The Opelousas courier., 1884-03-01
MURDERS.
The Terrible Record Given of brigham
Young's "Avengins Angels"

The Terrible Record Given of Brigham
YOung's "AvenginE Angels"
The death of Bill Hickman, n OF
the "avenging angels" or Danltes'
whom the church authorities, having
used for deeds Of blood and atroclty
for many years, found it convenient to
slight and ignore, was a nnounced re-
Gently in Denver, Col, and a reporter
visited George G. Bates, ex-United
States district attorney, OF titan, TO
whom Hickman made a confession of
his evil deeds a few year ago, and ask
ed him for some particulars in regard
to the avenging angels life.
$50 old Bill Hickman is dead, at
last" said the reporter.
eyes," Mr.. Bates replied, "and no
man in this country ever left a darker
biography for cold-bl6oded murders
| than this same Bill Hickman. During
the last years of his life having turned
states evidence against Brigham
Young, he was as great a terror to the
Mormon church and the Mormon peo-
pie as he had hitherto been to the Cen
tiles"
"He made a confession to you, I un-
derstand, about the time of the trial Of
Brigham Young and his confederates
for the murder of one Sprague."
"He made a confession te me, and it
was so terrible in its nature that |
shuddered as the words came from his
lips. He not only confessed to the
murder of sprague, but gave me some
particulars of nineteen other murders
in which he had been engaged. In re-
gard to the murder of sprague he gave
me minute particulars. Sprague, he
said, was engaged as a spy in carrying
information to the United States troops,
who were then en-route to Utah. For
this reason Brigham Young determin-
ed to have him captured and put to
death, and Hickman was detailed with
a mounted party of Aormons, and
finally captured him and started with
him to Salt Lake. While on the way
Joe Young came with orders from his
father not to bring him in, but to kill
him in the mountains, where his body
never could be found and where there
could be no witnesses. Accordingly,
when night came, and sprague was
asleep, Hickman and bis two confeder-
ates took N axe, and moving quietly
to his side crushed in his skull, and
then took from his person a belt con-
tanning about nine hundred dollars in
gold. Removing the fire, they buried
his body under the ashes in the earth,
and then replaced the fire over the
grave so that the place of his burial
could never be as~certained. Immedi-
ately after they went to Salt Lake.
Brigham called upon them to turn
over to him, as president, the gold, and
then and there began the first feud be-
tween Hickman and president Young.
The latter insisted AMI demanded that
all this money should be turned over
to the church, while Hickman claimed
that he had made large e%xpenditured
in the expedition and had furnishes
his own horses, so that he ought to be
permitted to keep at least a part of it.
Young, Of course, conquered, and took
every dollar of the gold, but the iron
entered into Hickman's soul, and now
it was that he anticipated his revenge
by swearing Young on the gallows for
his meanness in not dividing the plum
der taken from the corpse of the muir
dered man."
did Hickman ever repent of his
"Fully, / think. The n aim of his
life, however, was to get even, S he
said, with Brigham Young