Show STANDARD-EXAMINE- EP DES R SUNDAY MARCH 4 1999 FEATURES EDITOR AW" ERSAR ES 25-42- r ' 7 V'V All Ed Trafton wanted was to be immortalized in the annals of criminal history but fate was not kind By JANELLE BIDDINGER Standard Examiner Ed Trafton wanted so little from life — a bit of recognition maybe the front-pag- e banner headline m the New York Times Perhaps to inspire a shiver of fear among incredulous little boys Just a smidgen of glory like that clinging to the man he most emulated — the outlaw Jesse James But when Trafton broke all criminal records in 1914 by and in one day holding up 19 stagecoaches brimming with tourists to Yellowstone Park — one of the last stagecoach robberies of the Old West — the eruption of the first world war quickly blew the story to newspapers’ back pages And when Trafsingle-handed- ly who during a rare period of domesticity built Wister's cabin near Jackson Hole Wyo Even when he was pushing a bitter 70 Trafton continued his drive for notoriety wandering the streets of 1922 Hollywood trying to sell his life's story to the fledgling movie industry But remaining true to his history of Trafton dropped dead of a heart attack just days before he was to talk dollars with an official from the studio of famed director DW Griffith If Trafton bears any distinction in the chronicles of western history it's for sheer consistency of bad luck The for the Old West threw only bit parts Trafton’s way saving the memorable roles for the likes of Butch Cassidy or Kid Curry As Watson notes in the biography “With un erring accuracy near-miss- fate ton robbed his own mother of nearly $10 000 — a fortune in an era when even a respectably paying job pulled in just $50 a year — the arrival of Halley's Comet held the nation's newspaper readers in thrall Even when law officers caught up with and arrested an aging Trafton the ocean liner Lusitania had the presumption to and fate sink es interfered with every single attempt Trafton made to immortalize himself in the of annals criminal history” The passage of years however has transformed this “thief and scoundrel con- summate actor and Casanova without compare” into a colorful character whom Watson views with fondness as “an old codger” Yes Trafton 65 has written a book about his out- was “a Watson John headthe really rotgrabbed law grandfather It’s called ‘The Real Virginian’ s ten guy” admits lines again Watson There’s capture was as the time instances around such no in mention a area to minor newspagetting relegated Trafton grabbed his daughter by the pers headlined “Elderly Bandit Gets Five ankles and lowered her into a Years” d briefcase he had chasm to retrieve a It wasn't that Trafton didn’t dress the part of hidden on a ledge Or the time Trafton killed m the western dandy as did his friends Buffalo Bill cold blood a mining-claipartner over a disCody or Wild Bill Hickok Indeed few bandits Not the so to Old hard worked West at mention the in agreement outrageous transkeeping up fortune the of of “his own One badman fiction’s stealing photoearly pulp image gression sweet mother” said Watson For that little engraph shows the diminutive outlaw dressed in deavor both Trafton and Minnie his wife of 20 fringed buckskins and carrying a rifle and two his shoulders his hair to years were thrown into the slammer Mmnie long falling pistols served two years in the Colorado Penitentiary beard shaped in a Buffalo goatee LatTrafton three years er with the 1903 release of “The Great Train Still one has to smile at the man’s odd nnx of he the movie cowboy’s adopted Robbery” Stetson hat a bandana around his sheer nerve and ill luck says Watson d laced boots Take for example Trafton’s stolen-cattl- e neck and scheme A Hyrum rancher feeling a bit crowded “All he ever wanted was to become famous” by the increasing population drove his cattle to says his grandson John Watson 65 of Salt Lake City “But everything this guy touched turned to Wyoming hoping to settle there Trafton rounded up the cattle and headed back to Hyrum sour apples” Against a backdrop of Old West where he found many willing buyers When the jails and Yellowstone Park Watson colors in the life of this “old rascal” in a recently published cattle rancher returned to his Hyrum home his fortune gone he found his neighbors all the biography “The Real Virginian” (Westernlore The title comes an from the claim $1995) by FBI agent that Owen Wister who penned the 1902 classic “The Virginian” based its hero on the scampish vain Trafton v Traf-ton’- ' “T Ed Trafton and wife Minnie on their way to prison in 1910 near-bottomle- ss loot-fille- m Bill-esq- narrow-- brimmed high-toppe- ready-for-a-fig- HOURS TO ht Or take Trafton’s role in the robbery by Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch of the Montpelier Idaho bank Cassidy led the raid on the smalltown bank leaving Trafton several miles out of town holding fresh horses Trafton’s name was left out of the newspaper accounts However adds Watson “Guess who was the only one caught for that robbery?” Bingo Trafton was arrested a