The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1894-04-26

the pest OF II, Wnen JOnn, VINO was tucn
abont II or IS years old, grasped stick
of wood and struck Carter on the tenn
Pile so heavily that he died in "a hours
from the effects of the blow. For this
he was sentenced on Nov. 16 to two
and one-half years in the penltentiary;
but public opinion was aroused in his
behalf and petition for his pardon
was circulated and largely signed, on
the ground, that, seeing his father be-
Ing beaten in the fight, his act was but
a natural one, and, in a measure,
justiiable. The petitioners were sue
cessful, and Governor Potts granted
the pardon the following year.
After his release from the peniten-
tiary he became a hanger-on of the
gambling houses and houses of ill-fame,
and soon developed into a travelling
sport, mainly combining his operation
to the eastern cities of the territory.
In 1879 he married one of the inmates
of Bozeman bagnio, and returned to
Virginia City, where he conducted him
self fairly we'll until February of the
following year, when he became In
yolved in quarrel with the late j. N.
Markle, which ended in the latter be-
ing shot in the left lung.
The prime cause of the trouble was
jealousy over a liaison which the two
had maintained with a notorious pho
tographer Ct Helena, since deceased
but the immediate provooation of the
shooting was dispute over a bet at
the faro table. A bystander, James
McAdams, was also seriously wounded
during the fusilade between the two
belligerents. Markle recovered, and
Johnson was tried on the charge of
assault with a deadly weapon with in
tent to kill, and on April 2s, 1880, was
sentenced to three years Imprisonment
for Ills crime. Executive clemency,
however, again interviewed in his behalf,
and he was released after serving about
half his sentence.
BY this time "Pinheadr had grown to
manhood, and, though not possessing
the intelligence of his brother, who was
a man of fine education, polished ad-
dress and brilliant conversational pow
ers, was rapidly following in his Grim
inal footsteps, and it was not long after
Johns second release from the peniten-
tiary before 1t became apparent that
the two were acting in concert in their
nefarious work. They moved to a
house on Slade creek, about five miles
from Virginia City, on the Madison
side of the divide, and the barrenness
of the valley farmers cows, with the
corresponding faculty of those of the
Johnson boys, soon became prominent
in the notice of the community. 1t is
freely asserted by their nsighbors that
these rustlers would frequently drive
cows into sequestered places and then
shoot them to prevent them from fol
lowing their offspring to the Johnston
corrals.
The Madison valley ranchmen are moi
made of the stuff to ia melv submit t
this sort of business; and, as soon a.
the matter was traced squarely home
to them, the bows were notified tha
their absence was preferable TO theil
company, and that 1t would pe NOR,
healthful for them to seek fresh feld
and pastures new.
Subsequently 10 these events, bu
little has been known here of the his
tory of the young Johnsons, except tina
they have been travelling in company a
general rustlers. In the year followin,
their vacation of the Madison valley
they were in the National park, an,
several robberies, mostly of a petit,
charac- er, were laid to their charge
1t is also suspected that they were tn
road agents who held up the stage iron
Beaver Canyon to Fire Hole Basin i
1883 or 1889, their close proximity t
: the place of the holdup at the time an
their well known character furnishin
the principal grounds of suspicion.
d. A little more than a year ago the
were seen in Helena, when they repre-
n sented that they had been engaged /
stock growing in the Northwest teri
tory of the British possessions, and thi
a is the last heard of them by any res
+ dent of Virginia City until the occu
renee which heads this letter. At tina
time they were in the pasteboard bus
h ness, John posing as the gentlem ma
a gambler, and Ed as the verdant br
lucky cowboy. The information is II
, ceived here that ia is serving a Iii
e sentence in the South Dakota penitei
# tiary for shooting man in that stat
and this in connection with the KILN
= of his brother, has, as above state,
. created intense satisfaction here tn;
|. two of the most hardened crimina
:, ever raised in Madison county hay
a been removed from the opportunity
% doing further harm.
e Parenthetically it may be remarks
Ie in conclusion, and as evidence of Il
is dread in which they were held in tn
J. community, that one of the leadir
e capitalists of Southern Montana loan,
t. the boys sums aggregating So 900, wit
ID out any expectation of repayment, on
a because he, knowing their despera
In character, feared they would resent
n, refusal by committing depredatio
II