and it looked like they were just a
Speaker 1: few hours old. I followed the tracks up the north
Speaker 1: side of the house for about one hundred yards, and
Speaker 1: then they vanished, finding Carmen's tracks, the boy was frantic
Speaker 1: and don found the young man trying desperately to trace
Speaker 1: her footprints from the spot where they suddenly disappeared. The
Speaker 1: youth had believed that the footprints would lead him directly
Speaker 1: to the missing girl and enable him to render her
Speaker 1: his aid if she should be in danger. Walford was
Speaker 1: unable to repress his intense excitement when he could not
Speaker 1: discover where the girl's footprints led to, so he hastily
Speaker 1: joined the Posse and breathlessly explained what he had found.
Speaker 1: The discovery sent new thrills of hope into the tired possemen,
Speaker 1: who felt like there was still a slim chance of
Speaker 1: finding the missing girl alive. Walford again turned to his
Speaker 1: lone search, being greatly perplexed at the mystery of the
Speaker 1: girls vanishing footprints. Then he encountered Jack Ryan near Coyote Flat.
Speaker 1: While he was resting by a gate near a cabin,
Speaker 1: Walford noticed a man coming up the hill toward him.
Speaker 1: Walford had tied his horse to a tree and then
Speaker 1: sat down to await the man coming up the trail.
Speaker 1: The man was Jack Ryan. Walford did not know Ryan,
Speaker 1: whom he supposed to be a member of the Posse,
Speaker 1: although he had never heard of him. In telling the
Speaker 1: DA of the incident, Walford said that he observed that
Speaker 1: Ryan stopped for five minutes to fix something on his
Speaker 1: horse's saddle. This action completed, Ryan also tied up his
Speaker 1: animal and came and sat down on the rock beside Walford.
Speaker 1: The two men introduced themselves and then smoked together while
Speaker 1: they recounted the latest developments in the hunt. Ryan explained
Speaker 1: to Walford that he too was aiding in the search,
Speaker 1: although none of the officers had asked him, but that nevertheless,
Speaker 1: he was giving a few hours of his time to
Speaker 1: help locate the girl with whom he had attended school
Speaker 1: when they were both youngsters. Walford brought up the question
Speaker 1: as to whether the nearby Baker Canyon region had been
Speaker 1: searched thoroughly. I pointed out across the canyon, beyond the
Speaker 1: old orchard, and I asked Ryan if there are any
Speaker 1: shacks or cabins in that canyon. Walford told the DA.
Speaker 1: One of the fearful theories, it will be remembered, that
Speaker 1: was almost immediately advanced by the head of the traffic patrol,
Speaker 1: was that Carmen Wagner was held in the cabin of
Speaker 1: an insane mountaineer. No, there are no cabins in that canyon,
Speaker 1: Ryan replied to Walford's question, Well, yes, actually, Ryan hesitated yeh, yes,
Speaker 1: I guess there is an old shack in there, but
Speaker 1: that country's been all searched out. The canyon was known
Speaker 1: as Baker Creek Canyon, and a sinister discovery later was
Speaker 1: to be made in that region. When I asked Ryan
Speaker 1: which way he was going, continued Walford. Ryan replied that
Speaker 1: he was going to the Sibley place, and I said, well,
Speaker 1: we might as all ride along together because I was
Speaker 1: going in the same direction. And then I asked Ryan
Speaker 1: if he knew Carmen Waggon. Several moments of silence followed
Speaker 1: before Ryan spoke, Oh, yes, he said, in a sad voice.
Speaker 1: I knew her very well because we used to be
Speaker 1: in school together when we were kids. Then Ryan began
Speaker 1: to ask the questions as he and Walford rode together
Speaker 1: on the narrow trail. Are you going to search in
Speaker 1: this same country tomorrow? Ryan asked, with a queer gleam
Speaker 1: in his dark eyes. No, I don't hardly think so,
Speaker 1: said Walford, because I don't see anything around here that
Speaker 1: looks as if it amounts to anything, and I don't
Speaker 1: believe that the girl will be found around this place
Speaker 1: at all. Do you think that Carmen is still in
Speaker 1: this part of the country, was Ryan's next question. He
Speaker 1: appeared extremely anxious to hear any opinions as to the
Speaker 1: whereabouts of the missing girl. I have my doubts that
Speaker 1: Carmen is still here, said Walford. I'm not certain that
Speaker 1: she's not somewhere around here, but I am going to
Speaker 1: stay until I find out. The two men then rode
Speaker 1: in silence, keeping their thoughts to themselves, for about a
Speaker 1: half a mile along the narrow trail. Ryan then began
Speaker 1: to write a little distance ahead of me, said Walford.
Speaker 1: He began to write at an angle to the right
Speaker 1: of me, about a distance of six feet ahead. Ryan
Speaker 1: was riding with his right hand in an odd place
Speaker 1: position in his pants or white chaps, which were worn
Speaker 1: by cowboys. Boy, if this wasn't a grim murder story,
Speaker 1: and somebody told me that a man was riding with
Speaker 1: his right hand in an odd position in his pants
Speaker 1: or his white chaps, I would think this was an
Speaker 1: entirely different kind of story altogether. But anyway, back to Wolford,
Speaker 1: I was watching him pretty closely because he was a
Speaker 1: stranger to me, and some of the things that he'd
Speaker 1: said had made me suspicious when he said that the
Speaker 1: country around there, including the cannon, had been searched thoroughly.
Speaker 1: I could not believe him, because I personally did not
Speaker 1: think the searchers had covered that territory at all. Ryan
Speaker 1: put his right hand from his belt down to his
Speaker 1: chaps at about the knee. I had been told before
Speaker 1: that besides a Luger revolver, the man also was in
Speaker 1: the habit of carrying a small twenty five caliber automatic,
Speaker 1: but he did not show any signs of reaching for
Speaker 1: a gun. Then Ryan rolled a cigarette. As we continued
Speaker 1: to ride along toward the Old Wagner place. I showed
Speaker 1: him my own revolver, and he examined it critically, and
Speaker 1: then returned the weapon to me. Finally we came to
Speaker 1: the Old Wagner ranch, and, not having seen any traces
Speaker 1: of the missing girl, we parted company. A week passed,
Speaker 1: and one day several possemen were making a search near
Speaker 1: the Frank Bryan homestead. A road ran past the place.
Speaker 1: Eight feet from the road was a picket fence, which
Speaker 1: at one point had been nailed to an oak tree.
Speaker 1: The tree was about eighty five yards from the house.
Speaker 1: Gilbert Sutherland, a posseman turned his head toward the tree.
Speaker 1: His glance traveled down the trunk. Between the trunk and
Speaker 1: the picket fence, he saw an object. Hastily, he stepped
Speaker 1: to the tree and ran his hand between the tree
Speaker 1: and the fence and picked up his discovery. It was
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner's hunting rifle. Discovery of the weapon was significant
Speaker 1: because it meant that the missing girl was without protection.
Speaker 1: Without the weapon, she was helpless if she'd been kidnapped.
Speaker 1: Who had hidden the girl's weapon and why had the
Speaker 1: gun been concealed so hastily behind the oak tree. Apparently
Speaker 1: the murderer or murderers of Henry Sweet had passed along
Speaker 1: the very road beside which the girl's rifle had been found.
Speaker 1: Had the killers dragged the captive girl along this very
Speaker 1: road and had they discarded her weapon? When some possemen
Speaker 1: were sighted, the gun muzzle was pointed up and the
Speaker 1: side of the weapon away from the tree was covered
Speaker 1: with rust, leading to the belief that it had been
Speaker 1: hidden a day or two as it was wet from
Speaker 1: recent rains. There was no rust the muzzle of the
Speaker 1: weapon had someone fired it recently. Sutherland looked along the
Speaker 1: picket fence. There he found a bullet hole through a picket.
Speaker 1: Had the murderers crouched behind the fence and fired its
Speaker 1: sweet after he'd been murdered. Had the fiendish killers kidnapped Carmen?
Speaker 1: Had they harmed her? Or was she held captive in
Speaker 1: a lonesome shack in the mountains. These baffling questions were
Speaker 1: foremost in the minds of the possemen when they resumed
Speaker 1: their frantic search for the missing girl. Her weapon was
Speaker 1: turned over to the DA as evidence should the posse
Speaker 1: capture its elusive querry. Deputy Sheriff Reid, knowing that Carmen
Speaker 1: was helpless if she was lost in the mountains and
Speaker 1: without her weapon as a means of defending herself, spurred
Speaker 1: the searchers onto their greatest efforts. The possemen eagerly climbed
Speaker 1: the hills and trails until darkness forced them to their
Speaker 1: campfires in the mountains. Among the tireless searchers were Kenneth Buck,
Speaker 1: a youth who did chores and odd jobs near Eureka,
Speaker 1: and Sidney S. Pixton, a truckman who had volunteered their
Speaker 1: time in the desperate hunt which had led to the
Speaker 1: discovery of Sweet's murdered body, but so far had failed
Speaker 1: to uncover any trace of his young and beautiful girl
Speaker 1: companion Carmen Wagner. Two weeks had passed since the beautifl
Speaker 1: young girl had dropped from sights, so mysteriously Buck and
Speaker 1: Pixton joined the posse on October twenty first. Both had
Speaker 1: known the missing girl, Buck having attended the Eureka Business
Speaker 1: College with Carmen Wagner. Buck and Pixton were instructed to
Speaker 1: search in the vicinity of Coyote Flat. The two men
Speaker 1: crossed Baker Creek while they kept their eyes peeled for
Speaker 1: any sight of the girl. The creek bed was dotted
Speaker 1: with huge boulders or rocks, around which the men had
Speaker 1: to walk in their search. The banks of the creek
Speaker 1: and the ground were covered with leaves and moss, and
Speaker 1: a few scattered small trees. Other large rocks nested on
Speaker 1: the banks of the small stream. The plateau known as
Speaker 1: Coyote Flat was beside the creek, and one of the
Speaker 1: large rocks stood beside a slope or a decline, which
Speaker 1: led to the bed of the stream. On the morning
Speaker 1: of Friday, October twenty third, just sixteen days after Carmen's disappearance,
Speaker 1: Buck and Pixton, together with the other searchers, ate an
Speaker 1: early breakfast prepared over their campfires, and started out to
Speaker 1: search Baker Creek. The two men kept close together, occasionally
Speaker 1: calling out to each other a passing comment on the
Speaker 1: uncanny absence of the young red haired girl who was
Speaker 1: so well known and her big Collie dog. Then, almost
Speaker 1: simultaneously they made a startling discovery. They had almost stumbled
Speaker 1: over the body of the faithful dog Pronto had been
Speaker 1: shot to death. Oh jeez, that sucks. Frozen on the spot,
Speaker 1: Buck and Pixton were so horror stricken that for several
Speaker 1: moments neither could speak. Slowly, their startled eyes swept over
Speaker 1: the ground near the body of the dog. Near the
Speaker 1: dog's body were footprints. Three marks were distinct and appeared
Speaker 1: to Pixton to have been made by a man's shoe.
