Galen Gilmore

On a summer day in the pre-glamour era of Las Vegas, a horrific series of events fueled by jealousy led to the deaths of four people. On June 21, 1941, Galen Gilmore, a young man of 21, was shot and killed in a violent rampage that also claimed the lives of 34-year-old Charles J. Decker and 24-year-old Evelyn Tyler. The man responsible for the three murders was Evelyn’s husband, 24-year-old Wayne Tyler, who ended the bloodshed by taking his own life.

The tragedy unfolded as a deadly love triangle that spiraled out of control. Wayne Tyler, a railroad worker, reportedly suspected his wife of being romantically involved with one or both of his coworkers, Galen Gilmore and Charles Decker. In a fit of jealous rage, Tyler set a brutal plan in motion. He and his wife, Evelyn, rode with Galen Gilmore in Gilmore's car to a remote area on the outskirts of the city. There, Wayne Tyler forced Evelyn to watch as he shot and killed Gilmore, leaving his body in the quiet of the desert.

After murdering Gilmore, Tyler took the car and drove his wife back into town. He parked the vehicle and, inside the car, he shot and killed Evelyn. His violent spree was not over. Tyler then walked to the local train station where he found his friend and coworker, Charles Decker. The two men took a taxi to their workplace, where Tyler shot and killed Decker.

Following the third murder, Wayne Tyler walked into a bar across the street and ordered a drink. By this time, police had been alerted to the shootings. Two officers soon arrived at the bar with their guns drawn and demanded that Tyler drop his weapon. He ignored their commands. Tyler then put his own gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but the weapon misfired. Before the officers could intervene, he pulled the trigger a second time, successfully committing suicide.

For a time, the full scope of the tragedy remained unknown. Galen Gilmore’s body was not discovered until later when two couples out for a drive stopped their car to shoo a grasshopper out and stumbled upon his remains in the desert. It took investigators some time to piece together the sequence of events and connect the three murders to Wayne Tyler’s suicide. They ultimately concluded that Tyler’s motive was extreme jealousy over his wife’s perceived relationships with the other men.

The case was closed with the death of the primary suspect, Wayne Tyler. In the aftermath, the victims’ families were left to grieve. Galen Gilmore was memorialized in California, while Charles Decker was buried in Nebraska, their bodies returned to their homes far from the scene of the violence. The story of that tragic day was later recounted in a 1954 episode of the radio drama "The Big Story," which featured the reporting of respected Las Vegas journalist John F. Cahlan, ensuring the grim details of the murder-suicide were not entirely lost to history.