It was the afternoon of Christmas day, 1935. Francis Walsh,assistant manager of Safeway's New Market' on Harrison Avenue, and his wife of three months, had just arrived for dinner at the apartment of her mother, Mrs. Betty Clifford, in the Merriam Block, 538 South Main.

In the next apartment, Mrs. Florence Benevue was fixing Christmas dinner for herself and her sister, Jean Miller, when Miller's ex-boyfriend, Henry Knight, came to the door and asked to see her. Florence told him that Jean didn't want to see him. Knight wouldn't go away. He forced his way into their apartment.

Miller ran into Mrs. Clifford's apartment next door. Knight followed her, waving a gun. "Let me see Jean. I've got three bullets and one for myself," he said.

While Mrs. Clifford and Mrs. Benevue tried to reason with Knight, Walsh ran out of the apartment, across the street to the Scandia Bar, and called the police. Mrs. Walsh ran outside to their automobile.

Police Officers Tom "Rimmer" O'Neill and James Mooney answered the call and went into the apartment building with Walsh and Henry Kinney, a former policeman who had been in the Scandia. They discovered that Benevue had suffered a minor gunshot wound in the neck when she tried to take the gun away from Knight, who then ran to his apartment in the rear of the building.

Officer O'Neill led the way into Knight's apartment. As he opened the door to the bedroom, Knight shot him in the head, killing him instantly. With his gun blazing away, he shot Mooney twice, once in each arm. Mooney's gun fell to the floor. Knight then turned on Walsh and Kinney. His shot at Kinney went wild, but a bullet hit Walsh in the face and neck.

Knight ran out of the apartment, down the narrow hall, and out to Walsh's car, where the terrified Mrs. Walsh was sitting. "Drive me away from here right away," he ordered her.

"I can't drive," she cried.

Just then Officer Mooney, covered with blood, staggered into the street and hailed a passing automobile. The driver was William "Buck" Lavelle and his passengers were Dan Bukvich and Bob Rice.

Lavelle started to back his car toward Mooney. Before he could reach the wounded officer, Knight jumped into the back seat, stuck the gun into Lavelle's back and said, "Let's get going." He ordered Lavelle to turn east on Gold to Wyoming Street, then down Front and out Harrison Avenue.

"Every now and then he would say, Now don't drive too fast; don't arouse suspicion,' " Lavelle later told police.

Knight bragged, "I've just shot four people. Now you young fellows will have something to talk about."

He told them to turn on Marcia street, and when they reached Kaw Avenue he ordered the three out of the car. "Don't damage the car, will you?" Lavelle yelled as Knight drove away.

Back at the scene of the shootings, Francis Walsh, with his mouth lacerated, his jaw shattered, and a bullet lodged in his neck, ran out of the apartment, jumped in his car and started a wild drive to Murray Hospital.

With his wife beside him, and blood spurting from his mouth, Walsh floored the accelerator and drove up Main street ten blocks to the hospital. He raced through red lights and passed stunned pedestrians. Mrs. Walsh held her breath and prayed silently. He walked into the hospital with his wife and was immediately given medical attention, but he died early the next morning.

In their initial investigation, officers discovered that Knight had lived in Butte off and on for quite a few years. He had worked as a cook in various bars and restaurants. But of late, police were told, he was making a profitable living as a chicken thief.

When they questioned Jean Miller, Knight's ex-girlfriend, officers found out why he was threatening her. It was because of a murder he had committed in Washington on November 13, 1935.

The two of them had been staying at a cabin camp near Seattle. Knight went to steal some chickens and was accosted in the act by King County Deputy Thomas Meehan. Knight shot Meehan in the head. When he returned to the cabin he told Miller, "I just killed a bull who caught me stealing chickens."

Miller said that after they came back to Butte, "Knight watched me like a hawk. He warned me several times if I told anyone he would kill me." They had had an argument earlier Christmas morning when she refused the gifts he gave her.

Knight, after leaving Lavelle and his friends on Kaw avenue, stopped at the Five Mile and put gas in the car. He drove to Madison County, heading in the direction of Yellowstone Park, mostly on back roads. Because of his previous chicken-stealing forays he was familiar with the area.