Speaker 1: The princes were about fifteen feet away from the dog's body.
Speaker 1: The dog lay on its side in a clearing on
Speaker 1: a gradual slope up from the creek. To pix it
Speaker 1: in Bucket appeared as though the animal had been shot
Speaker 1: to death. Then its carcass carried to Baker Creek and
Speaker 1: hurled down beside the large boulder. It was now ten
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. Marking the dog's body as the
Speaker 1: center of a circle, Buck and Pixton gradually moved from
Speaker 1: the animal to search every foot of the surrounding land.
Speaker 1: They picked up a leather belt which had belonged to
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner. It was a black leather belt and apparently
Speaker 1: the buckle had been broken from it. Had the two
Speaker 1: searchers discovered the spot where Carbon had put up a
Speaker 1: fight for her life against the person or persons who
Speaker 1: had kidnapped her after slaying Sweet by shooting him in
Speaker 1: the back. That was the question that interested them. The
Speaker 1: searchers noticed a faint and very unpleasant odour in the vicinity,
Speaker 1: but before they could account for it, they suddenly spied
Speaker 1: the girl's hat half hidden in the sand. White fur
Speaker 1: trimming was on the red colored hat, which attracted the
Speaker 1: glances of Buck and Pixton. An effort apparently had been
Speaker 1: made to cover the hat with sand as it was
Speaker 1: half concealed. Another frightening discovery was made in the next
Speaker 1: few minutes when the searchers saw a large pool of blood.
Speaker 1: The blood was some distance from where the body of
Speaker 1: the dog had been found. Obtaining a stick, Buck scratched
Speaker 1: the blood and found that it was still fresh beneath
Speaker 1: the sand into which it had soaked. The two men
Speaker 1: searched for some distance up and down the creek bed,
Speaker 1: a terrible premonition making itself felt in their minds. Suddenly
Speaker 1: they observed a narrow passage only four feet wide, beside
Speaker 1: the huge rock and the spot where the body of
Speaker 1: the dog lay. The searchers had passed this path numerous times,
Speaker 1: but they now observed three footprints leading behind the rock. Cautiously,
Speaker 1: and with increasing dread, they started to walk along the
Speaker 1: narrow path. They took several steps, covering about fifteen feet,
Speaker 1: when they saw something which almost made them flee from
Speaker 1: the spot in terror. They had found the decomposed body
Speaker 1: of Carmen Wagner. The corpse was concealed, and unless a
Speaker 1: searcher walked directly toward it behind the rock, it would
Speaker 1: have remained hidden. By the merest chance. Buck and Pixton
Speaker 1: had made the gruesome discovery. The body had been buried
Speaker 1: in a shallow grave and was almost completely concealed by
Speaker 1: a covering of earth. Leaves, sticks, and rocks. Fearfully, Buck
Speaker 1: removed some leaves and gazed into the blackened face of
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner. Pixton drew his revolver and fired three shots
Speaker 1: into the air, the signal, which had been agreed upon
Speaker 1: between the posse men to let the other searchers know
Speaker 1: that an important discovery had been made. Other searchers, the
Speaker 1: nearest being a half a mile away, heard the signal
Speaker 1: and started to the scene over the rough trails. The
Speaker 1: district Attorney learned of this terrible discovery via Kenny Kilburn's radio.
Speaker 1: He began to look into the recent activities of any
Speaker 1: person or persons who might be suspected in the two
Speaker 1: brutal and cold blooded murders. The finger of fishing at
Speaker 1: this time seemed to point to two men, both residents
Speaker 1: of the immediate neighborhood. Meanwhile, Buck and Pixton did not
Speaker 1: touch the girl's body. This was partly because of horror
Speaker 1: the sight of the corpse, which had apparently been exposed
Speaker 1: to the elements for several days, and partly because they
Speaker 1: realized that to disturb the body might destroy some clue
Speaker 1: which the coroner of the Sheriff's office might find. Buck
Speaker 1: and Pixton did observe, however, that the girl's wristwatch was missing.
Speaker 1: Ernest Bull, another searcher, soon joined Buck and Pixton at
Speaker 1: the grave of the young girl, while other members of
Speaker 1: the posse slowly made their way in that direction. The
Speaker 1: day dragged passed until the three men searched the vicinity
Speaker 1: for other clues. Nightfall came and they lighted a campfire
Speaker 1: some distance from the corpse and prepared to spend the
Speaker 1: dismal night in close proximity to the grave. Coroner Swanson
Speaker 1: was notified that Carmen Wagner's body had been discovered on
Speaker 1: Coyote Flat, and he set out to bring back the corpse.
Speaker 1: He was forced to camp at night about four miles
Speaker 1: from the plateau, resuming his tedious journey the next day
Speaker 1: and reaching the grave at nine o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: One glance showed Coroner Swanson that the corpse was in
Speaker 1: a very advanced decomposition and should be taken to a
Speaker 1: more without waste of time, with the help of the possemen,
Speaker 1: who were by this time in a revengeful state of
Speaker 1: mind against the slayer or slayers. Coroner Swanson carefully removed
Speaker 1: the girl's body and placed it on a stretcher. It
Speaker 1: was covered with canvas, and the possemen, who had been
Speaker 1: friends of the slaying girl, tenderly brought her body back
Speaker 1: down the trail to Eureka. Man, this is sad. I
Speaker 1: can really picture it in my head, having grown up
Speaker 1: near Eureka too. Even though I grew up there sixty
Speaker 1: years later. I bet it hadn't changed all that much.
Speaker 1: It hasn't changed all that much since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: While Carmen's body was being removed, threats of lynching rumbled forth,
Speaker 1: and Sheriff Ross of humbold County made quick plans to
Speaker 1: take two suspects into custody to prevent their being strung
Speaker 1: up on the trees by an infuriated mob. He wanted
Speaker 1: to prevent any violence to the two suspects and let
Speaker 1: the law and justice provide punishment. Sheriff Ross believed that
Speaker 1: he knew the guilty person or persons, and hoped that
Speaker 1: if they were taken into custody immediately, he could obtain
Speaker 1: their confessions for the double murder. While the feverish search
Speaker 1: continent waited for the suspects, doctor J and Chain performed
Speaker 1: the autopsy upon the body of Carmen. He quickly determined
Speaker 1: by medical examination how the murderer or killers had taken
Speaker 1: the life of the girl. The death of Carmen Wagner
Speaker 1: was caused by two pistol bullets, said doctor Chain. One
Speaker 1: bullet struck the girl near her left ear and emerged
Speaker 1: from in front of the right ear. The second bullet
Speaker 1: struck her on the left side of the neck, just
Speaker 1: below the angle of the jaw, and its exit was
Speaker 1: in front of the temple by the right ear. The
Speaker 1: second bullet completely went through the girl's neck and partway
Speaker 1: through her head and was lodged under the skin. The
Speaker 1: bullet which had passed through her head was lost, but
Speaker 1: I removed the second bullet from beneath the skin. The
Speaker 1: second bullet, with its strange and individual markings, was to
Speaker 1: prove another vital link in the chain of circumstantial evidence
Speaker 1: that would be woven against the suspects for whom Sheriff
Speaker 1: Ross was now searching. In my opinion, said doctor Chain,
Speaker 1: either shot would have caused death, which would have occurred
Speaker 1: almost instantly, and would have resulted in a heavy hemorrhage,
Speaker 1: which probably would account for the large amount of blood
Speaker 1: which was found a short distance from the girl's body.
Speaker 1: Doctor Chaine also concluded that miss Wagner had been dead
Speaker 1: for several days before he performed the autopsy on her corpse.
Speaker 1: This belief led me to the conclusion that the girl
Speaker 1: had been slain a few days after she'd been abducted
Speaker 1: following the shooting death of her companion Henry Sweet. What
Speaker 1: occurred during the terrible period in which she had been
Speaker 1: held captive we'll find out more after the break. So
Speaker 1: what had happened during that awful time after the murder
Speaker 1: of Henry Sweet and before the murder of Carmon Wagner.
Speaker 1: One of the beliefs expressed by the officers who visited
Speaker 1: Coyote Flat where her body had been found, was that
Speaker 1: it had been attacked. The corpse was so badly decayed, however,
Speaker 1: that at this point it could not be determined with
Speaker 1: a positive degree of accuracy. Another startling and terrifying theory
Speaker 1: was the Carmen had been offered as a blood sacrifice
Speaker 1: on the mystic shrine, which some observers seemed to see
Speaker 1: in the arrangement of tree trunks embarked near her grave.
Speaker 1: All Right, that sounds kuckoo bananas, But I guess it's
Speaker 1: always great to blame the devil where you can. Usually
Speaker 1: the devil is inside of us. Returning to more practical beliefs,
Speaker 1: Coroner Swanson had a good hunch as the autopsy was
Speaker 1: being performed. He reasoned that a young girl facing an
Speaker 1: attacker would attempt to scratch the man's face, and that
Speaker 1: beneath her fingernails, perhaps there would be found skin and
Speaker 1: flesh particles which might enable a criminologist to learn the
Speaker 1: identity of her attacker or attackers, provided we succeeded in
Speaker 1: arresting them. Coroner Swanson therefore caused each fingernail of the
Speaker 1: corpse to be scraped and the substance from each placed
Speaker 1: in ten separate envelopes. Faced with the tremendous problem of
Speaker 1: bringing the slayers of both the young man and Carmen
Speaker 1: to justice, the DA sought the best criminology assistance that
Speaker 1: could be obtained. Word was sent to doctor EO. Heinrich
Speaker 1: of Berkeley, California, that he was wanted to help solve
Speaker 1: the mysterious murders of Coyote Flat. Doctor Heinrich devoted his
Speaker 1: life to the study of criminology. Many of his celebrated
Speaker 1: solutions of baffling crimes reposed in the records of brilliant
Speaker 1: detective work. One of doctor Heinrich's clever pieces of sleuthing
Speaker 1: was in the solution of the and I'm going to
Speaker 1: mispronounce this doctor Mond case, which occurred in Oregon several
Speaker 1: years earlier. A training was held up and three robbers
Speaker 1: killed several of the crew in their desperate attempt to
Speaker 1: get at the money and valuables in the mail car.
