Show I o U fLA WRY IN VERNAL I Arrest of the JlcKees May Have a Salutary Effect i VERY STRONG EVIDENCE OP THEIR GUT IS SAID TO BE I FORTHCOMING And If So They Shall Not Escape as I the People Are Weary of Their Depredations The Whole Region Is Infested With Criminals of the Worst Type I A state of affairs exists in the Vernal i Ver-nal country in the northeastern part of I Utah little dreamed of by the outside world The law abiding people who have resided in that section of country have been afraid to speak for fear that the outlaws would wreak their vengeance ven-geance on them reports of the condition condi-tion of affairs have been for years suppressed sup-pressed but at last the truth is being learned There has been such a reign of terror in that country as would have reddened the cheek of a Jesse James and have made a Quantrell blush With the advent cC the opening up of that country the citizens are more willing I to sneak Mr James H Mease the post trader at Fort Duchesne with his family fam-ily Is stopping at the Walker House together with a party of gentlemen from the Vernal country Mr Mease was seen last night by a Herald representative rep-resentative and Interviewed in regard to affairs in the Vernal country and I on the reservation He was very reti cent saying that his positlon made i improper for him to speak of matters concerning the reservation When questioned as to the McKee brothers who are now in jail at Vernal charged with having tied the Erickson boys to a tree and whipping them and killing a whole herd of sheep In charge of the Erlcksons he said WILL KEEP THEM SAFELY Yes I know the four McKee brothers broth-ers Their mother now resides in Salt Lake City I know nothing of them having shot the herd of bucks except what I have read and heard I will say that I place no reliance whatever in the story told by Jeff Wilcox that Butch Cassidy and his gang of outlaws will attempt to rescue the McKee brothers Sheriff Preece of Vernal is now in Salt Lake City and today he showed mea I me-a telegram from his chief deputy stating stat-ing that the McKee brothers are all in I jail and that he will see that no one I takes them out The sheriff is a man who has dealt with a great many tough I characters and is not afraid to do his duty He assured me that he would keep the McKee boys in jail irrespective irrespec-tive of results The jail is a strong one I and is supplied with steel cages and I am confident that there will be no jail I delivery in this case I is the custom of all the sheepmen to cut out all of the bucks from the herds and put them all in one herd by themselves which was recently done and the herd was placed in charge of the Erickson boys By killing all the bucks the McKee boysI they are the ones who did I hit a hard lick at all the sheepmen I in that section MKEES VERY BAD MEN From another gentleman in the party who for obvious reasons did not want his name mentioned The Herald representative got the following statement state-ment The McKee boys have been suspected sus-pected of doing or being connected with all the outlawry in that section for the past three or four years Heretofore the authorities have been unable get authorites evidence sufficient to convict them but J now they have positiveproof that they tied the Erickson boys to a tree and whipped them half to death and then shot the whole herd of sheep consisting consist-ing wholly of bucks that belonged to all sheepmen wholy of the valley which the Erickson boys were herding Only a i short time ago the camp of Mr S R I Benyon was raided at a time when all destroyed the men were absent and property I stroyed and stolen Soon afterwards Mr Benyon identified some of his property I prop-erty in the possession of one of the r McKees The father of the McKee boys was an honest law abiding man and I II I was in the sheep business in that country coun-try for years he died about seven or eight years ago and since then the boys have been the terror of the whole valley and have been suspected of beIng be-ing the leaders in all depredations that have been committed in that part of the country They have a small herd of count to exceed 125 and they have no I seem to think that sheepmen right to tink the Vernal valley They I live at old Ashley about three miles from Vernal and if my judgment is j not at fault they will live somewhere I i else before many months where they I will not have to pay board John Reader who led the posse which captured I cap-tured the McKees is a sheepman who I i has lived at Vernal for many years I and he is an honest and a conservative I man You can depend upon it that if he went with a posse after the Mc Kees he had positive testimony that they were the guilty parties In fact one of the Erickson boys f ositively t identified the McKees a the men who tied and whipped him The Erickson I boys were in no way to blame and are honest law abiding men They were I where they now have raised at Murray I a brother and mother The herd of bucks which they were herding was I killed on Taylor mountain about 25 or 30 miles from Vernal in what is known I as McKees draw A DANGEROUS COUNTRY Another gentleman of the party remarked re-marked The tough men of the Vernal Ver-nal country handle their guns with a recklessness that would astonish a Wild Bill Why I should no more think of riding from Fort Duchesne to either the north part 0 the south part I of the reservation without having a soldier along with me armed with n Winchester than I would think of I jumping Imo a river I thE McKees I are convicted and I have no doubt but I that they will be that country will be rid of some of its worst mea and a different era will be inaugurated I other outlaws is true that there arc outaws but they will not be so bold then You would be surprised to see how rapidly that country would settle up If the outlaws were only driven out I takes a gritty man to stay there now I tell you grity sheepmen have been subjected sub-jected to outrages for so long that they are themselves getting desperate I and I predict that the day is not far distant when the Vernal country will be rid of all its bad characters By the way I might add that Mr E M Smith of the Associated Press Is doing a good work for that section of the country by sending out reports as to the true condition of affairs Last season there were quite a number of sheepmen who were notified that if they had any sheep there this season they would be killed In most instances the men disposed dis-posed of their sheep I has been just as unsafe to own cattle over there for wholesale cattle stealing has been going on by the |