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Criminal Investigations, Sustainability, Ghost Hunters, and a Homicide

Golden Eye Candy – Richard Luckin – Castle Rock in a Frame of Verdure – click to enlarge

Virtual Events

6-6:55AM Cardio Lift Interval
8-8:55AM Tai Chi
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
3-5PM Hard Times Writing Workshop
9-11:30AM Accelerate Your Career – Interviewing for Success
6-8PM Golden Safety Academy – Criminal Investigations – Case Study @ City Hall (and virtual)
6PM Golden Anti-Racism Collective Book and Media Group – Reparations


Real World Events

9AM Golden Walks – Wednesday Morning Celebrating Life @ Golden Library
12-1PM Brown Bag “Lunch & Learn” @ Golden Visitors Center
6-8PM Golden Safety Academy – Criminal Investigations – Case Study @ City Hall (and virtual)
6PM Community Sustainability Advisory Board
CSAB will discuss the following tonight: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, Residential Pay-As-You-Throw Program, Future Redevelopment of the CoorsTek Site, Community Solar Gardens, CSAB/Planning Commission Energy Subgroup, Youth grants program and Sustainability rebates


Live Music

4PM Open Mic @ Cannonball Creek
6PM Jack Hadley @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage – outdoor patio)
6PM Neil Z @ Miners Saloon
6:30PM Open Jam/Mic at Over Yonder Brewing


Tomorrow Night

7:15PM Thursday If you’re thinking of attending Spirits with Cocktails at Windy Saddle this Thursday, you should buy your tickets today, to get a $5 discount. Use the promo code “Boo!” at checkout.


Golden History Moment

Excerpt from the 1899 Willits Farm Map showing the murder site – click to enlarge

We are much gratified to welcome Will Stebbins and his charming young wife back to Golden as permanent residents. He has accepted a position with the enterprising lumber firm of Jobes & Snyder.
Colorado Transcript
– March 10, 1886

Mr. and Mrs. Will Stebbins are gloriously full of joy over the arrival of a bright new daughter yesterday. Grandpap Snyder is full also–of joy at this evidence of advancing years.
Colorado Transcript
– July 21, 1886

Mr. Will P. Stebbins, one of our old-time Golden boys…is now manager of the Farm Department of the Maxwell Land Grant Company, with headquarters at Maxwell City, New Mexico, a very important position.
Colorado Transcript
– November 29, 1893

Wilbur P. Stebbins was arrested last Monday on a charge of threatening to commit bodily harm on his wife in this city.
Colorado Transcript – March 17, 1904

117 Years Ago
Wilbur F. Stebbins was shot and instantly killed by his wife, Ida M. Stebbins, at about seven o’clock Tuesday evening. The killing took place at the home of W.G. Lewis, about three miles east of Golden, where Mrs. Stebbins and her four children have been picking berries for several weeks.
Colorado Transcript
– August 11, 1904

Mrs. Stebbins and her children had been living in a tent near the railroad tracks as they supported themselves with agricultural jobs. They hadn’t seen Wilbur since his arrest, five months earlier. When he arrived at the farm, one of the little girls spotted him and ran screaming to her mother. The mother pushed the children into the farm house, locking them in the bathroom. She then returned to the front door, where her husband was shouting and demanding that she let him in. When he drew a gun and kicked in the front door, his wife rushed to join the children in the bathroom. One of the children handed her a gun, and when her husband forced the bathroom door open, she shot him twice–once in the forehead and once in the chest. The Sheriff and the Coroner went to the scene and allowed Mrs. Stebbins to go to her father’s house.

The article commented that both Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins had grown up in Golden and that “he was, until whiskey got the better of him, a good husband and father….”

It concluded that “Mrs. Stebbins has the respect and sympathy of all, and no doubt exists in the mind of anyone but what she killed her husband while protecting her own and her children’s lives. It is the opinion of several that Stebbins had been on a protracted spree and meant to kill his wife and children and perhaps himself.”

The Coroner held an inquest, which concluded that “the shooting was done wholly in self defense and without felonious intent.”


Thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!

Highlights