Phil Roberts, 4-19-24
A Wheatland area rancher, O. V. Sebern, served on the jury for the Tom Horn trial in Cheyenne in 1902-3, often referred to, for many years, as “Wyoming’s Trial of the Century.” You might ask, “So what?” Eleven others sat on that jury, too. Sebern moved to Ada County, Idaho, in 1906. About two years later, the 52-year-old now-farmer was the last juror empaneled for what is often called, “Idaho’s Trial of the Century,” the “Big Bill” Haywood trial. Horn was convicted and hanged; Haywood was found “not guilty” and walked. The Haywood trial is described in the excellent posthumously published book by J. Anthony Lukas, “Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets off a Struggle for the Soul of America,” Simon and Schuster, 1997. (A talented writer and historian, Lukas died much too young in 1997).