Mile Marker 73: Annie Bruce, Convicted of Murder

We started in the Wyoming Frontier Prison in Rawlins. We heard the story of Wyoming's first woman convicted of any degree of murder. We went to the grave of her "victim", we then found her grave in Utah. Here we tell you her story and our adventure to find what we could.

Transcript

Key: Drifter, Male voice. Gypsie, Female voice

Uplifting rock/western tune plays for 15 seconds, music begins to taper down then:

(Drifter) Welcome to the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast. I’m Drifter

(Gypsie) And I’m  Gypsie

(Drifter) Talking about Ghost towns,

(Gypsie) Graveyards,

(Drifter) Outlaws, Heroes

(Gypsie) And Ladies of the night.

Music tapers to an end

(Drifter) Howdy folks, Thanks for joining us for yet another adventure. Today we are traveling around the west, bouncing around like a tumbleweed, hitting small towns from Wyoming to Utah and through time from the end of the 19th & into the 20th century.

(Gypsie) Today we are going to share with you the story of Annie Bruce who was the first woman ever convicted of any degree of  murder in Wyoming. She was also 18 years old when she was convicted and you will be surprised to find out who she allegedly killed. We found out about Annie when we were visiting the Wyoming Frontier Prison and had to know more about her. 

(Drifter) So let's tell you a bit of family history on Annie. Her father was James Hamilton Bruce and her mother was Annie Elizabeth Clark. James, who went by Jim, came to the United States when he was around 8 or 9 years old. His father had left his family back in Scotland and came to America to find a place for them to live. After he found a house and a job in the coal mines he sent for his family to join him in Almy Wyoming. 

(Gypsie) Annie Elizabeth came to the United States from England when she was 1 year old. The family lived in Pennsylvania for about 4 years before they went back to England because her grandpa was sick. They lived in England for 4 years before they returned to America. This time the family settled in Almy Wyoming, so her father could work in the coal mines. She was 10 years old when she arrived in Almy. 

(Drifter) Almy is just 6 miles north of Evanston. Once a coal mining camp, now it is nothing more than a field with a historical marker. But during its heydays the town was thriving with 4,000 residents. The town relied on coal mining for its income and when the mine was shut down in 1900 people began to move away. According to the historical marker for the town, on March 4, 1881 there was a tragic mine explosion that killed 38 men and it was the first mine explosion west of the Mississippi. Another explosion happened in January 1886 killing 13 men. The worst mine explosion in Wyoming history happened here on March 20, 1895 when 61 men were killed. The lack of safety in the mine was the biggest reason it was shut down. 

(Gypsie) On October 9, 1885 Jim and Annie were married in the Endowment House in Logan Utah. Jim was 21 and Annie was 17. The couple had their first son on April 14, 1887. The following year they had their first daughter Jannet, born on June 30, 1888 she only lived for roughly 5 months and passed away on November 14, 1888. Annie was pregnant with baby number 3 when Jannet passed away. On June 25, 1889 the couple welcomed in Annie Florence. 

(Drifter) Shortly after Annie was born the family moved 140 miles farther north in Wyoming to Star Valley, settling first in Auburn, then in Afton, and later in Smoot. While living in Smoot they built a small log cabin with no windows, a dirt floor, and a blanket hung up for the front door. The family eventually built a larger home but there is nothing left of it today. The family brought a large herd of cattle with them but that winter was a difficult one and they had lost more than half of the cattle due to starvation. 

(Gypsie) The Bruce family were members of the Latter Day Saints church and in June 1898 Jim was called to serve a mission. He left for two years to Michigan and at that time the family had 6 children. Mother Annie was left to care for the farm and children on her own. The oldest son James was only 11 years old and little Annie was only 9. He returned from his mission in June 1900, and the couple had 5 more children. 

(Drifter) Now let's get into the details of Annie and why we wanted to share her with you guys. (Gypsie) On March 21, 1907 Annie’s father Jim unexpectedly and suddenly passed away. He was just a few days shy of turning 43 years old. He was laid to rest in the Smoot Cemetery. 

(Gypsie) According to The Salt Lake Herald published on August 30, 1907 (Drifter) “On the morning of March 21, Mr. Bruce and two of his boys went to the ranch to do some work. The two boys ate their breakfast before starting out; but Mr. Bruce’s breakfast was carried along in a basket, he preferring to eat later on. A pie which his wife and daughter had baked on the previous day, comprised a part of the lunch. Out in the field when Mr. Bruce began eating this pie, he noticed a peculiar taste. After eating part of it he was seized with pains and convulsions and died in less than an hour. Before he became unconscious he told Bishop Craney and some other neighbors who had been called to his assistance, that he had been poisoned with strychnine in the pie. Before he died he told his oldest boy to save the remainder of the pie for examination by the authorities. The boy took the pie home and, it is said, told his mother about saving it, then she took the pie and threw it into the creek.”

