There were two more murders 15 miles away.

When police arrived, I found the telephones and electricity lines.

We have a weird homicide.

A scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird...

A cop of murder.

Today's story is one that no one quite knows if it's true or a work of fiction.

On October 7, 1863, a young woman was killed

while sitting in a jail cell for crimes that, if true, made her the most prolific serial killer

in Wyoming history. So if you like your coffee hot but your bones chilled, sit back and start

your day with a morning

cup of murder.

When the Bartlett family left Cincinnati in the 1860s and arrived in Wyoming, they settled

in an area called South Pass that, in addition to being the hub for railroad travel, was the safest place to cross

the Rocky Mountains. The city was booming with the highly productive Clarissa Mine, and

others like it, filling the area with miners, making the city one of the best place for travelers

to stop and rest their weary bones. Given this information, the Bartlett family settled in

and began operating a rundown bar and lodging house that saw a pretty steady flow of customers.

It also provided a pretty steady flow of victims.

Now, there is some debate on the validity of this story, but if true, the Bartlett

daughter, Polly, is not only the first, but one of the worst serial killers in the history of

Wyoming. In the earliest account of what went down in the Bartlett Inn, published in the

Real West magazine in July of 1963, writer Dean W. Ballinger tells how

...