Murder in the North Country, Blaine County Double murder near Harlem in 1952

Reporter's note: This is the last story of the 'murder in north country' series. It was a double homicide and all three people involved lived outside Blaine County, but one had a connection that was important in the eventual capture of the perpetrator.

Nancy Mahns, the granddaughter of former Blaine County Sheriff Dan Hay and niece of former Harlem Police Chief Blaine Hay, got me interested in this double murder. Mahns sent a copy of a July, 1953 issue of "Official Detective Stories." The publication was a common genre back in that era, printed on newsprint but in a magazine format with stories of recent murders and accompanied with photographs.

The story was intriguing-a double murder investigated and solved under the direction of a local father-son team of law officers. Franklin Sharpe, listed as 'an official investigation' in the magazine story, wrote in great detail about the murders, citing comments from many locals around the north part of the county.

Unfortunately, the article was written before the murder suspect was arraigned, tried and ultimately sentenced. The trial was held in Blaine County in June, 1953 and the sentencing followed shortly.

To fill in the rest of the details I had to look at old court records related to the trial, research old news stories in local papers and talk to a lot of locals. Many locals remembered the murders but a lot of the details were long veiled by the passage of time.

The version of the murders from

"Official Detective Stories," dated July, 1953

On April 12 Harlem area resident Clark Nelson brought in several articles of bloody clothing to the Harlem police he'd found along a roadway near the Milk River, a short way out of town. He gave two pairs of shoes, some bloody clothing and jackets and one hat to Harlem Police Chief Blaine Hay. Hay immediately took the clothing to Chinook where his father, Dan Hay, was the sheriff. Dan Hay was the Harlem Chief before being elected sheriff.

Where the clothing was found had no signs of a struggle or remaining blood. Sheriff Hay first suspected 'truck rustlers'-people who would steal and butcher cattle in a pasture-maybe they had thrown out bloody clothing after butchering a rustled cow. The tags had all been ripped from the clothing and the buttons were pulled loose, suggesting a struggle.

Another theory was a murder of or by hitchhikers along Highway 2. Sheriff Hay contacted sheriffs' offices all along the Hi-Line as well as north to Canada and south to Great Falls. There was no report of any missing persons.

Tuesday of the next week Vic Modic was driving a tractor along the Turner Road. He was driving on the shoulder so the lugs wouldn't damage the road. He looked down and saw an arm sticking out of a culvert. He immediately turned the tractor around and headed for the Harlem Police Department. Two bloody bodies were pulled from the culvert, clad only in underwear and bloody shirts. The victims had been brutally beaten, then shot, likely at another location, with .22 and .32 caliber revolvers. The coroner believed the beatings alone would have killed the two unidentified victims. The two revolvers caused investigators to surmise there may be two perpetrators involved.

The victims were not recognized by any locals-they were males and appeared to be about 20 and 40 years old. To help identify the bodies, according to the story, the bodies were put on public display in Harlem, but no one recognized them. The victims were ultimately buried in the Harlem Cemetery. Law enforcement officers canvassed cafes, motels and gas stations along several routes leading to Harlem, but after viewing photos of the two victims no one recalled ever seeing either of the victims.

The FBI eventually identified the younger victim from fingerprints taken from the body. He was Harry Salazar, who had lived for a time and worked as a day laborer in Helena, living in a rooming house there.

Shortly a 1947 Plymouth was found abandoned on a side street in Havre. Examining the car Sheriff Hay noted the car's seats looked very new and surmised seat covers had been removed. There were brownish stains on the upholstery, suggesting blood stains. The car's owner turned out to be Joseph Benski, a miner from Butte. He had left on April 11, according to his wife, to seek temporary employment in Kellogg, Idaho while the mine where he was working replaced some machinery and idled the mine for a time.

Butte police interviewed miners at the local union hall. A fellow miner reported Benski had an argument with another miner who threatened to "sink a pick ax in his skull if he interfered." The incident involved some work poorly done at the mine. The miner who had argued with Benski was later found and was eliminated as a suspect in the double slaying.

But, the interviews at the union hall caused other miners to recall they had seen Benski, just before he disappeared, stopping at the Miner's Hat Bar looking for someone who would go with him to Idaho and share gasoline costs. At the bar, Benski had got in a bet with a local 'bar strong man' who earned drinks by performing acts of strength for drinks-bending bottle caps with his fingers, for example. On this particular night, the strong man had sat victim Salazar in a bar stool and picked up the stool by two back legs. Benski lost a bet over the demonstration. More witnesses came forward recalling they saw Salazar, Benski and the strong man, George McIntyre, in the Plymouth together around Butte on April 11-just a day before the bloody clothing was discovered near Harlem.

