Eugene Butler was known to be a bit of a nutcase. In fact he spent the last seven years of his life in an asylum.

He had lived almost all of his life outside of Niagara, North Dakota. He was known as being a recluse, and was also very paranoid. He spent quite a bit of his time avoiding people, with the only one's he spoke to being young men he hired as farm hands.

When Butler died in the local nuthouse no one really suspected him of anything except of being a bit weird, but two years after his death a little suprise was to be had by all.

During a routine excavation of the late Butler's house a hidden trapdoor was found to open to the ground beneath the floor. Upon a small amount of digging a couple of bones were found, then a skull. The local cops were called.

Over the next few days six complete skeletons were uncovered from the ground beneath Butler's floorboards. The coroner said they had all been males, between the ages of 15-18. As no one knew of anyone that age who had gone missing the bodies went unidentified. They remain so.

All had been killed by crushing blows to the backs of the head. As there were no living witnesses, and Butler himself was dead, it was theorized that he had thought the farm hands were planning to rob him, so he decided to strike first. Those who had contact with Butler had heard him talk about such fantasies before, so it was decided that was the motive.

It would seem though that Butler may have been an early 1900's Gacy, Nilsen or Corll, but as the local law enforcement knew little of sex crimes they didn't think about this as a more logical motive.

The Wacky Worl of Murder

Butler, Eugene

"Eccentric" Eugene Butler had been dead a full two years before his crimes were finally exposed, discovery of skeletal remains beneath his rural home outside Niagara, North Dakota, writing finis to an eerie chapter in the region's local history. A paranoid and recluse, Butler lived southeast of town, avoiding contact with his fellow man for years, until he was declared insane and sent to an asylum, at Jamestown, in 1906.

He died there in 1913, but two years elapsed before routine excavation at his home revealed six skeletons, lined up in shallow graves beneath the floor. According to the coroner, Butler's victims -- all male -- included five adults and one young man between the ages of fifteen and eighteen years. Each had been killed by crushing blows to the skull, then lowered through a hidden trap-door in the floorboards, buried in a crawlspace underneath the house. 

The homicides apparently had spanned a period of four or five years prior to Butler's ultimate incarceration. Without a living suspect or a known identity for any of the victims, the authorities were left to theorize on motive, speculating that the hermit may have thought his transient farm hands planned to rob him, striking first, before they had a chance to carry out their schemes. 

In light of other cases -- such as those of Northcott, Corll, and Gacy -- it would seem that violent homosexuality may be another likely motive for the North Dakota murders. 

Michael Newton - An Encyclopedia of Modern Serial Killers - Hunting Humans

SEX: M RACE: W TYPE: S MOTIVE: Unk.

DATE(S): 1900s.

MO: Male skeletons found buried under home.

DISPOSITION: Died in asylum before crimes were discovered.