Thrill On Christmas Night
What happened on Christmas Night 1997 in Bigfork, Montana?
The year was 1997, and in Bigfork, Montana, 20 year old Ted Ernst had been enjoying many years of success. After a tragic accident when he was younger, years before, he learned to live with a disability, and overtime he mastered the art of wheelchair racing. He won awards, gained some popularity, and some fans. Ted did not let his disability hinder his dreams of becoming somewhat of a star athlete. The people of Bigfork, Montana didn’t pay much attention to his disability either, because once Ted came back home to his neighbors from touring and doing races in other states and countries, the people of Bigfork welcomed him back with open arms and he was considered their hometown hero. Just as soon as his rise to fame came, however, it quickly came crashing down, when on Christmas night 1997, something so tragic happened it would cause the death of one local man, and revoke the freedom of two others, but before I talk about what happened that fateful night, let’s go back a little…
In the small Montana town of Bigfork, a town of less than 5,000, the residents here are surrounded by serene and beautiful scenery. This town is named “Bigfork” because Bigfork is a fork where two rivers, the Flathead River and the Swan River flow in to the Flathead Lake. In this town, the locals here say Bigfork is not just a Montana ski-town, lakeside resort, nature-lover’s paradise or a quaint, western stage-stop, this town is more than that. The people here have a multitude of reasons to be proud of their town, there are whiskey tastings, art shows, film festivals, and they’ve also got, famed zookeeper Jack Hanna, living here as well, and in 1997, local family, the Ernsts were considered a pretty prolific family here. They owned a spacious, well kept cabin, which was built by hand by their patriarch Ed Ernst. The Ernst home sat right on top of a beautiful lake where Ed and his sons Theodore nicknamed “Ted” and Jesse fished frequently.
Ed and his wife Debby, raised their children with Christian values, which meant they went to church frequently, and they expected their children to follow suit when they got older. Even though the Ernsts raised the children with stern Christian values, they still knew how to let loose and let their children have fun. They participated in many family gatherings and Ted and Jesse were your typical active young boys having fun, and growing up surrounded by gorgeous and adventurous surroundings. Since the town of Bigfork has no shortage of trees, bodies of water, or other forms of nature, the Ernst brothers spent lots of time exploring their backyard. Fishing, hunting, hiking, were just some of the ways the boys spent their days when they could, and Ted, from multiple accounts, seemed to be the more adventurous of the brothers. While his father worked as a horse logger, he and Jesse would play outside most days, all day, until their father returned home. According to a report, their favorite activity was to climb trees.
On one usual play day on their property in August 1989, the brothers were having fun doing their usual activity as they were waiting for Ed to return home, but on this day, something tragic would happen during their playtime. As Ted and Jesse were climbing trees, they climbed a tall fir tree to see if they could spot their father driving home. As the boys were jumping and climbing, Jesse jumped on one young branch until he heard it crack. Ted followed suit on the same branch, but the branch broke from underneath him and he immediately fell 60 feet below, severing his spine, Ted was only 11 years old.
Even after the tragedy, and even at his young age, Ted knew his life would be different for the rest of his life. He accepted it, and never went through a grieving process, like a typical child or adult might do. He didn’t have denial about what his new condition was, there seemed to be no anger, and he didn’t seem to be depressed about the situation. Young Ted went on with his life. Shortly after his accident, Ted found new ways to adjust to his love of adventure. He was now in a wheelchair full time and no longer had use in his legs, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying the great outdoors. Just months after his tragic accident, young Ted decided to enter the world of speed racing, obviously, without the use of his legs, but with his wheelchair, Ted entered the world of wheelchair racing, and it turned out, he was good at it. He got so good at wheelchair racing, that even at his young age, he trained 10-kilometer races he would enter around different states.
Also right after his accident, he began to excel at the game or what some would call, the sport of ping pong. After all he was now at the height of the table, and when he would hit the balls, he would hit them so skillfully, he would go on to win medals at the junior national wheelchair championships and then he was invited by the American Wheelchair Table Tennis Association to train for the U.S. Paralympic team. Yes, at even the young age of 11, young Ted was being looked at for the big leagues.
Around eight months after his accident, with the help of his community, he was able to buy his first three-wheel racing chair, and In May 1990, now at age 12, Ted entered one of the most daunting wheelchair races in the country, the 12-kilometer Bloomsday. He eventually ended up tying his score with his competitor. In the summer of 1990, Ted went on to win three gold medals, and for the next seven years, it was very odd for Ted to finish after third place, he was extremely skilled at his craft, and throughout the 90s, he became a hometown hero to Bigfork and the rest of the county of Flathead. Due to his popularity within the wheelchair racing community, Ted began to receive numerous sponsorships from different sports companies. Beyond his sports career, however, Ted was, according to people who knew him, was a kind and gentle soul. He was really religious and read the Bible every night, he would always be friendly to strangers, and he picked up card and board games with friends. During high school, he was the president of his freshman and sophomore classes, and the president of the 4-H club. All this was all while he was still doing competitive wheelchair racing.
However sometime during the mid 90s, his doctor told him that effects of him doing full- bore training in the 4H club and racing were causing his body to age twice as fast as normal. Ted knew his body was not doing the greatest, because as he was in his teen years he began to suffer from severe carpel tunnel syndrome, the result of pumping extra hard on his racing wheels day after day. So with these factors, Ted eventually stopped his career in racing, but keeping up with his good spirits, Ted eventually found a job at a computer company, and here he excelled as well. Just as things were looking up for him again, Ted eventually had a falling out with his parents. His father was an assistant pastor at a local church and his mother always allegedly talked to him about sin.