Speaker 1: The robbers were driven off, but not before they'd ruthlessly
Speaker 1: killed the trainmen. Doctor Heinrich was called on the case.
Speaker 1: He didn't have much to work on, but he took
Speaker 1: the robbers discarded overalls, and by a clever solution, was
Speaker 1: able to describe the train bandits, even going so far
Speaker 1: as to point out that one of them was left handed.
Speaker 1: With this information, the three doctor Mont brothers finally were captured,
Speaker 1: confessed that they were the robbers, and each was given
Speaker 1: a life sentence in the penitentiary. There are several other
Speaker 1: examples of doctor Heinrich's holmesy and genius, but I'd rather
Speaker 1: stick to our story as it happened. Doctor Heinrich was
Speaker 1: near Eureka investigating a comparatively minor case when his services
Speaker 1: were sought to help solve the mysterious murders of Coyote Flat.
Speaker 1: He came at once to Eureka to seek evidence in
Speaker 1: the murders. All available evidence was immediately turned over to
Speaker 1: doctor Heinrich. This included the ten envelopes containing the substance
Speaker 1: taken from beneath Carmen Wagner's fingernails, together with her clothing,
Speaker 1: hat and belt, and other articles. Placing the articles of
Speaker 1: evidence in suitcases. Doctor Heinrich returned to his laboratory in
Speaker 1: San Francisco to inspect the physical aspects of the case
Speaker 1: and arrive at a conclusion as to the possible identity
Speaker 1: of the murderer or murderers. In the meantime, Sheriff Ross
Speaker 1: had been busy arresting two subjects in connection with the slaying.
Speaker 1: The two subjects lodged in the jail at Eureka were
Speaker 1: Walter David and Jack Ryan, the half Native American brothers.
Speaker 1: Let's hope they weren't only suspected because they were Native American.
Speaker 1: Fingers crossed that some real evidence is coming. Their arrests
Speaker 1: were dramatic and had followed quickly. After the discovery of
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner's body, Deputy Sheriff Reid placed Jack Ryan under
Speaker 1: arrest at the Deer Creek Ranch, which was located about
Speaker 1: six miles east of Coyote Flat, where the bodies of
Speaker 1: Sweet and Miss Wagner had been founded. Members of the
Speaker 1: posse broke into Ryan's cabin and found him in bed.
Speaker 1: It was ten thirty at night, about twelve hours after
Speaker 1: Carmen's body had been discovered in the shallow grave. Ryan
Speaker 1: was told to dress quickly, which he did, but he
Speaker 1: did not put on the white chaps which he had
Speaker 1: worn the day he met Kenneth Walford on the trail
Speaker 1: by the old Wagner place. He tossed the chaps carelessly
Speaker 1: in the yard of the ranch. Have you got a gun,
Speaker 1: Deputy Reid asked Ryan, who stood trembling and ready to
Speaker 1: be taken to jail at Eureka. Yes, Ryan answered, you'll
Speaker 1: find it in the barn with my saddle. George Wilder,
Speaker 1: a member of the posse, hurried to the barn and
Speaker 1: found the gun a German luger. Wilder handed the gun
Speaker 1: to Reed and the officer and his prisoner began the
Speaker 1: horseback ride to Eureka. Handcuffs were slipped around the wrist
Speaker 1: of the suspect, as the deputy sheriff and the possemen
Speaker 1: did not want to give their prisoner an opportunity to
Speaker 1: escape into the darkness. As they followed the narrow trail
Speaker 1: through the mountains, the da met reading his prisoner upon
Speaker 1: their arrival at the jail, where Ryan was hustled at
Speaker 1: once into the private office of Sheriff Frost for questioning,
Speaker 1: and plenty of questions were hurled at the man. There
Speaker 1: was reason to believe he was involved in the double murders.
Speaker 1: Before he could think of an answer to one question,
Speaker 1: someone would hurl another question at him in an attempt
Speaker 1: to confuse him and make him tell all he knew
Speaker 1: about the mystery. In an effort to frighten the suspect,
Speaker 1: someone told him that the human eye retained the image
Speaker 1: of the last thing that had seen before death. An
Speaker 1: attempt was made to make Ryan believe that Carmen's eyes
Speaker 1: would hold his image. Ryan only shrugged. Ryan readily admitted
Speaker 1: that the pistol found in the barn belonged to him,
Speaker 1: and added that he owned several weapons. He explained this
Speaker 1: by saying he often supplied hunting parties with pistols and
Speaker 1: rifles when he acted as a guide. Added way to
Speaker 1: the suspicion against Ryan followed the announcement by Deputy Sheriff
Speaker 1: Reid that he'd found two pistol shells at Coyote Flat,
Speaker 1: about ten or eleven feet from where the girl's body
Speaker 1: was discovered, and the shells exactly fitted the Lugar pistol
Speaker 1: which Ryan admitted owning. Several similar shells were also found
Speaker 1: in Ryan's cabin at the time of his arrest. Well,
Speaker 1: that seems awfully conclusive, but maybe somebody else has a luger.
Speaker 1: Working swiftly to prevent flight from the country, Reid also
Speaker 1: arrested Ryan's half brother, Walter David. David's cabin, where Ryan
Speaker 1: often spent his leisure time, was located only three miles
Speaker 1: south of Coyote Flat. The posemen, led by reidquickly surrounded
Speaker 1: David's cabin and called to him to come out and surrender.
Speaker 1: He responded without resistance and was placed under arrest. The
Speaker 1: demeanor of the two half brothers as they were placed
Speaker 1: under arrest for the two hideous crimes was noted, particularly
Speaker 1: by Deputy Sheriff Reid. Ryan was very nervous and seemed
Speaker 1: greatly excited, Reid said, But David did not appear very
Speaker 1: much excited or nervous either for that matter. In fact,
Speaker 1: Reid said, David was rather genial about his arrest, even
Speaker 1: inviting the posseman to have coffee with him because he
Speaker 1: was at breakfast when the officers arrived. Suddenly, however, Reed
Speaker 1: and his deputies became aware of something peculiar and sinister
Speaker 1: about David's face. It had been scratched and clawed, as
Speaker 1: though by the fingers of a girl fighting desperately for
Speaker 1: her honor and her life. Another peculiar incident was the
Speaker 1: fact that neither suspect asked the reason for his arrest.
Speaker 1: No protest was made, according to the officers, and each
Speaker 1: man went meekly to the jail. Other evidence gathered included
Speaker 1: the white chaps which belonged to Ryan, and most sinister
Speaker 1: of all, a coat owned by Ryan. The coat bore
Speaker 1: many deep blood stains on the sleeves, shoulder lapels, and
Speaker 1: even on the back, and the keen eyes of doctor
Speaker 1: Heinrich discovered a broken needle in the right lapel of
Speaker 1: the coat. This needle had been broken, Doctor Heinrich believed
Speaker 1: by pressure when its wearer lifted a heavy burden in
Speaker 1: his arms, such as the weight of the corpse. It
Speaker 1: was learned that the two half brothers had ridden many
Speaker 1: times on horseback through the Coyote Flat region while the
Speaker 1: search for Sweet and miss Wagner was in progress. They
Speaker 1: admitted having crossed Coyote Flat where the girl's body was discovered.
Speaker 1: And Ryan said that he'd helped the posse search for
Speaker 1: a short time, but was not asked by the officers
Speaker 1: to give all his time to the hunt. The sinister,
Speaker 1: deep scratches like gouges made by fingernails on David's face
Speaker 1: had been noticed by several persons. I saw the big
Speaker 1: braw furrows on David's face, said W. H. Wonderley, a
Speaker 1: carpenter of Eureka who had been a member of the posse.
Speaker 1: David's face was scratched badly, apparently with something which had
Speaker 1: drawn down toward his chin, and there was one deep
Speaker 1: mark near his nose. I noticed the scratches on October
Speaker 1: twenty third, the same day the body of Carmen, who
Speaker 1: used to live a block from my home was found.
Speaker 1: Wonderley said that the scratch appeared old and there was
Speaker 1: no blood on David's face. Missus Mildred McGown of San
Speaker 1: Francisco also had noticed the scratches on the man's face.
Speaker 1: Missus McGown each summer resides in Humble County, and she
Speaker 1: knew David, who had broken wild colts for a time
Speaker 1: on her husband's ranch. Walter McGown, a San Francisco attorney,
Speaker 1: had taken up the defense of David, whom he believed
Speaker 1: to be innocent of the Fiendish slayings. I first saw
Speaker 1: the scars on David's face sometime between the middle of
Speaker 1: August and the time of the Fortuna rodeo held about
Speaker 1: August twenty first, said Missus McGown. At that time, David
Speaker 1: came to our summer residence at Forest Lake with his
Speaker 1: face scratched and bleeding. I watched his face with Witch
Speaker 1: Hazel during the time he was there in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: The scars are quite deep, one rock cut running down
Speaker 1: under his left eye. David said he was anxious to
Speaker 1: have the scars treated so they would heal and permit
Speaker 1: him to ride his horse in the rodeo or the
Speaker 1: scars which Miss McGown observed on David's face before the
Speaker 1: murders of Swede and Miss Wagner the same marks found
Speaker 1: on David's face after the girl had been slain. David
Speaker 1: contended that the marks were the same and he denied
Speaker 1: any knowledge of the murders, and he also emphasized that
Speaker 1: he was at the McGown place at the approximate time
Speaker 1: Carmen was believed to have been slain. The DA believed, however,
Speaker 1: that the mass of circumstantial evidence against the two suspects
Speaker 1: was overwhelming, and he made preparations for presentation of the
Speaker 1: facts to the court. The half brothers were arraigned for
Speaker 1: their preliminary hearing before Justice of the Peace J. T. Fraser.
