Daniel Sandoval

Fate can wield a heavy hand, and it is the nature of newspapers to make space for the terrible events that cause people to think about fate, but for most people, good fortune far outweighs the bad. Destinies were in the news for the fourth week of August.

100 years ago

In a stellar example of bias in journalism, the Aug. 26, 1908, Natrona County Tribune editorialized to the extent of propaganda by urging readers to look at the shabby grave markers in the cemetery put there during Democratic times.

The Tribune then invited readers to compare those with the monuments placed after the Republicans took the reins influence, say, 1907, and see which graves impart dignity to the departed, and the graves that prove the Republicans know how to run things.

Vantage point: The Aug. 26, 1908, Tribune reported the arrival of the statue of Justice, a figure of the Goddess of Justice, Themis, from classical antiquity, destined to stand atop Casper's new courthouse.

Even though the Tribune failed to provide useful information such as the sculptor, foundry, or even so much as the city from which it arrived, the Tribune did report that on this particular statue, Justice was not blindfolded.

It was better she was not blindfolded, said the Tribune, so that "in the future no guilty man will escape, and no innocent man will be prosecuted or persecuted."

Comparisons: After the leading article of Tribune proclaimed the celebration at Cheyenne's Frontier Days a record success, the second article was an account from Casper residents who went to Frontier Days.

The article concluded with a list of names of people who were on the home-coming train, as if to imply these were people who agreed with the characterization that Frontier Days was crowded, as many as six people in a room, and that the decorations weren't as good as a recent celebration in Casper.

75 years ago

Casper Police Department Chief M.R. Quealy and Detective A.F. Newlin were checking on the past of four people in custody, and one of the suspects had a rap sheet that just kept getting longer, as reported in the Aug. 25, 1933, Casper Tribune-Herald.

Laying low: Authorities responded to a disturbance call, where a fight in Casper spilled over to another fight in Glenrock, and authorities arrested the four people thought to be a gang of con artists and card cheats called "slickers."

Ray Redfern, alias John Stanley, alias Blackie, was wanted on the West Coast for a slew of robberies. Frank Quigley and Thomas Franklin, both of Sioux City, Iowa, and Thelma Baker of Kansas City, Mo., were also taken into custody.

Baker was described as a "comely, titian-haired young woman" who was somehow instrumental in causing the fights that led authorities to the renegades.

Get the goods: The jewelry department in the Sprecher Store in Casper suffered loss from a daring burglary. The burglar was thought to have gained entry through a transom above a doorway in the thick of the business district.

L.W. Pope, proprietor of the jewelry department, put a value of the loss at about $500.

50 years ago

The front page of the Aug. 26, 1958, Casper Morning Star reported the drowning death of a boy in a swimming pool in Midwest. Bobby Bishop, 12, was in a pool thought to be empty and it cost the boy his life.

Workers started to drain the pool, creating a suction force that held Bobby under water. By the time the boy's father, L.W. Bishop, spotted him in the partially drained pool, the boy was beyond rescue.

Abuse of power: Casper officials heard a shocking tale of rape and incest and the more testimony they gathered, the more gruesome details surfaced.

The story began with Dale Stamp coming to Casper to pick up his six children, who were visiting with Stamp's half brother, Elvin Stamp. Dale Stamp started to the family home in Layton, Utah, but turned the car around and returned to Casper.

Dale heard that his 12-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted by Elvin Stamp. She also said that she had been forced to have sex with a man as trade for an item in a junk yard.

Elvin Stamp had more allegations, saying the girl told him that she was raped by her own father, while her mother held a hand over the girl's mouth to stifle her screams.

Ruth Stamp, wife to Dale, was said to have admitted to helping her daughter and husband prepare for the first assault and trying to silence the cries of the girl.

In total there were four adults being held, Elvin for statutory rape, Dale for being an accessory before the fact, Ruth for being an accessory, and a woman named Theresa Fowler was being held for questioning.

Justice of the Peace Alice K. Burridge repeatedly denied all requests for bail and said she had never before heard of a situation so vile. Dale Stamp was being held for authorities in Utah.

25 years ago

The Aug. 25, 1983, Casper Star-Tribune published a front-page article about a Carnegie Foundation study that found Wyoming had the nation's largest percentage increase in spending on public schools during the previous decade.

Specious detail: A news brief reporting a suicide ended the article with a seemingly unremarkable detail. According to police reports, William Sheets, 21, was talked down from the railroad trestle over the North Platte near downtown Casper.

However, Sheets shot himself in the chest with a .22 caliber pistol soon after descending from the trestle. The article concluded by saying Natrona County Memorial Hospital dispatched its helicopter, which reportedly landed on the trestle.

"A Look Back in Time" is made possible with the help of Western History Archivist Kevin S. Anderson at the Casper College Western History Center, which is open to the public.