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Welcome to another edition of The Pain-Fail Championship, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman....

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

<title>Steve Inman: Tuesday, February 3, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Steve Inman: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

 Welcome to another edition of The Pain-Fail Championship, as narrated by MMA announcer, Steve Inman....

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Around Wyoming

In the hyper-competitive world of multi-million-dollar western real estate listings, buzzwords like “regenerative agriculture” often pad a broker’s promotional materials. But a $29.9 million ranch just listed by Hayden Outdoors near Weston in northeast Wyoming has a little more heft behind its hype than usual.

That’s because Martha Stewart traded the Hamptons for the High Plains of Wyoming last year to come study the farm-to-fork ecosystem at Steiner Ranch, which was then called Sweetgrass at Thunderbasin. 

Stewart later praised the operation on her official Instagram account, highlighting the “extreme” energy of the ranch’s owners, Rick Steiner and Deirdre Wildman. 

She was also interested in the property’s unique capacity to feed its guests almost entirely from the surrounding land, praising multi-course menus that featured on-site harvests of goose, rabbit, beef, poultry and local berries, as well as produce from the ranch’s greenhouses, orangery, and its open-air culinary gardens. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Ranch Grows Everything It Needs"}]

It was the culinary garden that got the ranch noticed by Stewart, who owns a 153-acre farm in Connecticut. 

“Last year, early in the season, we had a group of shooters here and they saw my wife’s culinary garden, which is truly an extraordinary thing,” Steiner said. “It’s a culinary garden that produces enough stuff for us to provide literally all the vegetables that 250 guests eat during the course of the fall season.”

Steiner’s wife, Wildman, gave them all a tour of the gardens, explaining their approach to a regenerative, farm-to-fork operation.

“So the guy said to me, ‘I gotta get our chief gardening officer out here to see this,’” Steiner said with a chuckle. “And we said, ‘chief gardening officer?’”

Steiner has heard all sorts of acronyms such as CEO, COO, CFO. But that was the first time hearing CGO.

“And then he said, ‘It’s Martha Stewart,’” Steiner said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of interesting.’”

That Stewart visit wasn’t something Steiner thought would happen. But the following Monday morning he had a text asking if such and such date would work for Stewart’s visit.

“Sure enough, they were out here 10 days later and got the full tour of the gardens and the ranch,” Steiner said. “And we have a small animal farming operation that raises chickens and turkeys and ducks and geese, rabbits and goats, and those also, both eggs and meat, are served to guests.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"What It’s Like To Serve Martha Stewart"}]

Wildman served breakfast, lunch and dinner to Stewart. For breakfast she even used one of Stewart’s own biscuit recipes. 

“I’ll be honest with you, there’s a little bit of anxiety as to whether or not your biscuits are going to meet Martha Stewart’s standard,” Steiner said. “When my wife asked me about it, I said, ‘Well she ate several of them so …’ She passed with flying colors.”

Stewart, Steiner added, was a down-to-earth, gracious guest.

“She’s got a great sense of humor and she’s very engaging, very straightforward,” Steiner said. “She’s not shy about telling you what she thinks. I just found her delightful.”

Stewart posted several pictures about her visit on Instagram, including some standing with Deirdre and others on the ranch.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Elevation Creates Unique Microclimate"}]

The ranch’s ability to grow so much produce is a feat in arid Wyoming, one that’s helped by the ranch’s elevation, which has created a favorable microclimate.

“I would say the surrounding (Thunder Basin) national grassland is a 16 to 24 inches a year precipitation environment, and the ranch I would say is 30 to 36 inches a year of precipitation environment,” Steiner told Cowboy State Daily. “The clouds roll in from whatever direction the wind is blowing and have to rise up to climb over the hills on the ranch and the ridge lines. When they rise up, they cool down and drop some moisture.”

That’s given the ranch all kinds of trees and created great habitat not only for gardening but for wildlife as well. 

“It’s the basis for what’s going on here in every dimension,” Steiner said. “It’s great for ranching. It’s really great for the wildlife. And it just makes the place much nicer and more scenic than most other places.”

The ranch’s location in so much wild and remote territory, with above-average water resources, has made it such an exceptional wildlife haven. 

“I’ve hunted in probably 40 countries,” Steiner said. “This one of the finest hunting properties on the planet. Really big elk, fantastic mule deer, white-tailed deer, lots of turkeys. 

