The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-13
RATTLESNAKE DICKS WAYS.
AN INNOCENT MANS CONVICTION
MADE HIM A DESPERADO.

and started in on "a Career of Rob-
berry and Murder-His Last Run
ming Fight with the sheriff.
From the New York Sun.
Los Angeles.-"As game a fight as any
desperate ever put up" said ]. A. Filcher
of Auburn, Placer county, was that made
by Ratiesnake Dick way back in 49, when
Bill Crutcher was sheriff of Placer and
tried to arrest him. Rattlesnake Dick was
one of the most picturesque dare devils
Of those days and as reckless a rutfian
as the sherifs and the Wells-Fargo PEG
pie have ever had to contend with on this
coast He started in with being quiet,
respectable, hard-working young man, but
fate and revengeful temper were too much
for him, and he ended by being an outlaw
and having every mans gun in all that
part of California, except those of his own
gang, turned against him.
Dicks real name was Richard Barter,
and he was the son of a colonel in the
English army. He came to California in
1850 when he was only II years old, and
! started in to try TO win his fortune by
hard work, quietly and decently. AL
though he had never battled around the
| world any-I guess il was his first venture
| from home-he was a manly, plucky sort
| of young chap and bucked righa down 20
hard work as if he'd always been used
| to it, He worked in the mines in Placer
county for about three years, and, al
though he never made any big strike, ne
was getting on fairly well. Then, one
I'm q
ed down to Sacramento with tot of dust
packed on a mule. day or two after
ward his mule turned up in camp and his
partner organized a search for him. They
found his body hat buried beside ooul-
der, with several bullets in 1t, and no
trace of his dust anywhere. His partner
| accused Dick Barter of having committed
the murder for the purpose of stealing the
dead mans dust. 1t was known that Dick
had been over that road at about the
same time as the dead man must have
passed the place where his body was found.
| and that was about all the evidence there
was against him. But there had been too
much of that sort of thing going on, and
everybody felt that something must be
done to inspire respect for the possibility
of punishment and make life and proper
ty a little safer.
Barter protested his innocence, but the
dead mans partner succeeded in fishing up
some evidence that made il look as if
Dick might be guilty. They found some
gold nuggets in his cabin, believe that
the other man said he was sure had be-
longed TO his partner. The end of ii was
that Dick was arrested and tried, and,
mainly because everybody felt that an eX-
ample must be made, he was sentenced to
| prison for two years. Rather a queer
sentence, I'll admit, for If he was guilty
he deserved more, and If he wasn't he
ought 20 have been acquitted. But reck-
on the idea was not TO make it too hard
on him for fear he might not be guilty,
and at the same time everybody felt that
somebody had to be punished. He served
his time, and when he came out he was a
changed man, lie swore that if the Off
GERS of the law were so anxious TO arrest
and punish criminals he'd give them
something to do that would be worth
while
Barter was particularly revengeful
against Jim Boggs, the sheriff who had
arrested HIM, and he swore by everything
he could think of that he would lead Boggs
a busy life from that time on; but he de-
clared, too that neither Boggs nor any
other officer should ever take him again
And then he started out on his self-ap-
pointed mission to get even with the law
the officers and the institutions which, he
declared had wrongfully accused and
punished him. And he just everlastngly
did it, too.
THE first thing he did was 20 go up into
Shasta county and hold up stage in or
der to get some money with which to gel
his scheme started. Then he came righl
back 10 Placer county and organized a
gang of the worst desperadoes he coul1
. set hold Of All told, he had about a
, dozen of the most reckless, brutal charac-
ters to be found on the coast, although
they were not all with him all the time
He was their leader and chief, and the
one thing he required of them was implici
obedience If any of them rebelled against
his authority or failed to carry out orders
that was the end of him. He gave the
officers no more trouble. OF course, DicA
> held these villains together with the booty
which they captured. He himself die
, not care at all for the money they stole
and divided il al up among his gang
!, They all said that he never kept any
more for himself than was necessary fol
very meager personal needs. His sobri
, ouet of 'Rattlesnake' was given to hin
;, because he said one day when he was fun
. ing aout his Imprisonment and talking
about what he intended to do, that n,
would strike like a rattlesnake at every
q damned officer of the law that gave hin
| a chance
zone of the grst things that Dick anC
his gang did was TO hold up the Wells
, Farbo gold train that was coming dowi
> to Sacramento from the gold camps VI
= in the mountains. II had $4,000 packed OF
mules and had got as far as Trinity noun
lain i'm Placer county, when Dick and hi
gang appeared on the scene. He did no
have all his men with him, believe. thert
were less than ten Of them all together
= but they fought like the dare devils the!
were, and Dick engineered the thing lilz
q a born general. Possibly his army an
cestry gave him by heredity some knacl
at military tactics and ability In the man
K aeement of men. At any rat
they vanquished more than twic,
7 their number and left severa
= men dead and twenty others tiet
. up to the trees either more or less wound
e ed or scared out of their senses. The!
carried away the whole of the $780, 900 an,
q buried half of it near Folsom, having Iii
. vided the rest of it among the gang. .
= Jack Barley a Wells-Fargo detective
and as brave a man as ever handled