Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1896-02-04
is COL. A. ]. FOUNTAIN DEAD?
Disappearance of Albert j. Fountain
of Dona Ana Under Singular
Circumstances.
HIS FONDNESS FOR The SENSATIONAL
Searching Parties Leave Las Cruces
A Notable Stock Thief Pro-
secutor-May Have Been
Murdered.

| n Las SiuooS teloS Iau huHouuCoo oHat
Col. Albert j. Fountain is missing and is
supposed to have been murdered on the
public highway between Tularosa and
Las Cruces.
UP to this writing, II a. M, only mea-
ger details are obtainable. Itappears
that on Friday last gols Fountain started
alone from Tularosa t1s,drive double
team to mis- home at Las Cruces, dis
tance of some sixty-fiss miles. Some
! parties passed him on the road after he
left Tularosa on EsiaAys 6A-Saturday
his wagon was found ii the mountains
about five miles off the road, but no trace
of Col. Fountain could be discovered. His
tenn was also missing and
SEARCH INSTITUTED
by friends was without.fssult. Then mes
senger was sent to Las Cruces to give the
alarm and yesterday,a large posse was
organized to go out and scour the coun-
try. Fears are expressed that Col. Foun-
tain has been murdered and his body
buried in the soft sand of one of the
numerous arroyos which abound in that
locality.
On the other hand, many who we'll and
personally know Col. fountain and ap-
preciate his inordinate weakness for.
the sensational, are inclined, in the abb
sence of more definite information, to
believe he will turn up all right. He
drove team that had will of its own
and was in the habit of straying off when
given an opportunity. Those who hold
to this view argue that Col F ountain may
have had runaway and been thrown out
in the mesquite brush; or he may have ss
INTENTIONALLY LEFT THE ROAD
to stay over night at some country house
from whence his team strayed to the
point where it Was found. ~
Others there are who contend that it is
more than probable that Col. Fountain
had been fred upon from the roadside,
assassinated, and his body made way
with. As is we'll known he has been'sf6r
years the attorney for the Southeastef6;
New Mexico Stock association. In his
capacity as such he has been a terror tn.
stock thieves,g He it was who conceived
the idea of placing detective on the
road who spent weeks in the camps and
quarters of the stock thieves, became one
of their gang 80 far.as they knew, and
gathered data which subsequently sent
many of them up in the courts of justice.
To-day there are
TwENTY-oNE CONvICTs
serving terms in the New Mexico pen
itentiary as the result of Col. Fountains
vigorous prosecutions in Dona Ana, So
corro, Lincoln, Chaves and Eddy coun-
ties.
Under such circumstances it is not sur
prising that the stock thieving gang
which yet, it is we'll known, hourishes in
that section, "have it in" for Col. Foun-
tain and should go prepared to make way
with his life at the first favorable oppor-
tunity-and Col. Fountains trip alone
through so thinly settled locality as
that between Tularosa and Las Cruces
would afford them just the opportunity
they desired to assassinate him.
The scene of the supposed murder is at
point about forty miles east of Las
Cruces. Several mysterious murders
have been committed on that road. 1t
was at this identical spot that the Nes-
bett family, husband, wife and child,
WERE MURDERED
some twelve years ago. Two men were
arrested for this crime and they retained
Col. Fountain as their attorney. The men
claimed that Pat Coghlan, pioneer cat
tie raiser in the Tularosa region, was the
murderer. Col. Fountain had no love
for Coghlan and he made desperate
effort to acquit his clients by trying to
fasten the crime on Coghlan. The men
claimed to be able to
IDENTIFY ooGHLAN
and the court gave them an opportunity.
Coghlan aud ten othsr citizens including
Numa Raymond were stood up in row
in the court room and the prisoners were
brought in to identify the man they ac-
cused of the killing. One of them desig-
mated Numa Raymond and the other Sc
lected another man. They utterly failed
to identify Coghlan, so he was released
from all suspicion and Col. Fountains
clients were convicted. One of them
afterward shot himself and the other is
now serving in the penitentiary.
sTRAy1NG TEAM.
The Lincoln News of Saturday last has
this concerning Col. Fountains team.