"And it also provides exceptional bird-shooting experiences for pheasants and chukars, which we have been offering to guests for the last four years. It’s an amazing sporting property that also supports about 100 cow-calf pairs if you want to run some cows on the side.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Time For A New Steward"}]

Steiner’s path to Wyoming started far from the Black Hills. The West Point graduate served about five years in the infantry, then spent roughly 18 1/2 in Special Forces, eventually retiring as a Green Beret colonel. 

After the military, he built a business career in Denver, but had always had it on his bucket list to own a ranch.

“My business success was sufficient that I could make my dream a reality,” he said.

Still, it took him a decade looking at ranches in multiple states before he finally found what he was looking for. 

“One of the things that this ranch has going it for that people don’t really think about when they’re looking at ranches is it’s 45 minutes from Gillette Campbell County Airport,” Steiner said. “So you can fly to visit us on United, or you can fly in privately if you have that.” 

Steiner and his wife, however, feel ready to retire. A ranch like this one, capable of attracting someone like Martha Stewart to visit, needs a new steward, Steiner said.

“It’s too much ranch for just a married couple who wants to have a lifestyle ranch,” Steiner said. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Two Mansions On The Ranch"}]

Steiner’s Special Forces career helps explain why the property has been designed to completely survive being cut off from the main grid. It has its own dual-array solar grids, industrial backup power, private gravel pits, and independent fuel caches, mimicking a military Forward Operating Base — but one that’s been built to some luxury standards.

There are not one but two mansions on this turnkey ranch. The flagship, called The Lodge, is 7,100 square feet and includes four bedrooms with five bathrooms and a central living area anchored with a double-sided fireplace. 

The kitchen is chef grade, with premium appliances, custom cabinetry, and a large center island. 

There’s a whiskey lounge as well as a private office and a large covered back deck, the better to view the surrounding beauty of the Black Hills. An oversized garage means plenty of room for vehicles, whether practical or pleasure.

The second mansion, called the Berm Home, is 6,200 square feet designed for energy efficiency. It, too, features a high-end kitchen and a large great room that’s designed for gatherings. 

The Covey Conference Center, meanwhile, includes a spacious dining hall, full-service bar and kitchenette, as well as a climate-controlled wine cellar. A large elevated deck looks out over the property’s creek and its pond.

And then there’s the Rendezvous, a commercial-grade facility for larger culinary events, hosted gatherings, and large-scale entertaining. It's surrounded by the ranch’s culinary gardens. It also includes laundry facilities, dry storage and utility areas that keep the ranch and its many operations running smoothly. 

The Rendezvous is where Steiner has placed a 150-year-old cherry wood bar he found in a hotel in Anaconda, Montana.

“It was in the hotel in Anaconda by the early 1880s, and we have photographs of the bar in operation,” Steiner said. “The mid-1880s was when Anaconda and Butte were the copper mining capital of the country. Enormous amounts of money were put into that area at the time, but when the copper played out the hotel went into decline, and the bar ended up here.”

The property, adjacent to the national grasslands, gives it expansive vistas that make it feel much bigger than its 5,582 acres.

“It’s not a big flat open thing or a big sagebrush grassland,” Steiner said. “The fence lines of the ranch on the south side of the ranch and the north side of the ranch, you stand there and look at a grassland that unfolds for miles and miles and miles.”

Steiner Ranch DSU08404 2 22 8 17 26

<title>5,500-Acre Wyoming Ranch And Hunting Destination Hits Market For Nearly $30M | Cowboy State Daily</title>

The 5,582-acre Steiner Ranch in northeast Wyoming, a premiere spot for hunting trophy bull elk and mule deer, has just been listed for sale at nearly $30 million. Last year, Martha Stewart was at the ranch to study its farm-to-fork ecosystem.

5,500-Acre Wyoming Ranch And Hunting Destination Hits Market For Nearly $30M

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the Goshen County attorney.

Nearly five years after a nighttime crash killed two young people on a rural Goshen County highway, Wyoming prosecutors are now pursuing a criminal charge against the Colorado truck driver involved.

Conan Dean Ferguson, 54, of Briggsdale, Colorado, is wanted on a Goshen County warrant stemming from the Nov. 17, 2021, crash that killed 18-year-old Korey Bowers of La Grange and 19-year-old Emma Nelson of Nebraska.

