Noel Hamiel - South Dakotas Mathis Murders: Horror in the Heartland

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2022 by Noel Hamiel

All rights reserved

First published 2022

E-Book edition 2022

ISBN 978.1.43967.480.2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022930146

Print Edition ISBN 978.1.46715.075.0

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

In South Dakotas Mathis Murders, Noel Hamiel employs the sharp eye of

an old-fashioned newspapermandrawing on decades of managing South Dakota

newsroomsand the research skills of a gumshoe reporter and spools out a story

that rivals Truman Capotes In Cold Blood, only one set in South Dakota instead of

Kansas. It is uneasy reading for those not used to dark tales encroaching on normally

peaceful prairie places.

Jon K. Lauck, author, historian and founding president of the

Midwestern History Association

Mystery is a key characteristic of police and legal work, and in South Dakotas

Mathis Murders, the author has revisited one of this states most infamous criminal

puzzles. Starting with the Mathis triple slaying in 1981 and continuing through the

trial and years that follow, the book reveals why even today debate continues over the

cases outcome and the reasons it may never be resolved. Rich in detail and dialogue,

the book paints compelling pictures of some of the states top prosecution and defense

lawyers and how they sought tactical advantage inside the courtroom and out. After

forty years, it is a story that needed to be told.

Marty Jackley, former attorney general and United States attorney for

South Dakota

The Mathis murders remain one of the most tragicand unresolvedcrimes in

South Dakota history. Before time erases all living memory of the case, Noel Hamiel

has done us the public service of interviewing many of the people involved in the

investigation and trial. He has spun those conversations and his thorough research into

an authoritative and gripping narrative, employing all of the fairness, accuracy and

clarity he honed during his decades as a South Dakota newsman.

Seth Tupper, longtime South Dakota journalist, author and

supervising senior producer for South Dakota Public Broadcasting

Noel Hamiel skillfully assembles all the detailsand even reports some new onesin

this absorbing and well-written account of the horrific murders of a thirty-year-old

farm wife, Ladonna Mathis, and her two young boys, Brian, age four, and Patrick,

age two, in their rural South Dakota home. For those who know the story, and those

who dont, this book will take you right back in time as Hamiel paints a picture of

the scene of the crime, the ensuing investigation, and the month-long courtroom drama

where husband and father John Mathis was found not guilty of the shooting deaths. A

retired newspaper reporter and editor, Hamiel sprinkles new interviews and reflections

throughout this thorough retelling of a tragedy that still finds its way into the headlines

some forty years later.

Kim Galliano, former reporter and editor of the Daily Republic,

Mitchell, South Dakota

To the men and women of South Dakota law enforcement

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Former Davison County sheriff Lyle Swenson and former deputy sheriff Doug Kirkus were of invaluable help in providing information. Although both were intimately involved in the investigation, they did not attempt to influence my research in any way.

Davison County sheriff Steve Brink did an important service in making available the investigation files from the case.

Tim Bormann, chief of staff for the South Dakota Attorney Generals Office, was instrumental in providing access to the state Department of Criminal Investigation files.

Many others associated with the case granted interviews and for their help Im eternally grateful. They are listed in the Interviews section and included as sources in the text of the book.

I also wish to thank the Archives Center of the State Historical Society for making their materials available.

A heartfelt thanks to Kim Galliano, a good friend and fine editor, whose suggestions made the original manuscript much better. I am also indebted to valued colleague Seth Tupper for his editorial help.

Finally, grateful thanks to my wife, Janet, for her patience and her role as the manuscripts first reader.

INTRODUCTION

The metal machine shed still stands where it did forty years ago, when it witnessed the murders of a thirty-year-old farm wife and two of her sons.

Asleep in their beds in the makeshift home because of a house fire, Ladonna Ann Mathis, Brian and Patrick didnt hear the killer approach them, wielding a .22-caliber rifle.

He pointed the gun at Ladonnas head and pulled the trigger. The bullet, fired from several inches away, entered near the left ear and, in the words of the forensic pathologist, caused the lethal wound. A second gunshot wound to the left side of the neck did not appear to involve any vital structures.

The coroners report did not say which wound occurred first.

Not so in the case of Patrick, age two. The killers first bullet entered the back of the neck, passing through the soft tissue and exiting near the left eye. It did not kill him.

The second bullet tracked across the base of the skull and severed the spinal cord before exiting the body. It caused near-instantaneous death, but the coroners report said it was impossible to estimate how much time may have elapsed between the first and second shots.

Patrick was alive with a beating heart after he sustained an injury to his muscle, forensic pathologist Brad Randall said of the first shot.

A gruesome picture emerged from the court testimony: At some point later, after the first shot, [Patrick] either sat up or kneeled in bed. At that point he sustained the second wound, Dr. Randall testified.

Patrick was lying on his stomach when the first shot was fired, but his body was found on its back. Two separate pools of blood were also found in Patricks bed.

Brian, age four, died instantly from a gunshot wound to the head in front of the right ear, which severed his spinal cord.

The brutality of the killings shocked the state and sent reverberations through the small farming community of Mount Vernon, located nine miles southwest of the Mathis farm.

First disbelief, then shock and, finally, horror set in.

The Mathises appeared to be a typical farm family. Hardworking. Churchgoing. No known enemies.

What could possibly explain what would later be described as the most notorious murders in the states history?

For all of its quiet, rural nature, South Dakota by the 1970s and 80s was experiencing some of the same problems confronting more populous parts of the country. The state had survived the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, but those events had culled farm families unable to hang on and sent many of them west to California, where jobs were plentiful. South Dakota rebounded after World War II and remained primarily an agricultural state. When the murders occurred on September 8, 1981, South Dakota was no stranger to illegal drugs, which had been a concern to law enforcement since the 1960s. Some speculated that this growing problem was connected to the Mathis murders. Still, compared to most parts of the nation, South Dakota was tranquil, traditional and safe. Which is why the murders of three farm family members as they lay sleeping in their beds were, to many, simply incomprehensible.