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Show DEADWOOD CHIMES. SOUTH DAKOTA CITY STIRRED BY RECENT EVENTS. TV. H. Ward, Now Under Arrest, Chared with Many Murders Kirk and Lee Shephard, Brothers, Aged 16 and 80, Alleged to Be HU Most Recent Victims. and that of the Shephard brother, ud he did not see why he should be taken to jail. Ward went tothe Black Hills about 14 years ago. Ke built a house at the mouth of Little Strawberry gulch, south of Deadwood, and but little has been known of his daily life. He was not friendly to visitors, who might chance to call on him at his house, but on the street or anywhere oft from his premises he was sociability itself. He was a strong Odd Fellow, and was known as a friend to the sick brothers. How he lived is a mystery. He never worked for any one, but owned some mining ground of his own. Frequently he sent out reports to his friends that he had made a sale of his ground, but the records did not show any transfers. He kept Harley Shephard docile by promising him $5,000, which he stated he had received from the sale of a mine. Ward now says that Lee Shephard Shep-hard stole the $5,000 and ran away with it and that instead of being dead he is in hiding with Ward's roll. The records do not disclose any transfer made by Ward in which $5,000, or even $5, was paid him for ground. Writes a Decoy Letter. Just before Lee and Kirk Shephard disappeared, Harley, the third brother, went to Sheridan, Wyo., to work. While there he received a letter apparently ap-parently written by his brother Lee, which stated that Ward had given Lee the $5,000 and that as soon as he, Harley, Har-ley, could come home he could have it. The letter was received five days after it had been sent from Deadwood. As soon as Harley received it he started for his home. When he arrived he found that his two brothers had been gone several days and Ward had also disappeared. The letter was not written writ-ten by Lee at all, but by-Ward, who had imitated Lee's handwriting. It is now supposed that Ward intended to get Harley back home and then ki'll him, too. The house occupied by Ward is a robbers' roost. Everything imaginable is to be found there. There is no proof that Ward was a thief, only that he has accumulated boxes and barrels of things that belonged to somebody else. There are a dozen trunks full of flour, sugar, dried meats, coffees and all sorts of eatables. He had been taking silverware sil-verware from restaurants at which he (Deadwood Letter.) The story of the Ward murders, that have been perpetrated near Pluma, a town three miles from Deadwood, is a ghastly tale. W. H. Ward, who is now closely watched in an iron cage in the Deadwood jail, is unquestionably a murderer at heart. How many deeds he will have to answer for will probably prob-ably never be known. Whether he is crazy and committed his crimes under a spell of insanity will be determined at his coming trial. Two Brothers Missing. ; Some eight weeks ago two brothers named Kirk and Lee Shephard, who resided with their mother near Pluma, suddenly disappeared. Kirk was 16, and Lee was 20 years old. There was a third brother named Harley, aged 18. Harley had been adopted by W. H. Ward, familiarly known as "Beachers." As Harley grew older he grew tired of Ward's place. This is supposed to have commenced the trouble between Ward and the other brothers. When Ward found out that Lee Shephard was advising ad-vising his youngest brother, Harley, to quit the old man and come back to his own home to live, it is supposed that Ward immediately began to lay plans for the extermination of both of the brothers. At any rate Lee and Kirk suddenly disappeared, and a few days later, when the searching parties got pretty close, Ward disappeared too. Things got very interesting when, a few days later, one of the searching parties unearthed the decomposed body of a man, which tallied in every way with that of Lee Shephard, one of the missing brothers. The body was found in an old water ditch, covered over with about two feet of dirt and some willow brush. The body was beyond recognition, a quantity of quick lime having been placed beneath and on top of the body to hasten the decomposition. decomposi-tion. The body was dressed in a suit of underclothes and the hair on the head was red, which corresponded -With that of Lee Shephard. Unearthing a Body. When the body was unearthed there was the greatest excitement in the old had eaten for years past. A large box was found filled with silver knives and forks, butter dishes, sugar" bowls and everything that had a value in the silver sil-ver line. He had enough miners' tools stored away to run a large mine. Some of them had private marks on, showing show-ing that they belonged to miners in i wit sai that vicinity. In the loft or his nouse were found a number of bridge timbers, tim-bers, which he had stolen from a railroad rail-road near by. His house contains a good stock of second-hand goods. Other Crimes Alleged. There are now a good many stories afloat about former sudden disappearances, disappear-ances, where men and women suddenly sudden-ly dropped out of sight. About a year ago a man named George Rutters arrived ar-rived in Deadwood from the East for the purpose of making an investment. It is now remembered that he met Ward and that he was last seen with him near his house. Rutgers had about $800 in money on his person. Three months ago a farmer found a body in THE WARD HOUSE, town of Deadwood and at Lead, and the entire population turned out to hunt for the man who was suspected of committing the crime. Hundreds Of people went over the little garden patch with iron bars, thrusting them down a foot or more, in hopes of striking strik-ing the soft burial place of the second brother, who was still missing. But Ward had made good his escape. The searching parties went through the man's house, peeked into every old well and tunnel for a mile around the place, plowed the potato garden and tore up the rotting floor They found every day some clue, not only to the EE othe murder of Lee Shephard whose body had been unearthed but to other murders that are believed to have been committed by him. All of the clothes worn by Lee Sbep-hard Sbep-hard were found in the house except-f except-f a wit f underclothes, which were on the dead body when found In an nld harrel wrapped in a dirty cloth, wf. also discovered the suit of clothes st worn by Kirk Shephard, the second sec-ond missing" brother. But where the body of Kirk had been laid by Ward ta still a mystery. Bones were found a days ago in a natural cave near hllSse, and a sack of fish and bones was dug up in the garden, but the cToner has thus far been unable to En for a certainty whether they ar Sman or animal. Some ol ithebw-found ithebw-found in the cave looked a decomposed conaiuon iweuo below Deadwood, in Whitewood creek. The arms and legs had been cut off. There was no clue to this ghastly find, but Ward now gets the credit for It Who the man was that was found remains re-mains a complete mystery. About nine months ago an unknown man entered the house of a miner named Herdman, in Garden City mining camp, at midnight, mid-night, and killed the defenseless wife with an ax. Her head was cut open. Nobody was found who could give any light on the affair. Some people think now that Ward did some of his cute work on that night at the Herdman house. Three years ago Ward had a miner working for him named Neuen-feldt. Neuen-feldt. Ward finally owed him several hundred dollars in back wages.. One day the miner was found lying under a pile of dirt in the tunnel where he had been at work, and Ward stated that he had been killed by a cave-in, but there are dark rumors that the fall of earth was anything but accidental. acci-dental. Ward a Simple Appearing Fellow. Ward is an innocent, inoffensive looking man. He does not carry the face of a criminal. He denies his guilt and claims that the Shephard boys will yet appear to clear his name. But the evidence is growing stronger every day against the man. A strong thing that will go against him is what he said to Harley Shephard, when one of the s-arching parties was on the premises. He said: "Harley, if these men find the bodies of your brothers on my ground you will be to blame for It. You ought not to haverun away." ,to have been buried where It was Sund by a butcher from Deadwood. Capture of Ward. Ward was captured near the Devils tower 80 miles northwest of Dead 3!r He had gone there to look after |