Speaker 1: The evidence was assembled. Many witnesses had observed the deep
Speaker 1: scratches on David's face and were ready to testify others
Speaker 1: who had seen the two suspects in the vicinity of
Speaker 1: Coyote Flat, the luger shells found at the scene of
Speaker 1: the crime, which fitted Ryan's revolver, Ryan's blood stained coat
Speaker 1: with the broken needle in the right lapel, and finally
Speaker 1: Carmen's tiny wristwatch had been found concealed in the right
Speaker 1: knee of the white chaps which Ryan had worn. Oh
Speaker 1: that is damning. Overwhelming evidence appeared to point conclusively to
Speaker 1: the guilt of the two brothers. The evidence, of course,
Speaker 1: was circumstantial. No one, as far as we knew, had
Speaker 1: seen Sweet murdered, nor had there been any witness to
Speaker 1: the cruel death of Carmen Wagner. The suspects regarded against
Speaker 1: any possible violence from the many friends who had known
Speaker 1: and respected Sweet and miss Wagner in their lifetimes. Their
Speaker 1: preliminary hearing began before Justice of the Piece J. T. Fraser,
Speaker 1: at Eureka on November twenty fifth, nineteen twenty five, about
Speaker 1: one month after the bodies had been found. Among the
Speaker 1: experts summoned by the prosecution was the previously mentioned criminologist,
Speaker 1: doctor EO. Heinrich. Upon his arrival in Eureka, Doctor Heinrich,
Speaker 1: accompanied by Sheriff A. A. Ross of Humble County, at
Speaker 1: once made his way over the narrow trails and rough
Speaker 1: territory to the spot where Carmen's body had been found
Speaker 1: on Coyote Flat. The criminologist stood in deep thought at
Speaker 1: the scene of the terrible crime Endeavoring to visualize the
Speaker 1: actions of the slayer or slayers who had killed Carmen.
Speaker 1: Near the shallow hole from which the girl's boody corpse
Speaker 1: had been removed, Doctor Heinrich's keen eyes suddenly discovered a
Speaker 1: tree trunk which apparently had been cut and fashioned by someone.
Speaker 1: The tree appeared to be a shrine. Wait, it really
Speaker 1: is the devil's fault. Had a religious fanatic or possibly
Speaker 1: a pair of demented men, made a sacrificial offering of
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner before she was slain. This terrible theory was
Speaker 1: pondered by doctor Heinrich. The tree and the arrangement of
Speaker 1: the slabs of thick bark had every appearance it was
Speaker 1: thought of having been made as a crude shrine for
Speaker 1: the blood offering of its beautiful victim. Jeez, Louise, isn't
Speaker 1: this story bad enough? Perhaps the girl had been offered
Speaker 1: to some dark god or to Satan as a sacrificial
Speaker 1: offering like a goat or a sheep. Possibly she had
Speaker 1: escaped a more horrible ritualistic death when her desperate resistance
Speaker 1: caused her to be shot down with the lugar pistol,
Speaker 1: the two bullets piercing her head and causing almost instantaneous death.
Speaker 1: Perhaps some fiend who lived somewhere in the inaccessible mountains
Speaker 1: had taken the girl prisoner after slaying Henry Sweet, and
Speaker 1: had dragged Carmen for five miles along the bed of
Speaker 1: the stream so that her footprints could not be followed.
Speaker 1: This theory was partly verified when the autopsy over the
Speaker 1: girl's body disclosed a rope burn. The burn seemed to
Speaker 1: point to the fact that a horseman had dragged the
Speaker 1: girl along behind his animal to the mysterious shrine fashioned
Speaker 1: from the tree. Oh my God. All the evidence gathered
Speaker 1: by Sheriff Ross and his deputies was turned over to
Speaker 1: doctor Heinrich. The criminologists devoted considerable time to the study
Speaker 1: of the evidence, including the lugar, pistol and the shells
Speaker 1: found at the scene of the murders, the bullet taken
Speaker 1: from the girl's head, and the bloodstained coat belonging to
Speaker 1: Jack Ryan. Then came the preliminary hearing of the two
Speaker 1: suspects before Justice of the Peace Fraser, to see whether
Speaker 1: the circumstantial evidence was strong enough to justify both men
Speaker 1: being held for trial in Superior Court on charges of murder.
Speaker 1: Sheriff Ross hustled David and Ryan from the jail to
Speaker 1: an outer room just beside Judd Fraser's court room. By stipulation,
Speaker 1: both of the accused men were placed under guard in
Speaker 1: the outer room and the DA prepared to show enough
Speaker 1: of the evidence against them to cause them to be
Speaker 1: held for trial on murder charges. One of the most
Speaker 1: important witnesses was doctor Heinrich, and the evidence he had
Speaker 1: gathered was vital to the case. At the preliminary hearing
Speaker 1: of the brothers, the defense attorneys made strenuous efforts to
Speaker 1: block any testimony offered by doctor Heinrich. The qualification of
Speaker 1: doctor Heinrich to testify on the state's behalf was questioned
Speaker 1: by the defense, who contended that only a physician could
Speaker 1: determine the nature of the matter from beneath the victim's nails.
Speaker 1: But doctor Heinrich was easily qualified when the DA asked
Speaker 1: him how many years he had been engaged in criminal research.
Speaker 1: Fifteen years, replied doctor Heinrich, who was then ordered by
Speaker 1: Judge Fraser to tell what he had found. I found
Speaker 1: in the particles from beneath the girl's fingernails after it
Speaker 1: had been dried and separated, grains of earth mixed with
Speaker 1: twelve tiny particles of a substance which I identified as the
Speaker 1: outer skin of a human person, and one large particle
Speaker 1: of flesh without any skin attached, said Doctor Heinrich. I
Speaker 1: also examined the bullet taken from the girl's skull. I
Speaker 1: compared the caliber of the bullet with the caliber of
Speaker 1: the pistol by direct measurement. The pistol in question was
Speaker 1: the weapon which one of the two brothers, Jack Ryan,
Speaker 1: admitted that he had owned. I compared the markings of
Speaker 1: the rifling upon the bullet with the riflings found within
Speaker 1: the barrel of the pistol, and found them to be
Speaker 1: the exact same in number, with and depth, testified Doctor Heinrich.
Speaker 1: Doctor Heinrich had conducted an extensive experiment with the bullets
Speaker 1: in his laboratory. He had arranged a target of paraffin
Speaker 1: nine inches in depth, and into this substance he had
Speaker 1: fired the bullets from Ryan's pistol. Then doctor Heinrich dug
Speaker 1: the bullets from the paraffin and compared them with the
Speaker 1: bullets which had been taken from Carmen's skull. Doctor Heinrich
Speaker 1: then testified, over the heated objections of the defense that,
Speaker 1: in his opinion, the lugar pistol owned by Jack Ryan
Speaker 1: fired the bullet which had caused the death of Carmen Wagner. Next,
Speaker 1: the heavy coat owned by Ryan, a garment made of
Speaker 1: leather and heavy canvas, was introduced as evidence. Doctor Heinrich
Speaker 1: had examined the garment. I found the coat liberally marked
Speaker 1: with blood stains, testified the criminologist. The stains were in
Speaker 1: the front of the coat and particularly on the left sleeve.
Speaker 1: I found a series of more recent stains upon the
Speaker 1: right side of the coat, starting with the collar and
Speaker 1: extending in small spatters all over the area of the
Speaker 1: left front of the coat. In particular, the blood had
Speaker 1: soaked through the outer material and had stained the corner
Speaker 1: of the pocket through a depth of three inches. Then
Speaker 1: doctor Heinrich pointed out the sinister significance of the broken
Speaker 1: needle upon the inside of the coat lapel. I found
Speaker 1: a needle, and it had been there for a long time,
Speaker 1: he said. I examined the needle and found that it
Speaker 1: had been broken in the center very recently. The needle
Speaker 1: was fastened in the coat lapel by old rust. The
Speaker 1: needle had been broken, Doctor Heinrich believed when the wearer
Speaker 1: of the coat had lifted a heavy object in his arms,
Speaker 1: such as Carmen Wagner's corpse. The defense attorneys stubbornly and
Speaker 1: repeatedly attacked the testimony and the qualifications of doctor Heinrich,
Speaker 1: whose testimony was damaging obviously to the two accused men.
Speaker 1: The defense's attempts to impugne doctor Heinrich's expert testimony more
Speaker 1: less than successful. Answering more questions from the DA, doctor
Speaker 1: Heinrich next told of the deep scratches he'd observed in
Speaker 1: the face of Walter David. When the suspect was held
Speaker 1: in jail. A powerful light was shone directly onto David's
Speaker 1: face as he was subjected to countless questions by Sheriff
Speaker 1: Frost and the other officers. I observed deep scratches on
Speaker 1: David's face, extending along the right cheekbone down into his beard,
Speaker 1: said doctor Heinrich. The scratches had been extremely deep and
Speaker 1: had been made through both layers of the skin into
Speaker 1: the raw flesh. The scratches indicated to me that David
Speaker 1: had been clawed at least three times, and from beneath
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner's fingernails, bits of skin and flesh had been scraped.
Speaker 1: Another steel and the chain of circumstantial evidence was added
Speaker 1: with the discovery of miss Wagner's tiny wristwatch hidden in
Speaker 1: the lining of the white chaps, which Ryan had discarded
Speaker 1: so carelessly beside the barn when the posse placed him
Speaker 1: under arrest. The discovery of the watch was made by
Speaker 1: Kenneth Walford, obeying a strange hunch. Walford had walked up
Speaker 1: to where Ryan's chaps had been thrown on the ground
Speaker 1: beside some horse saddles. The posemen looked at the chaps,
Speaker 1: then turned and started to walk away. Guess I'll search
Speaker 1: the chaps, Walford remarked, suddenly picking them up. Other possemen
Speaker 1: looked on while Walford raised the chaps at arm's length.
Speaker 1: I questioned young Walford as to how he had searched
Speaker 1: the chaps. Well, I picked him up, I held him
Speaker 1: out and I looked at him, said Walford. I looked
Speaker 1: down through the lining. Then I held them by the
Speaker 1: belt and felt them all the way down with the
Speaker 1: flat of my hand, but I did not discover anything.
Speaker 1: Then I laid them down and I started to go away.
Speaker 1: A strange thought flashed through my mind. I remembered having
Speaker 1: ridden along the trail with Ryan near the old Wagner place,
Speaker 1: when Ryan had told me that the Baker Canyon had
Speaker 1: already been searched out in the vicinity of where Carmen
Speaker 1: Wagner's body was found. Ryan at that time, Walford recalled him,
Speaker 1: made a mysterious motion towards the knee of his chaps
Speaker 1: as they were riding together along the narrow trail. I
Speaker 1: wasn't satisfied after I laid the chaps down, Walford continued,
Speaker 1: So I again felt through them inside and out, and
Speaker 1: at the bottom seam of the chaps there was an
Speaker 1: object which felt hard. I commenced working it toward the
Speaker 1: top and upper part with my fingers and forced it
Speaker 1: along between the lining and the outer part of the chaps.
