Unsolved murders are the scars of crime

May 18--Part one of a two-part series.

The clues that can solve a murder are like bread crumbs.

As minutes, then days, then weeks, then years slide by, they crumble away and are eaten up by the birds of time. The trail can no longer be seen. The people who walked it are gone and only sad questions and whispered rumors remain.

Unsolved murders scar a community's history. The Lewiston Tribune asked area historians about some of the region's coldest cases starting from the time of settlement. The most common were vigilante killings, sometimes called "necktie parties," where eye-for-an-eye mob justice superseded a fair trial. The murderers in these cases were never identified, except in family lore.

Many of the following accounts and photos were gathered by Lewiston historians Steven Branting and Ron Karlberg, historical archaeologist Priscilla Wegars of Moscow, the Nez Perce County and Asotin County historical societies, and the Lewiston Police Department.

1861

Four murders were committed in a two-week period in Lewiston in 1861. In one, two masked men entered a house in December and, in spite of resistance, carried off $500 ($13,000 today), leaving one inhabitant shot to death. -- Steven Branting

1862

Longtime Lewiston businessman Robert Grostein reported that a man was murdered on Main Street the first night he spent in town in the spring of 1862. -- Branting

On Nov. 8, 1862, masked members of the Lewiston Vigilante Association overpowered the guards at the city's jail on First Street and took Dave English, Bill Peoples and Charley Scott "into custody." The three men were accused of robbing the Berry brothers at gunpoint as they carried supplies from Florence to Lewiston. The accused were found dead the next morning, "hanging by the neck" in a barn. One of the brothers, John G. Berry, was elected sheriff a few years later. -- Branting/Asotin County Historical Society

1885

A roadside sign and a trail outside Pierce at Hangman's Gulch leads to the site where five Chinese were hanged by vigilantes Sept. 18, 1885.

The hanging was in revenge for the murder of David M. Fraser, the only white storekeeper in Pierce in 1885. Fraser's body was discovered in his store, attacked with a hatchet or multiple blades and a gun, according to some accounts. Nothing was stolen, so Caucasians in the area concluded jealous rival Chinese storekeepers had committed the crime.

Citizens in Nez Perce and Idaho counties formed a vigilante committee and headed to Pierce, where locals had already arrested several Chinese. The posse rounded up more and began questioning the men, ending up with five guilty parties.

With very few Euro-Americans in the area, compared to 350 Chinese living in Pierce and many more mining nearby streams, the jailers feared an uprising. They decided to send the prisoners to Murray, the county seat, for trial.

About four miles out of town, they were attacked by "masked men" who were Caucasians masquerading as American Indians. They surrounded the party, set up a pole between two trees and attempted to hang all five. The pole broke and they had to get another. No one was ever punished for the lynchings. -- Pricilla Wegars

1887

More than 30 Chinese miners were murdered for their gold while working along the Snake River in May 1887.

The crime was discovered when bodies began washing up around Lewiston. A group of Chinese working 65 miles south of Lewiston at Deep Creek was ambushed by a group of white men. Other groups working along the river may have also been attacked.

Different versions of the story tell of the thieves "pouring lead" into the Chinese. One man was beaten to death with rocks or driftwood. One of the accused killers was quoted as having said he thought he was doing his country a favor.

Six men were accused of the crime. Three fled and were never seen again. Three were found innocent after a three-day trial for which few records exist. The gold, about $5,000 ($121,950 today), was never found.

Deep Creek was renamed Chinese Massacre Cove in 2005. -- Gregory Nokes, author of "Massacred for Gold, The Chinese in Hells Canyon"

1893

Albert B. Roberts worked as a farmhand for John Sutherland near Leland, Idaho. The Sutherlands discharged Roberts and withheld $5 ($120 today) in pay over a dispute about some missing money.

Roberts later confronted Sutherland in town and a fight broke out. Roberts pulled his revolver and killed Sutherland with three shots to the abdomen. He was arrested and brought to Lewiston.

A masked mob of probably a dozen men arrived at the town jail Jan. 2, 1893, and forced its way in, overpowering Deputy W.W. Wright. Newly elected Sheriff Eben Mounce was alerted by his deputy's gunshots, but the mob escaped with Roberts, whose warm but lifeless body was found near the Wesley Mulkey mill (near 13th and Main streets).

No one in the mob was ever identified. Mounce later served in the Idaho state Legislature. -- Branting/Nez Perce County Historical Society

1896

After visiting friends in Lapwai, Olive Richardson was returning home to Enterprise, Ore., by horseback in 1896 when she was "violated" by a man about four miles from Asotin.

Richardson went to Asotin to report the crime. Frank Viles was arrested and identified by her as the attacker.

That night, seven or eight men hid outside the jail and took the deputy sheriff by surprise. Viles was quietly lynched in the Asotin jail yard. -- Asotin County Historical Society

1897

The body of John Levi, a noted Nez Perce tribal member, was found near Lewiston on Feb. 5, 1897. Levi had recently left Lewiston headed for Lapwai.

Levi was the proprietor of an Indian gambling resort called Levi's Hell and had a history of run-ins with Lewiston's police department.

