In the summer of 1949, Sue Ella Horne was a 38-year-old woman looking for a fresh start. She placed a newspaper advertisement seeking a job as a ranch cook in Montana, hoping for a new opportunity. A man responded to her ad, and on August 9, 1949, he picked her up in the city of Butte for what she believed was a journey to her new employment. But her hope for a new beginning was cut short by a man with a long and violent criminal history.
Her killer was Ray Dempsey Gardner, a serial predator who had been in and out of correctional facilities for years.
The man driving Sue out of Butte was not a prospective employer but a ruthless killer. As they drove, Gardner revealed his true intentions and tried to rob her. Sue, however, showed immense bravery. She refused to surrender her money, slapped him, and tried to escape by jumping from the moving car, likely in a desperate attempt to flag down help. In response to her fierce resistance, Gardner shot her, ending the life of a woman who was simply trying to build a better future for herself. He then took her belongings and buried her body in a shallow grave near the city.
For a short time, Sue’s disappearance remained a mystery. The truth began to unravel on August 14, just five days after the murder. Gardner, who was working on a farm, was seen driving a new car. When he spotted one of his employer's sons, he abruptly fled, running a stop sign and crashing into a trailer before speeding away. Police later arrested him for grand larceny, hit-and-run, and the traffic violation after finding he had stolen clothing and a pistol from the farm where he worked. During a search of his car, officers made a pivotal discovery: Sue Ella Horne’s luggage and clothing.
With evidence linking him to the missing woman, police began to question Gardner about her whereabouts. After a polygraph test indicated he was hiding information, Gardner confessed to killing Sue. He led investigators to the remote, shallow grave where he had buried her. His confession did not stop there; he also admitted to two other murders. One was the recent killing of 17-year-old Shirley Gretzinger in Utah, and the other was the 1941 strangulation of his own cellmate, Frank Shelley, in a North Dakota jail, a death that had been mistakenly ruled as due to natural causes at the time.
Gardner’s criminal history was extensive, with a record of over 500 crimes. His violent tendencies were rooted in a troubled childhood; his father was killed in a shootout with police, and his mother was imprisoned, leaving him to be raised in an orphanage. Though he was initially charged with Sue Ella Horne’s murder in Montana, prosecutors ultimately decided to try him in Utah for the murder of Shirley Gretzinger. In December 1949, a jury deliberated for less than an hour before finding him guilty of first-degree murder. They did not recommend mercy, which made a death sentence mandatory.
After his appeals were exhausted, Gardner made a final, bizarre request to have his sentence commuted so he could be used as a "guinea pig" for scientific experiments, but this was denied. Given the choice between hanging and a firing squad, he chose the latter. On September 29, 1951, Ray Dempsey Gardner was executed at Utah State Prison. His last words were, "I'm ready to go. No one will miss me. My life has been worthless." While his life ended in admission of its own futility, the life he took from Sue Ella Horne was one of courage and resilience, tragically cut short.
