Munich Man’s Murder Leads to Prison Reform
Martin Tabert Killed in 1922
MUNICH, ND. – The Zion Lutheran Cemetery near Munich North Dakota lies just off Zane Taberts farm. From it you can see where the original Tabert farm stood when they settled this
area. Several generations of Tabert s are buried here but Zane’s great uncle Martin is not one of them.
In the early 1920’s Martin Tabert rode these rails out of Munich.
Zane Tabert: “Mostly he just wanted to go see the world. I don’t know where all he went, I have no idea. That’s how he ended up in Florida”
and it’s in Florida Martin ran out of money.
Zane Tabert: “Well he got caught riding a train with no ticket, I suppose it’s vagrancy. So they had to go to court. His fine was $25”
Martin wrote his parents back in Munich asking for money to cover the fine. Along with this letter they sent money along with some extra money so Martin could get home.
Zane Tabert: “But the Sheriff, he wasn’t interested in money, he wanted the free labor and he sent the money back. They kept him in a logging camp in a swamp some
palce. Free labor.”
Katie Richardson Jens: “The convict lease system was actually a very common system in the south”
Katie Richardson Jens specializes in Corrections at MSUM. She says that after the civil war as newly freed slaves gained more political power white southerners felt
threatened.
Katie Richardson Jens: “One way to sort regain control over that group of people, is to create what they called the black codes. Those were a set of law that criminalized
really minor behavior. Things like trespassing or jumping the train with out a fare.
And what happened to Martin Tabert had likely happened to many African Americans already.
Zane Tabert: “He got sick and they told him to go to work and couldn’t and they beat him with a whip until it killed him”
Back in Munich, Martins family got word of how their son had died.
They turned to Gudmunder Grimson, the Cavalier counties state attorney for help.
Grimson would take off on his own journey to Florida to find exactly how Martin Tabert had died. When he got there, he found a sheriff that Grimson described as little
more than a slave catcher.
Governor of Florida Cary Hardee assured Grimson that Martins Case would be looked at.
When it wasn’t Grimson went to North Dakota state Legislature for help. They passed a resolution condemning Florida’s prison system.
Worrid about bad press for the states new tourism industry the case went forward.
Grimson returned to florida with a team to assist in the prosecution of the lumber company employee and to seek damages from the company.
The case led to the end of loaning our prisoners not only in Florida but in most of the country.
Katie Richardson Jens: ” He was sited in a few of the resources as one of the reasons why convict leasing ended. I really don’t think that would have happened had it not
been a white kid from North Dakota.
Martin’s body never made it back to the family plot in Munich.
Zane Tabert: ” They buried his body in a swamp some place, no one ever found him. Along with who know how many other people got buried in the swamp?”
but his great nephew takes some solace in knowing his great uncles death played a major role in prison reform in the United States.
Zane Tabert: “It makes a difference. Somebody changed it. It didn’t do him any good but it did the rest of us some good”
The man that whipped Marin to death was found guilty of murder but that conviction was overturned on a technicality and the man was never retried.
As for the Sheriff in the case, he did lose his job because of what happened to Martin.
A special thanks to Zane Tabert for taking the time to talk to us and for the help of chief photographer John Hanson.
