Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-20
A HOT-BED OF CRIME.
One Weird, Wild Spot in Colorado
Where Mysteries Abound.
LATEST In DEVILS HEAD ANNALS.
Barn Burning and the Attempted Poisoning
Of an Old Trapper.
THE OBLITERATIoN OF A sQUATTER

DENNEk, Jan. lS.-DcVll 1cdu is
lonely spot about 35 miles southwest Of
Denver. In this quiet sequestered nook
many crimes have been committed. About
two months ago Daniel Ecker's barns, hay
stacks and ranch house were set on fire in
several different places and were burned to
the ground before assistance arrived. An
old man named Fred Albans, who lived
near Ecker's ranch, was suspected of the
crime, and foot tracks in the snow marked
trail from Ecker's ranch to "Dutch
Fred's" cabin. But as there was no direct
proof that he committed the crime nothing
could be done in the matter.
There was no motive for the burning OF
Dutch Fred's' cabin a man named
Parke lived alone in cabin which he al
ways locked when he went away. Three or
four days after the foregoing incident he
returned after an absence of three weeks
and found that the staple which fastened
his cabin door had been pulled out and
then replaced.
Poisoned by New-Made Bread.
He found everything as he had left it ap-
parently, and proceeded to cook his SOL
itary meal. He made bread as usual and
did not notice anything wrong with it, but
he hardly begun to eat before he was seized
with agonizing pains. With difficulty he
made his way to saw mill near by, where
he was given all the homely antidotes for
poison that could be found
This was a little after noon, and after
lying apparently between life and death for
hours, at 10 o'clock at night he had nearly
recovered. He afterward examined the
bread and found it to be of greenish-
coppery color. He baked a loaf with flour
taken from the bottom of the barrel, and it
was of the same color. He took it to his
neighbor, Chris Gottschalk, who pronounced
1t to have been literally mixed with arsenic
of some form.
About week after Ecker's barn was
burned, j. S. Myers, ranchman of Devils
Head, was going down gulch leading to the
creek. This was the last time that any one
there saw s'Dutch Fred" This was on the
I'd or Sd of December. As time passed on
and he was not seen. people began to in
quire about him.
Ranchman Myers tells the following
story: "On Sunday, January 8, took my
gun, thinking Iwould go hunting, aud in
tending to 60 around by Dutch Fred's' to
see if I could buy some hay from him. AS
came near his house I could see no tracks.
l went on until 1 came to where the house
had been and then 1 saw that it was gone.
A Region OF Desolation.
The only thing that broke the monotony
of. the level was charred and blackened
wagon that stood about ten feet south of
where the house had been. There was no
sign of life save q flock of magpies that flew
away at my approach. 1t was late then and
I did not investigate, but went on to my
home.
"Wben got home my wife was worried
about it and urged me to investigate the
matter, so next morning 1 went and got
Chris Gottschalk, with whom went, leav-
ing his place about noon, to where Dutch
Fred's' house had stood. We took boards
and carefully scraped the snow from the
part of the house where he had lived and
found nothing but some pieces of the stove,
some charred pieces of meat and the barrels
of his double-barreled rifle. The high wind
of the night before had partly blown away
the snow from the ground where the stable
had been, leaving parts of the dead horses
exposed. This was the first we knew of the
horses having been burned. There seemed
to be the bodies of six or eight horses, and
this is all I know"
Daniel Ecker, whose barn and house we're
burned, corroborated Mr.. Myers story.
Since these things have been known no
effort has been made to clear up the mys-
terry of "Dutch Fred's" disappearance.