Eugene Butler

Case record

Overview

Eugene Butler was declared insane and was sent to an asylum at Jamestown in 1906. He died in the asylum in 1913 before crimes were discovered.

After Butler’s death, a later excavation of Butler’s house uncovered hidden remains beneath the floor. During routine excavation of the late Butler’s house, a hidden trapdoor was found to open to the ground beneath the floor. Following a small amount of digging, bones were found, and then a skull. Local police were called.

Over the next few days, six complete skeletons were uncovered from beneath the floorboards in the ground beneath Butler’s house.

Timeline

• 1906 — Eugene Butler was declared insane and sent to an asylum at Jamestown.
• 1913 — Eugene Butler died in the asylum.
• 1915 — Routine excavation two years after Butler’s death revealed six skeletons beneath the floorboards.

The offence

The six skeletons were found under Butler’s home. The remains were all males between the ages of 15 and 18.

The coroner said they had all been males, between the ages of 15–18. Each victim had been killed by crushing blows to the backs of the head. The bodies had been lowered through a hidden trapdoor in the floorboards and buried in a crawlspace underneath the house. The homicides apparently had spanned a period of four or five years prior to Butler’s ultimate incarceration.

As there were no living witnesses and Butler himself was dead, the identities of the victims were not known and the bodies went unidentified.

Investigation and discovery

At the time of discovery, no one knew of anyone of that age who had gone missing, so the bodies remained unidentified.

With no living suspect and the lack of a known identity for any of the victims, authorities were left to theorise on motive. Those who had contact with Butler had heard him talk about fantasies before.

Authorities theorised that Butler may have thought his farm hands were planning to rob him, so he decided to strike first.

A later discussion considered the possibility that the killings could have been sexually motivated, but local law enforcement at the time knew little of sex crimes and did not consider that as a more logical motive.

Other details

Eugene Butler lived almost all of his life outside of Niagara, North Dakota. He was known as being a recluse and was also very paranoid. He spent time avoiding people, and the only people he spoke to were young men he hired as farm hands.

A claim within the provided material compared the case to other serial killing cases, mentioning Northcott, Corll, and Gacy, in connection with speculative motive. The six skeletons remained unidentified after discovery.

An external name appears in the provided material: Michael Newton.