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24 | SIGNATURE MONTANA James Basse, another of their victims, and they were sent to prison in Washington State. But they never le a body to be discovered, and so there was no murder case. at changed in the days before Annie was to be paroled in Walla Walla, Washington, in 1938. Her cellmate coerced her to confess. Annie claimed that her son commied four murders— Skidmore took his own life in his jail cell at Walla Walla, Washington. Anecestry.com Anaconda, Montana. Circa 1887. S MT two of them in the Anaconda house. She detailed the crimes, including that of the murder of Dorothy LaCasse, missing since 1923. She said her son brought the prey young woman home, where she stayed the night. He bashed her skull and dismembered her body in the house in Anaconda. Annie blamed her son but admied cleaning up and helping him dispose of the remains. Dorothy's fur coat, a diamond ring, and her nightgown (which Annie claimed to have slept in) were found in possession of Annie and Skidmore. She also detailed the murder of Ole Larson, whose blood authorities found on the bedroom wall in Anaconda. Annie claimed Skidmore shot him full of bullets. It was, however, the Basse case that garnered press from across the nation. Soon aer this confession, murder charges loomed and Skidmore commied suicide in prison. e rental house on East Commercial, by now with a colorful history of ghosts and hauntings, had mostly sat vacant. In 1937, the Alexander Beaudine family moved in, scorning the stories about the house. But in 1938, as the Basse became well known, Mrs. Gertrude Beaudine showed a reporter a wall in the house riddled with bullets, the holes filled with puy. She also showed him a trapdoor in the pantry leading to a body-sized space and a six-foot space in the backyard that repeatedly sunk and had to be filled every six weeks or so. Asked if there were ghosts in the house, Mrs. Beaudine replied, "Oh yes. ere are lots of ghosts." Annie was released from prison in 1953 and died in 1966 at age 100, cared for in a nursing home in Walla Walla at public expense. Urban Renewal razed the Anaconda house in 1974, and the address no longer exists, but the lot may still hold its secrets. One can only imagine. 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.

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