The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-09
Special to Tho Herald,

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EVANSTON, Wyo., May 7.-On Mon
day, April 20, this community was
somewhat agitated and put in a state
of suspense by the summoning of a
grand jury, the purpose and effect of
which was a profound secret to the
general residents. Late on Tuesday
evening, this grand jury startled the
community by returning an Indictment
against Edwin S. Croker and Frank
Murtha of this place, for the murder
of William Crawford, who disappeared
very suddenly and very mysteriously
from this place on the evening of jan
uary 26, 1898, and whose fate or where
abouts has remained an unsolved mys-
terry until the story was
TOLD BY CHARLES H. ALLEY
of South Eden, Utah, before the grand
jury of the alleged fate of the unfor-
tunate man, ard points conclusively to
the positive death of Crawford, and
also that he was murdered in Evanston
on the night of his disappearance.
Croker now languishes in the Chey-
enne Jail on a change of venue from
this county, awaiting a new trial for
the murder of Harvey Booth, a bust
ness partner of Crocker's, and also OF
craHvford's. of which crime he was con-
victed last September in our district
court.
The verdict was set aside by Judge
Hayford of Laramie for the reasons
that there was undue prejudice in the
community against Croker, and the
evidence was insufficient. His new trial
at Cheyenne will probably come up
about June 1, and if he is acquitted Oh
the murder of Booth, there will hang
over his unfortunate head the charge
of this other crime. Alleys story OF
that eventful night is too long to be
repeated here, but it is in substance
that he was in town on that night;
that he met the principals in the trag-
edy; that he believes
CRAWFORD WAS MURDERED BY
THEM,
and that the reason he had not divulg-
ed the secret before was that he was
sworn to eternal silence, and did not
dare to break that vow while Booth
and Croker were at liberty for fear of
swift and direful vengeance. Craw-
ford is dead, Booth is dead, Croker
and Murtha are in jail and Alley has
told all that he knew without fear of
the avenger. A good many people now
recall the remark made by one of the
foremost citizens of Evanston, Mr.. A.
C. Beckwith, when Booth was killed,
Crawford having disappeared, that
three men could easily keep a secret
when two of them were dead.
The story of Alley, however, has
thrown CONSERVATION into the camp of
Booths friends, who profess to disbe-
lieve Alleys story, and say they would
rather see Croker go free than to have
the name of Booth dragged into the
criminal courts and his
WIFE AND LITTLE CHILDREN
stigmatized forever. They goAso far as
TO say that Mr. Booth at that time was
confined to the house seriously sick,
and that it would have been physi-
cally impossible for him to have been
down town the night that Crawford
disappeared. They assert that Alley
is crazy, and was crazy then, and cite
the fact testified to by his neighbors
that he frequently slept in his gran
airy, on fire arms enough to put boils
on his back. They further aver that
he is addicted to drink, which fact is
well known in Evanston, and that if he
is not really daft, he was under the in
fluence of liquor when he told the
story.
NEIGHBORS OF ALLEYS,
however, notably N. M. Hodges, pro-
prietor of the Laketown Touring mills,
and the wealthiest man in that coun-
try; the Hon. Aquila Nebeker, mem
Der of the present legislature of Utah;
Bishop Ira Nebeker, the we'll known
stockman; Mr.. Cheney, well known
dairyman, and others. confidently as
sert that they believe Alleys story to
be true.
Yet, considering the high estimation
in which both Booth and Croker have
been held in this community as men
above reproach, what surprise and re-
vulsion of thought must sweep across
the minds of those who knew these
men in the hey-day Of their prosperity,
and who remember them now stained
with this brand of dishonor. Can NOR
tai mind conceive of a crime like this
committed by men like these, and at
a time of day when scarcely the last
lingering rays of the setting sun had
left our surrounding hills?
Murtha now in Jail under Indictment
with E. S. Croker for the
MURDER OF CRAWFORD
cannot be tried before September, and
is without money to make application
for bail, which was granted to Croker
by the supreme court, pending his last
trial.
Many people wonder how either Muir