Letters from Assassin Harry Orchard

I have several letters in my collection written to Belle and Julian Steunenberg from Harry Orchard while he was incarcerated in the Idaho Penitentiary. The letters reflect his alleged conversion to Christianity and the Seventh Day Adventist Church. These did not come to me directly through the family and I cannot vouch for their provenance. 

Left: Assassin Harry Orchard's letter to Julian Steunenberg (eldest son of murdered Ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg and my grandfather).

This 3/25/1909 letter is actually on an 11" X 14" size paper but all the text was within 8 1/2 by 11 format for scanning. This letter appears to be missing a second page. The remaining three letters are 8 1/2" by 11".

Left: September 26th, 1909 letter to Belle Steunenberg, wife of murdered Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg.

This letter and the one below are what appears to be two of the same letter. 

This first one appears to be a rough draft with various written corrections.

I cropped this portion of the second page.

And this one is a more neatly typed final version of the letter above.

             
So we have four letters with two of those being different drafts of the same letter. Again, all saved for sending on the web and I have higher resolution available. 

Unfortunately none have Orchard's hand signed signature although that was a fairly common practice. 

Read more about Orchard's alleged salvation in the Adventist Magazine Gleaner: http://www.gleaneronline.org/101/2/27813.html (No longer an active link). Please feel free to comment or provide any information you might have regarding Harry Orchard, Frank Steunenberg, other Steunenberg family members or related items and events.

All of the scans/photos on this site are the property of the author and permission to copy or publish is required along with appropriate referencing as to the source.