Nels Anderson

In the bustling, fast-growing city of Billings, Montana, nicknamed the "Magic City," Nels and Annie Anderson were building a life together in the early 1920s. Nels, a 43-year-old barber, and his wife operated a joint business at 2912 Minnesota Avenue, where he ran the barbershop and she had a marcel parlor for women. They were known as reliable and hardworking people, focused on their business and their four young children waiting for them at their home on Custer Avenue. They were not the type to stay out late, and their lives were centered around family and work.

The evening of Saturday, December 6, 1924, was the last time their children would see them alive. The couple had finished their work for the day, purchased groceries from the neighboring Kirk's Grocery, and were preparing to close the shop and drive home. But they never arrived. The next morning, their housekeeper, Anna Erickson, grew worried when the Andersons failed to return. She notified the police, who went to the shop on Minnesota Avenue. There, they found the couple's car still parked outside. Peering under a drawn window shade, an officer saw a gruesome scene and broke down the door.

Inside, the full horror was revealed. Nels Anderson was found sitting in a barber chair, still wearing his winter overcoat and one glove, the other lying on the floor. He had been bludgeoned to death. Annie was found in a shed at the rear of the shop, also in her hat and fur coat. Investigators determined she had been attacked in the marcel parlor, where a shocking amount of blood spattered the room and the groceries they had just bought, before her body was dragged into the shed. The murder weapon, an ax the Andersons kept in the shop for splitting firewood, was found near her body, its blade matted with blood and hair.

The brutality of the crime shocked the city of Billings. An autopsy revealed Nels’s head had been split from his crown to the roof of his mouth. Annie had suffered at least three separate ax wounds. Despite the violence, there were no signs of a struggle, suggesting the couple was taken completely by surprise, possibly by someone they knew. Robbery was quickly ruled out as a motive. The cash register was untouched, and money was found in the pockets of both victims.

The investigation was stymied from the start. The killer had evidently wiped the handle of the ax clean, and though it appeared they had washed their hands in a basin in the shop, police were unable to recover any fingerprints. In the 1920s, forensic science was still in its infancy, leaving authorities with few leads. A young woman reported hearing loud talking inside the shop around 9 p.m., possibly an argument between Nels and a "dark man," but this lead went nowhere. Police theorized the killer might have been a transient who hopped a train and left the area immediately after the murders, as the railroad tracks were nearby.

Decades turned into a century, and the double homicide of Nels and Annie Anderson remains one of Montana's oldest and most infamous unsolved cases. Their four children were raised by relatives, their lives forever altered by the horrific loss of their parents. The case is no longer actively listed as a cold case with the Billings Police Department, but it has not been forgotten. Family members, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, remain deeply interested in finding answers.

As of February 2026, the case is still officially unsolved, with no arrests ever made. The story of the hardworking couple murdered on the cusp of returning home to their children has become a dark piece of Billings history. Descendants continue to honor their memory, visiting their graves at Mountview Cemetery. One hundred years after their deaths, the question of who entered the barbershop that winter night and why they committed such a heinous act remains a chilling and unanswered mystery.