The criminal case follows an investigation by the Wyoming Highway Patrol that stretched through much of 2022.

Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Samuel Szott was assigned to investigate the crash in March 2022 and completed his work that October, WHP spokesman Aaron Brown told Cowboy State Daily.

"Keep in mind troopers on the crash team do not do crash reconstruction full time, so it is fairly normal for a crash investigation, especially those involving a fatality, to take several months," Brown said.

[{"type":"text","text":"WHP then forwarded all of its evidence to prosecutors."}]

Multiple Cowboy State Daily inquiries to Goshen County prosecuting attorney Eric Boyer since early July about the criminal charge were not responded to by publication time.

Shortly after the story was published, Boyer responded that "pursuant to applicable ethical rules ... and in the interests of justice, my office has no comment on this pending matter."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Fatal Night"}]

A crash report released after the wreck shows it was just before 10 p.m. Nov. 17, 2021, when Bowers and Nelson were traveling on U.S. Highway 85 south of Hawk Springs.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bowers was driving a Ford Taurus with Nelson in the passenger seat."}]

Near milepost 69.5, Bowers slowed or stopped with his left turn signal on as he prepared to turn onto Wyoming Highway 313, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol's account of the crash.

[{"type":"text","text":"Behind him, Ferguson was driving a northbound Volvo tractor-trailer."}]

As Ferguson attempted to pass the Taurus on the right shoulder, Bowers turned right.

The semi T-boned the Taurus, striking it in the side with enough force to overturn the car.

Bowers was wearing his seat belt and survived the initial impact. An ambulance rushed him to Banner Health Community Hospital in Torrington, where he died from his injuries.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nelson died at the crash scene."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Ferguson and a passenger riding in the semi were not injured."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The deaths marked Wyoming's 100th and 101st traffic fatalities of 2021."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Numbers"}]

Bowers and Nelson had come to southeastern Wyoming to attend the same small Bible college.

They were freshmen at Frontier School of the Bible in La Grange, and their families described them as dear friends.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bowers died on his 18th birthday."}]

He had spent the previous five years with his family doing missionary work in Beardmore, Ontario, Canada.

Bowers was so determined to attend Frontier with his older brother, Caleb, that he finished his final three years of high school in two.

[{"type":"text","text":"Nelson traveled to Wyoming from Nebraska."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She grew up in Cedar Bluffs and Juniata before enrolling at Frontier."}]

In her obituary, her family remembered a young woman who was fiercely loyal to her friends and protective of her younger siblings. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Families File Lawsuit"}]

The families of Bowers and Nelson filed a wrongful-death lawsuit July 29, 2022, in U.S. District Court for Wyoming as representatives of their children's estates.

The lawsuit named Ferguson, McLane Company Inc., Transco Inc. and Manos Zouridakis, the passenger in Ferguson's truck, as defendants.

[{"type":"text","text":"The families demanded a jury trial."}]

McLane and Transco filed an answer Sept. 13, 2022, denying allegations and asserting a series of affirmative defenses.

Ferguson was served with the lawsuit Aug. 27 and filed his own answer and affirmative defenses Sept. 19, court records show.

Maren Chaloupka, an attorney who represented the Nelson family in the lawsuit, later discussed the case while testifying before the Nebraska Legislature in February 2025.

Chaloupka told lawmakers the litigation uncovered what she characterized as lax hiring practices and repeated warnings involving dangerous driving. She said the families were determined to push the motor carrier to make changes.

"Money alone was not going to make this case go away," Chaloupka testified.

She said the families were prepared to take the case to trial if the motor carrier would not change its practices.

"In the end, that motor carrier agreed it would make changes," Chaloupka said.

Her testimony did not specify exactly what changes the motor carrier ultimately made.

[{"type":"text","text":"The civil lawsuit was separate from any criminal proceedings."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Homicide By Vehicle Charge"}]

As of Monday morning, Ferguson had not been arrested or made an official court appearance.

A warrant for his arrest was issued June 30 for homicide by vehicle, a misdemeanor alleging a driver operated a vehicle in a criminally negligent manner and that conduct caused another person's death.

[{"type":"text","text":"The charge carries up to one year in jail."}]

Cowboy State Daily reached out to Goshen County and Prosecuting Attorney Eric Boyer seeking more information about the homicide-by-vehicle charge, what led prosecutors to pursue the case now and what occurred after WHP forwarded its investigation to prosecutors in October 2022, but did not receive a response by publication time.