When Blaine Hay heard the name George McIntyre, he recalled a trouble maker by the same name who had worked for a while in Harlem. Young Hay remembered that McIntyre had been in trouble in Oregon before coming to Montana. Oregon officials provided a photo and fingerprints for McIntyre. As word got out about the alleged assailant, more witnesses came forward who had seen McIntyre, after the murders, around Harlem, Glasgow and Havre. Prior to the manhunt they hadn't come forward because they had not connected McIntyre as a possible suspect or Benski as a victim.

Soon the evidence began to build against McIntyre. A witness saw McIntyre in Benski's car in Havre. Another saw McIntyre boarding a bus in Glasgow carrying a suitcase like the one Benski had carried for the trip to Idaho. The suspect was carrying seven dollars in cash, which was not found in the recovered clothing.

With all this evidence pointing to McIntyre, the Sheriff and Police Chief Hay took their findings to Blaine County Attorney Bernard Thomas, who filed murder charges. The FBI joined the manhunt as it appeared McIntyre had crossed state lines in his escape. McIntyre was from Massachusetts and authorities suspected he might head back to his home area.

Eleven months later, in March of 1953, McIntyre was arrested in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was brought back to Montana, on charges, and arraigned May 12, 1953 in Blaine County. The story ends there from what was printed in the detective magazine...

The rest of the story and trial

The District Court file on the case had many motions and legal documents leading up to the trial. One that didn't make sense, initially, was the county attorney's motion to take a deposition from Harlem resident Frank Green. The trial was set to begin on June 1, 1953 and the county attorney motioned, in May, to have a deposition taken from Green fearing he would be activated as a member of the Montana National Guard and be out of state when the trial began.

Further down in the file was the transcript of the deposition taken from Frank Green. It was, well, damning evidence against George McIntyre. Back in May, National Guardsmen Green and Fred Baker had been activated to keep an eye on the Chinook Dike during flooding in April of 1952. When they had a shift or two off, they would hitchhike back to Harlem to spend time at home. Turns out they were picked up by Benski, in the 1947 Plymouth found in Havre, possibly the day of the murders, though Green was not clear on the exact date.

Green described Benski as the driver, a passenger in the middle portion of the front seat, who was Salazar, and riding 'shotgun,' was George McIntyre. Baker and Green were picked up by the three near the location of the old refinery east of Chinook along Highway 2.

Green said there was virtually no conversation on the short trip to Fort Belknap Station (a location I couldn't exactly identify but east of Harlem) where the two got out. While in the car Green said he noticed several suitcases piled on part of the back seat where he and Baker were also riding. He added, "I felt something under my foot and noticed a ball-peen hammer on the floor."

Green was later taken to the county jail to identify George McIntyre. Green said twice a deputy led McIntyre by him but each time McIntyre would put his hand over his face. Finally they went to the cell where McIntyre was held. When the accused saw Green coming down the hall he immediately got into the bed and turned to the wall. Green admitted at trial, he never really got a clear view of McIntyre, other than in the car, until he saw the defendant in the court room. The defense lawyer tried to use that fact against the state's case, but the jury didn't buy it.

The verdict and aftermath

The trial began with jury selection on Monday, June 1, 1953 and the trial lasted only two days. On Thursday, of the same week at 3:15 p.m., the jury came back with a "guilty of murder in the First Degree" verdict. The jury took the option of letting the court decide the punishment. If not left to the court by the jury, the penalty would have been death. The judge sentenced McIntyre to "...hard labor for the term of his natural life."

The only murder charge made was in the death of Benski. Likely the county attorney opted not to do another trial for Salazar's murder because of the guilty verdict.

McIntyre entered the Montana Prison System on June 10, 1953. He was paroled in January of 1969 to South Boston, Massachusetts. There was a story that McIntyre murdered again after he was paroled. That could never be substantiated and despite a lot of Internet searches and talking with locals, no one knew what happened to McIntyre after he was let out of prison.

In 1981, the Clerk of the District Court filed a 'motion to dispose of evidence' in the case. Noting several exhibits, x-rays and the bloody clothing were no longer needed as "the case is closed, the defendant is deceased and nobody has claimed any of these exhibits. They are bulky to store." Judge B. W. Thomas, who was the County Attorney when the trial occurred, signed the order to dispose of the evidence from the case.

Unless someone can provide new information about the demise of the 'bar strongman,' George McIntyre's ultimate fate will remain one of the few mysteries left from the case.