The tragic tale of Frank and Viola Annerer

A few miles north of the Caroline Lockhart Ranch in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, a lone grave rests amid the sagebrush and grass of the southern Montana prairie in the Dryhead country.

The plot is surrounded by a rustic, decaying fence of sorts, long since fallen down, with a stone in the middle that possibly serves as a headstone, though no words can be deciphered on the stone, now covered by orange lichen.

Nearby is the site of a homesteader’s cabin, where a terrible incident took place in 1917: the murder of Viola Annerer and Seth Tripp. It is Viola’s grave that can be found nearby on a hill just to the south of the cabin
site.

According to Bret Marchant’s fascinating book “A Clear View of the Pryors,” Viola Orneda Buck was born in Buda, Illinois. She married, Frank Annerer, a Swiss man born in 1878 who emigrated to the United States in 1902, according to emigration documents, then became a naturalized citizen in 1910.

The two married and had three children, a boy and two girls. They moved to the Dryhead around 1912, Marchant wrote, and Frank eventually went to work for Seth Tripp. The Annerers lived south of Tripp’s place, which was located on Deadman Creek, a prescient name for a creek if there ever was one.

Tripp was a handsome bachelor, by all accounts, and didn’t want for the attention of ladies. As the journal of Wylie Grant Sherwin entitled “A Cowboy’s Life on Crooked Creek” put it, “Where there were women, he (Seth) cut quite a swath. He caused the married men with young wives to ride close herd on them.” And as told by many, Viola Annerer was quite pretty.

A horseman who loved to socialize with folks, Tripp broke and sold horses to the ranchers in the area, and he liked to stop and visit at the various homesteads in the Dryhead, including the Annerers. According to the Sherwin journal, Tripp would offer to take any mail the Annerers had to the closest post office, which was Hillsboro at Dr. G.W. Barry’s guest ranch, then bring back any incoming mail to them.

In need of some extra funds, Frank Annerer took a job with Seth Tripp and often stayed at the Tripp place, which left Viola Annerer alone with the kids a few miles to the south.

“No one knows when Annerer began to suspicion that there was dirty work afoot,” Sherwin wrote. “From all appearances, he and Seth were the best of friends.”

The fateful night

But one November evening, Sherwin wrote (Friday, November 2), Annerer awoke after 11 p.m. (some accounts say midnight), and Seth hadn’t come home. It was a full moon, a bright night, so Annerer caught his horse at the corral and rode south, taking a gun with him. He kept expecting to meet Tripp on the trail but never did, and when he arrived at his cabin, Tripp’s horse was tied up outside at the corral. He waited to see if Tripp would emerge from the cabin after “quickly” dropping off the mail, but he never did.

According to Sherwin, Annerer quietly eyed the cabin, which had no light burning, about 100 feet away, but Tripp’s horse nickered. Viola came to the door dressed in her nightgown just as Frank approached it and was greeted by a bullet to her heart fired by her enraged husband. Hearing and seeing what happened, Tripp dove out a window and ran for his horse, but Annerer fired twice, and Tripp went down.

The children were sleeping in another cabin behind the main cabin.

Annerer saw that his wife was dead, covered her with a blanket where she lay, and went into the yard, where Tripp lay on the ground. He had been hit in the neck and was paralyzed but able to talk and wasn’t in much pain, though he couldn’t move his legs, so Annerer carried him into the house.

There, Tripp told him to go to the Chessmore place about four miles away and tell them what happened, then submit himself to the authorities, Sherwin wrote. He made his way to Frannie (actually Cowley), then caught a train toward Red Lodge and gave himself up, according to the Sherwin journal.

Sensational story

Newspaper reports from the time were filled with sensational accounts of the incident, though most misspelled the surname as Anner. The headline in the Bridger Times read: “Blood Tragedy Enacted in Fastness of Dryhead Hills” with a subhead “Frank Anner in a Fit of Jealousy Shoots and Kills his wife Viola Anner and Seriously Wounds Seth Tripp, a Neighboring Ranchman. Murder occurs at Anner Home where Tripp was Visiting with Mrs. Anner. Slayer gives himself up to County Authorities.”

The story in the Times on Friday, Nov. 9, 1917, begins: “Jealousy prompted a terrible tragedy in the Dryhead country 40 miles south and east of Bridger last Friday night when Frank Anner shot and killed his wife, Viola Anner, and seriously injured Seth Tripp, a neighboring ranchowner. The wife was killed outright by the first shot, and Tripp is in the Billings hospital with three nasty bullet wounds, paralyzed from the shoulders down, with only slight chances for recovery.

