“With his 12-gauge shotgun in hand, the rancher slowly and quietly, maneuvered from his hiding spot, into the hallway and proceeded to creep forward. Turning the corner into the undivided kitchen-dinning room, he could see the back of his hired hand’s head. The rancher moved with shear stealth, as if stocking a prey in the wild. Coming up from in back of him, he lowered the barrel directly behind Hugh’s head and pulled the trigger…. It was just the start of his killing spree.”
Near Custer, Washington, 1915
MURDER in the FOURTH CORNER: True Stories of Whatcom County’s Earliest Homicides includes thirteen stories dating from 1880 to 1933. Read about: The mad murders on the Delta leaving a young boy to tell the tale. The two deaths of prostitute Snowball Wallace by Russian sailors. Was Washington State’s first serial killer, the Maple Falls Monster? A rotting corpse in railroad Tunnel No. 21, and the dimwitted Barber of Bellingham. Try solving such ghastly discoveries as, who butchered the Elk Street butcher? And foul play in White Horn.
Sheriff’s comment
“Murder in the Fourth Corner brought vivid reality to the lives of the victims and their families and superbly provided a glimpse into the history and geography of Whatcom County in an earlier era. The tragedy and sorrow that devastated families generations ago does not differ much from those suffered today.”
- Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo
Read a review of the book here.
Murder in the Fourth Corner