The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-02-06
It IS A MYSTERY.
More Particulars Of the Gambling
Tent Murder at mcCarthysville,
Missoula County.
It Looks Like tho Winner Was
Killed for His
Money.
HE slayers Wound Themselves slightly to
Olive Color to the Story OF
AHold-Up.

Coroner w. j. Myers. OF MlSsOula county
arrived in Helena last night from Grea
Falls. Coroner Myers started from Mis-.
soula to 90 to McCarthysville, the scene OF
the recent reported hold up and double
murder, for the purpose of investigating
that affair. The coroner was informed
before leaving Missoula, that he could &c
within eight miles of Nc C~arthysville by con
struction trains on the Great North I'm rail
way. Arriving at Great Falls, however. he
learned that the shortest possible route te
McCarthysville was eighty miles, n that
the route would have to be travelled on
foot, with the chance Of an occasiona
lift on q passing wagon. Coroner Myers il
lame and uses two crutches, still, as he says,
'if it had only been eight miles, l. would
have walked the distance" Az it is he will
go back to Missoula this morning and
start Sheriff Houston to the scene. @
The McCarthysville murder occurred
about Jan. Is. Up to this time the Mis-
soula authorities are in possession Of only
the most meagre details. The information
brought by Coroner Myers is the most com
plete yet received. It comes from q man
who was on tho scene an hour after the
shooting and from the deputy sheriff of
Choteau county and others. While 1T re-
duoes the number of men killed from two
to one, and eliminates the masked high
wayman story, it adds to the mystery which
has hitherto surrounded the affair. When
the first news of the shooting was received
it said that i've men gambling in a tent
were attacked by two masked men; that
two men were killed and the others
wounded. n that the h~ighwaymen
made off with the stakes, some 800.
The next account said the gamblers had
been compelled to stand with their faces to
the wall and were then shot Town in cold
blood. Coroner Myers information does
not agree with either Of the previous &C
counts. It ls as follows:
MoCarthysville is a rough railroad camp
on the line Of the Great Northern railways
western extension. in Missoula county.
The man killed was a grader. With four
others, also supposed to be graders, he was
gambling in a tent. He had about $1,50O
when he started and won about 500 from
1t was a simple case OF premeditated rob-
berry IS not known. The circumstances,
however, point to the idea that the lucky
grader was attacked by the other four; that
he started to run and was shot. When
found the body was lying about
holes through the back. The balls we're
evidently from a Winchester rifle. Inside
the tent, when the first person arrived on
the scene after the shooting, were the other
four men, each slightly wounded by bullets
evidently from a pistol of thirty-two cali
bre. They told the story about the masked
men holding up the entire party, and at
once left the place, in spite of their wounds.
This led to the general belief that they had
tried to win the graders $1,5OO, but losing
their own money instead, killed him and
robbed him, and then, fearing the ven
geance' of the other railroad men, inflicted
slight wounds on themselves and told the
masked men story. The fact that they
have left the country and that no
trace of them can be found makes
this version of the murder more than a
theory. The report that one of the muir
derers was the notorious Jim Cummings, of
Jesse James old gang, is, Coroner Myers
says, only a suspicion, based on the fact
that the noted desperate had been seen in
the vicinity shortly before the murder and
disappeared Immediately afterward.
Deputy Sheriff Grant, who is located in
Missoula county near McCarthysville, has
gone to that section to look into the matter,
but nothing has been heard from him.