Nearly five years have passed since the night Bowers and Nelson were killed.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bowers would now be 22. Nelson would be 23."}]

Fatal crash charges 5 years later 8 17 26

<title>Colorado Trucker Wanted For Homicide Nearly 5 Years After Wyoming Crash Killed 2 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Nearly five years after a semi T-boned a car in Goshen County, killing two young students from a Wyoming Bible college, the Colorado trucker involved is wanted on a homicide-by-vehicle charge. One victim was killed on his 18th birthday, the other was 19.

Colorado Trucker Wanted For Homicide Nearly 5 Years After Wyoming Crash Killed 2

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

Andrew Rossi

Sports

Lindsay Woods had an experience she’ll never forget, for good and bad reasons, during the 2026 Mongol Derby.

 in Inner Mongolia, crossed the finish line, but not as a competitor. She was eliminated before the end of the race due to a serious illness and heat stroke that left her unconscious in a river.

“I originally sat down in the water thinking it was just going to be a few minutes, and then I lost consciousness,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I don't remember a whole lot after that.”

Woods has since recovered and is making her way back to Jackson, discouraged but holding her head high after her ordeal on the Mongolian Steppe.

“The Mongol Derby is every bit as difficult as people say, and then some,” she said. “The hardest part for me has been that part of me thinks that I really could have done it. I really could have won it. Obviously, that's not what Mongolia had in store for me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Hospitality To Heaving"}]

Woods was one of 43 riders in the 2026 Mongol Derby. The Jackson horse trainer proved herself from the start, using her equestrian and strategic skills to become one of the frontrunners in 

the highly competitive, grueling endurance race

“I was feeling really strong,” she said. “I had been riding with Rangna Roux (South Africa) for about three days, and it felt like we were closing in on the finish. Both of us were getting to the point where we were like, ‘Holy shit. Like, we might win the Mongol Derby.’”

By Day Six, Woods was one of the top three riders. Another two days of riding, and she might have finished first.

On the night of Day 6, Woods stayed with a Mongolian family who offered her a meal and a bed without question. The hospitality of the Mongolians is a unique aspect of the Mongol Derby.

“They don't speak a lick of English, (so) we had these translation cards that said, ‘Hey, we're riding a horse race. Can we stay with you?’, and the answer's always yes,” she said. “They took us in, fed us, and took care of our horses for us. They were so kind.”

The bill of fare that night was mutton soup. Woods accepted the free meal, despite some misgivings.

“When we rolled up to this family's ger to ask them if we could camp there, they were actively slaughtering a goat,” she said. “We sat down in our gear, and they immediately gave us a bowl of mutton soup. I'm not sure how sanitary the exchange was, but I tried to keep an open mind. Unfortunately, that did not work for me.”

Woods had a severe bout of food poisoning that night. Despite the long night of gastrointestinal distress and sweltering heat the next day, Woods resolved to keep riding.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Full-Blown Heat Stroke"}]

After riding 3.5 legs that day, Woods was starting to feel the effects of heatstroke. She and Roux were determined to get to the next horse station, but Woods’ condition worsened.

“The whole derby was hot, but this day was especially hot,” she said. “I rode that day with almost no water in my body. I started swaying side to side on this horse, and that is not normal. And at that point, I was like, ‘I think I need to sit in some water for a few minutes.’”

Woods activated the SOS button on her Garmin navigation device and sat down in a stream. That’s when her memory starts to get spotty.

“I know Rangna rode ahead,” she said. “Rosie Bathurst, the event manager, found me first. She was an angel (and) did everything that she could to get my body temperature back down.”

Bathurst found Woods unconscious in the stream where she’d laid down. She stayed with Woods until medics arrived and transported her to the start camp.

“One of the medics stayed up with me all night, monitoring my vitals,” Woods said. “She was incredible, but they took really, really good care of me.”

However, Woods said everyone made it clear “in no uncertain terms” that she was not going to ride again. Her Mongol Derby was over.

“That was obviously really gutting, especially when I felt like I was sort of closing in on the end,” she said. “If they don't think that you're going to be able to ride out safely, they're not going to let you, and that was not an option for me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Best Ride"}]

Woods spent three days recovering at the start camp. That’s when she grasped the seriousness of the situation.

