...in the TV/rec room.
Paul "Turkey Pete" Eitner was sentenced to life in prison for shooting Joseph Nugent in Miles City
in 1918. He was forty years old when convicted.
For good behavior, he was assigned the task of managing the prison turkeys. As the years went by and
his memories faded, so did his conception of reality. One day a man stopped by the prison and
admired the turkeys, and legend has it that Pete sold the entire flock of prison turkeys to the man for 25 cents each.
This event marked the end of his farming days but began his new fantasy career as an "entrepreneur and philanthropist."
"Eitner Enterprises Inc." bought the prison, operated and paid all the prison expenses, wrote the
cheques to the guards to cover their salaries, saved Brazil's coffee crop, sold pink alligators,
purchased alphalfa seed from Poncho Villa, sold grasshopper legs to Fidel Castro, and supplied ships
to the US Navy.
Turkey Pete died in prison at the old age of 89. It was 1967.
His funeral was the only one ever held within the prison walls.
He was a legend.