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Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here? Sunday, November 13, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Chaos...

You Still Here? Sunday, November 13, 2022

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

A Laramie County family has recovered from the shellshock of finding a cannonball buried in their backyard.

There was a leak in the well on the Johnsons’ property in Laramie County. As the contractor they hired to fix it was digging into the ground, Shamayam Coleman noticed something odd half-buried nearby.

“It was sticking out of the ground on the path leading to my mother’s house,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I didn't know what it was, but it looked like it could have been an ordinance.”

[{"type":"text","text":"When Coleman told her mother, Nina Johnson, she “freaked out.”"}]

“I googled pictures of cannonballs, and it looked like a cannonball to me, so I called the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department,” Johnson said.

Members of the Cheyenne Police Bomb Squad/ Laramie County Sheriff’s Office joint explosive ordinance disposal unit (EOD) came ready to dispose of the ordinance. Fortunately, their full skills weren’t needed.

“It was solid inside, so they decided not to detonate it,” Johnson said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Always A Threat"}]

Whenever there’s a suspicious and possibly explosive item discovered, law enforcement agencies don’t take any chances. 

They deploy whatever and whoever’s needed to assess the situation and safely dispose of the object, whether it’s 

an unexpectedly excavated training device

Cannonballs might seem inert, but they can still be deadly after centuries underground. In 2006, a Virginia man was killed by a 75-pound Civil War-era naval cannonball.

That’s one of the hits Johnson found when she searched for cannonballs online. Recognizing the potential danger, she didn’t take any chances.

“I don’t want a cannonball,” she said. “I found the number, and the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office responded.”

First, the deputies used a bomb-sniffing canine to assess the situation. 

The canine would alert them if there was any gunpowder or chemicals, indicating that the cannonball might be explosive.

Most people think of cannonballs as solid projectiles, but some Civil War-era round shot was designed to carry explosive charges with complex fuses. 

Naval ordinance was designed to be waterproof, so it could theoretically still explode after being buried underground for a century.

Cheyenne isn’t a naval hub, but it does have a military history going back to the mid-1800s. However, Johnson and Coleman still don’t have an explanation for why there was a cannonball on their land.

“I don’t think this was a location, historically, for the kind of cannonballs that had explosives in them,” Coleman said. “Some people think it was like a steel mill ball or railroad bearing, but I'm not an expert in that.”

Johnson said the EOD team told her the cannonball was the type used for “destroying buildings or walls,” but didn’t have an explanation for why it was buried on her property.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Harm, No Foul"}]

After the bomb-sniffing canine made a pass at the cannonball, the EOD team used a machine to X-ray it. They discovered there was nothing to be concerned about.

“They determined that it was solid on the inside, and therefore it wouldn't detonate it or anything like that,” Johnson said.

So, the EOD team dug up the cannonball, and that was that. Johnson let them take it as a strange souvenir.

“They wanted it, and it’s in their line of work, so I let them take it with them,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine what my daughter was going to do with a cannonball.”

Coleman wished her mother had consulted with her before giving the cannonball away.

“I wanted the cannonball, so my friends told me I should get a metal detector and start finding things,” she said. “We haven’t lived here very long, so who knows what else we’ll find.”

Contact Andrew Rossi at andrew@cowboystatedaily.com

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<title>Laramie County Family Finds Half-Buried Cannonball In Their Yard, Mom Gives It Away | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A family in Laramie County was trying to fix their well when they discovered a half-buried cannonball in their yard. After being told it was non-explosive by a bomb squad, the mother decided to give it away, much to the dismay of her son.

Laramie County Family Finds Half-Buried Cannonball In Their Yard, Mom Gives It Away

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

After 64 years, Casper’s real-life version of the “Little Engine That Could” will return to its hometown to help put the spotlight on the city’s railroad and refinery legacy.

Fort Caspar Museum has announced that the muscular little 0-4-0 steam locomotive known as “Standard Oil No. 1” that once chugged along the miles of rails at the Standard Oil Refinery starting in 1920 will soon be on display at the museum.

In Colorado, they renamed the machine “Lulu Belle” for a time.

Colorado Railroad Museum Executive Director Paul Hammond said the return of the locomotive comes after the Golden, Colorado, facility re-evaluated its collection and identified items it wanted to get rid of that are not connected to Colorado’s rail past.

“By moving Standard Oil No.1  to the grounds of the Fort Caspar Museum, we will be returning an important piece of Casper’s history and displaying it less than a mile from the center of the refinery where it spent its lengthy career,” he said.

