Hands Up; or Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains — Part 175

INVESTIGATING THE TURNER MURDER--A WICKED DEED FOLLOWED BY A GENERAL DEBAUCH--FLIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS WITH THEIR VICTIM'S REMAINS--SALE OF HIS TEAMS AND WAGONS--THE FATHER'S UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH--DETECTIVE CARR CALLED IN--WELCOME ARRESTED IN CHEYENNE AND CONFRONTED BY TURNER'S FATHER--CONFESSION AND TRIAL OF THE MURDERER.

At Park City there were found witnesses who had seen the murderers on the evening of the tragedy, before and after its occurrence, and their conduct had been shameful in the extreme. Whether a quarrel was picked with Turner was not known, but the circumstances went to show that there had been no quarrel, but that the murderers had found their victim sitting, and had advanced upon him from his rear, striking him in the head with a heavy axe, the blow being of such force as to cleave the skull and produce instant death. Welcome asserted after his capture that the blow had been struck by Emerson, but all the circumstances went to show that Welcome himself had wielded the death-dealing weapon. The skull wound showed that the blow had been struck by a left-handed person, and Welcome was left-handed.

There were also several persons who had seen blood on his garments after the tragedy had occurred, as it had spurted upon him from his victim. His threats, too, were remembered. About 11 o'clock on the night of the killing, and after it had occurred, there were several who had seen Emerson and Welcome at a dance house where they seemed to be especially hilarious, drinking and dancing with the girls and making themselves especially agreeable to those whom they met. One man who was in the dance house at the time noticed blood on Welcome's shirt front and asked him what it meant. Welcome at first tried to hide the blood; apparently upon second thought, threw his vest open and showed the blood, and also pulled up his coat sleeve and showed blood on that, saying as he did so:

"I hit a s-- of a b-- to-night, and I hit him hard, too. I not only hit him, but I pinched his windpipe for him."

Several others saw the blood and to them he made this same speech, but no one supposed that anything more than an ordinary fight had occurred, and none gave the matter a second thought.