Show tJ IL THE PELICAN POINT MURDER MYSTERY SOLED 1 1 l r T IAI J Harry Hayes sentenced to death for a crime probably committed by another an-other man 16 189 today April Four years ago a young sheepherder was walking along the western shore of Utah lake Near Pelican Point a long low desolate spit of land which stretches into tIle lake from the barren bench which forms the western shore he came suddenly upon the stiffened corpse of a young man It lay just above the reach of the lapping lap-ping waves face downward and from the blackened and swollen condition it must have been buffeted and tossed about upon the waters of the lake for some months to he at length cast ashore among the flotsam of the winters win-ters floods With some difficult for thc remains were so decomposed as to almost defy identification the body was arned to be that of Albert Engstrom There was a bullet hole in his heart Two da s later the bodies of to other boys Andrew Johnson and Alfred Nielson cousins of Engstrom were found on the lake shore Both had been shot through the head Seen months afterwards Harry Hayes of Eureka stepfather of Albert EngstlOm was arrested for the murder mur-der of the boys was tried found guilty and sentenced to death for the crime His sentence was afterward commuted to life imprisonment by the board of pardons and since that time he has Leen cannned in the state penitentiary Tomorrow the board of pardons will 1 p asked to liberate IIacs Ail through the trial after his conviction after his sentence to deAth with the gallows Jring him in the fact lIt has never c axed to protest his innocence and r n after all thee yeas it seems hd Innocence may be established For ithin the last six months hy the en r rile efforts of Sheriff Storrs of k rao neW evidence has been brought to light evidence which may proc that Han Hayes had nothing whatever too to-o with the three murders and that il1ey were committed by an entirely dif IerPnt 1 individual Affidavits containing I much startling evidence will he introduced i Intro-duced before the board of pardons and I it is expected that they will connect 1 his individual so closely so positively I nfilt the murder that the board will have no doubt IIf the entire gUiltleSs ns of the man who is now suffering Lor the crimes j t A FAMOUS CASE The Pelican Point Mystery as it teas culled was one of the most noted murder cases of the latter days of Utah territory For months after the discovery of the bodies of the three murdered boys the whole case remained hruded in gloom The boys had gone h gther early In Februarr to a little cabin at Pelican PoInt where Mrs Harry Hayes mother of Albert Eng trom owned a ranch They were seen there up to the 17th of February by rsidens i at adjoining ranches Then they hud disappeared dropped out or sight entirely without n word to anyone any-one The cattle on the little FAnclt had i alldered away the chickens had died and the sheep had destroyed a straw start before anyone noticc their absence ab-sence Neighbors went to the house and found it locked and apparently deserted de-serted A neighbor wrote to Mrs Harry Hayes at Eureka telling her of the condition of the place and that the I boys were gone Much against the will of her husband who said she was go lag to too much trouble for the worthless worth-less place Mrs Hayes went with a companIon to Pelican Point She found the place deserted and locked with the new wagon and team gone and a lot of household goods missing The floor was very dirty and was covered in places with a black sticky substance which her husband on a visit somewhat later assured her was tar He explained the absence of the boys on the ground that they had probably gone to Arizona seeming to worry little over the matter mat-ter and saying to everyone that the lays were old enough to take care of themselves and would turn up eventually eventu-ally safe and sound HAYES SUSPECTED When the bodies of the boys were discovered in April suspicion became immediately directed toward Hayes He had been on bad terms with Albert Engstrom who he said wanted to buss the place too much He acted tranbclr at the time of the discovery of thc body of Albert and particularly ashen the search for the other bodies ChIi leot rl I gs ens going on fie at once tried to Trove an alibi showing that he was iIi 1 Eureka for a week before and after the day when the murders were committed com-mitted but persons who knew him well said that they saw him at the ranch twice within that week 1 t The absence of any motive for the crime was the strongest thing in his i favor To be sure he was not on good t terms wIth his stepson but their quar reis had never been at all serious ana hr had no reason for wishing the boy I out of the way The other lads he scarcely knew Then there was the I disappearance of thE > new Cooper wagon wa-gon and team and the missing household house-hold goods The lake near the cabin I L tl tuts dragged for weeks to find them Jut they were never found nor could it bc shown that Hayes had ever had them after the crime was committed i They simply faded out of existenCe and no one knew what had become of them Despite these circumstances In his i favor the evidence was so strong against Hayes that the grand jury on Dee 4 following indicted him fur the murder of Engstrom He was arrested at Provo the same day and lOdged in jail He tool his arrest calmly saying that he had expected it after what i people were saying about him but he asserted his Innocence positively and expressed entire confidence that it would be proven at the trial His 1e mother of the murdered boy was one of Ills staunchest defenders She stood by him to the last and insisted always vn his innocence SENTENCED TO DEATH The trial in March before JUdge Mc Clrt at Provo attracted widespread attention From the beginning it went against Hayes and after being drawn out for over a week Harry Hayes was convicted He was sentenced the same month to be hanged but his attorney J W K Yhltecolton succeeded