Omaha daily bee., 1891-05-17

let him come close to the cabin and then
stepped out ana sad
Mac, you have threatened our lives come
no further. He replied:
'"Gou d son Of b. and then went for
his gun. | made run for him, and he fired
shot. AS he was about to shoot again 1
hred. The boy was on his left arm, and
think my first shot hit him. | kept going
toward Mac all the time; he fired second
shot and it was returned This shot killed
the little boy. The bullet tore his head to
pieces add also wounded the father. They
both fell together Madden was acquitted.
While McDermott lay at his ranch suffer-
ing the tortures Of pain caused by his wound
he conceived plan of revenge upon Madden
which now seems likely to react upon him
self. Madden was at the Glendenning min
ing camp when the Morine murder was COM
mltted, and when he became McDermott' s
neighbor he was in constant fear that he
would betray him to the Montana authorities
ana be the means of causing him to pay the
penalty of his crime. He constantly feared
that Madden might expose him to his fellow
settlers in the basin as an escaped murderer,
and with these fears haunting him he had de-
termined to kill him. Falling he arose
from his sick bed, and with
great difficulty ndited letter to
well-to-do stock grower named Tatman on
the Grey Bull river, in which he confessed
that he had been forced to become tho un-
willing accomplice of Madden in an extensive
Va HOTScSJeHllnp WnlCu covered In Its
operations the entire Big Horn basin. Tho
plan was to steal horses and cattle from the
range wherever found and under cover of
night and by the aid Of confederates at differ
ent points run them into Nebraska where
they were disposed Of to good advantage by
the thieves. McDermott informed Tatman
that acting under Madden's directions pre-
sumaoly from fear of the secret the latter
held-he had assisted him in running off
tfty-two well bred horses from the Grey
Bull ranch, which had been disposed of
in Nebraska for several hundred dollars
in gold Tatman is an orphan who
came into Wyoming several years ago and by
great Industry had succeeded in gathering
about him large herds of stock.
When McDermott's letter of confession
reached him he at once started for Bonanza
on tour OF investigation. He was deeply
incensed, and vowed that he would trail
every one OF the horse thieves into prison be-
fore he rested. At Bonanza he met Mrs.
McDermatt, who now hates her husband as
intensely as she once loved him,
and Informed him that her bus,
band, and not Madden, had been the leader
In the extensive stealing that had been done
all over the basin, and more than this, that
he had been guilty of repeatedly robbing the
United States mail 1t was usual with tho
mail carriers on the long routes leading from
points on the Northern Pacific railroad
through the basin TO stop at McDermott's
ranch over night to rest and feed their horses,
ana during their stay they placed the mail
sacks in his cabin. 1t became regular oc-
currence with him, Mrs. McDermott stated,
to leave her side during the night and then
rifle the sacks of what money they con.
tanned, gleefully displaying his ill-gotten
gains, at the same time threatening her life
II she ever told any one of what he had done.
In this way many hundred dollars were
stolen by man supposed on all sides to be a
model citizen. McDermott is now In the
hands OF the law officers of johnson county
and his trial at Buffalo in the near future
will prove u revelation of villainy unpar-
alleled, it is thought, in the history of west
ern criminal operations.