Speaker 1: At last I worked it out to a rip in
Speaker 1: the lining, and it was Carmen's watch. Miss Wagner's parents
Speaker 1: and her brother identified the watch as having belonged to
Speaker 1: the girl. That watch was an old fashioned one. Missus
Speaker 1: Wagner said with tears in her eyes when she was
Speaker 1: asked to identify the time piece. It had three scratches
Speaker 1: on the back cover. It had been made into a
Speaker 1: wrist watch with a sort of leather covering, and that
Speaker 1: watch belonged to my daughter. Doctor Heinrich examined the watch,
Speaker 1: which no longer had the leather covering when found in
Speaker 1: Ryan's chaps, and determined that attempts had been made to
Speaker 1: scratch off the markings and initials on the back cover.
Speaker 1: Then the defense sprung a surprise. It showed that a
Speaker 1: bitter hatred was held by Walford against the defendant, Jack Ryan,
Speaker 1: and that Walford at one time had rushed from the
Speaker 1: posse camp with a rifle in his hands and avowed
Speaker 1: his determination to get that Ryan. The circumstances of the
Speaker 1: youth's desire to avenge the murder of Carmen Wagner, whom
Speaker 1: he believed had been slain by Ryan, were dramatic. The
Speaker 1: posse was camped at night around a fire, waiting for
Speaker 1: dawn to resume the search for the girl. Walford was
Speaker 1: restless and anxious to pursue the hunt single handed in
Speaker 1: the darkness and over the twisting trails. He could not
Speaker 1: even wait for daylight to start out by himself, hurriedly
Speaker 1: preparing some sandwiches. Young Walford, who was only a boy
Speaker 1: of twenty years, set out on foot alone. The boy
Speaker 1: was a good shot, as he had hunted many times
Speaker 1: through the region. He grabbed two weapons from the armament
Speaker 1: of the posse, one a hunting rifle, in the other
Speaker 1: a pistol. Walford's anger had increased because he had known
Speaker 1: the Wagner girl for about three years, and he had
Speaker 1: liked her very much in his boyish way. In fact,
Speaker 1: the names and initials of the young couple had been
Speaker 1: carved in trees and on a wooden shack near Coyote Flat.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get that bastard, Jack, Ryan, Walford, cried passionately.
Speaker 1: Several possemen attempted to detain the youth, but he shook
Speaker 1: them off angrily. I intend to get Ryan and find
Speaker 1: out for myself from him if he knows about the
Speaker 1: murder of Sweet and the disappearance of Carmen. Walford told
Speaker 1: the other men, I believe Ryan knows something about the
Speaker 1: murder of Sweet. Walford then broke away and ran toward
Speaker 1: coyote flat. He had been gone for several minutes when
Speaker 1: the possemen, after talking over his impulsive action among themselves,
Speaker 1: decided that they'd better overtake and disarm the boy. They
Speaker 1: set it on horses and soon overtook the youth, who
Speaker 1: was on foot. Riding their horses around him, they forced
Speaker 1: him to stop and grabbed his weapons from his hands.
Speaker 1: Against his vehement protests, Walford was led forcibly back to
Speaker 1: Posse camp. Early the next morning, the boy set out again,
Speaker 1: carrying a pair of field glasses and a hunting rifle.
Speaker 1: Some distance away from the camp, he halted and turned around,
Speaker 1: observing the other posseumen watching his movements. Then Walford focused
Speaker 1: the powerful lens on a hill three miles away across
Speaker 1: a deep valley. A figure suddenly leapt into the youth's vision.
Speaker 1: Walford raised his rifle, although he knew there wasn't the
Speaker 1: barrest chance of hitting the mysterious figure, which crouched on
Speaker 1: the distant hillside, because the rifle bullet would not carry
Speaker 1: that far. The district attorney, wishing to obtain every bit
Speaker 1: of evidence to assist him, asked Walford the reason for
Speaker 1: his angry attitude against Jack Ryan. I saw the tracks
Speaker 1: of Ryan's horse in that neighborhood. The youth said the
Speaker 1: tracks could be seen plainly, although I never saw Ryan,
Speaker 1: who said he was in a different part of the
Speaker 1: country when we were searching. I know the tracks were
Speaker 1: made by his horse because he rode a cult which
Speaker 1: had not been shot, and the right front foot made
Speaker 1: a peculiar large track. These strange tracks had been made
Speaker 1: by the horse going in two directions, and some of
Speaker 1: them led into a box canyon, which Ryan told me
Speaker 1: had been thoroughly searched out. The colt had recently been broken,
Speaker 1: but still maintained many of its wild bucking habits. Remember
Speaker 1: this fact. A great amount of evidence was presented against
Speaker 1: David and Ryan at the preliminary hearing on the murder charges.
Speaker 1: It seemed that the case made by the state was
Speaker 1: sufficiently damning, but of course both accused ben also had
Speaker 1: their opportunity to tell their side of the case through
Speaker 1: their attorneys. But could David give a logical, convincing explanation
Speaker 1: of the terrible claw like scratches on his face, The
Speaker 1: scratches which appeared to have been inflicted by Carmen Wagner
Speaker 1: and her attempt to escapes ape a fate worse than death.
Speaker 1: And could Ryan explain how his coat had been soaked
Speaker 1: by blood which appeared to have every indication of having
Speaker 1: been shed by a human being, And how could he
Speaker 1: explain the girl's watch being in his chaps? The district
Speaker 1: attorney almost felt smug. It seemed as though the conviction
Speaker 1: was in the bag, when suddenly the court hearing took
Speaker 1: a turn as the two half brothers offered their startling alibis.
Speaker 1: David's attorney quickly called Gilbert Sutherland and Charles Grisback as
Speaker 1: the chief witnesses to establish an unshakable alibi. Both witnesses
Speaker 1: declared positively under oath that David had been attacked and
Speaker 1: terribly beaten and scratched on his face during a furious
Speaker 1: fight with Henry Cox. We were on a fishing trip, myself,
Speaker 1: Charlie Grissback and Henry Cox a Bridgeville, said Sutherland, after
Speaker 1: he had been sworn in as a defense witness. It
Speaker 1: was in August and we were camping at a place
Speaker 1: known as Cold Springs. After we'd camped there one day,
Speaker 1: the defendant and Walter David arrived on horseback. David and
Speaker 1: Cox then got in some kind of an argument and
Speaker 1: a fight started. They fought furiously. David's face began to
Speaker 1: bleed and was soon all covered with blood, which was
Speaker 1: running from the deep scratches. The scratches had been made
Speaker 1: all over David's face, on his right cheek, near his nose,
Speaker 1: and beside his left eye. The blood ran all over
Speaker 1: his clothes. After the fight was over, David left our camp,
Speaker 1: but the next day he returned and I noticed that
Speaker 1: the blood had been washed off his face, so we
Speaker 1: could distinctly see about eight or ten deep scratches. David
Speaker 1: and Cox then talked over the fight and they agreed
Speaker 1: to shake hands and to say nothing about it. So
Speaker 1: I asked him how he could explain about the scratches,
Speaker 1: and he said he could tell anyone who asked him
Speaker 1: that a horse threw him off as he was breaking it.
Speaker 1: The defense attorney to clinch the testimony then asked Sutherland
Speaker 1: if the scratches on David's face were the same as
Speaker 1: those inflicted by Cox. Well, I'm satisfied they are, Sutherland answered.
Speaker 1: Greasebock next took the witness stand. Well Cock scratched David
Speaker 1: up pretty bad, Greasebock tests Cock did it with his
Speaker 1: fingers like a wildcat would, And the next day David's
Speaker 1: face looked like a war map. But the scratches run
Speaker 1: in every way. But they both agreed to shake hands,
Speaker 1: and David said he would say he was thrown from
Speaker 1: a horse into the brush. To account for the scratches.
Speaker 1: Was David's alibiological Could Ryan present a similar explanation to
Speaker 1: account for the great amount of blood on his coat? Well,
Speaker 1: my horse tossed me off by suddenly rearing when I
Speaker 1: was riding in the trail, said Ryan. I got a
Speaker 1: deep cut over my eye and it bled a lot.
Speaker 1: The only thing I could do was wipe the blood
Speaker 1: off on my coat sleeve. I got covered in the blood.
Speaker 1: But how the district attorney asked him, how do you
Speaker 1: account for the broken needle in the pel of your
Speaker 1: coat and the shells from your gun found near the
Speaker 1: grave of Carmen Wagner. I was near where the girl's
Speaker 1: body was later found Hunting deer, Ryan replied, I saw
Speaker 1: an animal on the hillside and I started to shoot
Speaker 1: at it. It was running up the hill and I
Speaker 1: fired several shots at the animal. About eighteen in all
Speaker 1: before I hit and killed it. Then I lifted the
Speaker 1: deer's carcass and got some more blood on my coat.
Speaker 1: I probably broke that needle by lifting the deer. With
Speaker 1: the evidence and the two men's alibis before him, the
Speaker 1: judge pondered the case deeply. The responsibility rested on his shoulders.
Speaker 1: Everyone waited anxiously for his official ruling. It is ordered
Speaker 1: by the Court, said Justice of the Peace Fraser, that
Speaker 1: Walter David be discharged and that Jack Ryan beheld to
Speaker 1: answer on charges of murder. David walked from the court
Speaker 1: room a free man, but never in the wildest stretch
Speaker 1: of the imagination could he possibly have foreseen the horrible
Speaker 1: fate which was soon to overtake him. Meanwhile, Ryan prepared
Speaker 1: for his trial, which began February seventeenth, nineteen twenty six,
Speaker 1: four months after Carmen Wagner and Henry Sweet had been murdered.
Speaker 1: The trial was to be fought bitterly over a period
Speaker 1: of six weeks. One of the DA's witnesses was W. R. Shields,
Speaker 1: a rancher who had resided in humbold County for many years,
Speaker 1: and who was believed to have been the last man
Speaker 1: to see Carmen Wagner alive, except, of course, her slayer
Speaker 1: or slayers. Under my direct examination on the witness stand,
Speaker 1: shield testified substantially as follows. On the ninth day of October,
Speaker 1: which was two days after Carmen Wagner had left her
Speaker 1: home in Eureka to go hunting with Henry Sweet, I
Speaker 1: was in the vicinity of Coyote Flat, said Shields. I
Speaker 1: remember seeing Carmen Wagner that day about a mile and
Speaker 1: a half or two miles from Coyote Flat on what
Speaker 1: is known as Hind Palm Trail, on the top of
Speaker 1: the ridge. I spoke to her as I met her
Speaker 1: on the trail. It was about eleven o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: My wife and I were camping at Government Springs, within
Speaker 1: three quarters of a mile from where I met Miss Wagner.
