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possible treasure hunt?
gene2393
Posts: 762 ✭✭✭
I've been looking around on line the last few months trying to find something interesting, but of course it has not happend until recently... last week i just stumbled on this article and have been out looking for the location but not able to find it. any help would be nice to know.
Armed Robbery, Double Homicide Case Closed
BONNEVILLE COUNTY – For the residents of sleepy Idaho Falls, in rural Bonneville County, Idaho, it was a morning that began like any other. It was 1954 and, in a county known for its large cattle ranches and delicious farm produce, crime was a rarity and murder almost unheard of. This morning would be anything but routine for Sheriff Dean F. Wilkie and Deputy Fred W. Keefer.
A farmer reported finding a human skull while plowing his field that morning and Sheriff Wilkie and Deputy Keefer soon arrived at the scene.
After interviewing the farmer he took the lawmen to the site where he’d been plowing and subsequently unearthed the skull.
Both officers slowly started processing the crime scene, which by mid-day revealed a complete skeleton protruding from a shallow grave.
The case was perplexing from the start. No missing persons had been reported locally and nothing across the Teletype recently offered any clues to help identify the victim.
Looking for any clue, the officers carefully widened their excavation into the afternoon.
Then the unthinkable happened. From the same shallow grave a second skeleton started taking form. By the time Wilkie and Keefer had completed their grisly task they knew almost nothing.
The lawmen surmised the victims were two American males, both murdered. Bones sent to Washington, D.C., for forensic examination indicated the victims were both white males in their fifties.
Sheriff Wilkie worked the case until he took an early retirement in 1956, one year before his term would’ve ended.
Deputy Keefer was appointed acting sheriff until the next sheriff-elect, Al Heslop, was sworn in, in 1957. By now the first double-murder case in Bonneville County history had gone cold.
The case haunted Wilkie into his retirement; he continued to work it on his own. Then he remembered a long-forgotten conversation he’d had years before with a friend named Sidney Close, now an elderly man and a long retired sheriff of Clark County, Idaho. Wilkie met with Close and, after some reminiscing, Wilkie put the old lawman’s brain to the test.
Wilkie asked Close if he remembered a conversation they’d had years earlier about a robbery that occurred near Grasshopper Creek, Montana. Like it happened yesterday, the sheriff didn’t miss a beat… “Small and Kelly were their names. They robbed the stage up near Grasshopper Creek back in oh-two, [1902] as I recall. Got $40,000 in gold, never caught ‘em.”
Wilkie fired right back, “Do you remember telling me something about them being in Spencer?” This was the critical information Wilkie needed.
Close remembered getting word of the hold-up and that two fugitives had been chased south into Idaho, so he was told to keep a lookout for them. A couple days passed without news, then he heard of… “A couple of fellas who came through Spencer one night with four mules loaded down pretty heavy.” Close admitted he figured it was Small and Kelly, but after passing through Spencer they simply vanished, he added.
“The more I thought of those bones, the more I became convinced they were the remains of Small and Kelly,” Wilkie wrote.
And if Sheriff Close, Ret., was correct and it was Small and Kelly seen in Spencer that night, then Wilkie could place them both 56 miles north, heading south, and on the same road as his crime scene victims.
The location of the crime scene-gravesite is on the west bank of the Snake River at the old Bear Island Crossing, six miles north of Idaho Falls.
Wilke did a second excavation of the crime scene and, though not conclusive, he did recover enough artifacts to convince him that his victims were indeed Small and Kelly.
Now able to view his crime scene as a fugitive’s camp, Wilkie wrote his own hypothesis as to the fate of Small and Kelly, and $40,000 in gold never recovered.
Wilkie wrote… “Small and Kelly reached the ford [Old Bear Island Crossing] at night and attempted to cross the river. The weary and heavily laden mules lost their footing and fell into the shallow but swift current.
They were washed down into a large pool where an eddy kept them trapped until they and the gold were covered with sediment and debris.
The men swam back to safety and crawled up the riverbank to dry out during the night.
The next day they built a makeshift camp and tried to recover the loot, but without success.
Someone just as greedy as they were discovered what they were up to and bushwhacked them, burying their bodies in the field near the river. I’m convinced the $40,000 in gold is somewhere near Bear Island.
this would be located about 20 miles south of where i am currently located.
gene2393
Armed Robbery, Double Homicide Case Closed
BONNEVILLE COUNTY – For the residents of sleepy Idaho Falls, in rural Bonneville County, Idaho, it was a morning that began like any other. It was 1954 and, in a county known for its large cattle ranches and delicious farm produce, crime was a rarity and murder almost unheard of. This morning would be anything but routine for Sheriff Dean F. Wilkie and Deputy Fred W. Keefer.
A farmer reported finding a human skull while plowing his field that morning and Sheriff Wilkie and Deputy Keefer soon arrived at the scene.
