The annals of the American West are replete with tales of lawmen and outlaws, but few figures left a trail of blood as extensive and bewildering as Bill Booth. For years, the elusive Bill Booth haunted the frontier, a notorious character whose crimes spanned multiple states and baffled authorities. His ultimate downfall, however, came at the hands of one of Wyoming’s most legendary lawmen, Sheriff Frank M. Canton, who finally brought this enigmatic slayer to justice in a dramatic culmination of relentless pursuit and frontier cunning.
Known for his transient lifestyle and a chilling disregard for human life, Booth’s criminal career was marked by a string of brutal murders and disappearances. It was Canton, then serving as adjutant general of the National Guard of Oklahoma after his time as Sheriff of Johnson County, Wyoming, who finally pieced together the puzzle of Booth’s multifaceted past, connecting a series of heinous acts across the burgeoning territories.
The Shadow of a Serial Killer: Booth’s Early Crimes
Before his infamous encounter with Sheriff Canton, Bill Booth carved a path of violence across the American heartland. His earliest known offenses traced back to Tippecanoe, Ohio, though the specific charges from this period remain shrouded in mystery. He then drifted west, leaving a trail of terror in his wake. While living among the Pawnee Indians, Booth was implicated in the brutal murder of his wife and child, a crime that triggered a widespread but initially fruitless search across the western territories. Authorities struggled to pin down the elusive criminal, who seemed to vanish as quickly as he appeared.
His movements were sporadic and cunning, designed to evade any form of capture. After the Pawnee incident, Booth surfaced in Colorado, where he faced allegations of killing a Black man. Again, he managed to slip through the grasp of law enforcement, disappearing into the vast, untamed landscapes of the frontier. Each escape further emboldened Booth, solidifying his reputation as a ghost-like figure, a master of evasion, and a man with an increasingly dark criminal record.
A Fatal Partnership: The Murder of Jacob Schmerer in Wyoming
Bill Booth‘s reign of terror eventually led him to Wyoming, a territory known for its rugged individualism and sparse law enforcement. Here, he initially found a lucrative, albeit unsavory, trade selling wolf scalps, capitalizing on the territory’s bounty system. His operations brought him into contact with Jacob Schmerer, also known as Jake Cameron, a German trapper. The two formed an unlikely partnership, with Schmerer sharing his invaluable knowledge of trapping wild animals.
However, the alliance proved deadly. Not long after their partnership began, Schmerer mysteriously disappeared, and his herd of horses vanished with him. This disappearance coincided with Schmerer having recently sold some land and being known to possess several hundred dollars. These suspicious circumstances, coupled with Booth’s already dubious reputation, immediately raised red flags for Sheriff Canton. Canton, with his acute understanding of frontier criminals, suspected foul play and believed Bill Booth was responsible for the trapper’s demise. A massive search was initiated, with Canton distributing descriptions of Booth to officials across the Northwest and offering a $500 reward for his arrest and conviction. Months into the investigation, a local Black man known as Old Burr made a grim discovery: Schmerer’s body, buried beneath brush and dirt in a canyon recess. The trapper had suffered a crushed skull from an axe blow and three bullet wounds, confirming Canton’s gravest suspicions.
