Some unsolvable and heinous Wyoming

murders were the topic of a cover story of

People Magazine a couple of years ago. They

were even the topic of a biopic TV cable program

that features unsolved murders.

The murders of Riverton’s Virginia Uden

and her two sons back in 1980 was a 34-year

mystery that appeared to be the ultimate mystery.

Casper native Ron Franscell has written

“Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story,”

which is on sale across the state this month.

Franscell’s prose is among the best I have

ever read. His writings about Wyoming are

just wonderful. He now lives in San Antonio,

Texas. Prior to that he was a national

award-winning editor and publisher of the

Gillette News-Record.

His books “The Darkest Night” and “The

Sourtoe Cocktail Club” are two of the finest

books I have read in the last 12 years. The first

one is about horrific murders of two young sisters

in Casper; the second is a personal memoir

that tugs at the heart of any man with a son.

He has written 13 books.

But back to the Udens.

I am close to this situation because Virginia

was a part-time employee when we owned the

Lander Journal.

Franscell seems to have had unparalleled

access to Gerald and Alice and to law enforcement

officials working on the case. He paints

a vivid picture of how Virginia Uden and her

two sons were murdered. The detail included

in the book is amazing and close to home,

since so much of it occurred in Wyoming.

However this mystery seemed destined to

be perpetually unsolved. Then, just like that,

it was solved.

And the answers to all of those one-third

of a century-old questions are as horrible and

grisly as anyone could have possibly imagined.

Gerald Uden was a worker at the U.S. Steel

iron ore mine at Atlantic City, some 25 miles

south of Lander in the Wind River Mountains.

Coworker Kim Curtis remembered him as

being “scary.”

Virginia must have seen something in the

guy as she was married to him for six years.

Uden even adopted her two sons.

Five years ago, if you were watching TV

or reading the newspaper, you knew what

happened next. The story was on CNN, ABC

and The New York Times among all the other

state and national media outlets. The story was

impossible to ignore; if you proposed to write

about the Uden crimes as fiction, the story

would not sell because it is so unbelievable.

Gerald Uden and his new wife Alice both

worked at the iron ore mine on South Pass.

As it turned out, Alice had earlier murdered

her 25-year-old husband and dumped his body

down a mineshaft in Albany County.

Then they conspired to rid Gerald of his

obligations.

An acquaintance of Alice’s, who worked

with her at the mine, reported that Alice was

always complaining about Gerald never having

any money because he had to support Virginia

and her boys. Thus, money appears to be

the motive for the taking of these three lives.

On a fall day in September 1980, Gerald

Uden convinced Virginia and her boys to meet

him in Pavillion, for some target practice. He

waited until Virginia and Reagan had their

backs turned to him and shot them both in the

back of the head. He had to chase down Richard

before shooting him in the head, too

Officers finally found Alice’s murdered

husband’s body five years ago and that led

them to her and Gerald, then living in Missouri.

At this point, Gerald Uden, 76, has confessed

as has his wife Alice, 79. Both are serving

the rest of their lives in Wyoming prisons.

What happened to the bodies, which was

a mystery for more than three decades, is

now known. Gerald claims he put Virginia,

Reagan, and Richard in barrels and sunk the

bodies to the bottom of the deepest lake in

Wyoming, Fremont Lake east of Pinedale.

Franscell has some theories about all this

and his book is one that is impossible to put

down. If you attend his book signings, you

will be enlightened.

Check out additional columns at www.

billsniffin.com.