22 | SIGNATURE MONTANA
GOOSETOWN
TEXT BY ELLEN BAUMLER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY PROVIDED
e Sinister Saga of Shoebox Annie and Her Criminal Kin
Shadows & Secrets of
Residents of Anaconda's Goosetown neighborhood in the
1920s and 1930s will remember tales of Shoebox Annie,
a character many recall with distaste and even horror. So
great was the impression she le that even those growing
up in the 1950s avoided the area of Alder Street and East
Commercial Avenue. Her one-story frame rental house at
623 East Commercial had a small store in front of it. Mrs.
Annie French lived there with her son C.C. Skidmore, also
known as D. E. Montaigne and DeCastro Earle Mayer
(variously spelled DeCasto Earl). He was a flashy dresser
and a violent, habitual criminal who briefly worked as a
carpenter's helper. He reportedly killed at least three men
for money and one woman, perhaps because she may
have known too much about him.His one murder trial,
that of the killing of James Basse, was infamous across
the nation in 1938.
Mother and son were both incarcerated at the prison in Walla Walla, Washington.