“It snuck up on me,” she said. “The food poisoning did not end with heatstroke. I went through every single symptom. I couldn’t even walk for two days afterward.”

[{"type":"text","text":"The “scariest thing” was seeing her fellow riders' reactions."}]

“A bunch of other beaten and bruised riders were waiting at camp, and everyone looked at me like I was dead. Seeing everyone else's reactions made me realize something crazy really did happen to me.”

On Day 9, Laura Van Laar of the Netherlands won the 2026 Mongol Derby. Woods was in a three-way tie with her and Roux until she was eliminated due to her illness.

[{"type":"text","text":"Roux, who had been accompanying Woods, came in fourth."}]

On Day 10, Woods and a few other riders were cleared to cross the finish line. They were no longer competing, but the Mongol Derby organizers bused them out to Horse Station 28 so they could experience the end of the endurance race.

“My best friend, Jarissa Sabal, was in that group, as well as some other gals that I had met along the way,” she said. “One of the poor girls had stress fractures all the way down from her knee to her foot. She could only walk and just barely sit the trot.”

Going “at a snail’s pace,” the riders rode the final leg. Despite her disappointment, Woods said the final ride was the most enjoyable of the entire experience.

“I got to experience a lot of things that I had missed out on earlier on because I took it so seriously,” she said. “I wasn't worried about our pace or navigation or anything. I was on a trail ride with my friends. Being able to end that way was really, really special to me.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lessons Learned"}]

As Woods was packing her things and heading toward Chinggis Khaan International Airport in Ulaanbaatar for the journey home, she had enough hindsight to reflect on her experience.

Overall, she felt she had what it took to finish first and might have done so.

“I definitely surprised myself,” she said. “Figuring out the strategy was pretty fun, and you get into the rhythm of it. They tell you that it’s a long day. What they don't tell you is that it's just 11 hours of trotting. Anyone who rides horses knows that is absolutely exhausting.”

Riders change horses every 25 miles, which amounts to 25 horses for the entire race. They can only ride 11 hours a day, or they incur penalties that affect their time and place.

For Woods, the horses were the most memorable part of the Mongol Derby. Figuring out each horse's rhythm and how to get the best out of all of them during each ride was “right up my alley.”

“I’m going to remember the horses forever,” she said. “They are absolutely unlike any horse I've ever seen before. It's almost like they're a different species. They're so uniquely adapted to their environment. Surviving there requires that they travel for food and water, so they've got these rock-hard feet and rock-hard stomachs, and they can do absolutely anything.”

Meanwhile, she felt right at home on the Mongolian Steppe. The terrain was so similar to southern Wyoming that she felt it “absolutely gave me an advantage” in terms of navigation.

Many others, including the Mongol Derby’s organizers, noted she had successfully strategized and navigated her way to the front of the race within a few days. Had she been able to continue, she might have crossed the finish line with Van Laar on Day Nine.

“I think I confirmed that my strategy works pretty darn well,” she said. “I was pacing and treating the horses while trying to track the leaders, became friends with the leaders, and just tried to keep an eye on them. In terms of strategy, I'd probably try exactly the same thing.”

Her downfall was due to factors she couldn’t anticipate. Woods believes she could have avoided heatstroke if she hadn’t been battling food poisoning at the same time.

“I trained for the heat,” she said. “We had a hot summer in Jackson, and I would wait for the middle of the day to go out and go for a run. The unfortunate thing is that we just aren't adapted to eat many of the things they eat on the steppe.”

Woods praised the Mongolians as “wonderful and hospitable,” and doesn’t blame them for her illness. She recognized they were freely giving what little they had to strangers.

“Oftentimes, they don't have a lot of food for themselves, and they're offering what they have to you,” she said. “The issue with the food poisoning is that you have to eat a lot of food to sustain yourself if you're going to ride for 12 hours. You have to eat the mutton soup.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'I Could Have Done It'"}]

Woods left Mongolia with a memorable souvenir: a tattoo of a Mongolian horse she got on the steppe.

Besides the horses, what stuck with her most were her fellow riders. She wasn’t prepared for the emotional ride that she’d spent months mentally and physically preparing for.

“It's pretty indescribable to anyone that hasn't experienced it themselves,” she said. “I ended up caring a lot more about everyone that I met, and just being really touched by their stories in a way that really surprised me.”