year later and served two years of a sentence in the Idaho State Penitentiary Regardless Trafton was proud to be counted on the roster of the Hole in the Wall gang — role even if it was a sweep-u- p Still standing in Yellowstone Park are some of the cabins he built along the “outlaw trail” to shelter gang members running from the law Kidnapping was even part of Trafton's criminal repertoire He was behind the rumored but never executed scheme to kidnap President Chester A Arthur when he toured Yellowstone Park in 1883 said Watson And an arrest for an earlier crime plans in 1915 to snatch Mormon Church President Joseph F 25-ye- ar hold-the-hors- es short-circuite- Smith Trafton figured the reportedly wealthy church would be happy to cough up a healthy ransom Watson — whose writing is familiar to longtime readers of the motorcycle magazine Easy Riders — is himself no stranger to adventuring A diamond-stuearring bears testimony to Watson’s crossing of the equator as a roving wuh youth of 14 — the haphazard “a lootball needle and a piece of twine” is a traditional rite that marks the first time one crosses the equator And early on the young Watson explored the American countryside from the vantage point of a freight train boxcar Nights were spent on the hard-dicomfort of hobo camps — a change from the “slow and boring” home life in Los Angeles he had abandoned He recalls some nights spent in Ogden — the jail that is “I'd go in and tell the cops ‘Hey I See BADMAN on 1 1E d ear-pierci- rt d GIVkW MOBwi&W? The Ogden Standard July 30 1914 The Ogden Standard Inside Page -- July I William Tell imitators still taking He's lived on Washington Boulevard for nearly three decades passing the time near the corner at 28th Street Through all those years he’s worn the same clothing — little more than loose rags really — leaving much of his skin exposed to the dements He spends his days in an odd pose: standing motionless arms raised high above a hairless head cocked slightly to one side Perhaps because of his unique appearance or perhaps because of this strange pose he’s a limited plenty of attention People slop j nd sure Some laugh Still otheis when no i e is looking thiow or even shoot th P( s at him Vet thiuig'i it jll he re mains a jolly good nuturid Mlow returning a broad beaming gtn to !! who pass by In tact over the yeais I e s euime sonic thing of an institution a local landmark made of 1 ' Hoi Toi onhe other hand is a good luck charm as explained in the writings of a matchbook cover from the China Nite restaurant: “I he old Oriental legend of Hot lot hIiuIi translated means good luik holds that he is the harbinger of good luck Because of his happy joyful attitude he always made those wo came in contact vith lum feel so good they succeeded in all they tried He became knon as the hod of Happiness or the Laughing (lod I he citizens made little statues of Hot 7 oi to be carried in their poc kets Ac ending to legend if one rubbed the bellv at the little statue Hot loi biought hint A Mark - V Saal nt 4 f Standard Examiner columnist little more than chicken wire and fiberglass — that bald fat Oriental statue adorning the front of the China Nile restaurant in Ogden I irst otf let’s get one thing straight Contrary to popular belief this replica isn’t Buddha His name is Hoi roly-pol- y There’s a big difference A Buddha is a statue or image of Gautama who according to the ancient wntings was a religioas philoso1 oi Sid-dhait- pher and teacher living 5' BC in India about Inside Page 31 1914 c good luck Rubbing his belly brings good luck? So what happens if you pierce his belly with an extremely sharp projectile'' That’s what’s been happening for al potshots at most 30 years now Hoi Toi may not be n the most landmark in town but he’s certainly one of the most abused Almost since the day he was installed back in 1963 this China Nile mascot has been a practice target for pranksters with a bow “We take probably three to four arrows out of him a month” said Wilmer Kenley production manager for Young I lentric Sign Co in Ogden “Three or four a month? Then it’s toned way down” said David a 1969 graduate of Bonneville High School "We used to put five in him a night” David (whose name has (xen changed to protect a local business owner horn the foolish pranks of his youth) remembers the fust time he took a shot at Hoi loi It was in the mid-’6taken fiom across the sweet in well-know- 0 Hoi Toi the old Grand Central puiking lot The idea was to awn for the statue’s belly button “I he first time 1 shot I missed” David admitted "I can’t tell you where I hit him though Ixfs just sy I hit him low ” David says he and his friends started out with a longbow but it was too powerful I ven horn across the boulevard the anow went all the way inside the hollow statue and the idea was to leave at hast part ot the shaft showing So they moved to a smaller 45 pound bow “We used to shoot at it from the back of my '56 hevy" David said "You’d three cars in liont ot you and then when vou stopped for the light let it gi t flv ” See SAAL on 11E |