“It appears that Anner was suspicious of Tripp and his wife, and when (Tripp) failed to return home at a late hour Friday night, started out to learn the reason for his absence. Anner was employed by Tripp and slept at the latter’s cabin. When he left the house Friday evening, Tripp told Anner he intended riding over to the post office at Hillsboro for the mail. Instead, according to some accounts, he called first at a neighbor’s and toward midnight stopped at the Anner home and was visiting with Mrs. Anner when her husband came.”

According to a statement by Tripp to acting coroner H.E. Wolfe two days after the shooting, “Friday night at perhaps 12 o’clock, possibly later, he was visiting at the Anner home with Mrs. Anner when the door bursted open and a shot fired, and Mrs. Anner fell dead with a bullet through her breast, piercing the heart. Tripp says he believes the shot was intended for him. Anner stood in the doorway, and Tripp accused him, saying, ‘You’ve killed your wife.’ To which Anner is alleged to have replied, ‘I’ll kill you.’”

The story describes the “Anner” place as a small single room cabin, perhaps 10 x 12 or 14 feet in size containing one chair, a small trunk, a table and dresser, reportedly lacking a stove or other heating source.

“At Anner’s threat to kill him,” the Times story continues, “Tripp leaped over the prostrate form of Mrs. Anner and, kicking out a sash, sought to escape through a window. At the same moment Anner stepped out of the doorway and around the corner of the house and shot at Tripp, the bullet piercing Tripp’s wrist.” (Blood stains were found on the window casing.)

“Tripp says he then ran toward his saddle horse tied about 100 feet away from the house. But Anner, sensing his plan, outran him and forced him to return to the house. There, Anner shot at Tripp a second time, the bullet hitting him a little to the left of the center of the forehead. The impact of the bullet felled Tripp, who lost consciousness, but the skull was not fractured, and the bullet made only a slight flesh wound, being afterward found on the floor of the room.

“While lying there unconscious, Anner fired a third time at Tripp, the bullet penetrating his neck and inflicting a most serious wound. As strange as it may seem, the bullet pierced the neck without severing an artery or vocal cord but ranging downward probably splintered the vertebrae and tore through the spinal column, completely paralyzing Tripp’s body below the shoulders. The bullet lodged under the skin below the shoulder blade.”

When Tripp regained consciousness, the two men engaged in conversation, and Tripp talked to Annerer to prevent him from further violence, saying in the statement, “I talked for my life.” And when Annerer threatened to take his own life, Tripp reportedly said, “Don’t do that. You’re a damn fool if you do.”

Annerer asked Tripp to let him use his saddle horse to go and give himself up, and Tripp said he could use the horse but asked that he call at the nearby Caldwell ranch and send Mrs. Caldwell to him. Annerer roused and dressed the three children and departed, leaving them at the home of a relative a mile or so away, then rode to Cowley, sent Tripp’s horse back by the mail carrier and on Sunday arrived in Red Lodge and gave himself up at the county jail.

As requested, Annerer had stopped at the Caldwell home and told the Caldwells that Tripp was “very sick” and requested that they go to him. Annerer reportedly told Mrs. Caldwell that Tripp was “at my house,” but when Mr. Caldwell arrived, he saw no lights on, so he went to Tripp’s place and found no one there, so he returned to the Annerer cabin and was met by the neighbor where he had dropped off the children, with the neighbor exclaiming “A terrible affair has happened,” then “opened the door to reveal a ghastly spectacle. The woman lay as she had fallen, face upturned and arms extended. Tripp, in a helpless condition, lay close by on the floor. All about were stains of the bleeding wounds.”

Tripp was moved to another cabin, then taken to his own home. Meanwhile, as word spread of the incident Saturday morning, a call reaching Bridger from a ranger station on the Pryor Mountains, a Bridger doctor and coroner were dispatched to the scene via automobile as far as the Cummings Ranch, then traveling the rest of the way on a light buggy with a team of mules. They arrived at Tripp’s cabin around 11:30 p.m., where the doctor dressed Tripp’s wounds.

The acting coroner, H.E. Wolfe, empaneled a jury “from among those present” and conducted an inquiry into the cause of Mrs. Annerer’s death, The Times reported, adding, “The jury, doctor and coroner twice that night traversed on foot the two miles between the Tripp and Anner homes, viewed the corpse and heard Tripp’s statement, and in detail fulfilled the law’s requirements.” The verdict was “that Mrs. Viola Anner came to her death by a gun shot wound inflicted by her husband, Frank Anner.” The inquest was concluded around 5 or 6 a.m. on Sunday, with the officials returning to Bridger by Sunday night.

Tripp was taken to Billings by train, “where he is tenaciously clinging to life (as of the publication date, November 9), though the physician says that should he live any time he will always be paralyzed.”

Sheriff’s deputies traveled to the Dryhead on that Saturday to apprehend Frank Annerer, not realizing that he had traveled to Cowley and taken the train, The Times reported. They met the other investigation party coming back out on Sunday, then continued to Hillsboro, where they discovered that Annerer had gone to turn himself in. The deputies returned late Sunday evening.

