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Evelyn Donges & Tom LaFave

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When Evelyn Donges was escorted behind the walls of the castle like prison in Deer Lodge, Montana, she became one of the youngest incarcerated females in Montana State History. She was only 16!

On September 11, 1951, Evelyn lured a gentleman by the name of John Hoffman into an alley where he was beaten and robbed by two other teenagers. Hoffman would die four days later from the injuries of the attack.


After the robbery, the three teens picked up a friend in a car that they had stolen earlier that day and left town which initiated a manhunt for the troubled teens that stretched as far as Texas. One of the teenagers realized that he was probably not in the greatest of situations and left the other three in Utah as he hitchhiked back to his hometown of Laurel, Montana.

The other three were arrested 12 days later on September 23rd in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Donges and Tom LaFave, another of Hoffman's attackers, were charged with first degree murder and handed a life sentence.


Both LaFave and Donges were eventually paroled but still made history as two of the faces behind a stone wall in Deer Lodge, Montana.

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The Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation is a local non-profit membership organization which operates the Old Montana Prison as a Museum. As the Old Prison Complex contains buildings located on three blocks outside the Old Prison walls, other collections have been brought in to fill five museums.

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Powell County Museum & Arts Foundation

Old Montana Prison & Auto Museum Complex

1106 Main St. Deer Lodge, MT 59722

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