Omaha daily bee., 1892-01-06
ANOTHER BLOODY CHAPTER,
Two Men Killed in an Attempt to Assassin.
ate a Kansas Judge,
DIRE RESULTS OF A COUNTY SEAT WAR.
Kansas Adds the story of Another Desperate
Crime to the Pages OF Her History
Lawlcssncss aud Terror Pre-
vail in stevens County.

iVIENNi Mule, JhU, Os-AlONutI uIOOuy
chapter has been added to tho criminal his
tory of southwestern Kansas. The county
seat feud between Woodsdale and Hugoton
has again eliminated in bloodshed. A plot
to kill Judge Botkin, an enemy OF one of tho
murdered leaders Of the war, was put into
execution today. It failed, and the bullets
intended for him ended the lives of w and
possibly three sheriffs.
no details OF tho assassination so far as
they are known, arc contained III a dispatch
from Judge Botkin tc Governor Humphrey,
which was received at / I'D p. M. rhe dis
patch is as follows
Telegram From Judge Botkin.
hRKALoN, Kan. Jan. 5.-The plot to kin mo
was sprung here this morning. 4 mob OF
twenty, TO thirty Woodsdale and about eight
from nm ambush on my road to court this
morning at Springfield,
One of the men d~ivulged II, At 3 o'clock
this morning sheriff Dunn. with six deputies,
started out to scout the proposed scene OF
ambush. They. ran into the ambush them
selves. at daylight, and Sheriff Dunn and
Sheriff-elect Roy Guyman were killed and
Deputy sheriff Sid Nixon Is at this moment
II a; M missing. The other three deputies
A, X. kilgorc and S. 0. Abrey of Woodsdale.
and c, L.. Calvert. !. f. Van Norhis and b.
Orner, city marshal OF Springfield, were the
The mob is now in possession of Springfield,
awaiting my arrival.
Mrs. Larrabee OF Springfield reached my
house at 10 II. M. on foot, SIX and . half miles.
W TIL u message from the three deputies who
escaped the massacre. that the mob intended
TO come to my house to kill mo today II they
found was not coming to Springfield to
court, | have Just arrived at ArkaiOn,
These outlaws, under the disguise OF the
citizens Alliance of Woodsdale and Spring.
field, should be hunted down, but the civil
authorities OF this county arc now powerless,
as we have no sheriff.
Please advise me. will remain here until
hear BorKIN.
Warned of the Plot.
The plot mentioned in the dispatch is one
to which Botkin referred in this city three
months ago. He received an anonymous let
Ter from a man who said he had been asked
to join a party. every member of which would
colgate himself to Kill Botkin.
The whole affair grows out of the killing of
Sam Wood by James Brennan and the fail
ure to convict the murderer. Before the
aDortivo trial came on the Woodsdale faction
swore that ia the event Of Brenuan's acquit-
tai they would kill Botkin. BotKin laid all
the facts before the governor, but declared
that he was not afraid and would not lesigu.
a dispatch from Dodge City, Kan. says
Judge Botkin of Seward county was to hold
court at Springfield today. Seward county,
before its organization, was part of Stevens
county. There is a county scat war on be-
tween Springfield and hrkalon. A mob
composed CT the old Stevens county faction
were determined that Botkin should not hold
court at Springfield. The sheriff and posse
were on their way to escort tho Judge to mis-
court, when, noar the judges house, they
ran into all ambush. Sheriff Dunn and
Sheriff-elect Roy Guyman were killed. One
of the deputies is missing. A Mrs. Larabee
ran toJudge Botkin's house ana told him of
his danger. He flew over to Arkalon with
his family. He has taken refuge in a house
and his friends are holding the mob at bay.
His friends are calling on ali the able bodied,
law-abiding citizens throughout tho country
to rally to his support.
stevens County in n Turmoil.
Since July, 1883, there mas been q turmoil
in Stevens county. The county seat contest
between WoOdsdale and Hugoton culninaLed
in the massacre of Sheriff Cross and his dep
utics by Sam Robinson and his gang of about
twenty-scven men from Hugoton. There
was an abatement of the killing then until
June % last, when James Brennan of Iiich-
field, Morton county, shot and killed Sam
Wood of WOodsdale, the acknowledged leader
of the Woodsdale faction. The killing oc-
cured in front of the little church in Hugoton,
Judge Theodore Botkin having converted the
church into II court room, where the June
term OF the Stevens county district court was
being held. Brennan was arrested and after
two attempts TO give him a trial on the charge
OF murderhe was taken back TO jail at Hutch
inson to await the third and last attempt to
secure a Jury this month.
Since Woods death hostilitieS have ceased
In Hugoton, and now, apparently, have been /
transferred over the boundary line into Sew
ard county, which has oeen peaceful hereto
fore, though IL mas always Oeen acknoWi- |
edged that Springfield, tho county seat of
Seward. has been in sympathy with Woods
dale, and Arkalon, tho prospective county |
seat, in sympathy with Hugoton. This feel
ing OF fayoritlsm. which unquestionably !
exists, has evidently arisen to that point
where it became uncomfortable, and the
Springfield people have gone in to help out
the Woodsdale faction.
Victims OF County Seat Wars.
This new killing increases the number of
mon slaughtered III the counties of south
western Kansas to about twelve, not taking
into account the famous LeOti-Coronado
county seat tight, in Wichita county. There
has never been a feeling of security in Ste
vens county since tho famous Haymeadows
massacre of 1883. though at times the public
pulse has been serene, and bloodshed seemed
an iinpossibility, But hot headed are these
men in Stevens. Seward aud Morton counties I
and in all of the counties surrounding that
quarter, They never forgive a wrong nor for
get an injury.
The direct cause of the projected attack on
Judge Botkin is the fact that ever sin 20 tho
feud began his sympathies have been with
though his home is ut Spring
field, in Seward county, forty miles
away. James Brennan, VINO killed sam