Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1916 — THE HORSE THIEF BUSINESS IS ABOUT DEAD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE HORSE THIEF BUSINESS IS ABOUT DEAD

white EAGLE ” OF WYOMING TELLS HOW THE LAW MAKES LIFE UNHAPPY FOR THE MEN WHO FOLLOW DISHONEST CALLING IN THE GREAT HORSE AND CATTLE STATES * * *

JCATTERED over the ranges of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas are more than six million horses. These are rounded up once a year by their owners and those in shape are sold. The rest of the 7 herds are left to roam at will the wide ranges until the next round-up. Numbers of these range horses are often stolen. But not so frequently as one might at first imagine. The Horseman’s Protective association, a very strong organization, with members scattered • over all the range states, and money to back it, is ever active in attending to the. matter of thefts of range stock. Besides the standing reward of the association of five hundred dollars for the capture of thieves, the rancher whose stock is stolen always otters an additional reward. Sheriffs, stock inspectors, with frequently a posse of cattlemen, are the thief hunters. The sheriffs are always old-time cowboys, who know the country and can shoot, ride, and stand exposure with the "best of them, and it is seldom that a thief gets clean away with a bunch of stock. Horse thieves are still hated in the West, but are not so summarily dealt with now as in earlier days when the jails and courts of iaw were few. Then the thief generally made a swift exit from earth at a rope’s end. But law has long ago found its way into Cattleland; telephones and telegraphs carry swift messages and automobiles make swift trips and the thieves generally land in state’s prison. However, there is one man who for —the- last six years has not only stolen almost when and where he pleased, but sold stock back to the owners, after the brands had been worked over, at which art he is a past master. This man, William McCracken, a Texan, has repeatedly eluded and defied sheriffs and posses sent out to capture him. He firs: came to Belle FVmrche, S. D„ in the Spring of 1904. Belle Fourctie, at that time, was the largest shipping point for beef cattle in the world. Shortly after his arrival McCracken got a Job punching cows for the 3-V outfit, then the largest in the West. He was a very quiet young man, of good appearance and education, a good cow hand, and well liked by his bosses and the riders of the outfit. _ . • . a A _ A 11. A

Working for the outfit at this time was Thomas Tait, a young man since elected sheriff of Campbell county. Wyoming. From the time of McCracken’s arrival and until his arrest by J. T. Farrell, then sheriff of Crook county, Wyoming, on information from Texas, Tait and McCracken were a good deal together as cowboys in the same outfit. Since being elected sheriff Tait has led in the chase after his once friend and comrade several times. On a recent trip to Sturgis, S. D„ with stock inspector Chuck Fitch, of Gillette, and the sheriffs of Miles City. Mont., and Sun Dance, Wyo., to inspect a bunch of horses in that district, the party arrested three men. The horses belonged to H. J. Chassell of Gillette and T. W. Matthews of Spearflsh, S. D. The men arrested as the thieves were members of McCracken’s gang, and now await trial at Sturgis. After his arrest in 1907 by SherifT Farrell, McCracken was taken back to Texas, where he was wanted for thefts of stock, bank robbery, bond Jumping, and other crimes. He was helped out of these troubles by his father and, soon after, returned to Belle Fourche, accompanied by his wife, a very intelligent woman, and their little boy, and for a while, conducted a road house at Alzada, Mont., but later took up a claim on the head of Thompson creek and started in the stock business. ' Soon after McCracken located the ranch horses in the vicinity began to disappear by ones, twos, threes, and

in whole bunches, and he was suspected at once. He had gathered around him a bunch of old cowboys whose reputations were as unsavory as his own. They were Bobby Shorthandle, Babe Ellis. “Poker Jim” Roberts, and Garfield McCoy. Two deputy sheriffs, after skulking about among the hills and brush near the McCracken ranch, by the use of strong spy glasses, saw McCracken take a bunch of horses from a pasture and drive them to a corral that was hid in a waqhout. The officers followed and just as McCracken was about to run the brand on a horse which he had just roped from the bunch and thrown, they rode up and covered him with their guns. The outlaw hesitated a little when ordered to put his hands up, as if he was measuring chances,* but as both guns were leveled at him, he obeyed. The officers then disarmed him, and as he seemed to be perfectly willing to go with them, they did not handcuff him or restrain him in any way. As it was almost night the officers decided to go to the McCracken ranch and remain until morning. On their arrival Mrs. McCracken, who kept perfectly cool and seemed not at all worried over her husband’s arrest, cooked a bountiful supper and all sat down in apparent friendship to 'Mrtl. ■ - 4 . ' ■, .

