The 'Hell-Trap' Murderer Sentenced to Ten Years
A man who built a lethal spring-gun trap in a remote cabin is sentenced for the death of a laborer who simply sought shelter from the cold.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The death of Anderson at the hands of Sewell K. Barr is ended so far as the superior court of this county is concerned, the motion for a new trial having been overruled this morning and Barr sentenced to ten years imprisonment at hard labor in the state penitentiary at Walla Walla. This is the minimum punishment provided by law for murder in the second degree. Late last fall, Barr resided in a cabin in the outskirts of the city. Early in December, he and his companions went out upon a hunt. Before leaving, they nailed a board across the cabin door and rigged a heavily-loaded gun within such that anyone attempting to enter would be shot. About dark on the 12th of December, two Swedish laborers, Nels Anderson and John Erickson, on their way to a contractor's camp, stopped at the unoccupied cabin, intending to shelter there for the night. They had no money, having spent their last 5 cents for bread and meat. Erickson went ahead to open the door, leaving his companion a few paces back. While attempting to pull off the board, the hellish trap within was sprung, and Anderson fell backward dead, having received the full charge of slugs in his abdomen.
“While attempting to pull off a board which had been nailed across the doorway the hellish trap within was sprung, and Anderson fell backward dead.”
This horrific case of booby-trapping a residence reflects an extreme, violent era of frontier justice where property rights were often defended with lethal force. Today, the legal principle of 'deadly force in defense of property' remains a hot-button issue in American law, though modern courts are significantly less tolerant of traps designed to maim or kill trespassers.
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