Within hours after Henry Knight shot and killed Police Officer Tom "Rimmer" O'Neill and Safeway Manager Francis Walsh on Christmas 1935, an extensive search for the killer was underway. Law enforcement officers from around the state, armed with machine guns and rifles, combed a wide area of southwestern Montana looking for Knight.

That evening, Knight slipped off the road and into a snow drift. He used blankets that were in the car, trying to get traction under the tires, but to no avail.

After a futile attempt to get the stolen Lavelle car out of the deep snow on a back road in Madison County, Knight walked to the I. A. Kirby ranch down the road. When Floyd Woods, the caretaker, answered the door, Knight asked him for help.

The two men were also unsuccessful in getting the car out of the snow drift. They walked backed to the house and went to a garage where Wood's car, a Ford coupe, was parked.

Knight shot Woods in the head, put his body in the back seat, drove down the road to the Hutchens bridge and pushed the body into the Madison River.

He then drove back through Butte, west towards Anaconda, and south on the Mill Creek road towards Ralston, where he had a cabin hideout. On his way over the snow-packed and drifting road, he was seen by a crew hauling snow to a winter carnival in Anaconda.

Later a truck passed the crew and the driver told them that an abandoned Ford coupe was stuck in a snow drift down the road. When the crew came upon the car they discovered the back seat and Wood's suitcase drenched with blood.

Earlier in the day officials had found Lavelle's car near the Kirby ranch. Two ranchers reported finding Woods' body in the Madison River about a mile down river from the Hutchens bridge.

After the car went into a snow drift on the Mill Creek road, police officers believed that Knight either walked over the hill to the Gregson area, or hitched a ride. From Gregson he then flagged a car for a ride to Butte.

At 8:30 the next morning, December 27, Knight went to the James Gilligan house at 11 South Oklahoma. Gilligan had worked with Knight in Butte at various restaurants and bars. Gilligan was at work. His wife answered the door.

Knight, with pistol in hand, pushed passed Mrs. Gilligan and said, "I think this will make a pretty good hideout."

He said he wanted her to cook him breakfast and when she said there were no eggs, he gave her a dollar and said to go buy some.

"And don't tell any one I'm here or I'll kill your kids (David, 5, and Hazel,4), and myself," he said. The terrified Mrs. Gilligan quickly went to the store and returned with the eggs.

Knight spent most of the day bragging to her about his exploits and exactly how he killed each victim. "He did not raise his voice any time and spoke in a cool, collected manner," Mrs. Gilligan said.

During the day Knight also shaved and changed clothes. He dozed at times, but roused himself just on the point of falling asleep. He always kept his gun in his hand.

James Gilligan came home at 5 o'clock. His wife greeted him with, "Henry Knight is here."

"Oh year? Where is he?" he replied. She pointed to the closet. Gilligan opened the closet door. Knight pointed his gun at Gilligan and backed him into the front room next to the family's Christmas tree.

"I've killed plenty already," he said, "and I don't give a damn how many more I get. You better do what I say."

About an hour later, Knight, who had diabetes, ordered Gilligan to go to a drug store and get him insulin. Inexplicably, he allowed Gilligan to take his wife and children with him. Gilligan and his wife took the children to relatives then went to the police station.

(Drug stores in the area had been alerted by police, who knew of Knight's diabetes, to be on the lookout for anyone wanting insulin).

Police officers immediately surrounded the Gilligan home. Chief Walter Shay and Officer Ed O'Connor covered the back door, and Officers Bart Riley and Emett Sullivan covered the front. Assistant Chief Jack Duggan broke a window and Charles Staples, head of security for the Anaconda Company, fired tear gas into the house.

(Staples, who planned to attend a holiday party with his wife later in the evening, drove his two children, Mary Catherine and Ned, to their grandmother's house to spend the night. As they were leaving, he told the children, "I have to stop for a minute to do an errand." He parked his car up from the Gilligan house on Oklahoma street, got the riot gun' out of the trunk, fired the tear gas through the broken window, and returned the gun to the trunk. They then continued on their way).

Duggan opened fire through the broken window. A bullet hit Knight in the head. He spun around and fell into the closet with his gun on his knee. Officer Sullivan, shot the lock from the front door with a machine gun, ran into the room and held the gun to Knight's neck. The other officers dragged Knight from the closet.

He was taken to the hospital and died three hours later.

During his rampage, Henry Knight had killed four people, wounded two, held a family hostage, and stolen two cars.