The Story
This case started on December 2, 1943. On this date John Malten was penalized for game law violations
John Malten, believed to be 55, was a sharpshooter in the Kaiser’s Army in World War 1 and a German and a German alien in World War 2. He had lived for some years in a cabin in the Sierra Madre Mountains near Savery, Wyoming. The cabin was below Divide Peak in Nugget Gulch which was above the Pete Hansen ranch on the west side of the continental divide. Reports were given to the Wyoming Game and Fish that Mr. Malten had been illegally trapping beaver on the forest, two wardens were assigned to the case. These wardens were Don Simpson of Saratoga and Bill Lakanen of Rawlins. Wardens Simpson and Lakanen went to Malten’s cabin and did a search of the premises. The search turned up eleven beaver pelts, a dozen muskrat pelts, a considerable amount of deer meat, and eighty eight trout. At this time trapping beaver was illegal due to the animals being heavily protected. At this point it was reported that Malten had no guns. Malten was asked about the deer meat and he had said that it was given to him. He would not state the donor so he was also charged with illegal possession of the meat on top of the illegal beaver trapping. Malten was arrested by the wardens and was taken to Rawlins. In Rawlins was given a hearing before Justice of the Peace Jake Waekerlin. Justice Waekerlin found him guilty on all charges and sentenced him to a fine of one hundred dollars and also six months in the county jail. At this point in time this was a considerable amount of money. Game and Fish records show that Malten could not pay the original fine so he received another one hundred days in jail. It is said that Malten promised that he would never be taken in to custody again by anyone and that he would kill any game warden that came to his cabin.
The case continued on October 31, 1945.
On this date the wardens decided to check back up on Malten. They were curious if he had picked back up his illegal acts that landed him in jail before. From this point it was the last time anyone will speak to the wardens again.
After two days of being gone the family members started to worry. Mrs. Lakanen got a hold of Sheriff Glen Penland and asked him to go to John Maltens cabin to see what happened. He asked rancher Frank McCrary to check on the cabin. Frank McCrary’s ranch was about ten miles from Malten’s cabin. Mr. McCrary was forced to walk from the bottom of the hill leading up to Malten’s cabin because it was very muddy. McCrary found that both wardens were shot and Warden Simpson’s body had been drug to the truck. Everything had been covered I gasoline including the cabin, truck, and wardens. Malten had apparently lit the cabin and truck but not the wardens. McCrary also noticed that it must have started to snow soon after the gasoline was light because the truck was only scorched but the cabin burned to the ground. Upon returning home he called Sheriff Penland and reported the horrible news. He told Penland that did not stay very long fearing Malten was still in the area. The next day several investigators including possibly John Terril the undersheriff at that time and George Wilcox the office deputy and also the Rasmussen ambulance picked up Frank McCrary and went to the cabin. The bodies were taken to Rawlins and believed to have been examined by Coroner, Dr. E. Ben Sturgis. In an April 14, 1995 letter to Oscar Hall from a Veteran of World War 2 who was discharged and became the jailer at the time under Glen Penland and the future sheriff of Carbon County after Glen Penland proved this information to be true.
The following could be the series of events that happened on that fateful day.
When wardens Simpson and Lakanen arrived at the cabin John Malten opened the door and started firing at them. It is said that Malten had a notoriously bad temper. Warden Lakanen was shot once in the head while still behind the steering wheel of the truck. The weapon was suspected to be a .22 caliber center fire rifle. Some time after Warden Lakanen was shot Warden exited the truck to return fire at Malten. Warden Simpson was hit twice in the abdomen and fled to the surrounding timber for cover. Malten then must have then followed him and found him still alive and shot him again with a .38 caliber handgun. It is not known whom the handgun belonged to: Warden Simpson or Warden Lakanen. Malten then drug Warden Simpson’s body to the truck and poured gasoline on him and Lakanen and also the cabin. The bodies of the wardens were never lit but the cabin was burned to the ground.
John Malten was never seen or heard from again. There are many hypothesis’ people have about John Maltens whereabouts after the murders. Some think that he committed suicide and burned in the fire but there is no evidence to support this. Others think that he escaped to the mountains. Searches were done by people on foot and also in airplanes. Still others believe he fled back to Germany or some where else. There is some evidence to this. A family of Germans with the last name of Uhlein owned a ranch close to Malten’s cabin. They were good friends. Both had come from Chicago. The Uhleins left about the same time as the murders. Another farfetched hypothesis is that Malten was a German spy. Some said he had antennas and sophisticated radio equipment in his cabin and that he burned the building to get rid of the equipment.