Speaker 1: Shortly after we saw Miss Wagner, we saw someone else
Speaker 1: in the same country. Who was this mysterious man? Was
Speaker 1: he the slayer or one of the killers who killed
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner and Henry Sweet so ruthlessly. A mystery man
Speaker 1: was seen by Shields near an old unfinished cabin some
Speaker 1: two hundred yards from Government Springs, I was standing on
Speaker 1: the trail when I first saw the man who was
Speaker 1: right behind the old cabin by a rock. Shields testified
Speaker 1: the man was not a very large man, although I
Speaker 1: could not see his entire person. He was wearing blue
Speaker 1: overalls of some kind of wool or or a khaki
Speaker 1: shirt of bluish or greenish color. The man was then
Speaker 1: standing on the top of the rock by the old cabin.
Speaker 1: Just forty five minutes before he saw the strange man,
Speaker 1: Shield said he'd seen Carmen and her Collie dog on
Speaker 1: the trail, and the sinister looking man had gazed after
Speaker 1: the girl as she walked along the trail, then he vanished.
Speaker 1: Later that same day, Shield said he'd discovered tracks of
Speaker 1: two men who had traveled along the same path where
Speaker 1: miss Wagner had been walking. Two days later, Shield said
Speaker 1: he'd learned of the murder of Henry Sweet, who'd been
Speaker 1: shot to death in front of the little shack at
Speaker 1: Coyote Flat by the slayer or slayers who hid behind
Speaker 1: the large rock which stood some distance away. Then Shields
Speaker 1: joined the posse which began the search for Carmen Wagner.
Speaker 1: As Shields testified the questions, he answered brought out vague hints,
Speaker 1: but nothing more as to the rumored sinister shrine for
Speaker 1: human sacrifice which some persons believed they'd seen at Coyote Flat,
Speaker 1: where the girl's body had been buried after she was slain.
Speaker 1: Doctor Heinrich, at the same time of his investigation into
Speaker 1: the killing of the girl, had expressed a theory that
Speaker 1: Carmen had been held as a sacrificial offering for a
Speaker 1: phallic religious ceremony planned at an Indian altar on the
Speaker 1: top of Coyote Flat. Was there anything at all to
Speaker 1: support this startling theory of a sacrificial offering of a beautiful, young,
Speaker 1: red haired girl, a human being given to a strange
Speaker 1: deity like a goat slaughtered for blood sacrifice. The da
Speaker 1: questioned Shields as to what he had observed in the
Speaker 1: vicinity of the girl's grave. Well, there was a piece
Speaker 1: of bark line on a tree stump, he answered, right
Speaker 1: east of the stump, but an easterly direction. There was
Speaker 1: a log, and the bark had been taken from that log.
Speaker 1: Then the place from where the bark had been removed
Speaker 1: and a stick and the log lined up almost perfectly
Speaker 1: with the location of the girl's body. A fire had
Speaker 1: been built there in a small space which was only
Speaker 1: about fourteen or sixteen inches across. The ground was very hard,
Speaker 1: with a few scattered leaves lining around, but by the
Speaker 1: tree there were the tracks of a horse opposite where
Speaker 1: the fire had been. In my judgment, the tracks had
Speaker 1: all been made by an unshod horse. Ryan previous admitted
Speaker 1: that his colt was not shod. Shields then told of
Speaker 1: finding red hairs and white hairs from chaps near the
Speaker 1: scene of the murder. The hares were found on the
Speaker 1: trail on bushes from a foot or so to three
Speaker 1: or four feet above the ground. The red hares, the
Speaker 1: DA emphasized to the jury, were torn from the head
Speaker 1: of Carmen Wagner, while the white hares were from Ryan's
Speaker 1: chaps as he dragged the girl along the trail to
Speaker 1: the place where she was shot to death and then buried.
Speaker 1: Answering the DA's question, Shields then related how he'd helped
Speaker 1: to disarm young Walford when the boy ran from the
Speaker 1: Posse camp with the avowed intention of gettin' Ryan. That
Speaker 1: boy acted to me like a man in a frenzy
Speaker 1: in about half crazy, said Shields. The boy testified, trying
Speaker 1: with apparent earnestness to be truthful about every detail, and
Speaker 1: told how he had searched for his missing friend Carmen.
Speaker 1: Then Walford related in detail how he had discovered the
Speaker 1: girl's missing wristwatch hidden in the chaps owned by Jack Ryan.
Speaker 1: Walford told the jury he believed Jack Ryan to be
Speaker 1: guilty of murdering Carmen. It seemed that the evidence was
Speaker 1: gradually accumulating against Ryan. The next witness for the prosecution
Speaker 1: was doctor Heinrich. He related his tests which had been
Speaker 1: conducted with the bullet found in miss Wagner's head and
Speaker 1: how its measurements coincided exactly with the riflings of bullets
Speaker 1: fired from the Lucar pistol, which Ryan admitted was his weapon.
Speaker 1: Doctor Heinrich told in vivid detail of the blood stains
Speaker 1: on Ryan's coat and emphasized his belief that blood flowing
Speaker 1: from a cut in the suspect's forehead could not possibly
Speaker 1: have found its way into the inner side of the
Speaker 1: man's pocket, where a stain was found on some cigarette papers.
Speaker 1: Doctor Heinrich said the blood on Ryan's coat was that
Speaker 1: of a human being and not of a deer, as
Speaker 1: Ryan had claimed. Bit by bit the circumstantial evidence accumulated
Speaker 1: against Ryan. Would the evidence prove strong enough to convict
Speaker 1: the man of the fiendish murders and send him to
Speaker 1: the gallows or to prison for life? Or was Jack
Speaker 1: Ryan merely the victim of circumstances so strange that he
Speaker 1: only appeared to be the murderer of both Henry Sweet
Speaker 1: and Carmen Wagner with an air of innocence. Ryan himself
Speaker 1: took the witness stand in a desperate effort to save
Speaker 1: his life. He was sworn and is a witness for
Speaker 1: himself before Superior Judge Denver Sevier. Could his testimony overcome
Speaker 1: the almost overwhelming weight of the evidence against him? We'll
Speaker 1: find out after the break. What follows is the sworn
Speaker 1: testimony of Jack Ryan, accused murderer of Carmen Wagner. My
Speaker 1: name is Jack Ryan, began the accused man. I am
Speaker 1: twenty three years old, and before my arrest, I lived
Speaker 1: at Maple Creek with my mother. Okay Zevin jumping in here.
Speaker 1: When I found this story, it blew my mind that
Speaker 1: Jack Ryan grew up in Maple Creek. That is where
Speaker 1: I'm from. It is a place in Humboldt County that's
Speaker 1: behind fourteen miles of gravel road, basically one lane gravel
Speaker 1: road like KOs Rika, a couple more miles of dirt road,
Speaker 1: and there are no stores, there, no gas stations. There's
Speaker 1: a school, and there are some homes, but it is really,
Speaker 1: really in the middle of nowhere, far northern California. I
Speaker 1: grew up an hour from the nearest town, off the
Speaker 1: power grid, all wood heating, wood cooking, solar and water power.
Speaker 1: If you've never lived that rural you wouldn't believe it
Speaker 1: didn't have Internet, none of that. Didn't even, like I said,
Speaker 1: have power. And even today there's hardly anybody out there.
Speaker 1: So to stumble across a story where one of the
Speaker 1: central characters, the accused murderer no less, was from my
Speaker 1: little wooded island, speaking metaphorically, of course, of the world
Speaker 1: Maple Creek, California, just kind of blew my mind. Although
Speaker 1: it is true that in the twenties when the logging
Speaker 1: and timber business was really booming, there were a lot
Speaker 1: more people out there, there was a mill out there,
Speaker 1: there was more to it in Jack Ryan's day. But
Speaker 1: still it's incredible, all right, Sorry, let's get back to
Speaker 1: the story. My name is Jack Ryan. I am twenty
Speaker 1: three years old, and before my arrest, I lived at
Speaker 1: Maple Creek with my mother. I worked at various places
Speaker 1: in Humboldt County. Previous to the tenth of October. I
Speaker 1: worked about three and a half days at Deer Creek.
Speaker 1: I was cutting weeds. I began this work on Monday evening,
Speaker 1: October fifth. I worked half a day Tuesday, all day Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and Thursday and Friday. Ryan talked crisply and answered quickly
Speaker 1: the questions put to him by his attorney. The jury
Speaker 1: paid strict attention to the witness, and the crowded courtroom
Speaker 1: also listened attentively. Was the accused man telling the truth
Speaker 1: or would he attempt to lie about his whereabouts at
Speaker 1: the time Sweet and Carmen were believed to have been slain.
Speaker 1: The jury was to decide the clear answers might be
Speaker 1: the result of Ryan having drilled himself as to the
Speaker 1: dates and places to establish an unimpeachable alibi, or the
Speaker 1: direct frank answers might mean that he was telling nothing
Speaker 1: but the truth. How have you ever made any moonshine liquor?
Speaker 1: Ryan's attorney asked, no, I never did. Ryan answered frankly,
Speaker 1: do you know how to make it? No, I don't
Speaker 1: know anything about it. Now, when you're not working, where
Speaker 1: do you usually spend your time? At my mother's house
Speaker 1: at Maple Creek. Now, going back to the tenth of October,
Speaker 1: the day Carmen Wagner is believed to have been murdered.
Speaker 1: What time did you leave Deer Creek Ranch that morning?
