| Show KNEW BEN TASKER I 1 AND MURDERER N DON OP OGDEN AV BITES hib HIS experiences ave mo will use this in serial forch through the alecks over which chica it continued from last week there were men who keeping places of public accommodation as wayside inns or taverns would be prevailed upon lor for an extra consid in ready money to prepare in stables in closed stalls where night hight riders having with them from one to ten stolen horses could come at from two to four 0 clock in thi morning have their stolen mounts ferreted eted they themselves sleeping tn in attics or bach back bed rooms careful ly fed and after sleeping the daylight hours through would when night came again mount otheir stol en horses or mules and ride another stretch to a similar rest and so repeat the performance until two or three hundred miles had been put between them and the place where the animals had been stolen it took years to break up this ays tern tem so well were such men organic ed when at length such methods were overcome by law many of those who conducted this nefarious system of crime escaping the bigl dance lance committee or the penitently ary turned to other methods of ob ta tanning ining money in the same regions in which they had done a lucrative business in horse stealing or some of them went west where in new regions as colorado kansas call tornia fornia new now mexico oregon utah nevada or idaho they again under took the same life as formerly but under different forms according to the requirements of ae locality in which they took up their new field of operations the ways manners and methods of ben tasker would indicate that previous to his ap perance in utah and nevada his makeup make up had devel aped in just such a field as above described in the great mississippi ovalley tradition haa has it that when first appearing in utah tasker claimed to have been a lawyer who suffering from ill health had sought bought the great west and higher altitude to regain his former strength and man hood when first coming to salt lake city provo and other cities of utah he made himself familiar with local judges and lawyers visited the courts when in session listened to the trials of horse thieves highway mien men murderers cattle thieves and other disturbers of law and good or der he re did not hesitate to give opla ions tons in questions of law as such a case appeared to him about this time when ben tasker was thus studying local courts he also took up the study of mormon theology aven even going to tar far as to am young orson pratt george A smith and other church heads as he claimed he was very much in te rested in the mormon religion and was very much inclined to believe that he might become of that faith of course he received encourage ment in that field of investigation as he to be an earnest and intelligent seeker after truth for a time after his first appear ance in utah all seemed to go well with him in a social way lie ile passed favorably with all prominent bran ches of society he visited many ao 10 cali ties in utah and especially did he take pains to become acquainted with horse and cattle men also to find out about the ranges study the markets wherein locally or at a distance horses mules or beet beef cat tie tle were sold the truth of the mat ter was ben tasker was educating himself to carry on successfully the the very life he had fallen into in an intelligent way in other parts of the country ben den tasker dib did not open a law of flee neither did be he decide to im med mediately lately become a member of the latter day saints church he rath er or went into handling cattle horses and mules his first operation in this way was to buy a few head of choice cattle from someone of the tout outlying lying settlements ot of utah pay tor for them with the assistance of one or two men who would come with aim and would start with the cat tie so purchased usually fifteen or twenty head and by the time he reached reachie fd salt lake city to do bus bust ness there with the local butchers that fifteen or twenty head would have increased to thirty to fifty this accession acce aion sion in numbers most of ten took place at night his ills profit lay in the increase in numbers as much as in the difference in the markets buying at the low mar bets in the hamlets and selling in the city he pursued the same method in handling horses and mules in his first operations in the stock business in utah he usually pur chased a few head of horses or cat tie and invariably it was discovered that after such purchases by ben den tasker there came up missing of 1 re fen I n as much as four times the num her he had lawfully bought he was an expert in Invest investigate igat ing brands invented many and made changes in existing brands lien men whom he employed to do his work were not frequently seen a second time when salt lake city and end ogden had grown to be danger ous places for him he drove small er numbers into bingham ophir al at ta and mining camps and with the butchers ot of such places found tor for a time a fairly good mar ket but ae as trouble arose and he tie was compelled to change locations be tie wient farther south into utah and juab counties Count lea from which region he lifted cattle horses and mules taking them across the deserts into the mining camps of white pine eureka and lander counties in ne vada there disposing of his cattle to butchers and his mules to the freighters and ranchmen on one occasion be he sold to an ore hauling company at eureka neva da fifty head of mules for hauling tare bre from the old richmond Kich mond silver mines at ruby hill to the smelters at eureka on another occasion he disposed of forty head of work hors es in egan canyon to the flood gold mining co which at that time was superintended by william starke the hero of luka cor anth and stone river battles in the civil war from the richmond mining corn coin pany tasker obtained tor for fifty head of mules the sum of in gold coin in the deal made with gen oral at egan canyon for the flood gold mining company tasker received 6 for tor forty tine fine work horses so disposed of it was later learned that the mules sold by him to the richmond silver mining company were freighting an emals stolen from different points in montana and idaho their brands vented and his own placed upon them at eureka or ruby hill tasker passed as abel J edwards of virginia city montana but do ing business three maths months later with general on horses at egan canyon his name was samuel F tasker claiming to the general that during the civil war he was colonel of the illinois try and he said sald he had taken pa in the battles of corinth and luka iuka whether tasker had been a colonel ae or even a captain of such regiment pe successfully ingratiated himself with general and as the rightful owners of the horses did not then appear upon the scene to clain their property the incident was not brought into court and the same thing with the mules sold to the richmond mining company later however a man who assist ed tasker in getting together his horses upon being arrested tor for horse stealing in douglas county nevada and convicted and sent to the pent tent lent lary told that tanker tasker stole the horses sold to the flood mining co and that they had been stolen in eastern oregon the pick of a dozen ranches another man who served tasker in collecting the mules sold to the rich mond mining co later told a con federate of the transaction and in return tor for talking too much tasker was said to have killed this man near deep creek as he was never again seen been after be he and tasker were noted together at the old overland telegraph station there TO BE CONTINUED |
