GOVERNOR BARBER PERMITS JOHNSON COUNTY OFFICERS TO SERVE WARRANTS ON
THE INVADERS--PECULIAR CONDITIONS PRECEDENT--CHANGE OF VENUE IS
GRANTED BY JUDGE BLAKE
J. W. Blake, judge of the Second Judicial district, which comprises
Johnson and Albany counties, sent a letter to Acting Governor Barber
on the 19th of June, requesting that he deliver to the authorities
of Johnson county the stockmen then confined at Fort Russell. The
judge informs the governor that he has received a certified copy of
informations filed against 44 persons, charging them with murder. I
have also received a certified copy of warrants issued by the clerk of
the court for the arrest of the parties charged in the information.
The men against whom the informations are found are confined at Fort
Russell under absolute control of the War Department. The courts,
before they can exercise their functions, must have control of the
persons whom they accuse of offense of the law.
In view of these conditions I make the following requests:
First--That you turn over to the sheriff of Johnson county or his
deputy, the parties named in his warrants, and give them into his
custody at Fort Russell.
Second--That before you do this you inform me of the time you will be
ready to make the transfer in order that I may give the officer full
directions as to the place they shall be held, pending the future
proceedings of the court. Pending the time of the trial, I believe it
my duty to exercise the utmost diligence and care--first, in placing
the prisoners within the custody of the proper officers of the court;
second, that they be kept with absolute safety; third, that these
things be done in such a way that will entail the smallest possible
expense upon Johnson county.
I do not consider it necessary at this time to have these men taken to
Johnson county. I have in view two methods of holding them in custody,
both of which will require the assent of the parties accused.
One is that they be confined at Fort Russell as long as the War
Department will detain them there; the other that they be confined
in the north wing of the penitentiary at Laramie, a portion of the
building now unoccupied for any purpose, and where they will not under
any circumstances come in contact with any of the convicts confined in
another part of the building.
Should you surrender these men to the judicial department upon this
request, my positive order will be given to the officer to whom they
are surrendered upon these points in the way I have indicated as to
their confinement, and I am satisfied beyond any question that these
orders will be obeyed, for the reason I believe that I have a right
to make them, and I have never known an officer of Johnson county to
disregard any direction I had given him. I must urge upon you, that I
insist as soon as the matter can be arranged, wherever these prisoners
are detained, they must be kept under the custody of an officer of the
court for Johnson county.
Up to this time the acting governor had refused to permit the Johnson
county officers to serve the warrants on the confined cattlemen,
notwithstanding almost daily applications had been made for that
privilege. After the receipt of the above communication the matter was
given careful executive consideration, and on the morning of July 5th,
1892, Governor Barber escorted the prisoners to Laramie City, where
Judge Blake was sitting “in chambers.” Adjutant General Frank Stitzer,
accompanied by almost the entire military staff of the governor,
marched the cattlemen to Hesse’s hall, a large room previously engaged
as headquarters for them. Here they were formally turned over to Deputy
Sheriff Roles, of Johnson county, who took charge of them. They were
made comfortable in their new quarters and seemed to have little care
about the future turns their case might take.
An application for a change of venue from Johnson county was made,
heard and granted, but two weeks’ time was consumed in the selection
of a place, Cheyenne finally being chosen. The attorneys for the
prosecution objected very strongly to having the trial carried to
Cheyenne on the grounds that that city was the head center of the old
dominating cattle influence, and the feeling of sympathy worked up in
favor of the accused, many of whom had been prominent in political,
business and social circles, would prevent an unbiased hearing of the
case. This idea was fought by the lawyers for the defense, and many
witnesses were called on either side. When Cheyenne was decided upon
the opinion in many parts of the state was freely expressed that the
cattlemen had won, and that the trial would be a howling farce. It was
honestly believed by many people that the tentacles of the old gang
were so securely fastened in the people of that city that they could
control the findings of juries as they had in the past shaped the
legislation of the state. From that time forward interest in the case
lessened among the masses and they began to agitate the question of how
to counteract this un-American system of intrigue and conspiracy that
was so rapidly undermining our republican form of government.
The prisoners were returned to Cheyenne, put in charge of Sheriff A. D.
Kelly, and ostensibly quartered in Keefe’s hall, instead of the jail.
The first night after their arrival the cattlemen proper of the gang
were given a champagne banquet at the club house by their white cap
friends, and it was a night of high revelry. During the entire term
of their waiting for the sitting of the court the cattlemen slept at
their homes or the hotels, and the entire party took their meals where
they chose, and had the run of the town day and night. A full list of
guards was employed at the expense of Johnson county, and the prisoners
were supposed to be kept in their quarters continually, save when they
were escorted to their meals. The truth of the situation is well and
fittingly illustrated by the following incident:
A newspaper man wanted to interview some of the confined men one
evening about 8 o’clock. He found three guards on duty at the front
door, and asked to be shown in to see the prisoners. He was escorted
inside but found no one present. Being somewhat surprised, he asked
how this happened. The reply was, “The guards are on duty, sur, and if
yez wants to foind the prisners, yez must go where they are; oi’ll not
foind ’em for yez.”
Another incident may be mentioned as giving a sort of object lesson.
One morning soon after the return of the regulators to Cheyenne, the
writer hereof was going down the street to his office, when he observed
one of the imprisoned men come to the door in his night shirt, reach
out through a partial opening and get the morning paper lying on the
door sill. A block farther down he saw another invader taking his
morning walk. Two blocks farther a city policeman was met, driving in
front of him four tramps, each with a chain fastened to his leg and a
50-pound weight on his shoulder, being marched to work on the streets.
The contrast was striking--the cattlemen, crimsoned with the blood
of their fellow men, given the freedom of the town, and indulging in
riotous living--the tramps, with no crime charged against them but that
of asking for bread, placed in the chain-gang and driven like beasts to
break stones on the highway. Comments would only weaken the case--the
reader must draw his own conclusions.