100 years ago in Spokane: ‘Bluebeard’ Huirt confesses to killing a number of his more than 20 wives

The “Bluebeard” saga reached a climax after James “Bluebeard” Huirt confessed to killing several of his wives – and one of the murders occurred on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Alice Ludvigson of Seattle, one of the bigamist’s many wives, had disappeared nearly a year earlier. Huirt said that he tipped her out of a boat “in a river in Idaho,” but was vague on the details.

Idaho authorities believed it explained a mysterious incident near Chatcolet the previous August. A man and woman showed up at the Chatcolet campground and rented a boat. The man inquired about spots that were “100 feet deep or deeper” and then the couple went out fishing. Nobody saw any criminal acts, but later the man made a hurried departure from the campground – alone.

Huirt provided far more detail about at least two of the other deaths. He admitted killing Elizabeth “Betty” Prior of Spokane with a hammer near Olympia. He admitted tipping Bertha Goonich of Spokane out of a boat on Lake Washington. He admitted killing Nina Lee Deloney, of Eureka, Montana, with a hammer in a remote region of California.

Huirt even drew a map for authorities, showing the small valley off of a canyon where he buried Deloney.

At first he tried to claim the two drownings were accidental, but he later referred to them as murders. In a long confession to Los Angeles authorities, he also admitted to marrying at least 20 women.

The district attorney was preparing a murder charge against Huirt, to be filed as soon as the body of Deloney was recovered.

The charges were to be filed under the name Walter Andrew Watson. His true name was still in question – he used many aliases – but he married Deloney using the Watson name.