Headless torso found in Idaho cave identified as outlaw who escaped jail in 1916 (case, killers)

[nicet4]

Headless torso found in Idaho cave identified as outlaw who escaped jail in 1916
JANUARY 1, 2020 / 7:13 AM / AP

BOISE, Idaho — The headless torso that was found in a remote Idaho cave 40 years ago has finally been identified as belonging to an outlaw who killed his wife with an ax and was last seen after escaping from jail in 1916. Clark County Sheriff Bart May said Tuesday that the cold case will remain open because investigators don't yet know who killed Joseph Henry Loveless. Still, they were able to notify one of Loveless' surviving relatives, an 87-year-old grandson, of his fate.

A number of questions such as how did he become dismembered wrapped in burlap?

Interesting story but what I found most interesting is they were able to identify him through the DNA Doe Project.

Life has to be getting a bit scary for the killers and rapists who believed at one time to have gotten away with their crimes.

[KCZ]

I hope the Sheriff's office isn't wasting a lot of taxpayer dollars solving this cold case. The killer has probably been dead for >50 years.

[fisheye]

Originally Posted by KCZ

I hope the Sheriff's office isn't wasting a lot of taxpayer dollars solving this cold case. The killer has probably been dead for >50 years.

How about if this man never killed his wife? Or how about if a relative of the wife cut off this man's head? Regardless these cases do need closure and what is wrong with the new technology bringing that closure - even if the perpetrators are dead?

[KCZ]

That new technology is expensive and time-consuming. Using it for "closure", i.e. satisfaction of curiosity, is fine if it's being done with donated time and equipment by a non-profit. But wasting taxpayer money on cases where all involved have been dead for decades ties up funds and technicians whose time could be better spent on active cases.

[nicet4]

It wasn't a waste of time and it was not for closure and never was for closure. From the original story we find:

The scientists were able to determine the slain man's hair was reddish brown, that he was of European descent, that he may have been around 40 years old when he died, and that his body had been there for at least six months and possibly as long as 10 or more years.

As you can see they didn't know how long the body was there it could have been there for a short period of just six months or maybe even over 10 years.

It was not a waste of time and effort.

[BoSox 15]

Originally Posted by KCZ

That new technology is expensive and time-consuming. Using it for "closure", i.e. satisfaction of curiosity, is fine if it's being done with donated time and equipment by a non-profit. But wasting taxpayer money on cases where all involved have been dead for decades ties up funds and technicians whose time could be better spent on active cases.

If it's a slow day and taxpayers are paying the salaries anyway, I don't see what the problem is.

Obviously I have no idea where you live KCZ, but if you're in a bad city, then yeah I get it. If you're in a city where there's tons of crime, then you're right this makes no sense. I'm guessing the department in the story has some time on their hands.

[banjomike]

Originally Posted by KCZ

I hope the Sheriff's office isn't wasting a lot of taxpayer dollars solving this cold case. The killer has probably been dead for >50 years.

I live in the area. For many years after the torso was discovered in the cave, it was thought that the dismemberment was much more recent than it was proven to be. That the torso was so old came as a complete shock to everyone.
Back in 1980 when it was found, DNA wasn't around. The remains were in as good a preservative environment in the cave as nature could ever provide. Their condition fooled all the forensic experts.

Back in 1916, Henry Loveless, the person the torso proved to be, had only lived in the area for a short time with his wife. Both were involved in bootlegging and other crimes for years about 170 miles away in southwest Idaho, and they had fled that area, moving northeast, close to the Montana border.

His wife apparently had relatives in the area or close to it. Loveless is thought to have killed her with an axe, and then was believed to have caught a freight train and had fled into Montana, most likely to the Butte area. The town the couple was staying in is tiny, but it's on the main Union Pacific line and very close to the pass that is the boundary line between the two states.

The pass has the only rail line that crosses the Great Divide very close to the tiny town. It has always been a good spot for anyone who wanted to hop on a freight train to catch a ride, as the trains move very slowly there. Back in 1916, Butte, about 100 miles away, was a boom town due to the huge copper mines, and was a much safer place for Loveless than anywhere in Idaho.

No one will ever know for sure who killed him now, but the most popular theory is his some wife's family members were on their way to come get her (or both of them) out of Idaho.

When they learned she was dead, they went hunting for Loveless, caught him before he could hop a freight, and killed him in revenge. Eventually the limbs were found, but the head was never found.

Loveless was a lifelong criminal, so his disappearance was met more with relief that he was somebody else's problem than concern for his welfare. He had been arrested many times, imprisoned at least twice, and was quite an escape artist as well. He had escaped from almost every jail or prison he was sent to.

So once he was believed to be gone out of state for good, no one in Idaho was very interested in trying to find him.

The cave the remains were found in were quite well known, and later became natural Civil Defense evacuation sites during the Cold War. They were to be the shelter from atomic attack for quite a large surrounding rural region.

The entrances were barricaded by gates during that period, but the caves were opened to Boy Scout troops and others who wanted to explore them on rare occasions. This didn't happen very often; for most of that 50-year period, Civil Defense equipment, canned goods, and other stuff were stored in the caves.

Since Loveless is now identified as a victim of violent crime, the case is still open. As a fugitive, it was never officially closed down in the southwest corner of the state, even though he was presumed to be dead after so many years had passed.

The discovery of his identity actually didn't cost the state very much at all. DNA samples were sent to the Idaho state forensics lab and the DNA profile was then sent to one of the "family tree" companies that compares a person's DNA to others in huge databases. Oftentimes in criminal cases, this search is done for free by the company as a public service.

The remains had been in storage at Idaho State University for many decades, as part of the school's forensic science lab. ISU simply sent the DNA sample off, never expecting the results would come back so ancient and strange as they are.

Ironically, once the results came back, the school did a very careful examination of the burlap the torso was found in, the clothing, and other stuff that was recovered, and found a scrap of paper that dated everything that had always been overlooked until then.