The move is based on the mob lynching of Charles Bannon in western North Dakota. Bannon was a serial murderer who once worked as a hired hand for the Haven family, whom he killed on their farm in 1931.
eogden@minotdailynews.com
Submitted Photo
LaVonne Wibbens of Rochester, Minn., provided this photo of David and Ingeborg Hoven’s 10 children. The Hovens’ son, Albert, back row, far right, and his family were murdered in McKenzie County in 1930 and Charles Bannon was lynched for the murders. The story of the incident has been passed down in Hoven family history, relatives say. At some time Albert’s last name was changed from Hoven to Haven.
When Toni Holland of Houston, Texas, came across an online story by The Minot Daily News a few weeks ago about a movie to be made on the last lynching in North Dakota, it caught her interest.
eogden@minotdailynews.com
Submitted Photo
Dennis Johnson, of Watford City, is helping with the script for a movie to be filmed in McKenzie County about the last lynching in North Dakota. Johnson first published a book in 2005 about the incident in McKenzie County occurring in the early 1930s.
WATFORD CITY – Nearly 89 years ago during the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 1931, a group of vigilantes stormed the jail at Schafer, then the McKenzie County seat a few miles” east of Watford City, knocked down the door, grabbed mass murderer Charles Bannon and, in finality, hanged him at Cherry Creek bridge.
Bannon had confessed to murdering several months earlier six members of the Albert Haven family who lived north of Schafer. He had worked as a hired hand for the Havens. Bannon’s father, James, who had been arrested in connection with the murders also was in the jail at Schafer. (The elder Bannon was pardoned in 1950 and released from prison. He maintained he was innocent.)