(Gypsie) The article continues on saying that several of his internal organs were sent to the state chemist in Laramie Wyoming to be analyzed. What they found was shocking, there was a large amount of strychnine. Strychnine is a white odorless powder that if inhaled or eaten will kill you. Back then it was common for them to use this to kill any pesky rodents that would get into your house or ruin your crops. The poison attacks the nervous system and causes your body to slowly shut down and eventually you stop breathing. 

(Drifter) On August 8, 1907 Annie and her mother were arrested by Sheriff Jonathan Jones. They were taken to the Evanston county jail and held there for murder charges. After Jim was murdered it was believed that his wife had done it but they could not find a motive as to why she would do such a terrible thing. (Gypsie) While they were investigating the family they discovered that when Jim was away on his two year mission the couple experienced difficulties and that a young farmer residing in the vicinity of the home may be involved. The newspapers didn’t go into this much but I wonder if she was having an affair with this kid! 

(Drifter) The two women sat in jail for almost a month before they were released on bail of 10,000 dollars each (Gypsie) (just over $318K in todays monies). (Drifter) Annie’s father James Clark, Joseph Reeves, and Jack Reeves were their bondsmen. After being released, Annie’s mom spoke about her 8 children that were at home waiting for her. Little Annie was excited to be free and go back to the ranch. She told the reporters (Gypsie)  “the first thing I am going to do is to get on my old pet and go after the cows.” (Drifter) While in jail the two women talked about the killing and told several different versions as to how Jim could have been poisoned.

(Gypsie) Mrs. Bruce said that when she was making the pie she had used a pie tin that the strychnine had been placed in so that it could be used to poison the animals. She said that when she used it she did not wash it before she used it because she didn’t know it had been used to put the strychnine in it. She then went so far as to say that a farm animal had stomped on it and put dents in the tin causing the strychnine to get lodged into the dents. She then changed the story saying that she used poisonous dried fruit in the pie and that she did not know the fruit had poison in it already. 

(Gypsie) The ladies attorney told the following account of what they felt happened. (Drifter) “It is custom for ranchers everywhere to poison mountain rats and other voracious animals which prey upon their crops. On the Saturday previous to the murder Joseph Bruce had asked his daughter, Annie for cheese which he intended to poison with strychnine and take down to the little cabin on the ranch where the rats were annoying. Upon being told that there was no cheese he asked impatiently, ‘Well what have you got?’ She answered ' (Gypsie) ‘nothing but dried fruit’. (Drifter) He said, ‘give me that’ and on receiving the fruit which was in a molasses can proceeded to sprinkle a half bottle of strychnine into it and take it down to the ranch with him. There it remained until the morning of the murder when Mrs. Bruce and Annie needed some pie tins and sent one of the children down to the ranch to bring back a number of pans which his father had allowed to accumulate at the cabin. The boy gathered up all the tinware he could find and brought back the can of poisoned plums as well as the pans. Mrs. Bruce and Annie prepared and baked four pies but found that they did not have enough fruit for a fifth. As Mrs. Bruce was handling the tins she found that one of the cans was half full of dried plums and used them to complete the filling of the fifth pie. She then put the five pies away on a shelf until the next day when she cut three of them to put into the lunches which were sent to the ranch and to the school which part of her children attended. Her favorite son, Wallace, accompanied his father to the ranch on the day of the alleged murder and thus took the risk of eating a part of the poisoned pie. It so happened, however, that the father ate his share first and the boy was saved from death. 

(Gypsie) The papers continued on saying that Annie Bruce was her father’s favorite child and was extra fond of him as he was of her. The smaller children have confirmed every detail of the story told by Mrs. Bruce and Annie themselves. So this new theory of what happened is very plausible Mrs. Bruce very well could have unknowingly poisoned her husband with fruit he himself had previously poisoned. 