Local historian and Fort Caspar Museum volunteer Con Trumbull has been working with the Colorado Railroad Museum to bring the transfer about, Hammond said.

Trumbull, who has chronicled the state’s rail past and works as a steam locomotive engineer in Nevada, said the acquisition began with a conversation he had with Hammond more than a year ago. 

He said the director was talking about how the locomotive was taking up space that could be better used for Colorado artifacts and needed to “go home” so there could be more Colorado equipment displayed.

As a kid, Trumbull said his grandparents would take him down to the Colorado Railroad Museum when they went down to Denver.

“I’ve always loved trains and loved railroading and that little locomotive hit close to home because it said ‘Casper, Wyoming,’ on it,” he said. “I got to crawl on it as a kid, I got to ring the bell, I got to see it and I always thought that it should come back to Casper.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rail History Void"}]

While many of Wyoming’s towns, including Gillette, Rock Springs, Sheridan, and Douglas have some sort of display featuring a locomotive or caboose paying homage to their railroad past, Casper has never had something to tie to its rail history.

The little 0-4-0 will allow the Fort Caspar Museum to do that, Trumbull said.

Hammond told Cowboy State Daily that when his museum purchased the locomotive in 1962 they used it as a “billboard” to advertise the museum.

“It got dolled up a little bit with paint and was placed on some tracks to attract attention,” he said. “That’s where it picked up a name that it’s had ever since at this museum called the ‘Lulu Belle.’”

After some years, the billboard role became unnecessary and the locomotive was given back its Standard Oil logos and placed as a centerpiece of an area of the museum used for picnicking. 

He said when the museum announced the train was returning to Casper their social media had several comments about people remembering it as a child.

Hammond said with the museum’s reconfiguration and dispersed picnic areas, it meant the timing is right for the engine to find a new home.

The engine was made in 1920 by the American Locomotive Company of Paterson, New Jersey, which was one of the largest manufacturers of steam locomotives at the turn of the past century.

Trumbull said the locomotive was built to last and it worked around the refinery for 42 years before being put up for sale.

“Even though it’s just a small switching engine, it’s still a testament to that engineering prowess and stuff that American railroads were known for,” he said. The Standard Oil Refinery for a time was the largest one in the world and there were a “maze” of tracks throughout the refinery.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hauling Tank Cars"}]

Trumbull said it probably mostly “banged tank cars around” but also would have been used to haul other freight cars bringing in supplies or other materials for the refinery.

The current look of the locomotive does not reflect its bulk when it was sold to the Colorado museum.

Trumbull said switchers were very “utilitarian” and tank locomotives were boxy and often museums would alter them to make them look more like a traditional locomotive. 

In the case of Standard Oil No. 1, its tank was cut back from the front to give it a different appearance.

“They didn’t cut this one up as bad as I’ve seen others do,” he said.

Trumbull said well-known Casper railroad retiree Chuck Eckerson, who has built and periodically runs his own little steam locomotive with rail cars around his yard in Casper, has offered to help restore the locomotive.

When the engine went up for sale in 1962, a young Eckerson wanted to buy it and had the option to do so, but he was living with his parents and they would not let him put it in their yard, Trumbull said.

“He is extremely excited that this is coming back and he is already making plans to completely redo the woodworking in the cab and get the windows and doors fixed and repaint it,” Trumbull said. “We are talking about possibly taking the tank back to how it would look like when it was here.”

The goal is to get the locomotive to a place where people can climb back in the cab and see the throttle and gauges and ring the bell to make it more of a “touchable history piece,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fundraising Campaign"}]

A $15,000 fundraising campaign has been launched to bring the locomotive back to Casper. Trumbull said the funds will cover some of the moving expenses as well as cosmetic restoration, interpretive signs, and other things.

The city of Casper’s Public Works Department has agreed to go pick up the locomotive, making the moving costs much cheaper than if a contractor hauled it back to the city. 

The plan now calls for the less than 30-foot-long locomotive to just be rolled onto a “low-boy trailer” and trucked back to its hometown.

“The nice thing about this locomotive is that it’s small enough that you can just load it on a trailer and go,” he said.

Some of the original parts of the 50,000-pound machine are missing. The locomotive will need a bell and headlight and in the future, gauges restored.

There is no date yet for when the locomotive will be brought back up. Donations to help with the fundraiser to bring it back can be made at the 

Trumbull said the locomotive is going to be placed in the yard outside the museum’s front door. He said looking to the future, a tank car, and possibly other items that reflect the region’s “rich industrial history” are some things that may be added to the display.

