In January 1909, a mysterious note lured a prominent Montana mining man into the cold darkness of a winter night. By dawn, he was dying in a snowdrift outside a hospital he had been summoned to visit.
The victim was John Hancock, a well-known figure in Helena’s mining community and a former president of the miners’ union. According to newspaper reports, Hancock received a message claiming that a union official was seriously ill and wished to see him at St. John’s Catholic Hospital. Trusting the request, he set out into the night.
He never returned home.
Hours later, Hancock was discovered unconscious just a few feet from the hospital entrance. Though still alive when found, he died shortly afterward, leaving police allegedly perplexed.
Investigators quickly determined that the supposed sender of the message may have known nothing about it.
Phone Calls Man to Death
HELENA, Montana. — The Helena police are today working on a mysterious case, which has proved most baffling. Early this morning John Hancock, a well known mining man and former president of the miners’ union, was found lying unconscious in the front yard of the St. John’s Catholic Hospital.
Last night he received a note purporting to be from the secretary of the miners’ union, stating that he was in the hospital and desired very much to see Hancock.
He responded and his body was found lying in a snowdrift at 5 o’clock this morning within a few feet of the hospital doors.
He was still living and was taken into the hospital, but lived only a few hours.
It is supposed by the police that the author of the note was not at the hospital and is in entire ignorance of the affair. There is no clue to the perpetrators.
Source: The Tacoma Times. Tacoma, Wash. January 16, 1909.