in having the case taken to tIle supreme court There It was affirmed and its it-s emed then that Hayes could not escape es-cape thE > r1lJows As a last resort the matter was taJen before the board of pardons and within a few das of the date set for his execution the sentence Strange Story of An Atrocious Crime and Its Startling Sequel EVIDENCE THAT GEORGE WRIGHT MURDERED THE THREE BOYS Innocent lIIan Sentenced to the Gallows and Now In the II PenitentiarySheriff Storrs Determined Fight of the court was commuted to life imprisonment im-prisonment MURDERE1 > BY WEEKS Testimony to Be Presented to Board of Pardons I Affidavits will be presented to the I board of pardons today tending to show almost beyond the shadow of a doubt I that one George H Wright alias reeks a horse thief cattle thief and confidence man was guilty of the triple murder and that he did it for purposes I of robbery Wrights wife w1l1 testify to startling facts concerning her husband hus-band and other evidence will be adduced ad-duced which will it Is confidently asserted as-serted result in Harry Hayes release To Sheriff George A Storrs of Springv1l1e belongs the credit of securing secur-Ing mos f this new testimony When hp wa > e1 ctrd 111 1596 he was convinced I of Hye guilt but coming much in cnnb will nun in connection with the ul1l of tilt case his Ideas changed One night he slept with Hayes in a cell at the Salt Lake county jail and during the long silent hours of that night Hayes told him his story When daylight day-light cam Sheriff Storrs left the cell + t + hiltttttt + tt + + t + + t + ttttttttttttt + tt + + + + + + 4 4 r + + i + + + + + + + r lat la-t + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + r tv + + + + + + + + t + + + + + + + + + SHERIFF STORKS OF UTAS COUNTY WHO BELIEVES HE HAS + + + SOLVED THE PELICAN POINT MURDER MYSTERY + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 4 convinced of Hayes entire innocence of I I the charge against him And at that time he vowed never to cease working on the matter until he had established that fact and proved it to aU the world Ceaselessly he has worked on the matter mat-ter He has followed clues Innumerable Innumer-able going sometimes on long journeys to neighboring states and once making the journey across the continent almost al-most to the tidewaters of the Atlantic The result of his two years of work he will present to the board of pardons tomorrow The case as it will be presented to the board consists of affidavits of various va-rious persons who have new evidence to give concerning the case Chief among thCc will be the sworn statement state-ment of Sheriff Storrs and of Mrs George W Wright wife of the man who Sheriff Storrs believes committed the murders SHERIFFS AFFIDAVIT TIle affidavit of Sheriff Stonos tells the storY of the case as it gradually unfolded un-folded itself to him in the progress of his researches piling up bit by bit a fact gleaned helC and a fact gleaned there until the conviction came to him that an innocent man was sUffering punishment for the tragedy of that dark February night at Pelican point Sheriff Storrs describes how he began his work of ferreting out the mystery of the murder by obtaining u list of the things missing from the ranch after af-ter the boys disappeared One by one 1e gathered them up from about the I southern end of the county AU save I the wagon the new Cooper wagon to find which 10 many futile days were I wasted in dragging Utah lake This after infinite labor he found at the I home af a Mr BecJtstead of Vest Jordan Jor-dan Salt Lake county The team of I horses the sheriff could find no trace or I POINTED fO WEEKS As he drove about the country in qUiring for the articles taken from the Pelican point ranch Sheriff Storrs found evidence pointing closely and more closely to the complicity In the matter of one Weeks alias Wright He found part of the stolen harness at a farm at the southern end of Utah county and Weeks had there disposed of it at another an-other he found a bridle and Weeks nits the man who offered it for sale at the Becltstead place he found the wagon mId it had been purchased of Weeks So Sheriff Storrs set at work to find this man Weeks It was not an easy task for the man had left Utah shortly after the commission of the murders and he had covered his tracks well He was at length located at Rangel Colo but before steps could be taken for his apprehension he disappeared He bobbed bob-bed up again at Freshwater Colo but again disappeared before he could be captured A half dozen times he was heard from but each time an attempt to cause his arrest resulted only In his disappearance Yet despite discouragements Sheriff Storrs kept up his labors and finally he returned early last January from a trip to New York bringing with him the wife of the man Weeks who had I volunteered to come with him to Utah I and so fm as she was able clear up I I the mystery with which her husbands name was linked Her silence she says has been due to fear of her husband from whom she is now separated and who bound her by the most terrible threats to secrecy MRS WRIGHTS STARTLING STORY The affidavit of Mrs Weeks 01 Mrs I Wrightthis she claims is her husbands I hus-bands real namewill tell a strange and even more startling tale In it she says that her husband came to Utah In 1889 and for sonic time Jived in Salt Lake City He claImed to her that he owned a ranch ° in the foothills of the Vasatch range and from this he told her he gained a living She early discovered dis-covered that this ranch was a mythical one but not for some time did she learn hw he obtained the cattle which Jle drove in from the country every few days and slaughtered and sold to the butchers of the city At length the conviction gradually came to her mind that he stole these cattle for all evidences evi-dences pointed incontrovertibly to that fact and she was forced to believe it tobe true After living for some time In Salt Lalte they moved to South Jordan Jor-dan and