The officers’ skulking about in the hills so long on short rations had left them half famished, they ate prodigiously, after which they moved their chairs back from the table and lit their pipes. That was the last they remembered until morning, when they awoke, rubbed their eyes and looked about stupidly. Their prisoner was gone. They looked at Mrs. McCracken inquiringly and that lady laughingly told them that she had placed some sleep medicine in their coffee so that her husband might make his escape without having to resort to shooting. The officers had to acknowledge themselves beaten and went away empty handed. Soon after this word was received that McCracken was Btill around in the Thompson creek country, and staying with his family most of the time. Then Sheriffs John Thorn, of Crook county, Wyoming, and Hy Hance, of Butte county, South Dakota, rode out to investigate. They kept watch on the place for several days by means of spy glasses when they saw, one morning, McCracken come out, walk around, and then re-enter the house. They then rode up to the place and the little boy came out to speak with them. “Say, sonny,” said Thorn. "Go tell your dad to come out here and give himself up. We know he is in there and have come to take him, dead or alive." Thorn then rode to the top of a hill Just in front of the house, while Hance rode to the rear ahd took up his position between the house and barn. The officers had hardly reached their positions after sending the little boy in with their message when the door opened directly in front of Thorn. Mrs. McCracken stood in the doorway, while behind her was her husband, with a Winchester rifle laid across her shoulder.

“Beat It,” the outlaw yelled to Thorn. Thorn hesitated, whereat the outlaw fired, the bullet knocking the dust beneath the feet of Thorn’s horse. But still the sheriff hesitated. McCracken fired again and the bullet went through Thorn’s coat, beneath his arm, and he hesitated no longer, but fled. Hance, realizing, as had Thorn, that he could not shoot McCracken without the risk of hitting Mrs. McCracken, turned and was spurring his horse for the breaks as fast as he could go when McCracken ran around the house and emptied his rifle at him. After the shooting the outlaw went to the barn, got his saddle horse and started away. Thom and Hance got together and followed him for several miles, but the outlaw was well mounted and they could not, or did not wish to get near enough to have a shooting match with him. Next day a posse was formed, and with a blood hound, “Dude, ’ famous in that region, took up the outlaw’s trail again. The hound followed the trail for forty miles through that most desolate spot of land In all the Northwest, the Badlands of southeastern Montana, finally bringing the outlaw to bay In a lonely patch of pines. The sheriff then callqd upon him to surrender. The answer was a shot, followed by another and another, the bullets whizzing so close that the whole posse were held at bay until darkness, when McCracken made good his escape.

Mrs. McCracken and her little son still continue to reside at the Thompson Creek ranch and there are stories that the husband and father is a frequent visitor there, going and coming about as he. pleases. It is also stated that there is a tunnel leading from the house to the creek, and that a swift horse, fully equipped, is kept tied in the creek bed out of sight and when any suspicious person is seen approaching the outlaw- reaches his horse through the tunnel, mounts, and is soon far away into the Badlands. Horses are still being stolen in the country around the McCracken ranch, and officers have tried time and again to capture McCracken, who they feel sure is leader of the gang, but have so far failed. This gang-operates over a large portion of Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. McCracken and those of his gang still at liberty know every foot of the desolate country that surrounds their headquarters at the Thompson creek ranch and have, besides, scores of friends, who, while they would * not steal anything themselves, are true Westerners, in that they will not refuse food and shelter to a friend, although he be a thief. It is the opinion of Sheriff Tait, who is as loyal in his official duties as he was in friendship when punching cows on the open range, that the gang is safe from capture for a long time. The country is sparsely settled and will so remain a great while, as few people would desire or attempt to make a home in that region, except those of the outlaw’s own kind, and to anyone who craves fame or adventure the McCracken ranch on the head of Thompson creek awaits investigation. .

EX-SHERIFF BUTLER