(Drifter) On April 8, 1908 the trial finally came before a judge. It all started at 10 O'clock with jury selection. Over the next few days the jury had to listen to several testaments from several different people involved in the case. The courtroom was packed with every seat taken and people standing in the isles  just so they could hear the details of the case. Though the Bruce’s attorneys had a very strong story as to how the poison ended up in the pie he had an uphill battle to fight. Annie had signed a confession to the crime in front of Sheriff Jones, Deputy DeLoney and County Attorney David Thomas. Her confession reads (Gypsie) “I Annie Bruce, of Smoot Uinta County, Wyoming, make the following statement of my own free will and accord without any promise of reward from anyone, and without compulsion of threat or hope of benefit, but simply to relieve my conscience of the guilt upon my soul. On the 20th of March A.D. 1907, I made five pies. While I was in the act of making the pies, A feeling or wish came over me to kill someone, and this feeling I could not resist; so I went to the store and procured a bottle of poison which I knew was there. I took the bottle of poison out of the lower box, which was full and to do so I removed the upper box and after I secured the poison I put the upper box back on the lower box and went into the kitchen, and while no one was looking I emptied the bottle of poison into the pie, the poison was strychnine. I put the poison into the last pie I made. In the morning ma and myself were preparing pa’s lunch and ma said to me, ‘Annie, fetch me a pie from the cupboard.’ I brought the pie which was poisoned. I knew it was poisoned, and this pie was afterwards sent by me to the ranch. It was the pie that killed my pa. After pa died i felt awfully sorry; I balled and cried a great deal. I yet feel awfully sorry that I put the poison in the pie that killed pa. I make this statement in the presence of D.G. Thomas, county and prosecuting attorney; Jonathan Jones, sheriff and William DeLoney, deputy Sheriff. Signed Annie Burce. (Drifter) To make a little sense of what Annie is talking about her father owned a small store in town, Annie is saying she went to her fathers store and got the poison there. 

(Gypsie) Several witnesses got up on the stand including Annie’s brothers. Frank Cranney, the bishop of the Smoot ward, got up on the stand. He said he did not arrive to Jim Bruce until after he had passed away, he said he prayed for Jim and then helped assist in getting him back into town. He continued on saying that he was present in the store when the two boxes of strychnine were discovered and that a small hand print could be seen in the dust on the lid of the box. 

(Drifter) As for the handprint on the box, as soon as it was verified Jim had been poisoned with strychnine the police got to work trying to find out where the poison came from. They discovered the strychnine on a shelf in the store and an imprint of a hand was found in the dust on the shelf and on top of the box. The handprint was small, about the size of Annie’s. The officer took the shelf and box with him. They then got to work preserving the hand print for evidence. When Annie was brought into the office for questioning she was asked to place her hand on a wax tablet that was specifically used to get hand and finger prints. Annie did all of this without counsel to advise her. The police then took the hand print and compared it to the hand print on the shelf and felt it was an exact match. Annie and her mother tried to defend the handprint saying it was Jim’s handprint, but the defense was ready for that explanation and they produced Jim’s hand print. His hand was much larger than Annie’s hand. 

(Gypsie) Dr. West got on the stand and stated he went to provide assistance to Jim but the patient was already dead when he arrived and that rigor mortis had already set in. He noticed some of the pie was still in Jim’s mouth. The Doctor believed that the cause of death was strychnine poison and to test his theory he took some of the pie out of Jim’s mouth and fed it to a cat. Within 20 minutes that cat was dead. He then proceeded to get samples of the victims stomach, liver, and kidneys as well as the pie in his mouth so they could be sent off for examination. 

(Drifter) Professor Knight got on the stand and stated that he was the one to analyze the contents of the vials sent by the doctor. He stated he found large amounts of strychnine, enough to have killed 17 men. He even brought the contents with him and put them on display in the courtroom for everyone to see. 

(Gypsie) The last person on the stand for the prosecution was Sheriff William C. DeLoney. He was the jailor at Evanston during the time the two women were locked up. He talked about several conversations he listened to between the two women. He also stated that he witnessed Sheriff Jones and Attorney D.G. Thomas “sweat” the woman one night in the sheriff’s office in order to procure a confession of guilt. He also stated that he was present when Annie signed her confession. 

(Drifter) The defense had Joseph Reeves, Annie’s uncle take the stand. He stated that Jim was very careless when using strychnine. He also said he was very fond of Annie and that he bought her the most expensive clothes in Smoot. Robert Bruce, Annie’s little 13 year old brother got on the stand and said he was sent to the ranch to get the tins. When he brought the tins back he also brought with him three cans of fruit and that one of the cans could have contained the poisoned fruit in it. 

(Gypsie) Little Miss Annie Bruce took the stand in her defense. She denied that she made the signed confession and she also said she was ill and was under the influence of opiates for an abscess in her head. Even during cross examination she continued to maintain her innocence. Annie's mother took the stand after her but I am unable to find any details about what she said. After her testimony the court was adjourned and the jury was sent to make a decision. 

(Drifter) After seventeen hours the jury was unable to come to an agreement and the judge made the decision to meet again tomorrow. The jury had a difficult choice to make, if they convicted Annie of the crime they would then need to decide if they should send an 18 year old girl to prison or to the gallows. Also if they found her guilty then Annie’s mother would not be tried for the murder and she would be free. If Annie is found innocent then her mother would have to go to trial for the murder. 