The story in The Times could find no reason for Annerer to have shot his wife and Tripp, stating, “There were no circumstances to point to any compromising situation between Tripp and the woman when the husband appeared, nor (any) mention of any in the statement made by Tripp, said Mr. Wolfe. Both were fully dressed, except that Mrs. Anner had removed her shoes. How much justification there was for the suspicions the husband entertained against his wife is a matter which may come out later, when Anner is put to trial for her murder.”

Viola Annerer was buried at the site where she rests to this day on Sunday or Monday, “the neighbors performing such last rites as the remoteness of the locality made possible,” The Times wrote.

The Times continued that Frank Annerer was about 40 years of age, Viola about 27, and the family consisted of three children, a boy 13 years old (later said to be 12), and two girls age 10 and 7. The family had lived in the Dryhead around three years, and Frank Annerer worked for other stockmen and ranchers in the area, including Tripp at the time of the incident. The Annerer place was described in the article as “very ill-furnished, crude cabins.”

Tripp, a bachelor 40 years of age (born Nov. 9, 1876), reportedly accumulated “considerable property in the Dryhead,” with around 200 acres “under fence” and owning about 100 head of range horses and double that number in range cattle. The “successful stockman,” The Times wrote, “bears a good reputation and is well thought of among his neighbors and with all with whom he has had business dealings.” Well known in Bridger, he had resided in the Dryhead for 12 to 15 years.

Billings paper’s saucy report

The Billings Evening Journal printed a more salacious account of the circumstances
on Monday, Nov. 5, reporting an “alleged eternal triangle” and writing, “The tragedy marks one of the most sordid instances of its kind in Carbon County and is said by ‘Anner’ to be due to the ‘eternal triangle,’ a man, and wife and a second lover.” The story continues later, “Anner said he had become suspicious of his wife only three weeks ago. He said that when confronted in the Anner home Tripp had admitted that he had been intimate with the woman for some time.”

The Evening Journal writes that, when he became suspicious on the night of November 2, Annerer went to his home, found the door locked and forced his way in, finding Tripp with Mrs. Annerer. “Drawing the automatic (Tripp’s own automatic revolver taken from Tripp’s home), Anner, it is said, fired point blank at Mrs. Anner, the bullet striking her in the heart and killing her instantly. He said he then turned the weapon on Tripp (and shot him).”

The story continued that Annerer, after “quieting his three children” sleeping in an adjacent bunkhouse, aided Tripp into a bunk, did what he could to staunch the flow of blood from the wounds, and left at 3 a.m. Saturday on Tripp’s horse for Cowley, stopping at a forest ranger station to report the shooting. He turned the horse over to a stage driver for return to the Tripp Ranch and boarded a Burlington train to Laurel, then went to Red Lodge to turn himself in at the sheriff’s office.

The Carbon County Journal of Red Lodge also reported on the shooting, adding one detail the others didn’t in reporting on Annerer’s alleged confession to County Attorney H.A. Simmons: “He expressed great remorse over the killing of his wife, saying that he had not intended to hit her when he began shooting.”

The Journal also reported the conversation Annerer had with Tripp after the shooting as he tended to his wounds and gave him water: “They talked things over, Annerer says, and Tripp admitted that he had been intimate for some time with Mrs. Annerer, who was 28 years old and very pretty.” The paper agrees that Annerer rode to Cowley, took a train to Laurel and then arrived by train in Red Lodge Sunday.

Many of the newspaper accounts state that Tripp took a gun with him when he left the house to take the mail and visit the Annerer house, which is why Frank Annerer believed a gun was raised when he saw a hand in the dim light of the cabin. As the Journal put it, “It was this gun (a Colt) that Annerer thought was pointed at him when he went to the house and saw a hand extended in his direction.”

Tripp succumbs

The Billings Evening Journal reported on Tuesday, Nov. 6, that Seth Tripp was in critical condition at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Billings, with X-rays showing that a bullet entered Tripp’s neck and was lodged under his shoulder blade, touching the spine. The story stated that if the bullet were to be left in place, Tripp’s chances for life are said to be poor, but doctors fear that an operation to remove the bullet “will sever the spark that bonds Tripp to life.”

Indeed, Tripp died of his wounds on November 13, 1917, and was buried in Illinois.

The trial

The legal system moved much faster in those days, and Frank Annerer went on trial for the murder of Viola Annerer (but not Tripp) in Red Lodge on December 12, again with varying accounts in the newspapers about what actually happened in the wee hours of November 2-3.

Whereas the Bridger Times in its initial story after the shooting took pains to defend Viola Annerer’s honor, the Midland Empire News account of initial testimony at the trial was not nearly as kind to the victim.