The response to the news of the locomotive’s return has generated enthusiasm among people connected to the museum and history lovers in the community. Trumbull’s phone has been ringing from people excited about the acquisition.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"“Everybody loves trains,” he said."}]

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<title>'Standard Oil No. 1’ Steam Locomotive Coming Back To Casper After 64 Years Away | Cowboy State Daily</title>

More than a century ago, “Standard Oil No. 1” steam locomotive was at work at the company’s Casper oil refinery, but has been gone for 64 years. Now it’s coming back to Casper after decades at a Colorado rail museum.

'Standard Oil No. 1’ Steam Locomotive Coming Back To Casper After 64 Years Away

A woman born in Casper and raised on a ranch near Riverton, along with her young son, were among the more than 900 people who died at Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978, when self-styled pastor turned messianic figure Jim Jones infamously commanded them to drink a poisoned potion.

Wanda Shirley Swinney moved to Jones’ People's Temple compound in Guyana in August 1977, reuniting with her husband and son. 

How Swinney’s life went from her Wyoming beginnings to ending with the command of a cult leader in Jonestown is a tale of family tragedy, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a father’s introduction, and years of brainwashing from the cult’s exalted leader.

The bottom line is Swinney was devoted to Jones. 

In a letter to him written in Guyana, she thanked her “precious Father” for providing their life in Guyana.

“There is no limit to what we can do if we follow your teachings and put them into practice,” she wrote. “Thank you Father for the privilege of being here with you.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"When It Came Tumbling Down"}]

A California congressman, along with journalists, flew to the jungle community in November 1978 to check on his constituents and other Americans who were at Jones’ compound, dubbed “Jonestown."

U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan had heard that people wanted to leave, but were not allowed.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"There was no heavenly outcome."}]

Headlines and history record 918 deaths in Guyana that included Ryan’s assassination and the murder of journalists who accompanied him at the hands of Jones’ deluded followers. Of those, 909 died by drinking the “potion."

Jones died by either self-inflicted gunshot or at the hands of an obedient assistant. Some followers slit their throats, but most of his congregants drank a cyanide-laced potion at his command.

In his now-infamous “Death Tape,” Jones tells his followers “how much” he loved them and tried to give them “the good life.” 

, he characterized Ryan’s visit as a betrayal by “a handful” of sect members “who have made our life impossible.”

Ryan and his party were to fly out with some cult members and children that Jones characterized as “stolen” from Jonestown. 

Jones said the actions of angry sect members at the airport to get their children back using weapons meant the only solution for the rest of the congregation was not to “commit suicide,” but to “take the potion as a revolutionary act.”

He quoted scripture “that no man takes my life from me, I lay it down” and then referred to himself as a communist.

“We can’t go back and they won’t leave us alone,” Jones said. “The best testimony we can make is to leave this (profanity) world.”

Born in Casper as Wanda Shirley Werner on Aug. 20, 1947, she was raised in the early part of her life on a ranch outside Riverton.

It was 31 years later when Wanda Shirley Swinney’s life ended when she — along with her young son — obeyed her “father” and drank Jones' “potion.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Temple Visit"}]

“We went to one of the meetings,” recalls Darlene Parrish, Swinney’s niece.

Darlene and her sister, Tina Parrish, of Carson, Nevada, are the closest living connection to Swinney. They are the daughters of Swinney’s older sister, Jeanie Lou Parrish. Their mother died in October 2023.

Darlene Parrish said that as a young girl, she accompanied her mother on a visit to see her sister in California. 

Her mother and aunt took her to the People’s Temple in San Francisco, where Jones preached and commanded his congregation.

She doesn’t remember a lot from that visit except that in addition to Jones and his followers, there was a monkey at the service.

“Mom told us she remembers Jim Jones getting up there, talking and everything,” Darlene Parrish told Cowboy State Daily. “He said he was ‘Jesus’ and the Bible was just a bunch of lies about him. 

"She said he took the Bible and stomped on it.”

Tina Parrish was 9 months old when her aunt took her life, but she heard the story about the temple visit several times while growing up.

“That was a big story in our family,” she said.

Wanda Shirley Werner was born to Chelsea Guy Werner and Jean Evelyn Werner, the youngest of siblings that including Leonard, Jeanie Lou, and Chelsea Jr.

The Parrish sisters said their mother was born in Missouri and the family moved to Wyoming where their grandfather and grandmother eventually ranched a few years after her birth. 

