The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-03-15

How Summary Justice Was Melted Out to Scores
Of Horse Thieves by Red Handed Regulators.

A. T. Packard. in Pittsburg Dispatch
The United States has never contained
better organized nor more persistent gang
of horse thieves than the one which infested
the Bad Lands, of Dakota, between 1882
and 1884. 1t can hardly be said that the
gang had a headquarters, as its members
were constantly on the move but the town
where they appeared the oftenest, perhaps.
was the collection of shanties known as.
Little Missouri. This little hamlet has
achieved national reputation. and was
for years known as the toughest town in
America. 1t is in the heart of the famous
Bad Lands; the disembarking point for
tourists who wish to visit Cedar canon and
the burning coal mile. and is the scene of
the encounter in which Marquis de MOres
killed Luffsey, the hunter.
It's pamiest days were in 1884 At that
time the troops stationed there had just
been removed; Commodore Gorringe had
bought their quarters known as the Can
torment; cattle by the tens of thousands
were being brought into the Bad Lands;
cowboys were taking the place of Indians;
Marquis de Mores was beginning to estab-
lish immense slaughter houses and scores
of frontier characters were attracted to the
new town. Numerous among these char
the region soon became infested. 1t was
perfect paradise for this gentry. The
buttes or hills, of which the Bad Lands is
made up, are In no more order than II shot
out of a gun. One might as well try to fol-
low the trail of bullet. through the air as
the one left by man who took the slight
est pains in covering his tracks. Twelve
miles from Little Missouri ran the Montana
line. Once across it, the horse thief was
safe from service by Dakota sheriff.
dictiOn was in Mandan, 16O miles to the
eastward. To the southeast, one could go
300 miles and never see the sign of human
habitation: To the south, 200 miles away,
were the Black Hills. In all the interven-
ing country there was but an occasional
cow-camp. To the nOrthward, It's miles,
was the Canadian line. Once across it,
there was no difficulty in disposing of horse
one e srasped BY the rastl sG and sFa
dead cinch" that man from the south
with string of horses had either run them
OF from Wyoming or the Blacks Hills coun-
try. Horse-thieves were practically safe
from pursuit when they reached the Bad
Lands.
have still very vivid impression of
how my tenderfoOt days were ushered in by
an introduction to one of this gentry. l
had gone to Little Missouri from Bismarck
with Frank Moore, the proprietor of the
leading Bad Lands hotel. 1t was a cold
night late in the fall, and score of rough
looking fellows had gathered in the bar
room. 1t had been my frequently ex-
pressed desire to meet d genuine cowboy
and Frank apparently satisfied it when he
introduced me to Jack Wall. Itturned out
afterward that this was not the mans
name nor had Frank ever seen him before
To put matters on a smooth running basis,
Frank whispered to me that Jack was the
best cowboy in the country, but an exceed
ingly tough man and then confidentially in
formed Jack that / was deputy sheriff
from Montana. / can see now how funny
the subsequent proceedings were to Frank.
He knew by instinct that the man was a
horse thief and he thoroughly enjoyed my
efforts to size up the supposed cowboy and
the supposed cowboys effort to size up the
mission of the deputy sheriff.
After half an hour of this cross-purpOse
conversation, the brilliant thought of trans
ferring to paper my first impressions of
cowboy came over me. Taking out writ
ing-pad, Immediately began putting the
idea into execution. beginning with de-
scriptiOn or the costume, and using Jack as
a model. Never before had / stood so near
the brink of eternity. Jack was satisfied l
was writing his description, as l really was,
and he gradually worked himself into a
white heat at my presumption in doing it
before his very eyes. A calamity was only
averted by the fact that a shooting scrape
broke ont in the neighbOring saloon, and
that Jack and did not meet again before /
went to bed. The next morning Jack had
disappeared. The following spring he was
hung to a cottonwood tree, about fifty miles
northwest of MedOra, by the Montana
Strangers"
GOOD citizens, even now. shudder at men,
ton of this terrible band of avengers.
Their reign was short, sharp and decisive"
They had a mission to perform, and we'll
did they perform it, In less than three
months they had hung or shot sixty-three
men in various parts of Montana and west
ern Dakota. Only sixty-twO of these men
were horse thieves, the other being the son
of the Fort BufOrd post trader. He was
with three horse thieves when he was shot,
however.
Hardly Montana or western Dakota
newspaper has to this day the courage to
speak of this red-handed band of regu-
latOrs. Its formation was so secret, its OPP
creations SO swift, bloody and effectual, and
its disbandment so sudden, that not fifteen
men outside of the members know who its
members were. All the public knows, or
cares to know, is that horses and cattle
running on the range were afterward as
safe fifty miles from the home ranch as if
they were under the eye of the owner. The
organization of the horse thieves was COM
pletely broken up. From that bloody raid
OF the strangers was born an almost per-
feet 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 we'll
Stttlcu community. LII Is 0OU nara TASK
to justify the acts of the strangers" to
man who has lived on the frontier for any
length of time. Aside from shooting scrapes
and the occasional maltreatnent of a
stranger, there was but little real law
breaking in Little Missouri, but it was
recognized by all that man had only a
''siX-shOOter right" to life and property.
Numerous warrants had been issued in
Mandan, one hundred 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 hob-nob a
day or two with the man for whom he held
the warrant, but the legal document was
always returned with the Endorsement
Not found" The thieves had perfect
organization, and would have taken sum-
mary vengeance on anyone rash enough to
oppose them.
Such state of lawlessness could not last
forever, and the end came about through
| two widely-different causes. The first was
REORGANIZATION of cattlemen, known as the
Montana StOck-grOwers' Association. and
the second was the order of President
Cleveland directing all the range cattle to
be driven from Indian Territory. Eleven
| members of the association bound them
| selves together in a secret order, whose
| sole object was to free the country from
horse-thieves. The method of carrying this
plan into execution was not fully settled
| until the issuance of the Presidents fam
| Gus order. 1t had been settled from the
| first that wholesale slaughter of the
| thieves was the only effectual way to get
rid of them, but the trouble was in finding