Speaker 1: At about seven and a half past and what horse
Speaker 1: were you riding? I was riding a roan. I bought
Speaker 1: the horse on September seventh, and from then until October tenth,
Speaker 1: i'd ridden the animal about three weeks steady. But on
Speaker 1: October tenth the horse was only about half broken to
Speaker 1: the saddle. When I left that morning, I was going
Speaker 1: up to my brothers to see about trading horses. When
Speaker 1: I started out, the horse was feeling pretty good and frisky,
Speaker 1: and when I was running him down a road by
Speaker 1: the river, he fell. There was something in the road
Speaker 1: and he kind of stumbled and fell. He threw me off,
Speaker 1: and I got a bad cut on my forehead. It
Speaker 1: bled a little bit, and when I came to the river,
Speaker 1: I washed the blood off then I got back on
Speaker 1: the horse and rode on the trail up to the
Speaker 1: old Wagoner place. Meanwhile, my forehead continued to bleed. I
Speaker 1: never tied any cloth around it, but I wiped off
Speaker 1: the blood a couple times on my coat sleeve. Was
Speaker 1: there any brush along that trail that you had to
Speaker 1: dodge under to get through, the defense asked Ryan. Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: he answered, there is brush upon the trail that a
Speaker 1: fellow has to go under to get through. How could
Speaker 1: Ryan account for the heavy stains of blood found in
Speaker 1: his right coat pocket. Did you get your hands sore
Speaker 1: while you were working at pulling weeds? The defense lawyer
Speaker 1: asked Ryan. Well, yes, I got sore hands, and I
Speaker 1: bought a bottle of iodine. I put the bottle in
Speaker 1: my right coat pocket, and later the bottle was broken
Speaker 1: and it stained my cigarettes, Ryan said, in a straightforward voice.
Speaker 1: Ryan then related how he had continued to ride past
Speaker 1: the trail leading to the wagon Or place and onto
Speaker 1: Shower's Rock, where he tied his horse to a low
Speaker 1: bush and went hunting. He shot at a deer several times,
Speaker 1: he said, finally killing the fleet footed animal as it
Speaker 1: ran swiftly on the slope of the hill. The two
Speaker 1: luger shells found near Carmen's body might have ejected from
Speaker 1: his gun when he passed the spot shooting at the deer.
Speaker 1: So now, all of a sudden, Zeven interjecting here he's
Speaker 1: hunting deer with a nine millimeter German handgun. Okay, back
Speaker 1: to the story. When he lifted the deer carcass to
Speaker 1: his saddle, Ryan said, blood float onto his coat, and
Speaker 1: the pressure from handling the three point animal might have
Speaker 1: broken the needle in his right coat lapel. Ryan vigorously
Speaker 1: denied any knowledge of the double murder and claimed that
Speaker 1: if Carmen Wagner's wristwatch had been found in his chaps,
Speaker 1: the time piece must have been planted there by some
Speaker 1: person who hated him bitterly and wished to see him
Speaker 1: accused of the brutal slayings. So, of course, now here
Speaker 1: it seems that Ryan is indirectly accusing Walford not only
Speaker 1: of framing him, but probably of being the murderer, since
Speaker 1: how else would Kenneth Walford have gotten his hands on
Speaker 1: Carmen's watch. Back to Ryan's testimony, I first heard of
Speaker 1: the death of Henry sweet On October thirteenth, said Ryan.
Speaker 1: On the nineteenth, I remember meeting Kenneth Walford on the trail.
Speaker 1: He asked me if I was acquainted with the country,
Speaker 1: and I told him that I used to live up there.
Speaker 1: Vinnie asked me about some cabin in the canyon, and
Speaker 1: I told him there was a cabin down there someplace. Now,
Speaker 1: the DA questioned Ryan about the mysterious movement of his
Speaker 1: hand to his chaps, which had seemed strange to Walford.
Speaker 1: It was merely a motion in my hand to get
Speaker 1: some cigarettes in my pocket, replied the defendant. Walford. It
Speaker 1: will be remembered, intimated that Ryan had made a motion
Speaker 1: as though to conceal something in his chaps. Ryan then
Speaker 1: told how the officers had arrested him late at night,
Speaker 1: after the murdered girl's body had been found. I'd gone
Speaker 1: to bed about nine o'clock, Ryan testified. I fell asleep
Speaker 1: and was awakened about ten o'clock when the officers arrived.
Speaker 1: They asked me to get up, saying they'd come from
Speaker 1: the Sheriff's office for me. I got up and I dressed,
Speaker 1: and they put handcuffs on me. The officers told me
Speaker 1: that they'd found out I'd killed the girl and the dog,
Speaker 1: and said they'd seen where I'd buried the girl, and
Speaker 1: they told me to come through with everything. I told
Speaker 1: them then I don't know anything about it. Then, about
Speaker 1: an hour later, still wearing the handcuffs, I mounted my
Speaker 1: horse and we all rode to the jail Eureka. The
Speaker 1: DA hammered the man's testimony, trying to shake it. He
Speaker 1: brought out that although Ryan was regarded as one of
Speaker 1: the best horsemen in the country, he still wanted to
Speaker 1: get rid of the colt, which he claimed had thrown
Speaker 1: him and cut his forehead. Ryan was also regarded as
Speaker 1: a good pistol shot. Ryan asked the DA how many
Speaker 1: shots did you fire at the deer you killed? Between
Speaker 1: fifteen and eighteen shots, he answered, at the same deer.
Speaker 1: The DA asked, incredulously, how many shells where your luger holed?
Speaker 1: Nine shells, said Ryan. I fired a full clip of
Speaker 1: the deer which was running on the hillside, but I
Speaker 1: missed it and had to slip in another clip of cartridges.
Speaker 1: I finally got the deer. Wow. I'm surprised he didn't
Speaker 1: claim to have hit the deer at least once with
Speaker 1: that first clip to explain how in the heck it
Speaker 1: didn't get away tons of California white tailed deer out
Speaker 1: in Maple Creek up where I'm from where all this happened.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you, those animals are faster than
Speaker 1: Olympic sprinters and can jump way higher than professional basketball players.
Speaker 1: So the idea that he emptied an entire clip then
Speaker 1: had time to reload, and in that entire time the
Speaker 1: deer neither removed itself from sight nor got far enough
Speaker 1: away to make the pistol ineffective. Beg some belief. But hey,
Speaker 1: I'm not on the jury, so here we go, nine shells,
Speaker 1: said Ryan. I fired a full clip of the deer
Speaker 1: which was running up the side of the hill, but
Speaker 1: I missed it and had to slip at another clip.
Speaker 1: I finally got the deer. The DA fired question after
Speaker 1: question it Ryan in an attempt to upset his testimony
Speaker 1: as to the various places he claims to have been
Speaker 1: at the time sweet and miss Wagner was slain and
Speaker 1: during the time of the hunt for the girl after
Speaker 1: the body of her companion had been found. The jury
Speaker 1: paid strict attention to each bit of testimony for and
Speaker 1: against the accused man. Finally, all the evidence had been
Speaker 1: presented at once. The defense attorney made a motion to
Speaker 1: Judge Sevier for a directed verdict of acquittal for Ryan,
Speaker 1: on the ground that the evidence was not sufficient to
Speaker 1: establish that the defendant had committed the murders. The motion
Speaker 1: was denied. The DA began his argument. His final argument
Speaker 1: to the jury, He said that the evidence, although admittedly circumstantial,
Speaker 1: was so strong as to the point of conclusive guilt
Speaker 1: for Ryan. He asked the jury to find the defendant
Speaker 1: guilty with punishment severe enough to suit the fiendish crimes
Speaker 1: with which Ryan was charged. The long and bitterly fought
Speaker 1: trial had lasted about six weeks, and the jury was
Speaker 1: given the case at five o'clock on the afternoon of
Speaker 1: March eleventh, nineteen twenty six. After Judge Sevier had instructed
Speaker 1: the jury as to the degrees of guilt in the
Speaker 1: case or a verdict of innocence, the jurors retired to
Speaker 1: begin their deliberations. And here we're going to hear from
Speaker 1: the DA in first person picture my feelings. He says,
Speaker 1: I had presented every bit of evidence I could obtain
Speaker 1: against Ryan, for I believed the man to be guilty
Speaker 1: of the two foul crimes. The defense had fought equally
Speaker 1: hard as to establish the innocence of Ryan or to
Speaker 1: instill a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors
Speaker 1: as to the defendant's guilt. After electing a foreman, the
Speaker 1: jurors deliberated solemnly until ten o'clock at night. At that time,
Speaker 1: no verdict had been reached, and the jurors were locked
Speaker 1: up for the night. I retired to my home, confident
Speaker 1: that the verdict would be against the defendant. The next morning,
Speaker 1: the jurors went to breakfast, and then they returned to
Speaker 1: the jury hall to resume their deliberations. Half an hour later,
Speaker 1: a court bailiff was summoned hastily. The jury had reached
Speaker 1: a verdict. The foreman stood up, hesitated perceptibly with the
Speaker 1: apparent responsibility of delivering the verdict, and then he cleared
Speaker 1: his throat with a sound audible throughout the room, and
Speaker 1: began to speak. Wi the jury find the defendant, Jack Ryan,
Speaker 1: not guilty. A stun silence swept over the courtroom. No
Speaker 1: one spoke a word, nor was there any demonstration of
Speaker 1: any kind either favorable or against Ryan. Then excited whispers
Speaker 1: swept through the audience that the unexpected verdict was discussed
Speaker 1: outside the courtroom. When Ryan walked forth a free man,
Speaker 1: an entirely different scene took place. Many women swarmed around Ryan,
Speaker 1: and it was reported some of them offered him work
Speaker 1: for the coming summer as a guide. And now it's
Speaker 1: the da speaking again here. Of course, my astonishment was
Speaker 1: so great at the verdict that I could hardly find
Speaker 1: words to express my amazement. And Judge Sevier, who had
Speaker 1: weighed every bit of the evidence as it was offered,
Speaker 1: remarked to me quietly outside the courtroom regarding the reaction
Speaker 1: to the acquittal of Ryan. Said the Judge arm As
Speaker 1: stounded at this verse. Automatically the case had reverted to
Speaker 1: the status it was before anyone had been arrested for
Speaker 1: the murders of Henry Sweet and Carmen Wagner. Were the
Speaker 1: murderers to go unpunished, had the guilty persons escaped and
Speaker 1: fled from the country while the officers and District Attorney's
Speaker 1: office were gathering evidence against Walter David and Jack Ryan,
Speaker 1: where the trails of the real murderers so cold as
Speaker 1: to be untraceable? Would justice be cheated? Dun, dun, Dunn. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I couldn't help it. After David had been discharged at his
Speaker 1: preliminary hearing and Ryan had been acquitted at his trial
Speaker 1: for murder, the two half brothers returned to their regular
Speaker 1: existences of working odd jobs for persons in Humboldt County.
