When you think of Wyoming history, mining or the Wild West are the images that typically come to mind. There is a dark secret hidden in the state’s past, however, and the tale is truly hair-raising.
During the early days of the mining boom, guests staying at a particular boarding house in one of the most popular cities in the Cowboy State kept disappearing. Unfortunately for them, they’d chosen lodgings with Wyoming’s first serial killer, and the truth of their fate is as shocking as it is gruesome.
The city of South Pass, Wyoming has the distinction of not only being one of the most successful mining boomtowns in Wyoming in the 1800s, but it was also the location where the state’s first - and some say worst - serial killer set up shop.
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/Flickr
When gold was discovered near South Pass in the 1860s, it became one of the fastest growing cities in Wyoming, attracting business people looking to capitalize on the needs of fortune-seekers flocking to the area.
By Jackson, W.H. 301 jwh00301 - U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library/Public Domain/Wikipedia
The Bartlett family came to South Pass in 1868, and opened a boarding house, offering a place for new arrivals and weary travelers to stay. Unfortunately, a startling number of guests checked in, but never got the chance to check out.
Graham Styles/Flickr
Accounts say that the daughter of the family, Polly, had a penchant for poisoning guests at the inn. Her victims were male and tended to be ones carrying gold and other valuables.
Tom Woodward/Flickr Several men seemed to vanish without a trace before the Pinkerton Detective Agency investigated any of the disappearances. When they tracked Barney Fortunes to the Bartlett Inn and weren’t able to determine what had happened to him from there, the Bartlett family got spooked. They left the area, prompting further suspicion and the posting of a $13,000 reward.
On the lam, Polly was arrested and jailed. However, before the investigation could go any further, she was shot through the window of her cell, supposedly by a friend of Barney Fortunes’. Reportedly, authorities later discovered the bodies of 22 young men buried in the corral at the Bartlett Inn.
Ron Lute/Flickr Though it was a chilling discovery, authorities felt that at least the case was solved.
What other spine-chilling tales are hiding in Wyoming’s past?
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/Flickr
By Jackson, W.H. 301 jwh00301 - U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library/Public Domain/Wikipedia
Graham Styles/Flickr
Tom Woodward/Flickr
Several men seemed to vanish without a trace before the Pinkerton Detective Agency investigated any of the disappearances. When they tracked Barney Fortunes to the Bartlett Inn and weren’t able to determine what had happened to him from there, the Bartlett family got spooked. They left the area, prompting further suspicion and the posting of a $13,000 reward.
Ron Lute/Flickr
Though it was a chilling discovery, authorities felt that at least the case was solved.
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