Arizona silver belt., 1888-05-26
THE TONTO BURGLARY.
Tom GraEam's Theory of the RObbery4 and Capt. ". C. Watkins Statement in Reply.

"The reporter interviewed Tom Grs . ham relative to the robbery of th = store of Capt. Watkins at Tonto Basin ] recently, the account ot which state - that the robbers were traced to Grs
 ham s ranch; that the horses and sad dles abandoned by the burglars wer the property of Graham, and that tn 1, guilty pei sons were known to be Wad ] dell and Dickerson-the former beinc known as GrahamS foreman. MT
 Graham stated to the scribe that. whil,
 not thoroughly acquainted with th, facts, he believes this to be a put UT } job" calculated to have its effect at tn, next term Of the district court fol
 Yavapai county, which conyenes next
 month. He has but one man in his
 employ-John Watley. The latter
 wrote to Graham, under date of April
 25th, stating that two horses and sad
 dles had been stolen from him, and to
 look out for the criminals in Phoenix.
 It is only about twenty-five miles from
 Watkins store to Graham s ranch, and
 it is not reasonable, so Graham states,
 that Watley, if participant in the
 robbery, would abandon his horses be-
 fore returning home, even If it were
 necessary to throw away the plunder.
 Another significant fact in connection
 with hls theory of ths-, matter is that
 the articles taken consist of provisions
 and horse shoes. MF. Graham has
 kept his ranch well supplied in thls
 line, and in the six weeks previous to
 the robbery sent out two different lots
 of provisions. In response to a letter
 from Jim Watkins he mentioned these
 facts, and also stated that he did not
 uphold crime, and if Watley was
 guilty he would be glad to see him
 arrested and punished. Graham's
 view, however, Is that enemies stole the horses and saddles, and afterwards
 robbed the store. Then riding in the direction of the Graham ranch, the animals and stolen goods were pur- posel y abandoned, in order to excite a prejudice agalnst Tom Graham in his approaching trlal."
 Mir. Graham, in the foregoing ex- planation, attempts to vindicate his employe, John Watley (not Waddell as our correspondent had it), and who is directly charged with participating in the burglary of Watkins store and the Tonto post office. It is but natu- ral that Mr. Graham should wish to remove the suspicion left Tn the minds of persons who read the brief report oi the burglary as published in the BELT of May 12th, that his ranch is the ren- dezvous of thieves. Capt. W. c. Wat | kins, who arrived in Globe from his ranch on Saturday last, after reading what MT. Graham had to say for hlm- self, gave us the following unyar- nished facts in the case, and requested | their publication in our columns. Without further comment we leave it to the public to judge between his statement and that of Mr. Graham:
 "The burglary of the post office and | of my store was discovered early in the morning. Excepting some canned i fruit. no provisions were taken Gas MT. Graham alleges), but the articles i stolen consisted of stamped envelopes, mems clothing and boots and ladies underwear. The tools winch had aid ed the burglars in effectitg an en- trance were found at the St8re. Very i soon after the discovery of the rob- bery, about 2 o'clock, my son Abe and | I took the trail of the robbers (which showed the tracks of three horses) | leading east across the open range and over the Delshay mountains, to the summit of which the distance from the | ranch is all of seven miles, and the store and ranch can be seen from al- most any point on the trail within that distance; so that the robbers, looking down from the mountaln, evi- dently became aware that they were being pursued. We were subsequent ly joined by Mexican named Juan.
 The pack-horse, Ia bay) carrying the plunder, gave out going up the hioun- tain (where we overlook it on the grade) and the pack was transferred | to one of the saddle horses and one of the fugitiveS walked up the mountain. Upon reaching the first depression or hollow after crossing the mountain, the robbers cached the goods, where they were found several days after ward by my sen and others. A short distance farther on, Tn a tEicket to the left of the road, the iaded horses ,roans) of the robbers were found tied to the manzanita. The brush there is very thick, making a covering impen- strable to the eye, and from the heated Sohdition of the horses (stlll Saddled) [ it was evident that the men we were pursuing had only just reached the spot When our party arrived, and they were, without doubt, hidden in the brush nearby. Although I called to them to come out and fight like men and branded them towards and used spithets that men of any courage would resent, they refused to accept the Not wishing 10 invite as-