They believe their grandmother also was possible a teacher for a time.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mother’s Death"}]

A Casper Star-Tribune article on March 17, 1958, recorded their grandmother’s death.

“Mrs. Jean Evelyn Werner, former Casper resident, died suddenly in a Riverton hospital according to word received here today,” the newspaper reported. “She was 43 years old. Mrs. Werner was born in Huntsville, Missouri. She lived in Casper from 1946 to 1949.”

Darlene Parrish said her mother was 15 at the time of her grandmother’s death and became a surrogate mom for Wanda and Chelsea Jr.

The Parrish sisters said one story their mother told about Wanda involved her as a young girl playing on a stump and disturbing a nearby beehive. 

The bees swarmed on Wanda and their mom, Jeanie, had to quickly run and grab the girl and pull her away, swiping bees off as the girls tried to escape.

After their grandmother’s death, their grandfather got a job driving trucks over the road and went through a succession of wives. 

The Parrish sisters said they did not know their grandfather well and visited him once after he moved to Grants Pass, Oregon.

Their mother’s life stayed centered in Wyoming and they don’t know why Wanda and their grandfather ended up in California.

But the Richmond Independent newspaper listed Wanda Shirley Werner as among the 751 graduates of Richmond High School on June 15, 1965. Richmond is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Three years later on March 27, 1968, Wanda Werner’s photo is in the same newspaper as a graduate of U.S. Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. 

But her military career was cut short by an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and birth of a biracial son, Darren Eugene Werner.

Darren was born on Sept. 8, 1968, in Oakland, California.

The Parrish sisters say that it was the stigma at that time associated with having biracial baby that led to Wanda Werner’s involvement with the People’s Temple.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"An Introduction"}]

“It was my grandfather who kind of got her in it not knowing what it was at the time, of course,” Tina Parrish said. “He was driving truck with a member of the People’s Temple and they also had a mixed-race child.” 

She said her grandfather thought that Wanda would find more acceptance with those people as friends. That introduction likely took place in late 1968 or 1969.

At the People’s Temple, Wanda Werner, then 22, married Timothy Swinney, 32, in 1970, after he had divorced his first wife. 

Swinney was considered a “pioneer” at the People’s Temple because his parents and family followed Jones from their home in Indiana as Jones moved from that state to California.

The Ukiah Daily Journal on Oct. 21, 1970, listed Wanda Swinney as the secretary of the Ukiah Area Council that met at the First Methodist Church. The group’s order of business was to make preparations for food baskets for people for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

San Diego State University, which hosts a website that contains information about Jonestown, and the People’s Temple lists Wanda Swinney as moving to Guyana on Aug. 10, 1977. 

Her husband had gone there on March 18, 1974, and it lists her son, Darren Swinney, as entering the country on Nov. 24, 1975.

Prior to Guyana, Wanda Swinney worked as a bus driver, accounting clerk, and had skills in animal husbandry, farming and cooking, the website states.            

Darlene Parrish recalls one thing her mother talked about was that as girls on the ranch in Wyoming, both she and Wanda enjoyed horses and horseback riding.

In Guyana, Wanda lived in a separate residence from her husband and was listed as being in charge of the livestock, the “piggery,” and large animals.

Although Wanda Werner was patriotic enough to join the Marines during the Vietnam War, undated letters from her to Jim Jones reflect she believed Jones' Marxist anti-American messages and preaching that came out of his pulpit in the years leading up to the Jonestown event.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Brainwashing"}]

A massive FBI file created after the Nov. 18, 1978, mass murder and suicide includes a Nov. 21, 1978, message from the Omaha, Nebraska, office to the San Francisco office that contained an interview with a woman who joined the People’s Temple with her then-husband in Los Angeles. 

They were told to move to Ukiah, California.

“(The woman) advised although the group on the surface appeared to be a religious group, it was actually politically oriented and Jim Jones professed a political philosophy adhering to the teachings of Marx and Lenin,” the FBI memo states. 

“All members of the group had to attend closed instructional meetings two or three days a week, each last several hours,” it continues.

Swinney’s letters to Jones were written while she was in Guyana. She wrote her “Father” that among the reasons she left the United States “were because it is a capitalistic nation and we are Socialists and trying to learn more of Socialism.”

Swinney wrote that the U.S. economy was not going to “exist much longer,” according to an economist, and that the nation was quickly approaching a day of “race war.” 

She foresaw a time when the “fascist government” would round up people and put them in ghettos and concentration camps that were already prepared.

