Dog Finds Skull

Saturday, February 21, 2004

An 1895 article in the Milton Globe read:

“A dog at Devils Lake appeared on the streets carrying a human head. It proved to be that of Jack Kenny, whom the state’s attorney had exhumed for the purpose of using as evidence before the jury…The door was left open, and the dog went in and brought it out.”

Actually, Jack Kenny’s skull had been disinterred twice, according to the Devil’s Lake Inter-Ocean. Five years earlier, Kenny’s mistress, Agnes Baldwin, killed him with a lamp, and the prosecution dug up the skull to prove where the fracture was located. Later, the defense attorneys dug it up again for their own purposes, but the prosecution reportedly stole it and hid it. After the trial, the skull was forgotten until found by the dog.

The Globe article finished with:

“People can’t be too careful about leaving their friends lying around in a country so full of useless dogs as North Dakota.”

Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm