| Show TWO BUrCH CASSADAYS J Counterfeit Killed Real One Still Alive I + GANG IS BROKEN UP PROSPECTORS DRIVING ROBBERS ROB-BERS ROOSTERS AWAY Some of the Old Crowd Still In the Country But They Are Mainly the Hangerson Butch Cassaday and His Partner Iioy Likely to Be Heard From t Special Correspondence Price Utah May 20The visit of I Governor Heber M Wells and the apprehension ap-prehension of his friends while he was in the haunts of the Robbers Roost country call to mind the fact that the chief executive of the state was in no immediate danger of being kidnaped or made away with The facts are that the leaders of the muchtalkedof and dreaded Roosters are at this time to the north of the locality penetrated by the Utah executive According to persons per-sons who know them and have seen I them within the last two weeks Butch Cassaday and Elza Lay are now across the Green river to the east and north of Vernal Uintah county some fifty miles and a distance inland from the railroad at least calculation some 200 miles About the time Sheriff Preece of Uintah county captured Pete Nlel son one of the gang on the Uintah reservation Cassaday and Lay were known to be not far away Like the oncenotorious James gang of Missouri these Robbers Roosters have their friends and sympathizers and about the last persons in the world so to speak to know of them would be the officers ofthe law What they are doing do-Ing or what they have been up to in the locality mentioned the persons who have seen them do not pretend to say That they have been and are now in the locality Indicated Is sufficient When people talk of them there are few questions asked It has perhaps become a custom They are there and the 500 on the head of Cassaday dead or alive and the 300 offered for Lay But this promised reward has no charm for the average citizen who perhaps is well enough content that these fellows have not disturbed him or his Two Bad Batches People here who are familiar with the history of the gang and the characters char-acters who once contributed to its makeup say there were two Butch Cassadays the real one still being alive but that the counterfeit was killed about a year ago when the posse went out from here and brought back with them as trophies of the chase two dead men The original and only genuine Butch Cassaday Is alive and thriving His side partner and first lieutenant Lay Is with him and It is a matter of time only until they I are heard of In the way of some highhanded high-handed robbery like the one at Castle Gate when Paymaster Carpenter was I relieved of several thousand dollars of Pleasant Valley Coal company money I I This occurred In April 1897 I Three other members of the gang the whereabouts of whom are well known to the sheriffs of eastern Utah counties are John Griffiths alias Blue John and Jim Hawkins alias Silver Tip and Ed Newcomb known as the Indian They have been seen frequently this spring by prospectors and travelers through the country In that section of Wayne county north and adjoining the Henry or Sinbad mountains uney are very mucn in evidence when peQple whom they know I will not betray them are about but when an officer goes into the country they appear to be swallowed up by the I earth unless taken by surprise as was the case when Blue John was run onto a few weeks ago by Sheriff Tuttle I and posse of Grand county The Herald i Her-ald correspondent the other day talked I with a man who less than two weeks ago met and conversed at length with John He was at the time limping about from a wound received from a shot fired by Sheriff Tlers posse and I which took effect in the left leg The bullet lodged in the flesh just above I the knee and was removed by the outlaw I out-law himself with the aid of a pocketknife pocket-knife Gang Broken Up There is good reason to believe that the gang as at one time rganized does not longer exist or If It does the bad element has been weeded out or gotten got-ten rid of by the better element Cassaday and Lav and some of the others who have been above small and petty thieving such AS horse and cat tlestealing and raids upon small ranchmen have not been seen or heard of south of the line of the Rio Grande Western railway in many months But they have left behind them a gang of petty thieves of the class of Blue John Silver Tip and the Indian who will rob anything from a chicken roost to a sheepherders tent and for their work the Rooster gang has been given the credit The three mentioned above may or may not have belonged at one time to the outfit If they did not there was that bond of sympathy that always exists between birds of a feather Contrary to popular supposition the Robbers Roosters have had no caves or Impenetrable canyons where they or a few of their number could lay in wait and shoot down officers when the latter came to look for them The fact is the Roost is on a high knoll out on the open desert where a view I can be had for many miles to every point of the compass There Is not enough water In sight to quench the thirst of a coyote The place is an old abandoned sheep camp and is marked only by an eruption of the earth which has thrown out a number of large boulders Nearby hdwever there are great cliffs and rugged mountains in which any number of men could successfully suc-cessfully hide nnl defend themselves from an invading foe The Idea that the gang lived in a cave originated perhaps from the fact that up a big ravine and not far from the Roost Is a large cave that local historians and the oldest inhabitant say was in the days of the big cattlemen used for a corral This is not far from the main traveled road and has been used by I prospectors and cattle and sheepmen who have been in the country for certain cer-tain seasons many and many years Like all other caves in out of the way and inaccessible sections this one has the usual burled treasure fable and there has not been a season for years did not and that someone come along I explore it for the buried treasureboxes I of Captain Kidd et al Destroyed By Progress From conversations had with officers offi-cers and others it is plain to anyone who stops and considers that the gang was long ago broken up and with the exception of those accounted for in this article are scattered to the four winds The southeastern part of the state of Utah may serve as a temporary tem-porary hiding place of outlaws but no section of it will harbor them for any consderable length of time The prospector pros-pector has gone in there and the country coun-try is becoming too thickly populated It is the old story of the Missourian and the march of civilization The prospectors pros-pectors who are generally quite well acquainted with the outlaws do not fear anything at their hands but do look with considerable fear they say upon the posses who come in looking for desperadoes TRey imagine everyone every-one they run onto is a Rooster and in their excitement are apt to fire upon Innocent men some cowpuncher sheepherder or miner who is there attending at-tending strictly to his own business Your correspondent was this week informed in-formed byvan old miner that he had hesitated about going in there on this account It is a fact that > arty lear ing Price lately who had to pass through the country carried with them a whltellasiof truce saying they were not afraid of outlaws but wanted the flag in casejthey were run upon by a sheriffs posse J The country Isrich in mineral resources re-sources and already some good finds I have been made |
