St. Clair County
Remnants Of The Past

Appleton City Journal
19 August 1926

Two St. Clair County Youths Confess Terrible Crime in Colorado

Hot Sulphur Springs, Colo., August 17. – Across trackless mountains, which for weeks have defied every effort of posses to find Fred N. Selak, 75 year old hermit of Grand Lake, Colo., a pointer dog today led searchers to the body of the recluse.
The body was found suspended from a tree three-quarters of a mile from the wealthy hermit’s cabin by authorities who began their hunt following the confession last night of Ray Noakes and Arthur Osborn, young cousins, that they had hanged Selak July 21st.
In his confession Noakes told how he and Osborn had gone to the cabin, threatened the recluse with a pistol, and later led him from his dwelling with a rope around his neck.
“The old man begged us to let him go,” Noakes declared, but “Osborne was determined to finis him, so I helped hoist him up. We went to a gulley near the cabin and Osborn threw the rope over a tree.”
According to Osborn, the hanging was the culmination of a dispute over a division fence.
Noakes and Osborne, with three other men, were arrested August 10th, after they had paid for purchases at mountain towns with old coins, similar to some in the collection of Selak – Wednesday’s K.C. Times.
The Kansas City Post gives further details in the following dispatch.
Denver, Aug. 17. – Fear of lynching led police today to rush to Denver two Missouri youths, Ray Noakes, 21 years old, and Arthur Osborne, 22, both recently of Granby, Colo., for the confessed murder of Fred M. Selak, 60-year old wealthy recluse.
Directed by Osborne, searchers today found the body of the recluse hanging to a tree where the two men had left it.
The confession was made yesterday when Noakes calmly told detectives how he and Osborne had gone to the cabin of the hermit and demanded money. Not getting it, they took him to a gulley a half mile from the house, tied his hands, and Osborne climbed a tree and threw a rope over a branch, a noose was placed around Selak’s neck, and he was drawn up and left hanging.
Going back to the cabin, the two men ripped up the floor, where they found $75 instead of the $500,000 it was believed Selak kept in hiding.
Although neither man would sign a confession, both talked freely of their part in the affair.
Noakes is from Lowry City, Mo., where his family is living. Osborne has a wife and two children living at Ohio, Mo., according to his statement, both towns are in St. Clair County.