48 | SIGNATURE MONTANA
A rear addition to the 1890 jail now covers the site of the 1875
hangings. Today the building functions as The Myrna Loy
Center for the performing arts.
As Sheriff Bullock had anticipated, a thousand spectators
crowded the rooops to witness the hanging. Aer the sheriff
read the death warrant, Wheatley calmly walked from the jail to
the gallows, climbed the thirteen steps, and addressed the crowd.
He neither admied nor denied his guilt but thanked his counsel
and asked forgiveness for his transgressions. e executioner
positioned the noose around his neck, placed a black hood over
his head, and bound his arms to his sides. Sheriff Bullock cut the
rope, releasing the trap, and Wheatley dropped.
Aer a brief new trial, a jury again found Sterres guilty of
murdering Franz Warl. Sheriff Bullock then presided over
Montana's second legal hanging minutes aer midnight on Friday,
October 28, 1875. As before, hundreds of spectators crowded the
roofs to witness the execution by moonlight.
Seth Bullock soon moved on to Deadwood, leaving hangings in
Montana to others. A new jail replaced the old jail in 1890, and
Bullock's legacy in Montana was mostly forgoen. His fame rests
in Deadwood and in the Bullock Hotel he and Star, his longtime
business partner, built in 1895. Many believe Bullock's ghost walks
the halls of the hotel.
For another forty years, treasure hunters combed Franz Warl's
charcoal pits between Colorado Gulch and Ten Mile Creek,
looking in vain for the fortune that may lie there still.
Author
photo.
Ellen Baumler, retired after 26 years as
the interpretive historian at the Montana
Historical Society, continues her mission
to tell Montana's lesser-known stories. She
is the author of many books and dozens of
articles on various Montana topics. This
article is an edited excerpt from Hidden
History of Helena, Montana, The History
Press, 2019, co-authored with Jon Axline.
S
MT