A Grisly Colorado Christmas: The 1906 Murder That Shocked the State

One of the most tragic events in Colorado history that took place around Christmas was the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder in 1996, but this wasn’t the first time that a bizarre crime that resulted in death took place in Colorado.

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Keep scrolling to learn about the story of the demise of Henry Lanvermeyer and Lars LeBeerg that took place almost exactly 90 years earlier.

Colorado’s Henry Lanvermeyer was Killed in 1906

41-year-old Johann Heinrich “Henry” Lanvermeyer was a landowner in Las Animas, Colorado, until he was senselessly murdered on December 25, Christmas Day.

Lanvermeyer was murdered by 21-year-old Lars LeBeerg after the two got into a dispute. The details are murky, but after LeBeerg was not satisfied with the space given to him by Lanvermeyer to sleep, he set fire to the landowner’s hay.

It was at this point that Lanvermeyer attempted to tie LeBeerg to a horse to bring him to town, but LeBeerg ended up hitting the other man in the head with a hammer, slitting his throat, drinking some of his blood, and stealing $27 and a pocketwatch.

Colorado’s Lars LeBeers was Also Killed in 1906

After the gruesome murder, LeBeerg, a self-proclaimed anarchist, was arrested. As news of the ordeal spread throughout the area, a mob unsuccessfully attempted to break LeBeerg out of jail on Christmas night to carry out some vigilante justice, but their efforts would be successful the following night.

The mob took LeBeerg to a railyard and hanged the man from a pole.

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Both men are buried in the Las Animas Cemetery.