Speaker 1: Some eight months later, District Attorney Arthur Hill, who had
Speaker 1: served from nineteen thirteen through nineteen twenty six, retired to
Speaker 1: his private practice as an attorney of Eureka. He disliked
Speaker 1: greatly to have the word unsolved written on the records
Speaker 1: beside the murders of Henry Sweet and Carmen Wagner, but
Speaker 1: held a cherished hope that time would aid the law
Speaker 1: in bringing the guilty persons to justice. There is a
Speaker 1: saying murder will out, and he hoped that would prove
Speaker 1: true in the case of the murder of young beautiful
Speaker 1: Carmen Wagner. The DA turned all the records in evidence
Speaker 1: of the Sweet Wagner cases over to his successor in
Speaker 1: the office, District Attorney S. E. Metzler. Time passed, and
Speaker 1: gradually the two Fiendish crimes became but horrid memories to
Speaker 1: the citizens of Humboldt County, but the murderers were always
Speaker 1: in the minds of the officers. Then, after a year
Speaker 1: and eight months had gone by, the country was shocked
Speaker 1: by another horrible crime. On November one, nineteen twenty seven,
Speaker 1: Ernest Porter, a ranch foreman, was traveling along a trail
Speaker 1: near Coyote Flat, when his attention was attracted to the
Speaker 1: huddled form of a man lying in some dense bushes.
Speaker 1: The still silent form at once showed Porter that the
Speaker 1: unknown man was dead. Hurriedly, Porter summoned the officers at Eureka,
Speaker 1: and Jack Runner, now share of the county, arrived at
Speaker 1: the scene. He at once turned the body over and
Speaker 1: gazed with horror atas the dead face of Walter David,
Speaker 1: none other than the half brother of accused murderer Jack Ryan.
Speaker 1: David had been dead for many days. He had been
Speaker 1: cruelly choked to death by a cowboy's lariat, which had
Speaker 1: been tightened around his neck. Sheriff Runner reconstructed the crime
Speaker 1: from the trampled bushes and marks of a rope on
Speaker 1: the limb of a nearby tree. An assassin had watched
Speaker 1: David as he rode over the trail through the mountains.
Speaker 1: As David's horse passed near a tree, the assassin, lurking
Speaker 1: hidden in the bushes, had twirled his lariat over his
Speaker 1: head and swung the rope in twisting circles toward David.
Speaker 1: The rope circled over David's head, tightened around his neck,
Speaker 1: and the bloodthirsty assassin jerked his victim from his horse
Speaker 1: and dragged him along the trail for several yards to
Speaker 1: an oak tree. Here, the killer threw his lariat over
Speaker 1: a strong limb and dragged the struggling David off the ground.
Speaker 1: The mysterious and merciless assassin hang David by the neck
Speaker 1: until he was dead. When David struggles ceased and his
Speaker 1: face became black from the strangling, the assassin lowered his
Speaker 1: victim to the ground and removed the rope from around
Speaker 1: his neck. Then the killer escaped. Broken ferns and bushes
Speaker 1: beside the trail showed clearly how David had been dragged
Speaker 1: to the tree where he was hanged. Then his assassin
Speaker 1: had thrown his corpse into the dense bushes. There were
Speaker 1: no knife or bullet wounds on the victim's body. A
Speaker 1: medical examination disclosed that he'd been choked to death by
Speaker 1: the rope and the vertebrae in his back were stretched.
Speaker 1: Apart from the violence with which the assassin had yanked
Speaker 1: him off the ground, One front tooth found near the
Speaker 1: body had been knocked from David's mouth, as though the
Speaker 1: slayer had struck him a heavy blow in anger. Several
Speaker 1: drops of blood were found on David's hat from the
Speaker 1: seer caused by the knot in the rope as it
Speaker 1: was tightened around his neck. So who killed Walter David?
Speaker 1: Was he slain so viciously because the murderer feared that
Speaker 1: he knew too much and had threatened to reveal his
Speaker 1: hideous secrets. After David's murder, three crimes were marked against
Speaker 1: the unknown fiend or fiends who were also believed responsible
Speaker 1: for the murders of miss Wagner and Henry Sweet. But
Speaker 1: more than ten months passed without the authorities being able
Speaker 1: to find the solution to the perplexing murder puzzle. During
Speaker 1: this time, the sinister figure, the murderer of Walter David
Speaker 1: and prosus zumably of Carmen Wagner and Henry Sweet, walked
Speaker 1: the streets unmolested with taunting bravado. Then he began a
Speaker 1: series of other brutal crimes. In succession, he attacked several
Speaker 1: girls during the first part of September nineteen twenty eight.
Speaker 1: The officer set a trap for the criminal and cutting
Speaker 1: though he was he walked unsuspectingly into the net. A
Speaker 1: merciless grilling followed at the hands of District Attorney Metzler,
Speaker 1: and finally the suspect weakened. Confronted by the young girl
Speaker 1: victims whom he'd attacked, the suspect offered to plead guilty
Speaker 1: to charges of criminal assault on two of the girls.
Speaker 1: The penalty in California for such a crime by force
Speaker 1: is one to fifty years in the state penitentiary. The
Speaker 1: suspect was sentenced to San Quentin, but instead of having
Speaker 1: the prisoner taken immediately to the penitentiary, Metzler determined to
Speaker 1: submit him to further questioning. The grilling began at seven
Speaker 1: o'clock on the evening of Wednesday and continued without let
Speaker 1: up throughout the night. The officers working in relays and
Speaker 1: firing a broadside of questions at the suspect. DA Metzler
Speaker 1: made sensational accusation after accusation against the suspect. His dark
Speaker 1: eyes glowered in anger. The suspect replied to the questions
Speaker 1: in a surly tone. He admitted he was guilty of
Speaker 1: the attacks on the young girls, but of any other
Speaker 1: crimes he knew nothing. Jim Sage, a deputy sheriff, aided
Speaker 1: Metzler in the grilling, and as dawn broke over the jail,
Speaker 1: the suspect said he wanted to talk to the deputy alone.
Speaker 1: Metzler readily consented it at once left the room. A
Speaker 1: moment later, Sage called to Metzler and asked for a
Speaker 1: paper and pen. The suspect, sobbing bitterly, then broke down
Speaker 1: and signed his name to a confession, startling in its
Speaker 1: cold and ruthless brutality. So horrible were the facts in
Speaker 1: the confession that the district Attorney Metzler himself broke down
Speaker 1: and wept. You knew all the time, cried the suspect
Speaker 1: in a sobbing, choking voice, as he gazed through tear
Speaker 1: stained eyes at the DA Hurriedly. Other officers in the
Speaker 1: jail were summoned to act as witnesses to the signed confession.
Speaker 1: They grouped about the suspect as he signed the paper.
Speaker 1: The confession was brief, less than two hundred words in length.
Speaker 1: Word for word, it read to whom at may concern.
Speaker 1: On October tenth, nineteen twenty five, I was on my
Speaker 1: way from Deer Creek to Walter David's cabin. I met
Speaker 1: Henry Sweet on the trail. I asked him for some
Speaker 1: money that he owed me for whiskey. He told me
Speaker 1: that if I wanted it, I had to take it
Speaker 1: out of his hide. Then we went to Sweet's camp
Speaker 1: and had some hot words. Sweet had a pistol on him.
Speaker 1: He said he would get me. I worked around till
Speaker 1: I got his rifle. Then I shot him in the side.
Speaker 1: The girl, Carmen Wagner, came in when I was ready
Speaker 1: to leave. I told her to keep right on going.
Speaker 1: I took her gun away from her and put it
Speaker 1: behind the fence where it was found. Then I took
Speaker 1: her along down the ridge to the canyon. Then she
Speaker 1: wouldn't go any further. She said she was going to
Speaker 1: go back to town and tell the officers. Then I
Speaker 1: forced her down into the canyon and I shot her
Speaker 1: and the dog. Then I went on and ran across
Speaker 1: some hogs and hunted them for a while. From there,
Speaker 1: I went down to the old Fort Baker Barn and
Speaker 1: stayed there all night. In the morning I went to
Speaker 1: David's and traded horses. The next day I went hunting.
Speaker 1: Then I went down in the canyon and buried the girl.
Speaker 1: The confession was signed by Jack Ryan. Wow, that's heavy.
Speaker 1: He killed his own brother and then went right back
Speaker 1: to assaulting women. You know what the grand irony is.
Speaker 1: There's a law called double jeopardy, which says that you
Speaker 1: cannot be tried for the same crime twice. Who knows
Speaker 1: why Jack Ryan killed his half brother Walter David. Perhaps
Speaker 1: David threatened to expose him as the murderer of Carmen
Speaker 1: Wagner and Henry Sweet. But Jack Ryan had already been
Speaker 1: found innocent in a court of law for that exact crime,
Speaker 1: so he may not have known this. But even if
Speaker 1: Walter David came forward and said, my brother, Jack Ryan
Speaker 1: is the killer, and even if they found more evidence
Speaker 1: that was not circumstantial, that was entirely conclusive, Jack Ryan
Speaker 1: under double jeopardy still could not have been retried or
Speaker 1: convicted or punished for the specific crime of killing Carmen
Speaker 1: Wagner and Henry Sweet. Of course, once he murdered his
Speaker 1: brother in a to other women, then, of course, of
Speaker 1: course he can be tried for those crimes. But had
Speaker 1: he not killed his brother, had he not assaulted other women,
Speaker 1: and if it was the fear of exposure that caused
Speaker 1: him to kill his brother, he need not have feared that,
Speaker 1: at least not in terms of consequences from the law,
Speaker 1: whether he may have been lynched by the citizenry or
Speaker 1: in other acute physical danger. Certainly, the fact that he
Speaker 1: was half Native American in those times would have played
Speaker 1: a significant role as well. Who's to say, but he
Speaker 1: could not have been found guilty for that specific crime.
Speaker 1: Is it at all possible that the sheriff and his
Speaker 1: deputies beat a confession to the Carmen Wagner and Henry
Speaker 1: Sweet murder out of Jack Ryan so that they could
Speaker 1: close a case that they knew at this point they
Speaker 1: would never solve. I don't think so. I think he
Speaker 1: did it all. Why else would he kill his own brother,
Speaker 1: although and confess to that one. I'm Zevan Odleberg, and
Speaker 1: this has been kind of murdery. If you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: kind of Murdery. Please tell your friends and family, tell strangers,
Speaker 1: leave a review. It's the best way to ensure that
Speaker 1: I can keep telling that special brand of bizarre and
Speaker 1: terrible tales that you'll only find here on Kind of Murdery.
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