Dakota Datebook: Digging up Bones

June 25, 2019 — “Digging up bones, I’m digging up bones. I’m exhuming things that are better left alone.”

These are lyrics from one of Randy Travis’ hit songs about heartache and lost love. Of course, this song wasn’t out on this day in 1915, but had it been, it just might have been on the lips of Leo Verhulehn as he literally dug up bones.

Verhulehn had bought property between Niagara and Shawnee and was digging a cellar on this day, June 25, 1915, when he uncovered six skeletons covered by six feet of earth. Five of the skeletons appeared to be those of adults and the other that of a young child. All of the skulls were split open as though struck by an axe or other sharp instrument. The skeletons were found beneath a hole that was cut in the floor of the house.

The sheriff investigated the skeletons a few days later and came to the conclusion that the farmstead’s original owner; Eugene Butler was responsible for the deaths. At first, the skeletons were thought to be those of transient laborers, but further speculation led them to believe they were the skeletons of two housekeepers, their children, and one large, elderly man. According to area farmers, Butler had mentioned to them he was going to get rid of the housekeepers because they cost too much. Rather than dismissing them, however, it appeared he killed them and their children instead.

Butler homesteaded the land in 1882 and was considered a miser. Over the years he also grew paranoid. He’d awake during the night and prowl about his house and the surrounding land, convinced that someone was trying to break in.

He was committed to the asylum in Jamestown in 1906, and his condition grew worse. The asylum superintendent, W.M. Hotchkiss said that during his time in the asylum he “was haunted by the hallucination that ‘someone was after him,’” and also believed that if his photograph was ever taken, he would die.

Butler did die in 1912, just three years before the discovery of the bones. Upon the discovery of the skeletons and his gruesome crime, one must wonder if Butler really was hallucinating, or if he truly was haunted by the victims buried beneath his house.

The discovery of the bones was not the first time Butler had caused some excitement. His insanity, of course, had caused much, especially when he was taken to the asylum and $6,000 was discovered in his house. It was also discovered that he was the owner of 480 acres of land in Grand Forks County.

The discovery of bones only added more mystery to this recluse’s life and brought more than 150 people from the surrounding area to the farmstead. The miser had certainly made this day in 1915 one to remember. In fact, the buried bones caused so much excitement that according to the Grand Forks Daily Herald, the visitors who came to the farmstead “carried off small pieces of the bones as souvenirs.”

“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from the North Dakota Humanities Council. See all the Dakota Datebooks at prairiepublic.org, or subscribe to the “Dakota Datebook” podcast.