Murder Suicide Part Two

HUMBLE CABIN NEAR THIEF RIVER FALLS IS A CHARNEL HOUSE
From the Fargo Forum and Daily Republican
Friday evening May 23, 1914

THE DEAD
Miss Helen Olson aged 23
Miss Inga Olson aged 17
Mrs. Ludwig Larson, aged, 40
Fatally wounded, five wounds—Mrs. OK Olson, mother of the Olson girls.

Thief River Falls, MN, May 23. The humble home of OK Olson, a homesteader, living near Torgerson’s, Pilner Township, twenty miles east of this city was converted into a charnel house yesterday when three persons were shot down in cold blood and another fatally wounded with five bullets in her body as she lay on the floor of the blood drenched cabin.

The murderer, Tony Gilsaul, hounded into a clump of woods near the scene of the crime, ended his life with the weapon he had used in setting fancied wrongs he had sustained at the hands of the unfortunate family.

Crime Unparalleled
Gilsaul’s terrible crime is without parallel in this section of northern Minnesota. Jealous and an insane determinations to ‘get even’ with those he held responsible for separating him from pretty Helen Olson , the young woman it is said he had induced to leave her home and go to Canada with him two years ago are considered as the motives for the triple murder and suicide.

Act Deliberate
According to the statements from residents of the locality of the tragedy, Helen Olson, daughter of OK Olson a homesteader suddenly left for Canada with Gilsaul about two years ago and the two had lived there as man and wife; although it is stated they were not married. Recently a brother of Miss Olson, hearing of her life with the man with whom she had cast her unhappy lot visited Canada and his sister returned with him to her father’s home where she was welcomed and the past forgotten.

Elder Woman Riddled
Mrs. OK Olson, mother of the two girls was shot five times, once in the breast and left for dead on the floor of the cabin, died with the life’s blood of the other victims. At this time Knute Olson, a brother of the two girls arrived in the yard and hearing the shots, ran across the lot to a neighbor for a gun. He returned in a brief interval and met Gilsaul making a hurried fire but missed the fleeing man and then hurried to the nearest telephone to advise the authorities.