The Strange Life and Death of Anna Richey

Anna Richey was the only women ever convicted of cattle rustling in Wyoming. She was a well read lady of culture who had once been married to a school teacher.

What did she do? She was accused, and later found guilty, of changing brands, eighth different ones. After being arrested no one was sure where to keep her, the local jail didn’t seem right for a women described as, “thirty, purty, and full of life.”

She was released to go home on bond to await trial. On her way to trial she was wounded by a hidden gunman. She recovered, stood trial, and was sentenced to six years but died under mysterious circumstance, (poisoned while out on bond) before ever going to prison.

Such was life in early day Wyoming and other parts of the old west.