Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1874 — Brought to Justice. [ARTICLE]

Brought to Justice.

Readers of the Globe may perhaps remember the account, which was published a little over a year ago, of the robbery of Mr. Walter Grayson, a prominent citizen of the Creek Nation. Mr. Grayson, or “ Uncle Wat,” as he was familiarly called, was possessed of a good deal of wealth, which he had'accumulated by a strict attention to business and the practice Of rigid economy. He was known throughout the whole Creek Nation, and held in high esteem by all who once formed his companionable acquaintance, so that the robbery, and the circumstances attending it, raised a storm of indignation which it took months to quiet. About the time alluded to a stranger called at the residence of Mr. Grayson and, by representing that he was endeavoring to purchase a number of ponies, managed to obtain permission to remain at his house during his stay in that neighborhood. The stranger seemed to the kind old man to be a first-rate sort of a fellow, and he had no hesitation in giving his friendship and telling him a number of his secrets. He little knew that he was entertaining a member of the squad of Gad’s Hill Cavalry, whose exploits were the talk of the whole country; but it only took him a few days to find out his mistake. One morning the stranger was joined by hfs comrades, and the old man was taken out, a halter placed around his neck, and he was suspended from a tree until life was nearly extinct, his captors telling him, as they proceeded with their work, that they wowd kill him unless he told them where he had his money concealed and allowed them to make off with it. But Mr. Grayson had the courage to meet death, if he must, sooner than comply with such a demand, and he stubbornly refused to disclose the hiding-place of his treasure. After keeping him pendent from the tree until his face became black and blue and he was almost dead, they cut him down and tried persuasion for a time, when, finding this method useless, they would again resort to the hanging torture. It made no difference to the old man, however, what they did: his stubborn will would not permit him to succumb, and the robbers were at length, much to their disgust, forced to leave him. But their devilish ingenuity hit upon another plan. Mr. Grayson had a wife whom he fondly loved, who had been his daily companion for years, and they knew that if her life was attempted the old man would "yield, and they would secure the money. The old lady was then taken from the house and the baiter tied around her neck in the presence of her prostrate and helpless husband, and the villains were in the act of hanging her to a tree when Mr. Grayson’s courage, will, everything failed him. and he told them to leave him his wife and they could have his money. The whole party then returned to the house, where Mr. Gravson turned over to them the sum of $32,000, $28,000 of which was in gold, with which handsome amount they immediately made off. The stranger who remained at Mr. Grayson’s house was named Wilder, and he was the leader of,the gang who aided him in the robbery. He has recently been arrested in Texas, and is now confined in the jail at Fort Smith, Ark., awaiting his trial in the United States Court for the crime. Soon after his arrest Mr. Grayson was sent for and identified him, beyond the shadow of a doubt, as the man who stopped at his house under the pretense of being engaged in buying ponies, and the one, also, who put the halter around his head when the gang hanged him Wilder, finding that there is no possibility of escaping conviction, has made a confession, and acknowledges the crime charged upon him, but he asserts that he was prompted to the deed by a noted Cherokee citizen, who took the greater part of the booty himself, and gave him (Wilder) only $450 for his services. He also says that one of the gang who aided him in the robbery was the noted Reed, who was killed in Texas not long since by Detective Morris, who had been on his trail for several months. Reed was once a citizen of Vernon County, Mo., and was one of the men connected with Wilson and sent to the ' Penitentiary from Henry County for robbing an old farmer, several years ago, near Lamonte, in Pettis County. The authorities are now at work hunting up*evidence against the Cherokee citizen alluded to, and, if Wilder’s story is truer he will be made to suffer the severest penalty that the law can inflict. There haji been a good deal of talk among the friends of Mr. Grayson of dealing in a rather suipmary manner with Wilder, but the jail authorities will prevent any interference with due course of law.—St. Louis Globe, Dec. *l. —Baltimore hoists the flag for the meanest man. He steals wreaths off the graves in the cemetery Ind sells them.