Wolf family murders

Wolf family murders
Location	near Turtle Lake, North Dakota, United States
Date	April 22, 1920;105 years ago (April 22, 1920)
Target	Wolf family
Attack type	Mass shooting, mass murder
Weapon	Hatchet Double-barreled shotgun
Deaths	8
Perpetrator	Heinrich C. “Henry” Layer

The Wolf family murders occurred on April 22, 1920. Jacob Wolf, his wife Beata, five of their six young daughters and a teenaged farmhand were found murdered in their family farm outside of Turtle Lake, North Dakota.

As of 2025, it is the worst case of mass murder in the state of North Dakota. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Victims

Murdered:

• Jacob Wolf, 41
• Beata Wolf, 35
• Bertha Wolf, 12
• Maria Wolf, 9
• Edna Wolf, 7
• Liddia Wolf, 5
• Martha Wolf, 3
• Jacob Hofer, 13

Survivor:

• Emma Wolf, 8 months ^[4]

Perpetrator

Henry Layer ^[5] was a German-Russian immigrant who was born in Eigenfeld, a German settlement that was located in Akkermansky Uyezd, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire. In 1886, he moved to the United States with his parents. The layer family settled near Ashley, North Dakota, where he lived until 1916.

As an adult, Henry married twice. His first marriage was to Mathilda Miller in 1904, with whom they had two children together; they divorced in March 1911. In 1912, he married Lydia Brokofsky Hinzman, with whom they had six children together. He and his second wife moved to Turtle Lake in 1916 and began farming. ^[6]

See also

• Charles Bannon, a man who was lynched in Schafer, North Dakota after murdering a family of six, also at a family farm.

References

1. Briggs, Tracy (15 April 2021). "Was North Dakota's worst mass murder a hate crime or politically charged lies? The Turtle Lake Murders". parkrapidsenterprise.com. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
2. Roehl, Taylor. "The Murdered Family". themurderedfamily.com. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
3. "The Wolf Family Murders: A Brutal Crime in Small Town North Dakota". The Lineup. 5 April 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
4. "Key Characters in the story about the Wolf family murders". themurderedfamily.com.
5. "Death of Henry Layer". March 21, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
6. Martin, Andrew (5 September 2024). "Henry Layer, The Man Who Murdered A Family Of 8 Because Of An Injured Cow". Medium. Retrieved September 5, 2024.