September
15, 1919 – Oscar Lindgren, C. J. Winton’s gardener, was taken
into custody this afternoon for further questioning, and an announcement was
made that evidence gathered so far would be placed before the grand jury
tomorrow in connection with the search being conducted by Sheriff Oscar
Martinson and members of the county attorney’s office for the murder of
Madeline LaCount Friday at her cottage home on the Winton estate, Northome,
Lake Minnetonka.
Oscar Lindgren, gardener at Winton estate1
It was Lindgren who gave the sheriff’s force information that a stranger in an automobile asked him about the LaCounts Friday afternoon. Trailing the stranger is one of the strongest clues in the case according to Sheriff Martinson, and a careful description of his appearance and actions is being sought through Lindgren.
Questioning of Lindgren was in progress this afternoon and will be continued tomorrow morning. Meanwhile Ralph LaCount, husband of the murdered woman, also is being held at the county jail while the investigation goes on.
Ralph LaCount, murdered woman’s husband2
The grand jury will be told details of the investigation tomorrow, it was announced through the county attorney’s office, and a shirt and a pair of trousers believed to contain blood stains, will be introduced as evidence. The garments were found a short distance from the Winton estate by Tom Gleason and John P. Hoy, special investigators of the county attorney’s office.
Today Sheriff Martinson’s deputies were busy following several clues that were believed might lead to the identification of the mysterious stranger seen near the LaCount home. Anonymous telephone calls and an unsigned letter were received during the day and the information offered was run down.
One telephone call claimed that a former sweetheart of Mrs. LaCount lived in Stillwater, and that an automobile answering the description of the one Lindgren says he saw Friday was seen there. Several deputies went to Stillwater but found no grounds for suspicion there.
Late in the afternoon another telephone call to the sheriff said the stranger probably lived in a certain town in Wis. This clue will be investigated tomorrow.
This evening a special delivery letter was received that said if authorities would interview a man at a certain address on Nicollet Ave., they might gain valuable information. This tip will also be traced tomorrow.
It was learned last night that late Sunday night a man, considerably excited, hailed a cab on Cedar Street, St. Paul, and urged the driver to take him to “Randolph and Clark Streets, Chicago.” This is another possible clue that is being tracked. A careful examination of grounds surrounding the LaCount cottage was made again today, and at the conclusion of the investigation, William M. Nash, county attorney, said the authorities had reached the conclusion that the murderer left the home either by an old Indian trail passing between the cottage and the Winton garage and reaching the main road alongside the Winton estate, or by boat.
Map showing LaCount cottage on Winton estate2
The shirt and trousers thought to contain blood stains are being examined by the city chemist. It was said by the county attorney’s investigators that one pocket in the trousers showed suspicious stains. The clothes were found a short distance from the Winton property.
A community funeral, attended by 300 friends and acquaintances of Mrs. LaCount and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Covell, was held at the Covell home in North Hudson this afternoon. Ralph LaCount, by special permission from Sheriff Martinson, motored to Hudson to attend his wife’s funeral, accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Archie Buck and his sister-in-law, Miss Beatrice Covell.
The Rev. R. W. Shaw, pastor of the Baptist church at Hudson, conducted the services. LaCount frequently broke down during the services and later at Willow River Cemetery near Hudson, where burial took place. He returned late this afternoon to his cell at the county jail.
Madelin Covell La Count’s family says her family life was a happy one,
and yet she was buried under her maiden name.3
and yet she was buried under her maiden name.3
Other garments found near the LaCount cottage, and thought to have contained blood stains, on examination proved to oil stains.
The sheriff’s office gave more credence today to the theory that the murderer of Mrs. LaCount left the vicinity at the Deephaven station. Stains in the grass and gravel road, which the investigators believe might have been blood stains, were traced toward the station yesterday.
Residents in this vicinity had asserted that a stranger
had been seen going toward the Deephaven station the day of the murder.
In his cell in the county jail LaCount said today that he was glad he was under arrest.
“If I were not questioned now,” he said, “people would be likely to suspect me 20 years from now.”
Dr. E. T. Robertson, professor of pathology at the University of Minnesota, and an expert on autopsies, who assisted county authorities in conducting Mrs. LaCount’s autopsy, believes it would have been possible for the victim to have lived for several hours after being slashed in the throat by the bread knife and hit over the head with the baseball bat.
Dr. Robertson told the county attorney the knife wound received by Mrs. LaCount would not have caused immediate death. It was possible, he said, that the blow inflicted by means of the baseball bat may have caused instant death, or it may have been inflicted in such a manner as not to have caused instant death, and the woman may have rolled about the floor and moaned after having been struck.
This is statement coincides with a neighbors assertion that sounds were heard in the LaCount cottage after Ralph LaCount is said to have left home to drive Miss Helen Winton, his employer’s daughter, from the Winton estate to Minneapolis.
W. L. Meyers, proprietor of a restaurant that LaCount patronized before his marriage and where he occasionally brought his wife, told the county authorities today that LaCount ate his lunch there Friday. Meyers said LaCount did not seem nervous or excited, and that LaCount frequently talked to him about Mrs. LaCount.