(Gypsie) Once the courts finally met again the jury came out with a conviction of guilty of manslaughter. Judge Craig sentenced her to four years in prison. On April 18, 1908 almost a year after her father was killed Annie was taken to the Rawlins penitentiary, of which we talked about on episode 28. Sheriff Jonathan Jones brought her to the prison as well as 8 other convicts. She was the only prisoner not placed in handcuffs. 

(Drifter) The community was devastated to see Annie get convicted and a petition was quickly drafted to get her released. Ironically the 8 men that sat on the jury signed the petition. Annie's mother met with the State Board of Pardons in July 1908 in hopes to persuade them to release Annie. She was interviewed by the Wyoming Tribune where she retold the story of the incident and finished by saying that the school facilities of the Star valley are poor and the girl is poorly educated and that she was unable to read or understand the language of the confession which she is alleged to have made. 

(Gypsie) Annie only stayed in the Rawlins Prison for one year and six months. In October 1909 she was released from the prison but she was not free; rather she was moved to the Canon City penitentiary in Colorado. She was moved because her family stated her health was failing and she was also the last woman in the prison. Annie did not get her pardon at this time but her family continued to fight for her. There were reports around the time of her transfer that she was being paroled but it was soon found that those reports were false. 

(Drifter) On June 6, 1911 only eight days before Annie’s earliest possible discharge date, 22 year old Annie was granted a pardon. Annie was free to go. After her release she returned to Smoot to be with her family. It was reported in the Thermopolis Record that there has always been a suspicion that the girl was not wholly guilty, but she assumed the blame to shield her mother, who was suspected of being implicated. 

(Gypsie) At some point Annie moved to Idaho where on July 5, 1913 she was married to Arthur Shirley Smith in Idaho Falls. Annie was married in Idaho but at some point they moved to Eureka Utah. The couple had 3 children and all three were born in Eureka. Their first son Frank was born on January 23, 1914. Next they had a daughter Edna who was born on July 2, 1915 and finally they had Raymond who was born on May 19, 1919. 

(Drifter) There isn’t a lot about Annie as she grew up, she stayed out of the public's view. Her husband opened a bar and pool hall in town for a short time before he went to work in the mines and mainly worked for the Eagle mine. Annie became an active member of the Women’s Society of Christian Service of the Methodist Church. It is reported several times that she was an excellent cook. She would also make cookies for the children every Valentines day at the school her husband was working at. 

 (Gypsie) In May of 1970 Annie was chosen as the Senior Citizen of the Year. A luncheon was held in her honor and she was presented a plaque by the Mayor of Eureka. Arthur lived to be 84, passing away on June 3, 1972 in Nephi Utah. He was a former Eureka City Councilman as well as a member of the Woodman of the World. He was laid to rest in the Goshen City Cemetery. Annie lived to be 86, she passed away on August 13, 1975. She had 5 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren, and 2 great great grandchildren. She was laid to rest in the Goshen City Cemetery next to her husband Arthur. 

(Drifter) And so our journey began at the Wyoming Frontier Prison where we first learned of Annie, which we also toured with Jennie from the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery Podcast along with her son, then Through the town of Smoot To find her fathers grave at the Smoot City Cemetery. He was pretty easy to find, it’s a quaint cemetery with but a few last names it seems. Our adventure ended at the Goshen City Cemetery in central Utah, where we were able to find Annie's final resting place.(Gypsie)  It took quite a bit of searching to find her, though it is a relatively small cemetery. I’m pretty sure we saw every headstone in the yard while looking for her, and we met a future listener there as well that followed us into the cemetery to talk about the podcast. Annie has a very simple headstone that she shares with her husband. On top it says Smith, Annie is on the left side with the word Mother above her name. It has her birthday of June 25, 1889 listed as well as her death date of August 13, 1975. The date of July 5, 1913 is listed in the middle as the day her and Arthur were married. 

(Drifter) Well there you have it folks, our adventure in search of the young accused murderer Annie Bruce.

(Drifter) Dad Joke?

(Drifter) Alright then. Thank you all so very much for joining us on the Rebel At Large adventure podcast. As alway’s, if we're active at all, we’re most active on the Instagram (Gypsie) @rebelatlarge if you want to see what we’re up to. You can find links to our email, patreon, merch store & other social deals as well as photos relating to each episode on our website, rebelatlarge.com. (Drifter) We’ll talk to ya here in a couple of weeks, (Gypsie) Safe Travels, (Drifter) We’ll see ya down the road.

Begin 30 seconds of the same uplifting Rock/Western tune as the introduction.