So, in an act of rebellion, Ted stopped going to church, because he was tired of their rules. He thought, if he got out of their home he could stay up late and watch movies he wanted to watch, he could have his freedom. And in the fall of 1997, he did what he wished for, he moved out into a town home close to his job. He finally had his freedom. Then again, even though he had his freedom, Ted was still seeking something more. Sure he had his great job he excelled in, but now he was done with wheelchair racing, he needed something to do, he needed something thrilling, almost like his wheelchair racing days.
So, in mid 1997, he came up with an idea, and he talked to his close brother Jesse about this idea. He proposed to Jesse, that just for fun, they should start and a life of crime. Jesse being the faithful brother to Ted, reluctantly agreed. At first Ted and Jesse committed only petty acts of vandalism, they’d do stupid things like taking for sale signs and move them to other properties, but to Ted that wasn’t thrilling enough. In October 1997, he and Jesse graduated to burglary. Even though robbery was nothing new to the residents of Big Fork, the teens and young people did it all the time, but Ted and Jesse’s robberies proved to be bigger.
Over the next three months of robbing properties, they were able to steal large amounts of money and valuable items such as cameras, power tools, and a shotgun, they stole so much property that they eventually had to purchase a storage room, just to fit all of the items. After a while however, Jesse had second thoughts, and would not agree to do some of the robberies, but when he did, Ted would threaten him and tell him he wouldn’t be allowed over to his home again. Not wanting to be shunned by his brother, and feeling guilty for causing his paralysis years before, Jesse went along with the crime spree. Weeks and weeks went by, and Ted reassured Jesse, everything would be ok. The brothers had been on a week after week crime spree, and nothing had happened to them yet, so what was another robbery going to do to them? Also during the crime spree, Ted and Jesse’s burglaries became more elaborate, complete with two-way radios, laser signals, and guns.
In December 1997, Ted wanted to do something bigger. He came up with an idea to burglarize a large office complex. He had a computer generated floor plan of the complex and had a timetable, on when was the best time to rob it. He gave Jesse a list of 17 orders he was to follow on the job, including, but not limited to: to not shine a light in the windows, when panic sets in, stop, take deep breath, lick lips and say to self, “O.K., I’m doing fine”, don’t make a mess, and remember “we’re not vandals, we’re burglars”. First, Ted came up with another robbery attempt that he and Jesse could do. It wasn’t as big as the office heist, but it was pretty risky. On the night of Christmas 1997, Ted told Jesse that they would be a taking a drive to the home of Dr. John Bradshaw. They new he had decent wealth and Ted decided his home would be a target. Meanwhile, at Dr. Bradshaw’s home, the man who he bought his home from and who was his friend, Larry Streeter, was housekeeping the home, as he was away for the holidays. When Larry looked out the window he noticed a car sitting in the driveway. Thinking it was odd, he cautiously approached the vehicle, and he asked the driver, Ted Ernst, for some identification, and he also noticed the Ted had a gun in his backseat. Larry reached in and pulled the gun out, and continued to look over the Ted’s ID card.
Jesse meanwhile, was already out of the car, because he had started to scout the area to try and steal some items. He saw Larry approach Ted’s van, and quietly fled to the nearby woods and watched him approach. While Larry was going over Ted’s ID car, Ted radioed Jesse to shoot Larry. But Jesse drew the line and said he would not. So, Ted then pulled out another gun he had and shot Larry six times, killing him, he then used another, bigger gun, to shoot Larry with a final shot, to make sure he was dead. Jesse then ran over to Ted’s car and the two sped away, leaving evidence such as, Ted’s ID card, a .357 magnum, and his wallet.
Over the next few hours Ted made Jesse return on foot in the snow to retrieve incriminating evidence. When he did, The first return left Jesse’s shoes so covered with blood and so wet that he put on Ted’s smaller shoes before going back the second time. As the hours went on after the killing, now on December 26th, Larry’s family eventually found his body, as they had been looking for him to come home for Christmas. A few days later, Larry was laid to rest, and many of the town people came to pay their respects, including Ted Ernst. His boss was there too, in fact, Ted’s boss made small talk with Ted and told him, “I hope they catch the dirty bastards who did this and hang them out to dry.” For the next few months, Larry’s murder went cold, and the police barely had any clues as to who killed Larry.
However, in March 1998, a local girl told her friend, that her other friend said he was there on the night of Larry’s murder. The friend’s father then called authorities, and the friend said it was Jesse who told her about the night of the murder. Police made their way to where Jesse lived, and ran into his father Ed. They told Ed they needed to talk to his son about Larry’s murder, and soon, Jesse came home from fishing, wearing the same shoes, that matched prints at the crime scene. The police then took Jesse to the police station and they repeatedly questioned him about who shot Larry Streeter. He finally told his brother did. The detectives were shocked. Ted Ernst was the killer? The hometown hero? The paraplegic? Later that afternoon, police arrested Ted for the murder of Larry, and they also arrested Jesse.
After months of trial, in February 1999, Ted and Jesse were found guilty of murder and sentenced to 100 years each. However, in 2001, Jesse was able to receive a retrial because it was noted that he had a mental defect called Klinefelter’s syndrome. Arguing, Jesse would not have been able to commit the murders unless he was coerced. The defense’s argument was successful and in 2001, Jesse was acquitted and released, after serving 2 years of his original 100 year sentence. Ted Ernst remains in prison.