At the time of his death he was out of jail on bond, waiting to answer to a charge of highway robbery. -- Branting

1903

Mabel Richards, the 12-year-old daughter of Asotin County Sheriff Robert Richards, was walking to Sunday school near Anatone in August 1903 when she was accosted, choked and bludgeoned to death with a pine club.

Searchers found her body and her remains were put on display at an Asotin funeral parlor where hundreds came to view her and the weapon.

The accused, William Hamilton, 26, confessed before a coroner's jury Aug. 4. The jury was to issue a verdict Aug. 5. "I thought no more about it than killing a cat," Hamilton told the Lewiston Tribune. His father told the reporter his son was forever "altered" after being run over by heavy machinery as a child.

That night, an estimated 300 to 600 people gathered in Asotin. Close to midnight a mob assembled. "A white cloud of dust from the hooves of a hundred horses signaled their coming down the hillside." More than a dozen masked men marched abreast to the city jail. The guard was overwhelmed. A shot was fired and a hundred more masked men appeared.

Hamilton was carried out with a rope around his neck. The dust from the mob "blinded the vision," the reporter wrote. At the corner of First and Filmore streets, the rope was thrown over a guy wire and Hamilton was tugged to his death instead of dropped.

People lit matches to see his blackened face and cheered before leaving the body to hang until dawn. -- Asotin County Historical Society

1906

At about 5 p.m.Jan. 15, 1906, children were playing in a lot in their neighborhood when Charley Lee came running home and excitedly told Mrs. V.A. Bilderback that her dog was playing with a human hand.

Police confirmed the finding after a brief investigation. A Dr. Costello said it was the limb of an old woman. The gruesome discovery was made near a pavilion that was used in the summer for dancing. An arm was also found. Police tied up the dog and denied it food for most of a day in hopes the animal might lead them to the rest of the remains.

No one was reported missing in the area. The case was never solved. -- Branting

1926Prominent Lewiston merchant Robert Lee Rivers went missing on Jan. 10, 1926.

He had gone to Spokane to buy stock for the Emerson-Rivers Company. He stayed at the Coeur d'Alene Hotel that evening and was not seen again. The search for him was extensive but without success.

In May 1933, his wife, Birdie, filed suit for a judgment to declare him legally dead and obtain the $2,000 ($40,000 today) life insurance policy he had taken out. She won her case on Dec. 5. -- Branting

1947

On June 16, 1947, Dorothy Louise Weiler left her home for a short bicycle ride and never returned.

An intensive search by local and state agencies failed to find her. Her mother filed documents in February 1955 to have the missing woman declared legally dead to recover costs of payment on her life insurance policy. -- Branting

1949

On July 19, 1949, retired Potlatch Forests Inc., logger George Lecovich, 62, was found dead, hands bound in front of his chest with a cheap necktie on the shore of the Clearwater River behind 1603 Main St. in Lewiston.

The body was discovered by Lester Bray, a 29-year-old transient who lived in the shell of a wrecked 1928 Chevrolet sedan nearby.

The case was labeled a "jungletown" death, named for the area of town near Holbrook Island called the Hobo Jungle where the homeless took refuge. The crime was never solved. With the arrival of the dams, Holbrook Island was submerged. -- Ron Karlberg

1953

In March 1953, Louis Conrad, 61, of Hatwai, was shot through the heart while he stood in his self-service gas station at Lewiston's North and South Highway.

Robbery was the apparent motive, as the station's cash drawer was missing. His wife found his body when she stopped by the station at 10 p.m. with his evening meal. No witnesses or suspects were ever found.

Ironically, a nearby billboard displayed an illustration of a boy pointing two guns at a service station man with the words, "Extra Friendly Service." -- Karlberg/Lewiston Police Department

1956

A 29-year-old "blonde divorcee" was found strangled in her home in the Jess Apartments, the Lewiston Tribune reported Sept. 27, 1956.

Jean Johnson's body was discovered after she failed to appear for work as a clerk at the Normal Hill office of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co.Nez Perce County Prosecutor Wynne M. Blake said the position of the body indicated sex may have been the motive for the killing and that Johnson was strangled with bare hands. Robbery was ruled out.

Johnson was the mother of two daughters, ages 3 and 6, who lived with her parents in Kendrick. Her former husband was ruled out as a suspect because he was stationed in the Philippine Islands with the U.S. Navy.

Her killer was never found. -- Karlberg

1961

Roy and Loretta Madison were found shot to death in the bedroom of their First Avenue home on Normal Hill on Sept. 24, 1961.

Roy, 67, worked as a night watchman at Seabrook Farms. Loretta, 64, was a fourth-grade teacher at Holy Family Catholic School in Clarkston.

Their bodies were discovered after police found their 1957 Chevrolet sedan abandoned 45 miles west of Clarkston. The house was unlocked with no signs of forced entry. Neighbors reported hearing sounds the night before. A man in his 20s was seen hitchhiking from the location of the car toward Colfax and Spokane.

Numerous suspects were investigated over the decades but the case remains unsolved. -- Karlberg

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Bauer may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2263.

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