News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-03-21
MONTANA STRANGERS
sIxTY-TWo THIEVES STRUNG
UP IN sEoRT ORDER.
Desperate Men Terrorized by the
Swift Workings of Plan Devised
by the Cattlemen.

The United States has never contained
better organized nor mo1e persistent
gang of horse thieves than the ones
J which infested the Bad Lands of Dakota
between 1882 and 1884. 1t can hardly
be said that the gang had q headquart-
, ers. as its members were on the move.
! but the town where they appeared Of
tenest was the collection Of shanties
known as Little Missouri.
This little hamlet, says the Glo6e Dem
ocrat, has achieved national reputation,
and for years has been known as the
toughest town in America. Its palmiest
DAYS were in 1884. At that time the
troops stationed there had Just been re-
moved; Commodore Gocringe had
bought their quarters as. the
ei''nton me4t;; S.lttls hy..'-g NO Sllsss;:s-
ands were being bTOugnt Sntll TIE Bad
Lands; cowboys were taking the place
of the Indian; the Marquis de Mores
was beginning the establishment of
slaughter houses, and frontier charac
ters were attracted to the new town.
Numerous among these characters
were the horse thieves, with whom the
region soon became infested. 1t was
perfect paradise for these gentry. The
| buttes or hills, of which the Bad Lands
is made up, were placed in no more
order than if shot out of a gun. One
might as well try to follow the trail of a
bullet through the air as the one left by
Il man who took the slightest pains to
! cover his tracks. Twelve miles from
Little Missouri ran the Montana line.
Once across il, the horse thief was safe
from service by Dakota Sheriff. The
nearest officer of the law with jurisdic
ton was in Mandan, 100 miles to the
eastward To the southeast one could
go 300 miles and never see sign of
human habitation. TO the south, 200
miles away, were the Black Hills. In
the intervening country there was but
an occasional COW camp. To the north
ward, IT'S miles, was the Canadian line.
| Once across it there was no difficulty III
disposing of horsefesh at fancy prices.
| These points were at once grasped by
| the ''rustlers," and it was "dead
cinch" that man from the south witha
string of horses had either run them off
from Wyoming or the Black Hills coun-
try. Horse thieves were practically safe
from pursuit when they reached the
Bad Lands.
Good citizens even now shudder at
| mention of the terrible band of
avengers. Their reign was "short,
sharp and decisive" They had a mis-
sion to perform, and well did they per-
form it. In less than three months they
had hung or shot sixty-three men in
various parts of Montana and Western
| Dakota. Only sixty-two of these men
were horse thieves, the other being son
of the Fort Buford post trader. He
was with the horse thieves when he was
shot.
Hardly Montana or Western Dakota
newspaper has to this day the courage
to speak of this red-handed band of
regulators. Its formation was so secret,
| its operations so swift, bloody and
| effectual, and It's disbandment so sud
den, that not fifteen men outside of its
members knew who its me1nbers were.
All the public knows, or ciases to know
is that horses or catrie sannfng ON the
range were afterward as safe fifty miles
| from the home range rs if they were
| under the eye of the owner The or
| ganization of the horse thieves was COM
pletely broken up. From that bloody
raid of the "Stranglers' was born an
almOs5 perfect reign of safety for range
| stock
The formation of the band of men
known as the "Montana Strangers "
was as much an outgrowth of necessity
as is the passage and enforcement of
| proper laws in n well-settled community
1t is not hard task to justify the acts
of the "Stranglers " to man who has
lived on the frontier for any length of
time. Aside from shooting scrapes and
the occasional maltreatmento of stranger,
there was but little law breaking in Little
Missouri, but it was recognized by all
that man had only "six-shooter
right to life and property. Numerous
warrants had been issued in Mandan,
160 miles away, for the arrest of men in
Little Missouri, but not one of them
was ever served. The officer of the law
might come up to the tough hamlet in
the Bad Lands and hobnob day or two
with the man for whom he held the
warrant, but the legal document was
always returned with the endorsement
"Not found" 1t WAS simply impos-
sible to receive any support from the
law, and the "rustlers " took advantage
of the opportunity TO carry on their
operations with impunity. The cattle
men were widely separated, some of the
ranches being sixty or seventy miles
from their nearest neighbor. All were
sufferers from the depredations of the
horse thieves, but even the bravest
among them did not dare deal out even
border justice to the men they knew
were robbing them. The thieves had a
perfect organization, and would have
taken summary vengeance on any one
rash enough to oppose them.
Such a state of lawlessness could not
last forever, and the end came about
through two widely different causes
The first was the organization of cattle
men known as the Montana Stock
growers Association, and the second
was the order of President Cleveland
ordering all the range cattle to be driven
from the Indian Territory. Eleven
members of the association bound them
selves together in secret order whose
sole object it was to free the country
from cattle thieves. The method OF
carrying this plan into execution was
not fully solved until the issuance of the
Presidents famous order 1t had been
settled from the first that a wholesale
slaughter of the thieves was the only
effectual way to get rid of them, but the
trouble was i'll finding men to perform
the CORY task. The Presidents order
solved the problem. Almost every COW.
boy in the "Nation" was originally from
Texas. and belonged to the old school
recruited from desperadoes and border
ruffians of the lowest class. Crime and
bloodshed were their food and drink.
The Presidents order threw most OF
these men out of work by forcing the
immediate sale of the cattle they had
been herding. Here were exactly the
men the Montana cattle growers had
been looking for. They thought nc
more of 'stringlng up rustler" thar
they did of shooting prairie chicken
A secret messenger of the Montana mer
was dispatched to Indian Territory, anG
in less than week had made terms Will
rs ood-thirsty gang of upholders ot
property rights as was ever banded to
gether. Twenty-eight of the "Stran
glers" we're furnished with ten gooc
horses each, and started overland il
punches of four Or five. They were in
structed to avoid all towns and rancho.
and make all haste to the rendezvous
about thirty miles from here. 1t was
roundabout journey of nearly 1,00t
miles, but every man of them showed h,
possessed the proper requisite of hare
riding by appearing at the rendezvou
within twelve days.
Within two days it became know
that Halfbreed Jack had been hung nea
the head waters of the Yellowstone. Th,
following day it was learned that Turke,
Williams and Broncho Charlie wer
hanging in the cotton woods, about tel
piles above Miles City. The next da,