Billings’ double-ax murder

I’d bet that most, if not almost all Montana natives like me and also people who’ve lived in Billings most of their life–me–or all their life, have never heard of the event I’m writing about here. A century after it occurred, this double-ax murder in Billings remains unsolved and ranks as one of the most heinous crimes ever committed in the Magic City.

I first became aware of this crime a few months ago. And, while awaiting the return of the manuscript for my Dave McNally biography from my editor, I had time on my hand. So, I started researching this event. There may be a book here.

Read on …

Anna Erickson wondered why her neighbors, Nels and Annie Anderson, hadn’t come home. It was 7:30 a.m. on December 7, 1924, and she hadn’t seen the Andersons since they left for work the day before. Erickson worked as a housekeeper for the Andersons at their home, at 738 Custer Avenue in Billings, Montana, and she knew them as reliable people. Prohibition had begun four years earlier, and people, including Billings residents, were known to frequent speakeasies and party in defiance of the law,. The Andersons, however, were not the type to stay out late, or all night, guzzling rum and other illicit spirits.

The Andersons owned and operated a barber shop and a marcel parlor (women’s beauty shop) at 2912 Minnesota Avenue, in the heart of Billings’ bustling business district. The business was open the previous day, December 6, and Erickson expected the Andersons to come home and attend to their four young children shortly after closing the shop in late afternoon or early evening that day.

Dusk had passed, and darkness was setting in on Saturday, December 6, 1924, as the Andersons prepared to close their shop at 2911 Minnesota Avenue in Billings, Montana.

The couple needed to take groceries they had purchased earlier (perhaps from Kirk’s Grocery, which was in the next building west), to their car parked outside the shop, and drive home. The family lived not far away on a street on what was then the West End of bustling Billings, which had picked up the nickname of “Magic City” a couple decade earlier, a tribute to it being one of the country’s fastest-growing cities.

The Andersons never made it home. They were victims of a grisly double-ax murder that shocked Billings. A century later, the crime is still unsolved. It no longer is even listed as a cold case by the Billings Police Department.

Here’s how the double murder was discovered, based on accounts in the Billings Gazette: The day after the Andersons failed to show up, Mrs. Erickson, a widow worried by the failure of the couple to come home, notified police. Corporal Charles Heagney and Traffic Officer William Laurelle went to the shop where they saw the Anderson’s auto still parked outside.

The officers peered under the drawn shades of a window and got their first glimpse of the gruesome scene inside. They saw one of Nels Anderson’s hands dangling over a chair. The cops broke open the door, and the murder scene lay in full view.

The officers found Mrs. Anderson, her hat and fur coat on, lying in a shed in the rear of the shop. Mr. Anderson was sitting in a barber chair with his overcoat and one glove on, the other lying on the floor. Officers deduced that the intruder had killed Mrs. Anderson in the marcel parlor because it was blood splattered. Blood had also sprayed the groceries. Then her killer or killers had dragged her body into the shed.

Authorities quickly ruled out robbery as a motive for the crime. The cash register sat undisturbed, and they found money in the pockets of both victims. Police had no clues to use in solving the crime. Perhaps the murderer wore a glove and used it to wipe the ax handle. Yet, there were signs that the killer washed their bloody hands at the shop bowl. Police were unable to get any fingerprints.

A young woman who walked by the shop at about 9 p.m. on the day of the crime told police she heard loud talk inside. Possibly Mr. Anderson and what was described as a dark man, maybe someone of Mexican descent, were arguing. But, in the prejudiced thinking of the time in Billings and elsewhere in the country, it was thought unlikely that a Mexican would have used an ax for a violent crime. Mexicans usually committed petty crimes, and they carried out killings with pistols and knives, according to the Gazette.

“The nature of the crime suggests rather a degenerate — and one of great activity,” the paper’s report said.

All of the Andersons’ four children are deceased. Several family members, however, including grandchildren and at least one great-grandson, are still alive and are keenly interested in this case. I’ve been in touch with a trio of family members. One of them, a great-grandson, has developed a theory about who the murderer of the Andersons might have been. He’s based his thinking on the 2017 book by Bill James, The Man From The Train.

With this individual’s permission, I’ll discuss the theory in a future newsletter issue.

Sources: “History in Blood,” by Lorna Thackeray, Billings Gazette, May 6, 2007

Also, articles in the Billings Gazette, from when the crime occurred and soon after, December 1924 through early in 1925, accessed on newspapers.com