Chapter XIII

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.