The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1897-07-17
EXTENDED CRIMINAL RECORDS
Cattle and Sheep Men Have Suffered
Severely From Raids of the
Band That Robbed Belle
Eourche Bank.

Cheyenne, Wyo., July 1.-THE band
of hold-ups, which came to grief in al
tempting to rob the Belle Fourche
bank last week. has been identified as
the hole-in-the-wall outfit which has
~terrorized central and northern Wyo-
ming for over a year. The hole-in-the-
wall gang consists of about a dozen
desperate characters who have made
their rendezvous in an isolated location
in the Red Wall country, johnson
county, known as the hole-in-the-wan.
Cattle stealing has been the chief oc-
cnpation of the band of outlaws, al
though they have not scrupled at
stealing horses, saddles, guns, camp
outfits or any property easily carried
away. Several murders are attributed
to them, the latest being that OF Will
liam Dean, u deputy sheriff of johnson
county, who was ambushed and killed
early in May by six of the outlaws.
headed by the leader, George CurIte,
near MayoWorth p~ostoffice.
George Currie's chief lieutenant has
been Ton, O'Day, captured in the at
tempt to rob the Belle Fourcae bank,
and NOW in Jail at Dendwood. O'Day
used to work for the big cow outfits
in Wyoming, and was considered Il
happy-go-luclsy, merry, lighthearted
Irish boy. In n recent talk with a for
mer friend he said lie was arranging
to leave the country. as he knew the
life he was leading would eventually
send him to the penitentiary or the
scntfold. by some of his friends his
| story was believed; by others it was
thought his professea change of heart
was only a bluff.
Eiyo otbar r,ep,har. re tbn rnpr y
Al and Bob Smith and the three Rob
ert brothers, all of whom have been
well known characters on the Wyom-
ing cattle ranges and considered re-
spectacle men until they joined the
party OF rnstlcrs. These men have
sent word to their old-time cowboy
friends that they intended leaving the
| country, but in the face OF this it is
known that they were Implicated III a
plot during the past month to ambush
and kill Bob Devinc, the foreman of
| the &C Y outfit OF Carey brothers, for
whom they have an especial hatred.
Devine was notified OF the ambush
and escaped death by taking another
route from the one intended.
TerroriAed the Country.
The entire country between Casper
fIu iilltio otSb NV ~
of the outlaws. Freigbters hauling
salt, sulphur and other sheep camp
supplies report that horsemen contin-
ually watched them from the hilltops
along the roads, and when an effort
was made to learn the identity of the
riders they slluliled off into the noun
tains. Sheepmen have been stopped
and piled with questions as TO the pres
ence of officers or detectives in the
country by members of the gang and
nave been afraid not to give the desired
information.
StoclSmen in the country infested by
the gang have in many instances been
forced to leave the country on account
of the constant thefts of cattle n
horses by the outfit, whose raids We're
made with astonishing holiness. Last
summer George Curric and the Rob-
erts brothers rode to the ranch Of f..
w. Whitcomb, on the Belle Fourche,
and took away with them II stallion
valued ut $500. The herds of the CY
outfit, which range north of Casper,
were levied upon by the gang in a
wholesale manner Bob Devine, the
foreman of the outfit. with u large
force OF cowboys, rounded up the hole
in-the-wall district last spring and re
covered several hundred head of y
cattle, which had been run off by the
gang, and which were being held for
shipments MS soon as the brands could
be blotched.
The capture of Tom O'Day and the
probable capture of the entire gang
which took part in the Belle Fourche
bank hoidup, is hailed with delight by
stockmcn and rauchers of central and
northern Wyoming, as the result will
probably be the breaking up of the en-
tire gang.