WALTER S. KENNEDY
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 1 - April 7, 1933
OPERATOR OE ILLICIT STILL BURNED TO DEATH IN CABIN
BADLY CHARED BODY DISCOVERED BY TWO PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS SATURDAY AT HIDEOUT ON DEEP CREEK—CATTSE OF FIRE UNKNOWN .
The body of Walter S . Kennedy , a midd . e aged man , who had been operating a still in . Deep creek canon , was discovered by two young men Saturday morning , when they visited Kennedy s cabin in quest of liquor The cabin where Kennedy Uvea and had his still is located about one and one-half miles from the mouth of the creek . The young men had walked up to the place , and after failing to find Kennedy , tried the door . Discovering that it was fastened on the inside with a button , were satisfied that he must be on the inside . Getting no response from him they worked the button fastener loose and opened the door , to be confronted with a grewsome sight Kennedy s body lay near the door , to the left , the lower half burned to a crisp . Both feet were burned off to the knees , both hands burned to a crisp and tho reat of hU body badly cooked by the flames which had snuffed out his life . The men closed the door and returned to Dotsero from where they telephoned Sheriff Wilson . The latter , together with District Attorney Meehan and Coroner Conway , immediately went to the scene and made a thorough investigation . No evi
dence could be found of foul play . A barrel of mash and a crude stih were In the cabin . But , apparently , the still had not been working tor several days , and the catastrophe was not caused from it . Thursday Kennedy was down to Dotstero and Gypsum and when he left Dotser . - ) to return home he was highly intoxicated , according to men who saw his there . A man named Barnei wont home with him ana helped him up the trail to the cabin . At the cabin tho two men sat and drank liquor , according to Barnes story . When tho latter was ready to leave , Kennedy , who said he baa a three gallon jug with whisky in it cached , went to It and got a pint for Tarncs to lake with him . When the latter left , so he told the sheriff , Ke :. nedy was very drunk . When the sheriff s party arrived to investigate , the jug which Kennedy had referred to was found in the cabin near the body , cracked and broken by the heat of the fire , and , of course empty . Barnes stated that when he was in the cabin the jug was not in sight in the cabin . The theory la that Kennedy had brought the cache of whisky into the cabm fastened the door and proceeded to
tank up by his lonesome . While lying on the bed , he probably tried to light a p . pe or cigarett and threw the lighted match wfcere he started the conflagration . By that time he probably was too far gone in liquor to get out of the burning cabin . Barnes stated insofar as he could see there waa no Are in the crude fire place while he was there . Kennedy was ostensibly prospecting for coal , and letters and receipts from the Denver land office , found in a box In the cabin , indicated that he had applied for a permit for tha purpose . In a code letter , which h had written to a friend and not mailed , and which the sheriff and his undersheriff , Eldon Wilson , decoded Saturday n ght , revealed Kennedy s plans , associates and business . The names discovered in the letter were not made public by Sheriff Wilson ,
but aided him in making a thorough investigation of the affair . Among other plans Kennedy s letter disclosed that he figured on doing a good business in peddling both whiskey and beer to fishing parties on Deep creek the coming season . The body was brought to Gypsum Saturday evening and buried by County Mortician O . W . Meyer Sunday at Gypsum . A sister , Mrs . u . Bothweil , was located In Coldwater , Kan ., and a telegram received from her askecl the authorities to bury the body here . Coroner Conway and District Attorney Meehan decided that the expense of a coroner s inquest was unnecessary , as there was no evidence that there had been foul play of any kind . The ca bln was built Into the • Ede e * tfia MO , three or Wur fee from the ground up the walls were of dirt and stone , with the upper
part of heavy green logs , which accounts for the Cact that the cabin did not bum . o
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Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 7 - April 4, 1933
