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Show PLOT TO KIDNAP HEAO jFCHURCH BELIEVED THAT BANDITS HAD PLANNED TO HOLD PRESIDENT SMITH FOR RANSOM. Federal Agent Declares Bandits Who Kidnaped Idaho Rancher Had Planned to Secure $100,000 Ransom for Church Leader. Denver. That the gang of highway robbers recently operating in Yellowstone Yellow-stone National park, and those connected con-nected wtih the abduction of a few days ago of E. A. Empey of Idaho Falls, Idaho, were contemplating the kidnaping of Joseph F. Smith, president presi-dent of the Mormon church, is the belief expressed by J. W. Melrose, assistant to Roy O. Sampson of th department of justice. Evidence, it was stated, had been gathered for presentation berore the federal grand jury at Cheyenne, Wyo. It is understood that the evidence concerning the alleged plot to kidnap President Smith and the plans which resulted in the kidnaping of E. A Empey and in highway robberies is based on letters now in the posses sion of federal agents. The band planned to hold President Smith for $100,000 ransom, it is declared. Melrose stated that he believed the alleged plot was frustrated with the arrest May 22 last in Rupert, Idaho, of Edward B. Trafton, charged with having been the highwaymen who on July 29, 1914, held up fifteen coaches of tourists in Yellowstone park and secured $3,000 in money and valuables. valu-ables. Trafton is in a federal prison at Cheyenne awaiting action of the federal grand jury next September. Additional evidence in possesion of Melrose, it is stated, has led the federal fed-eral agents to believe that recent highway robberies, the kidnaping of Empey and the alleged plot against the head of the Mormon church were planned by the same gang. It is believed by the federal officials offic-ials that three men are doing the work and that it was planned to spirit President Smith to the Jackson Hole country or the rough country near there and to demand the ransom for his delivery. |