This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Editor's note • Every Saturday, Salt Lake Tribune columnist Robert Kirby pulls out long-forgotten pieces of history to give readers a glimpse of life, crime and misadventure in Utah that week in 1916, 1941, 1966 and 1991 — showing just how much we've changed, and how much we haven't. Recognize a relative or have a story to share? Visit Facebook.com/DisturbingHistory or email rkirby@sltrib.com.
1916
Dec. 17 • Extradited from Chicago for the Sept. 22 flat-iron beating murder of his wife at 455 S. 200 East, Howard DeWeese arrives back in Salt Lake City. He is executed eight months later.
• Arranged by the Woodmen of the World order, 94 hunters from Salt Lake City visit Cedar Valley and kill 3,500 (not a typo) rabbits, which are then distributed to the city's poor.
Dec. 22 • Housewives, angry at the high cost of turkey this season, boycott the Christmas bird and instead choose chicken and pork.
• As a blizzard sweeps over northern Utah, Ogden firemen climb a power pole in the teeth of the storm in order to keep spectators from being disappointed in the lighting of the municipal Christmas tree tomorrow.
• Frank M. Driggs, superintendent of the deaf and blind school, recommends "that a law be passed authorizing sterilization in cases where it is believed necessary, forbidding marriage between blind with blind and deaf with deaf, and forbidding the marriage of second cousins."
Dec. 23 • Rabies is believed the cause of death of Forest Ranger Frank A. Travis. His brain is sent to the University of Nevada for bacteriological testing.
Also this week • "The Sunshine of Your Smile" by John McCormack is No. 1 on the charts.
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1941
Dec. 17 • Fast-moving FBI agents track down and arrest suspected enemy aliens in Utah and Nevada, raising the total to 53 Japanese, 14 Germans, and four Italians in custody.
• Vice chairman of the State Council of Defense Gus P. Backman announces that there will be no blackouts or air raid tests in Utah without ample warning.
Dec. 18 • Utah learns that Kent B. Fitzgerald, Ernest R. Gargaro, Darrel M. Hess, Theodore Q. Jensen, Keith M. Jensen, Rudolph H. Reinhold, Alva D. Walton, and Charles W. White are missing in action in the Pacific. In fact, all died aboard the USS Arizona.
• Memorial rites for USMC Pvt. Joseph D. Pyper Jr., reported as killed in the Pacific but who in fact is alive and well, are announced for Sunday, Dec. 21.
Dec. 20 • Sisters Marie Gibbon, 62, and Margaret Gibbon, 64, who had lived together at 953 Third Ave. in SLC for more than 40 years, die of heart ailments within four hours of each other.
• While walking home from the business district, Martha Gunderson, 48, has her arm broken by a purse snatcher.
Also this week • "Elmer's Tune" by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with Ray Eberle and the Modernaires is No. 1 on the charts. Laurel and Hardy star in the comedy "Great Guns."
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1966
Dec. 18 • A week of terror for the Salt Lake Valley begins when the nude body of gas station attendant Steven Shea, 18, is found half a mile south of Timpie on Skull Valley Road. He had been stabbed five times after being abducted from Barrett's Texaco station, 4690 S. 4000 West, Kearns.
Dec. 19 • The nude body of Michael Holtz, 18, is found a few feet off an Interstate 80 access road, three miles west of Wanship. He had been stabbed five times after being abducted from a gas station at 803 W. 800 South, Salt Lake City.
Dec. 20 • A jewel thief is tackled at Exchange Place after grabbing $30,000 in diamonds from 323 S. Main.
Dec. 21 • Myron D. Lance and Walter Kelbach murder cab driver Grant S. Strong near the airport and then shoot two men and a woman to death in Lally's Tavern, 867 W. 400 South, SLC.
Dec. 22 • Lance and Kelbach are arrested at 2 a.m. at a roadblock near the mouth of Parleys Canyon. Convicted and sentenced to death, their sentence is commuted to life in prison. Lance dies in prison in 2010. Kelbach remains imprisoned today.
Dec. 23 • The section of I-80 between Parleys Canyon and I-15 is officially opened.
Also this week • Bacon is 65 cents a pound. James Michener's novel "Hawaii" comes to the big screen starring Julie Andrews and Max Von Sydow. "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees tops the charts.
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1991
Dec. 18 • Richard Worthington, who killed a nurse at Alta View Hospital in September, makes a second suicide attempt in his cell by dropping his bed on his head. He is stitched up and taken back to jail.
Dec. 19 • The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office is still searching for leads in the disappearance of Kennecott security guard Bryan P. Ruff, 22, who vanished from work Dec. 10. His body was found in a shallow grave in 1993 in Tooele County.
Dec. 20 • The Salt Lake Community Shelter and Resource Center offer the homeless free five-minute phone calls anywhere in the U.S.
Dec. 23 • "The Prince of Tides," starring Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte, opens tomorrow.
Also this week • "Bohemian Rhapsody/These Are the Days of Our Lives" by Queen is the No. 1 song.