“Sensational details concerning the condition of the dead woman’s body were testified to by Lem Chessmore, brother-in-law of Mrs. Annerer, who was the first person to arrive at the scene of the tragedy following the shooting,” the News wrote. “Chessmore said Mrs. Annerer’s body was lying face up and that her undergarments were lying several feet away from the body. The shoes also had been removed, Chessmore said.”

Annerer’s son also testified.

“William Annerer, 12-year-old son of the defendant, testified to having been awakened about 1:30 on the morning of November 3 by a shot and that three other shots were fired shortly thereafter in quick succession,” the News wrote. “He looked out of the window of the adjoining cabin where he and his two sisters slept, the lad said, and saw his father go to a spring nearby and bring back a cup of water.”

George Mushback, a deputy game warden who was one of the first persons with whom Annerer talked when he gave himself up at Red Lodge after the shooting, the News reported, repeated statements made to him at that time by the defendant.

“There were no lights in either cabin, according to the story Annerer told Mushback, but Annerer listened at a window of one of the cabins and heard voices,” the New reported. “He threw open the door and saw a hand raised. Thinking the hand was Tripp’s and that he was about to fire, Annerer said he fired, killing his wife instantly.

“Tripp then jumped out of a window and ran for his horse, but was intercepted by Annerer, who forced him to return to the cabin. There, Annerer is said to have obtained a confession from Tripp that he had been intimate with Mrs. Annerer for several weeks. Annerer then is said to have fired three times at Tripp, mortally wounding him.”

Annerer later claimed that he fired four shots in rapid succession so as to contradict the state’s claim that the killing was a deliberate assassination, according to the News.

Not guilty

Remarkably, Annerer was found not guilty by the jury on December 15, and there was some foreshadowing of that verdict in the opinions of some citizens of the Dryhead as reported to Red Lodge area residents. Grosvener and Edith Barry of Hillsboro, owners and operators of the Cedarvale guest ranch at Barry’s Landing, made a trip to Red Lodge the week after the shootings and sat down for an interview with the Red Lodge Picket-Journal.

Under a headline that reads “Frank Annerer a Thrifty Citizen – Neighbor of Accused Man Expresses Community’s Belief in Innocent,” the story states: “Both he and Mrs. Barry talked freely of the happening and expressed convincing opinions as to the conditions which are thought in the Dry Head district to make Mr. Annerer’s present state one worthy not of blame but pity. … ‘The very appearances are conclusive,’ they said, ‘as to the character of Frank Annerer. His life was his family. The wife who became the victim of the tragedy was much beloved, and contrary to some published allegations in regard to Mr. Annerer, he was a good provider and a thrifty man. Knowing his love for his family and his fondness for home it is impossible for the neighbors to escape the conclusion that Mrs. Annerer fell before the bullet intended for Seth Tripp to whom the circumstances were pointing as the spoiler of the home.’”

Grosvener Barry told the paper, “that the man who would build and maintain a (Swiss) chalet of this kind in Montana is a lover of his wife and home, who would not be capable under any circumstances of abuse or neglect. Annerer was conspicuously generous with his family and indifferent even to the point of personal privation of his own case.”

Continued the Picket-Journal: “There is no question in Mr. Barry’s mind but that Mrs. Annerer received a bullet intended for Tripp. This view is borne out by Annerer’s early statement that Tripp sneered at him when the woman fell in words of mockery: ‘You shot at me, but your wife is the one you got.’”

The Barrys visited the county jail to offer assistance in caring for the Annerer’s three children.

The Carbon County Journal also wrote about Frank Annerer: “Only at times does Annerer show emotion in his cell in the county jail, and then it is usually because of some mention of his dead wife or three small children. Annerer is of slight build, medium height and speaks with a marked foreign accent. In spite of being partly bald, he does not appear more than 40 years old. He wears a moustache. His general appearance carries out the reputation given him by his neighbors of being an inoffensive, good-natured, clean-living person. He is said to have always shown a marked affection for his family and to have appeared happy in his home life.”

The verdict was reported in the Carbon County Journal: “Frank Annerer, slayer of his 28-year-old wife and of Seth Tripp with whom he alleged she had been intimate, was cleared Saturday night of a charge of murder by a jury in the local district court. Although he had been prosecuted only upon the charge of killing Mrs. Annerer, the newest protégé of the unwritten law was released immediately after the jury had returned with a verdict of not guilty. Sunday, he left this city to return to his homestead in the Dry Head Country.”

The jury reportedly deliberated only a few hours before announcing the verdict that Saturday night, Dec. 15, and Annerer was never charged with killing Seth Tripp.

The saga of Frank and Viola Annerer and Seth Tripp is a tragic tale of jealousy, rage, passion and regret played out just north of Lovell on the prairie of southern Montana. Whether justice was served is in the eye of the beholder, but the story fascinates to this day.