Woods said she would already be signed up for the 2027 Mongol Derby “if money wasn’t an issue.”  The entry fee is around $19,000, and she’s “already feeling a whole lot of guilt” about the family and friends who helped her fundraise the amount needed for the entry fee, gear, and travel to Mongolia, only to be stopped before the finish.

If she were to try again, Woods would be “a bit more cautious gastrointestinally” and pack some extra protein powder but doesn’t think she’d do much else differently. She’s happy to be coming home to Jackson but is confident she had and has what it takes to win the Mongol Derby.

“I’m really upset that (heatstroke and food poisoning) were the things that took me out,” she said. “I’m really bummed, but I feel I did my work. Maybe one day I will try again. I'll be a little bit more cautious when I'm eating the mutton soup, but I proved to myself that I could have done it.”

Mongol derby 3 8 17 26

<title>Wyoming Woman's 620-Mile Mongol Derby Quest Ends Unconscious In A River | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Lindsay Woods of Jackson was poised to win the grueling 620-mile Mongol Derby but heatstroke and food poisoning left her unconscious in a river, ending her bid on the remote Mongolian Steppe, "I really could have won it," she says.

Wyoming Woman's 620-Mile Mongol Derby Quest Ends Unconscious In A River

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Wyoming Life

Seven years in prison beginning at 19 for putting a club into the head of a Swiss miner was followed by a couple of decades as a preacher and labor movement orator.

His personal reformation rewarded him with a Wyoming state role enforcing children and animal welfare.

But after just months on the state job, allegations of “white slavery” involving two teenage Casper girls in 1924 meant Baptiste John Minort needed to resign his state position and pulpit role. 

Those charges were eventually dropped and he was back filling a pulpit in Torrington when a “disturbing the peace” charge in 1926 was filed, alleging he had been in a rooming house with a woman in Nebraska he claimed was his wife under an assumed name.

An old character that many believed was buried and destroyed for the 42-year-old Torrington grain store manager and police court judge suddenly had resurfaced.

“Torrington Pastor Slays Family, Suicides,” the Casper Daily Tribune reported on Nov. 15, 1926. “Wife and Four Children Dead as Climax to Late Scandal.”

Newspapers across the country carried the headlines that an Associated Press reporter wrote likely were caused by “wagging tongues” and “domestic difficulties.”

Minort was born Feb. 20, 1884, in France and emigrated to the U.S. in 1892 to Missouri.

In 1901, at 17, he married Luisa Elizabeth Huber and they had five children, including Baptiste John Jr. in 1902, sons Carl, David and Clarence in 1912, 1915, and 1917, and daughter, La Von in 1922.

When he was 19, Minort was charged and convicted for killing a Swiss miner, Vincent Gaffney, at a coal camp in Riverton, Missouri, in March 1903 after a dispute about missing money from Gaffney’s room. Gaffney boarded with the Minort family.

“Minort claimed that Gaffney drew a revolver on him, then, in order to protect himself, he struck Gaffney twice on the head with a club, knocking him against a barbed wire fence, after which he choked him,” the Henry County Democrat reported on March 26, 1903. “Gaffney died as a result of his injuries.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Second-Degree Murder"}]

After his conviction on a second-degree murder charge, Minort was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was released after seven.

Newspaper accounts state that while in prison he started reading the Bible and when he got out moved to Nebraska. Whether he pursued formal religious training is not known.

 In May 1914, he took a role as a pastor at a Sterling, Nebraska, church and also had a role as the chairman and clerk of a Sunday school convention.

The Sterling Sun reported he was helping at a revival meeting in Falls City, Nebraska. His efforts in evangelism and teaching grew his church by 200 people, according to a report in the Norfolk Daily News.

By 1922, he was serving as a pastor in a church in Alliance, Nebraska, and was the main speaker at a Labor Day gathering in Casper.

The Casper Daily Tribune on Sept. 5, 1922, reported that Minort delivered an “inspirational address” that promoted the idea of trade unions and how they eliminated “classes” in society. Hundreds gathered to hear him.

Shocking headlines from 100 years ago after a pastor from Torrington gunned down his wife and four of his five children, then himself. He wrote he had brought shame to them when caught with a woman in a rooming house in Nebraska under an assumed name.

Steve Inman: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

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