After interviewing the farmer he took the lawmen to the site where he’d been plowing and subsequently unearthed the skull.
Both officers slowly started processing the crime scene, which by mid-day revealed a complete skeleton protruding from a shallow grave.
The case was perplexing from the start. No missing persons had been reported locally and nothing across the Teletype recently offered any clues to help identify the victim.
Looking for any clue, the officers carefully widened their excavation into the afternoon.
Then the unthinkable happened. From the same shallow grave a second skeleton started taking form. By the time Wilkie and Keefer had completed their grisly task they knew almost nothing.
The lawmen surmised the victims were two American males, both murdered. Bones sent to Washington, D.C., for forensic examination indicated the victims were both white males in their fifties.
Sheriff Wilkie worked the case until he took an early retirement in 1956, one year before his term would’ve ended.
Deputy Keefer was appointed acting sheriff until the next sheriff-elect, Al Heslop, was sworn in, in 1957. By now the first double-murder case in Bonneville County history had gone cold.
The case haunted Wilkie into his retirement; he continued to work it on his own. Then he remembered a long-forgotten conversation he’d had years before with a friend named Sidney Close, now an elderly man and a long retired sheriff of Clark County, Idaho. Wilkie met with Close and, after some reminiscing, Wilkie put the old lawman’s brain to the test.
Wilkie asked Close if he remembered a conversation they’d had years earlier about a robbery that occurred near Grasshopper Creek, Montana. Like it happened yesterday, the sheriff didn’t miss a beat… “Small and Kelly were their names. They robbed the stage up near Grasshopper Creek back in oh-two, [1902] as I recall. Got $40,000 in gold, never caught ‘em.”
Wilkie fired right back, “Do you remember telling me something about them being in Spencer?” This was the critical information Wilkie needed.
Close remembered getting word of the hold-up and that two fugitives had been chased south into Idaho, so he was told to keep a lookout for them. A couple days passed without news, then he heard of… “A couple of fellas who came through Spencer one night with four mules loaded down pretty heavy.” Close admitted he figured it was Small and Kelly, but after passing through Spencer they simply vanished, he added.
“The more I thought of those bones, the more I became convinced they were the remains of Small and Kelly,” Wilkie wrote.
And if Sheriff Close, Ret., was correct and it was Small and Kelly seen in Spencer that night, then Wilkie could place them both 56 miles north, heading south, and on the same road as his crime scene victims.
The location of the crime scene-gravesite is on the west bank of the Snake River at the old Bear Island Crossing, six miles north of Idaho Falls.
Wilke did a second excavation of the crime scene and, though not conclusive, he did recover enough artifacts to convince him that his victims were indeed Small and Kelly.
Now able to view his crime scene as a fugitive’s camp, Wilkie wrote his own hypothesis as to the fate of Small and Kelly, and $40,000 in gold never recovered.
Wilkie wrote… “Small and Kelly reached the ford [Old Bear Island Crossing] at night and attempted to cross the river. The weary and heavily laden mules lost their footing and fell into the shallow but swift current.
They were washed down into a large pool where an eddy kept them trapped until they and the gold were covered with sediment and debris.
The men swam back to safety and crawled up the riverbank to dry out during the night.
The next day they built a makeshift camp and tried to recover the loot, but without success.
Someone just as greedy as they were discovered what they were up to and bushwhacked them, burying their bodies in the field near the river. I’m convinced the $40,000 in gold is somewhere near Bear Island.
this would be located about 20 miles south of where i am currently located.
gene2393
0
Comments
That is what I would believe, based on the story.
Two crooks, one male and one female. Both caught.
I think it's a good story but that's probably what it is. Four mules could easily carry $40,000
in gold. About 165 troy pounds. Not a problem and doubt that it could drown a mule even
if one had it all.
Trivia-library.com
bob
edited to add: Sure would be great to know the name of the stage line. Be much easier to
research. Date would be a necessary tool as well. Certainly reported in the newspapers of
the day.
Then again there was the Jarbridge stage robbery in winter of 1916. Mine payroll was robbed
and the coach disappeared. Fred Searcy was shot in the head and the coach hidden in the
willows alongside the road. Mail sack was gone. Dog found the mail sac, less the payroll money.
Ben Cole was determined to be the culprit as the dog tracked him to his shack. Tried in Elko, NV
he was found guilty as the prosecution introduced into evidence hand print. It was the
first time a print was ever used in a trial in the US. Although he plead innocent, he later admitted
it and spent 22 years in maximum security. Released in 1944 and died 6 months later. The gold,
$4,000, was never recovered. This was the last stage robbery in the US, and it might just be
worth a trip to Jarbridge to check it out (N. Nevada along the Idaho line). Sounds familiar?
Watch the story here:
bob
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