“It is a known fact that train box cars are strategically located, just waiting for the signal for when people will be herded like animals into these camps,” Swinney wrote. “Nuclear war is a constant threat also and here in Socialist Guyana we are safe from the radiation fallout if war does break out.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Precious Father'"}]

Tina Parrish said because of her aunt’s involvement in Guyana, while in college she did a research paper on Jonestown and the People’s Temple. But she was unaware then of her aunt’s letters to Jones.

When told about the content, Tina Parrish said one thing was clear.

“I don’t think she would have gotten that from Wyoming or from her dad,” she said.

Darlene Parrish remembers the day her grandfather called her mother with the news of Wanda Swinney’s death.

“I felt bad for her. I didn’t know exactly what was going on. She got off the phone and she was just sobbing,” she said. “Mom said later on that he (Chelsea Werner Sr.) decided because it was such a mess out there that instead of bringing her home, he would just have her buried with the people there.”

Records from the San Diego State University website show that the remains of Wanda and Darren Swinney were eventually brought back to Oakland, California, and buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

“Next of kin could not be located,” the file states. “Buried by receiver on June 19, 1979.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wanda’s Son"}]

A remembrance by Don Beck, a People’s Temple member who directed the children’s choir while Jones remained in Redwood Valley, California, characterized Darren Swinney as a boy who in second grade struggled until Beck directed the youngster to report to him each day on his way home regarding his performance.

“Darren was like many of our kids. They needed more of our attention, consistently,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, we were often too busy to give the extra attention our kids needed.

"This was one reason we wanted to build a community.”

While both Parrish sisters never knew their aunt or their young cousin who was a year older than Darlene, they still feel the ties and loss that a blood relation brings.

Darlene Parrish said people who make flippant remarks about happened in Guyana are not thinking about those who were left behind.

“Our family, it hit us pretty hard,” she said. "And none of us like the jokes that people make about 'drinking the Kool-Aid.' It’s ridiculous.

"think about (the fact) that there are family and friends who are still alive that knew those people and were affected by it a lot.”

Wanda and son Jonestown site in 2022 AFP via Getty 6 7 26

<title>Casper Woman, Son Among 909 Who Drank Poison At Jim Jones’ Guyana Compound In 1978 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A woman born in Casper and raised on a ranch near Riverton, along with her young son, were among the more than 900 people who died at Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978, when self-styled pastor Jim Jones infamously commanded them to drink poison.

Casper Woman, Son Among 909 Who Drank Poison At Jim Jones’ Guyana Compound In 1978

Jen kocher

Jen Kocher

Crime & Courts

Law Enforcement

Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on the infamous "Rawlins Rodeo Murders." Part one 

 and focused on the disappearances of four young girls that remain unsolved 52 years later.

In the early 1970s, the small, rugged city of Rawlins, Wyoming, was in the dawn of an energy boom.

The summer of 1974 arrived like any other, but then between July and August, 

Two of then — 10-year-old Jaylene Banker and 19-year-old Christine “Christy” Gross — were eventually found dead.

The other two teens, 19-year-old Carlene Brown and 15-year-old Deborah Meyer, were never found at all.

All their murders and disappearances remain unsolved, and more than 50 years later law enforcement has yet to publicly named any suspects or persons of interest.

Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken, who wasn’t born at the time the murders took place, admits that his knowledge is limited on the cases. He took over as sheriff four years ago and inherited these among other cold cases.

He said the files are securely stowed in an offsite storage facility that he plans to retrieve.

other cash-strapped agencies throughout the state

 with large jurisdictions and limited staff, is “slowly but surely” working to digitize older case files in accordance with state statute passed in 2024.

It requires agencies to report cold cases dating back to January 1972 to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation’s 

[{"type":"text","text":"To date, only Banker appears in the database."}]

This work is being done around their current workload, Bakken said, but it doesn’t mean that they’re forgotten, he said.

Retired homicide detective and Powell-based cold case investigator Janet Franson likewise believes there’s still work to be done.

She’s been looking into these cases for 25 years, specifically trying to locate the remains of the missing girls.

“I know people would say it’s so old,” Franson told Cowboy State Daily. “But two girls are still missing and need to be found.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Possible Suspects?"}]

In the second of a two-part series on the infamous "Rawlins Rodeo Murders" of 1974, many in the community believe serial killer Ted Bundy was responsible for the deaths of the four girls. Others pin the blame on long haul trucker Russell Royal Long.

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