New information regarding a century-old murder discovered by staff at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum is shedding light on the acts leading to that murder.
According to a Wyohistory.org article by Dick Blust, an employee at the museum, the death of a game warden in 1919 may have been the result of legislation aimed at immigrants.
On Sept. 14, 1919, a deputy game warden, John Buxton, encountered two boys, 16-year-old John Kolman and 17-year-old Joseph Omeyc north of Rock Springs. The two were hunting rabbits when Buxton approached them. Omeyc was an Austrian immigrant and Buxton took Omeyc’s .30/30 Savage rifle from him. Omeyc then shot Buxton with a pistol he had and Buxton died before arriving to the hospital. Omeyc was charged with first-degree murder and would later plea guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to imprisonment at the Wyoming State Penitentiary.
Blust said he started writing the article as a straight-forward law and crime submission because Buxton was the first game warden killed in the line of duty in Wyoming and the crime occurred in Sweetwater County. However, while most would assume the situation to be a case of a game warden being shot after discovering poachers, the reality isn’t as simple.
Blust said museum staff found a typed transcript of testimony from two witnesses to the killing, as well as a coroner’s report of the incident in the museum’s archives.
“We have a lot of coroner’s reports and coroner’s information,” Blust said.
That information and testimony revealed Buxton’s motive in taking Omeyc’s rifle was more focused on an immigration law prohibiting immigrants from possessing hunting or fishing gear without a proper license.
The two were not poaching as rabbits were not considered game animals, but a law titled “Alien’s Gun and Fish License” gave Buxton the authority to seize Omeyc’s rifle. According to a press release from the museum, the law was the product of the 1919-1920 Red Scare, as paranoia and suspicion of European immigrants was widespread after a series of anarchist bombing in eight American cities. The paranoia fueled mass arrests of left-leaning activists, communists and suspected anarchists while giving politicians ammunition to draft laws impacting immigrants.
The law, found in Article 21 of Wyoming’s state statutes, allowed game wardens and other peace officers to seize firearms and fishing tackle “found in the possession of any alien not entitled to hold or possess the same...”
Blust said immigrants were required to obtain a license and pay a $25 fee -- which amounts to $392.58 in 2020 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and were required to renew the license.
“An immigrant with a fishing rod would have had to pay that fee,” Blust said.
Blust’s article, “The Buxton Case: An Anti-Immigrant Tragedy” can be found on the Wyohistory.org website.
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