I wasn't "There," either -- at the Ogden Arsenal -- but I was "there" -- in Elmer's home in Salmon, Idaho -- when he told me more than once the details of what you've read in his book (and above). At home, in our private conversations, he didn't omit any names when he told of the threats and attempts to kill him. I wonder whether he put them in his manuscript and the editor deleted them. In our private conversations, Elmer spoke of these events as calmly and matter-of-factly as he described the behavior of jackrabbits he'd shot with solid bullets -- no rancor, no name-calling, no characterization, no criticism, no opining, just "this happened -- that occurred -- So-and-So did such-and-such -- the wind from the north was chilly that day" -- etc. He was obviously NOT putting-on a pity party or running somebody down -- he was simply relating facts of his past, as they applied to some greater topic of the moment. The details of the rag-packed shotgun barrel, for example, related to something like sensitivity to the balance and '"trim" of a shotgun, or stopping and checking when something doesn't feel right. The identity of the would-be assassin was purely incidental -- much the same as he might identify the make of the scope in describing a specific shot he'd made, in a chat about bullet placement on a barren-land caribou. He usually cited his guides by name, never as just "the guide." His private remarks about more-somber events like assassination attempts were similar. I never heard Elmer say, for example, So-and-So tried to kill me." That was the natural conclusion to draw from the details that he did describe, but Elmer just gave the details and left the obvious conclusions up to me.
