The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1879-07-13

larceny, perjury unu "'S"'"' ' -'N ~
commit murder
Earl Sherwood attempted to commit a
rape IN Franklin county, and ned TO Har-
| din, where he soon got into trouble, and
was indicted for n murderous assault on
some person unknown to the writer hereof.
Geo. Ratliff began his criminal career in
Hardin county. Very little is known of
the antecedents of Morris, White and Lee
per. The last named is considered by
Jenkins and Hardin as the most desperate
villain in the clan, and they always trem-
BILE for their safety when his eyes is upon
them. II. j. is perhaps the 'mildest man
nered' OF all the Belts. He has yet to kill
his man. He tried once, however, to achieve
bloody notoriety, and was indicted for
the ofense. James and Arthur Belt are
scarcely grown but have been we'll
trained in "ways that are dark"
and assassinations that are never found out.
Jonathan Belt is more devotional than his
fellow-clansmen. He often prays and
breaches, without money and without
price" His auditors have discovered that
while he talks ''of peace on EARTH" Colts
army is concealed in his bosom, and they
are, therefore, uncommonly attentive and
respectful. He is Baptist, and none of
his neighbors have ever dared to deny in
his presence the doctrines Of close COM
munion and baptism by plunging. Indeed,
such firm believer is he in the necessity
of immersion that he would not hesitate to
tie rocks to hereto and plunge him into
the river where the current runs deepest.
During the war he was Captain under the
infamous Payne at Paducah, but becoming
dissatistied-some say cashiered-he
tried to get the position of Major
In the Forty-eighth Kentucky in
fantry. Failing in this, he retired
to the crags of his native Hardin, and rare
ly leaves them except on important bust
ness that concerns the lives of his fellow
citizens. When the war commenced he
lived in Kentucky, where he got his first
taste of human blood by killing a Confed-
crate soldier. Several years since Huston
Belt was shot and killed in Elizabethtown
by Capt, Frank Gibson, but Jonathan got
even by sending load ofbuckshot through
Gibson while the latter was unsus-
pectingly riding along public
road.
There were two witnesses to this murder
one OF them died, and the other, fright
ened by the Belts, fed the country. A
farcical trial ended in the acquital of the
assassin. During the war, Joe Belt, under
arrest at Cave in-Rock accused of murder,
was forcibly released by Jonathan and
Logan Belt, assisted by persons unknown in
that locality.
THE DARK PLOT UNRAvELED.
! Logan Belt Is the central figure Of the
group of Hardin county desperadoes-the
msster-spirit of all the deviltry that has
lately been perpetrated by them. Every
movement Of the Belt faction has been
made in his interest to save his BODY from
The penitentiary or his neck from the legal
halter. He is, in some respects, remarka-
| bic man. He possesses uncommon nerve and
| force of character, a pleasing address, I'M
| limited self-possession and great native
shrewdness-qualities which fit him well
| for leading the lawless characters whom
he has gathered about him. He was an
officer in the Fcrty-eighth Federal (Ky)
infantry and soon won tirst-class reputa-
ton as horse-thief. He pressed" more
for himself than for the government. A
soldier OF the regiment who knew good
deal about Belts crookedness was found
dead and scalped early one morning. The
Indian who played this trick on the
unsuspccting soldier has never been
captured. The criminal charges that have
been preferred against him in Hardin and
ol,n,n,pfr onnpt;nn +oA 30
mention IN this article. Several years since
q man named Doris whipped Belt in fist
fight at Elizabethtown. Doris, short
time afterward, was assassinated at his own
house in Galatln county. Belt was in
dicted, proved an alibi, and escaped His
next man-killing exploit was bolder
A dancing party were gathered at the
house Of Tom Oldham, in Hardin county.
Belt walked into the crowd, coolly shot
and killed Dock Oldham, brother Of the
host and then dared any of his friends to
take it up" The indictment for this
murder is the danger that Belt breads
Hambrink, the father-in-law OF one of the
Oldhams, and the only moneyed man en-
gagged in the prosecution Of Belt is believed
by the best citizens who are conversant
with the foregoing facts, to have been muir
dered by Logan Belt, or at his nstigation
The pretended purpose of the clan to fer
ret out the Hambrink affair, therefore,
very thin talsehood, and was evidently in
tended as q diversion in favor of the muir
derers.
Logan Belt and man named Covert
were once confidential friends. Belt made
damaging admissions to Covert. A rupture
after this occurred between the two, and
Coyer's life came near paying the penalty.
He was waylaid by Ben Farley and Logan
Belt. Though badly riddled by buckshot;
he lives to hide between courts, and now
fails to turn up when the case of the people
against Belt is called. 1t must not be
presumed that Belt is ungrateful to his
friends. In 1873 Alex Fraley, brother to
Bill, murdered Arthur Price, but was
easily cleared by Belts testimony.
This dark picture has q bright side.
Although Logan Belt is running at large
on straw bail, the probability Is that he