Meyers also told the authorities of a strange incident that happened in his restaurant Saturday morning. He said that while patrons in his restaurants were discussing the crime, one of them, a stranger to the proprietor, suddenly cried out, “I did it!”
The man, according to Meyers, then ran out of the café and, hailing a passing taxi, jumped in and was driven away. No one in the restaurant that morning recognized the man, but the authorities have been furnished with a good description.
Miss Covell said she had visited the LaCount home recently and also when Mr. and Mrs. LaCount recently were in Hudson to visit their parents, that their home life seemed a happy one.
“I can’t believe that Ralph had anything to do with my sister’s death,” Miss Covell said today. “He made Madeline a good husband and they seemed so contented.”
With her father stunned by the murder of his daughter, and the mother, prostrated at home in Hudson, the brunt of the task of clearing up the mystery of the tragedy has fallen on the shoulders of Miss Covell, and she is aiding the authorities in every way possible.
1The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Oscar Lindgren Is held for Murder Investigation. Evidence Gathered in LaCount Case Goes to Grand Jury. Stained Shirt and Trousers Found—Many Clues Trailed.”; September 16, 1919; pp. 1 & 2.
2The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “LaCount Held; Wife’s Murder Still Mystery. Husband Under Fire of Questions By County Officials. Another Man May Be Taken Into Custody Today. Knife Used Before Baseball Bat--$500 Reward for Slayer. Photograph of Man Believed Implicated Found Near Cottage.”; Sept. 14, 1919; pp. 1 & 2.
3https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115193041
Brutal murder in 1919 near Lake Minnetonka; see Sept. 12, 2018 blog.
Ralph LaCount, whose 16-yer-old bride was murdered, was taken into custody this afternoon and “held for investigation.”; see Sept. 13, 2018 blog.
In his cell in the county jail LaCount said today that he was glad he was under arrest.
“If I were not questioned now,” he said, “people would be likely to suspect me 20 years from now.”
Dr. E. T. Robertson, professor of pathology at the University of Minnesota, and an expert on autopsies, who assisted county authorities in conducting Mrs. LaCount’s autopsy, believes it would have been possible for the victim to have lived for several hours after being slashed in the throat by the bread knife and hit over the head with the baseball bat.
Dr. Robertson told the county attorney the knife wound received by Mrs. LaCount would not have caused immediate death. It was possible, he said, that the blow inflicted by means of the baseball bat may have caused instant death, or it may have been inflicted in such a manner as not to have caused instant death, and the woman may have rolled about the floor and moaned after having been struck.
This is statement coincides with a neighbors assertion that sounds were heard in the LaCount cottage after Ralph LaCount is said to have left home to drive Miss Helen Winton, his employer’s daughter, from the Winton estate to Minneapolis.
W. L. Meyers, proprietor of a restaurant that LaCount patronized before his marriage and where he occasionally brought his wife, told the county authorities today that LaCount ate his lunch there Friday. Meyers said LaCount did not seem nervous or excited, and that LaCount frequently talked to him about Mrs. LaCount.
Meyers also told the authorities of a strange incident that happened in his restaurant Saturday morning. He said that while patrons in his restaurants were discussing the crime, one of them, a stranger to the proprietor, suddenly cried out, “I did it!”
The man, according to Meyers, then ran out of the café and, hailing a passing taxi, jumped in and was driven away. No one in the restaurant that morning recognized the man, but the authorities have been furnished with a good description.
Miss Covell said she had visited the LaCount home recently and also when Mr. and Mrs. LaCount recently were in Hudson to visit their parents, that their home life seemed a happy one.
“I can’t believe that Ralph had anything to do with my sister’s death,” Miss Covell said today. “He made Madeline a good husband and they seemed so contented.”
With her father stunned by the murder of his daughter, and the mother, prostrated at home in Hudson, the brunt of the task of clearing up the mystery of the tragedy has fallen on the shoulders of Miss Covell, and she is aiding the authorities in every way possible.
1The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Oscar Lindgren Is held for Murder Investigation. Evidence Gathered in LaCount Case Goes to Grand Jury. Stained Shirt and Trousers Found—Many Clues Trailed.”; September 16, 1919; pp. 1 & 2.
2The Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “LaCount Held; Wife’s Murder Still Mystery. Husband Under Fire of Questions By County Officials. Another Man May Be Taken Into Custody Today. Knife Used Before Baseball Bat--$500 Reward for Slayer. Photograph of Man Believed Implicated Found Near Cottage.”; Sept. 14, 1919; pp. 1 & 2.
3https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115193041
Brutal murder in 1919 near Lake Minnetonka; see Sept. 12, 2018 blog.
Ralph LaCount, whose 16-yer-old bride was murdered, was taken into custody this afternoon and “held for investigation.”; see Sept. 13, 2018 blog.
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If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including: census records, birth records, death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records. I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.
If you are interested in finding out more about your family history in Minnesota, I specialize in researching genealogical and historical records in Minn. and western Wis., including: census records, birth records, death certificates, obits, grave site photos, ship passenger lists, marriage records and declarations of intent/naturalization records. I will visit locations to research local history and county records, as well as take photos. Quick turnaround on MNHS records. Both short searches and family history reports available.
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Website: TheMemoryQuilt.com > click on Family History
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