Today in History: January 26, 1946 – North Dakota car theft linked to manhunt for South Dakota fugitive

Today in History revisits the Saturday, January 26, 1946 edition of the Grand Forks Herald and highlights a story on a massive five-state manhunt targeted escaped murderer George S. Sitts after he gunned down two South Dakota officers near Spearfish, S.D. After Sitts abandoned his snow-stuck getaway car, police shifted their focus to a new lead: a two-tone sedan with North Dakota license plates stolen in Aberdeen. Authorities believe the fugitive transitioned from his ditched vehicle to car with North Dakota license plates or fled on foot through deep snow to evade federal and local capture.

SPEARFISH, S. D.—(Associated Press story as published in the Grand Forks Herald on Jan. 26, 1946)—The auto driven by the man who shot down two South Dakota officers Thursday night, Jan. 24, 1946, was found abandoned on a narrow, snow-clogged side road 12 miles southeast of the scene of the slayings at 8 P. M. Friday, Jan. 25.

Federal authorities joined in the widespread manhunt after Commissioner H. Johnson at Rapid City, S. D., had issued a federal fugitive warrant, together with one charging the suspect with the interstate transportation of a stolen auto.

A bulletin broadcast over the South Dakota police radio station shortly after the abandoned car was found indicated officers were checking train schedules in efforts to learn if the fugitive had escaped from this area by railroad.

Officers said this theory was prompted by the theft at Aberdeen, S. D., of a two-tone sedan bearing North Dakota license plates. A five-state alarm was sent out for the machine, which has a cream-colored top and maroon base, police said.

Cliff Edwards, managing editor of the Rapid City, S. D. Journal, said the abandoned auto was a black Buick sedan bearing Minnesota 1946 license plates 119-804. He said officers believed the killer, whom they said they thought was George S. Sitts, 32, escaped Minneapolis murderer, had become stuck in the deep snow of the narrow country lane while seeking to flee the scene of the slaying.

Edwards said the machine was first spotted by two men named Montgomery and Roberts, living at Whitewood, S. D., 14 miles from here and approximately two miles from where the auto was recovered.

Ray Billavou, deputy Lawrence county sheriff, said the car would be towed into Spearfish for further investigation.

A casual inspection disclosed a money order receipt, stamped at Spearfish post office, which Billavou said he believed had come from the wallet of Tom Matthews, special agent for the attorney general’s law enforcement division, one of the men slain. Second victim was Dave Malcolm, Butte county sheriff.

Concentrating all available officers in the area, Billavou contacted telephone operators in neighboring communities throughout the sparsely settled district where the car was found to alert them. He said there had been no reports of any car stolen in the territory, which meant, he added, that Sitts must have sought to continue his flight afoot.

The treacherous trail the killer took winds five miles through the Black Hills into Deadwood, S. D., Billavou said. It is impassable to cars, however, due to the foot of snow which fell Thursday night, Jan. 24, 1946, to pile on a previous accumulation of another 12 inches of hard packed snow.

Edwards said the car was thoroughly ditched, with the front wheels stuck on one side of the lane and the rear wheels on the other. That it had been there all night was attested by the foot of snow on its top. The storm started shortly after the killings.

The bodies of Matthews and Malcolm were found sprawled on a highway near here Thursday night. Both had been shot with a .45 calibre pistol, officers said.

They were slain when they apparently attempted to question the driver of a 1938 black sedan bearing Minnesota license plates after they had joined a northern Black Hills search for Sitts.

The bodies were lying midway between their two parked cars, spaced 50 feet apart as though they had sought to trap a third vehicle, the sheriff said. Malcolm’s car engine was still running and its lights were on when officers reached the scene.

Officers reported Matthews’ service pistol which he carried in a shoulder holster was missing and his wallet was gone.

The aid of officers in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska, as well as South Dakota, had been enlisted in the hunt for the slayer, driving a 1938 black sedan with the Minnesota 1945 license 109-406, according to the sheriff.

Clutched in Malcolm’s hand when the bodies were found was a slip of paper bearing a Minnesota automobile license number — the clue which authorities said first turned their pursuit to Sitts

Questioned closely in an effort to uncover additional details was Earl Cook, 35, Sundance, Wyo., a truck driver who, it was reported, witnessed at least part of the shooting.

Cook told officers he was en route from Belle Fourche to Sundance when he passed three cars parked at the edge of the highway, two of them on his left and the third on his right. All three faced him. As he drove by, he said, he saw the third machine also pull over to the other side of the road and shortly afterward he heard an explosion.

He said he stopped his truck about 150 yards from the other cars, believing he had a blowout. As he stepped from his truck, he related, he saw a “spurt of flame shoot down” and heard a second report.

He said he saw a man walk from the highway to the middle car, then back to an object on the highway. The man picked up the object, Cook said, then dropped it “and hurried back to the middle car.”

Cook told officers the machine drove rapidly away. He said he turned his truck around, saw the bodies in the beam of his headlights and drove to Spearfish to report the killings.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.