Grand Teton National Park (Wyo.); Jackson Hole (Wyo.)
Wolff, Dr. W. A. Hocker (a surgeon from Evanston), and a couple of
Wolff’s neighbors from Teton Basin hurried to the scene of the killings,
a place which has ever since been known as Deadman’s Bar. They readily
identified the bodies, Tiggerman by his size, and Kellenberger from the
absence of two fingers on his right hand. They found that Kellenberger
had been shot twice in the back, that Welter had an axe cut in the head,
and that Tiggerman’s head was crushed, presumably also with an axe.
Wolff gave it as their conclusion that the 3 men must have been killed
while asleep; and that their bodies had been hauled up onto the “rim”
and rolled down the gravel bluff into the river, where they had lodged
in shallow water and subsequently been covered with rocks. Probably the
water had fallen, more fully exposing the bodies so that they had been
discovered by Frye’s men.
Wolff and Hocker removed the heads of Welter and Tiggerman and cleaned
the skulls, preserving them as evidence. Wolff denied that they buried
the bodies, but claimed that they threw them back in the edge of the
water and covered them again with rocks.
Tonnar pleaded not guilty and was taken to Evanston, the county seat of
Unita County (which then embraced the westernmost strip of Wyoming
Territory), and here he was tried the following spring before Judge
Samuel Corn. Wolff was called to testify at the trial, mentioning, among
other things, the incident of the watch and the purse, both of which he
was positive Tonnar had stolen from his murdered partners.
To the general surprise of Wolff, Judge Corn, and others present at the
trial, Tonnar was acquitted by the jury, despite the certainty of his
guilt. What subsequently became of him is not clear. Wolff was
questioned on this point, and at first declined to speak, later,
however, expressing the belief that Tonnar probably went back to the old
country for fear that friends of Welter, Tiggerman and Kellenberger
might take the law into their own hands since the jury had failed to
convict him.
Concerning the question of motive for the killing, Wolff stated that he
knew Tonnar and the 3 men quarreled. The original partners planned to
turn Tonnar loose when his services were no longer needed in sluice
digging, etc., minus his share in the cleanup. To discourage his
persisting with their outfit they had beaten him up badly a few days
prior to the murders; but instead of leaving Tonnar had stayed at camp,
nursing his bruises and plans for revenge, finally carrying out the
latter to the consummation already described. Wolff did not believe that
robbery was a factor of much importance in instigating the crime.
* * * * * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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