there Wright kept up his plan of life He would bring in a calf at night which his wife was sure belonged be-longed to a neighbor butcher it and have it turned Into veal In the morning vith no traces about the place of whence the animal had come At onetime one-time he brought his wife anewlpalnt ed handsome buggy which he presented present-ed to her as a recent purchase Again harness appeared among their things one morning and he traded it to a farmer The owner aw it and had Wright arrested but on his trial he was set free for he produced a bill of sale from some person whom no one knEw and his guilt could not be proven Mrs Wright describes at great length the tricks and contrivances her husband hus-band Invented to accomplish his work He was of gentlemanly appearance she says a smooth talker and so apparently open and frank and jovial of disposition disposi-tion that he made friends of all he met nut his peculatIons in that vicinity came to an abrupt end In the fall of 1594 He had stolen a herd of sheep his wife relates remarked them and daubed fresh paint over their brands but In the night it rained the fresh paint washed nit and the old brand was revealed Wright was Indicted for the theft but when called before the grand jury he puta hold face on the matter blustered feigned surprise and indignation and asked leave to go and consult his attorneys He was allowed to go and the grand jury is still waiting wait-Ing for his return TRIP TO PELICAN POINT From South Jordan it seems he went directly to Price and thence over the mountains to Ncphi It was In the dead of winter and the trip was a terrible ter-rIble one but he accomplished It and returning by way of the west shore of Utah lake he came by stealth to his home at South Jordan It Is supposed that on this trip he first saw the boYs at the Pelican Point ranch and perhaps per-haps realized their unprotected condl Ln t M o y o r f f rI George Wright said to be the Re murderer of the three boys tlon He remaIned In hiding for several sev-eral weeks at his home malting nightly excursions from his ranch and always returning laden with the product oi his nights wanderings About the middle of February he made a trIp south and it is supposen that he then went to the Hayes ranch murdered the three boys and looted the place At any rate he returned some das later with the Hayes wagon and team The other stolen goods his wife slates he had left at the mouth of Spanish Fork canyon can-yon In a cabin belonging to T J Wil Iiams of 1lapleton His return home was on Feb 18 or 19 about three days after the murders are believed to have been committed The next l1ight hen he started on his usual nocturnal prowl he told his wife that in case anyone should come to the place she must take the team he had brought home with him the night g 1orr 1hfnr l before out into a gulch in the rear of the stables and give them some poison which he left with her This she says in her affidavit was the first thing that aroused suspicion In her mind afterward that he was the murderer of the boys at Pelican Point No one visIted vis-Ited the place that night however and a day or so later about Feb 22 or 23 they left their place At the home of a Mr Beckstead of Vest Jordan Wright traded the Hayes wagon for alight one and borrowed a horse When they reached Jordan Narrows Wright killed the Hayes horses and with the borrowed bor-rowed horse and his own animal which he had been leading he proceeded on his way At the mouth of Spanish Fork canyon they took up their residence in the Williams cabin where Wright had cached the rest of the things taken from the Hayes ranch There they lived I until In August Wright was indicted for stealing cattle He obtained bonds and vanished Shortly afterward Mrs Wright went Fowler New York to live with her mother This is In substance the evidence set forth in her affidavit On her retUrn to Utah with SheriffS Sheriff-S orrs In January Mrs Wright went with the Sheriff and County Attorney Evans to Jordan Narrows and there pointed out to them the exact spot where she says the horses were killed by her husband at the time of their I exodus from South Jordan Going I thither the sheriff found the scattered I bones of two horses and the skull of I one horse with 3 bullet hole In it This I skull will be one of the exhibits in the I case OTHER AFFIDAVITS Mr and Mrs Metcalf of Utah county will present affidavits concerning certain cer-tain articles which they purchased of Wright and which have been since identified as among the things stolen from the Hayes ranch Mr Beckstead of Vest Jordan will make affidavit as to how he obtained possession of the Hayes wagon H Perry will swear that he purchased purchas-ed from Wright a portion of the Hayes harness Militia Smith will tell of buying a powder can rugs and other things from I Mrs Wright and Mrs Harry HaYeS Mrs Tyrell a relative and John A Hansen a neighbor will identifY an these things as articles taken from the I Hayes ranch at the time of the murder I The cuestion as to whether or no Harry Hayes might not have been implicated im-plicated in the murder will probably be discussed at much length On tills point Sheriff Storrs has a positive opinion opin-ion He says that Hayes did not even know Wright and more than that he believes that Wright would never go Into a crime of that kind with an accomplice ac-complice His other crimes he had ac compllshcd singlehanded and he was not the kind of man to seek help ill a deed of this kind d This mass of testimony acquired by the patient work of Sheriff Storm and set In order In the form of affidavits by Attorney Joseph Lippman who Is one of Hayes attorneys will be presented to the board of pardons tomorrow It is confidently expected that they will prove to the satisfaction of the ooard as they have to the people who have Interested themselves in his behalf that an innocent man Is Immured In the state penitentiary for the murders of Pelican Point and that Harry Hayes should be set again at liberty ocs |