In the fall of 1940, the badly beaten body of John Martin, a British citizen and steward on the Queen Elizabeth steamship, was found in the Hotel Belvedere in New York City. Martin was set to leave town the next day. Police would soon arrest two cowboys from Wyoming, who were in the city to perform a rodeo show at Madison Square Garden, for the crime. “Rodeo Performers Tell Police They Beat British Seaman for Improper Proposals,” the Brooklyn Eagle declared in its headline. The newspaper described how Martin’s body was found on the 14th-floor corridor of the hotel, where “a trail of blood led back to Room 1508.” Four cowboys had had a party in the room the night before, one of many such parties in the hotel, which was hosting the cowboy performers. The cowboys told police that during the party Martin had made an “improper proposal,” which sparked the attack, and police determined that Martin had been “dragged out to the corridor.” The article noted, “The room gave evidence of a violent battle.” Initially detectives confined all the rodeo performers to their rooms, placing police guards at the entrance of the hotel while they investigated the murder. This confinement was lifted to allow the cowboys to perform in that evening’s show.

The next day The New York Times described how two “cherubic cowboys” had confessed to the murder. The men had met Martin outside the hotel and invited him to their room where, after a “quarrel,” “the cowhands decided to ‘roll’ the Englishman.” The article described how one man held Martin while his “huskier companion punched the hapless steward until he slumped unconscious to the floor.”

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