The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-19
JIM SLADE, BAD MAN
Worst of All the Border Toughs In
Early Frontier Days.
MURDER OF OLD JULES
VICTIM SHOT TO DEATH WHILE
BEGGING FOR MERCY.
Three Men Hanged at Stewards
Ranch Owing to Feud With
Mountaineers.
MURDER OF OLD JULES
(Chicago Tribune.)

(Chicago Tribune)
Eyes; I knew Jim Slade very well.
No one was ever quite like him. He
was literally a demon desDerado."
! The speaker was Colonel Frank A.
Wentworth. ex-supervisor and a well
! known ranchman in Los Nietos valley,
/ who sat in a knot of old-time plains
men at the Pacific hotel in pomona,
! Cal.
1.-The first open trouble between
Slade, who was then superintendent
on the overland stage route, and the
4 mountaineerS was at a ranch twenty
| two miles west of Fort Laramie. Stage
! stock had been run off, and one night
/ an empty stage was riddled with buck
| sho1. Slade, Frank McCarty. and two
/ others, assuring themselves OF the
! identity of the offenders, went to the
ranch, covered three men with guns.
set them on horseback, headed toward
| the mountains, and told them If they
! ever returned they would be hanged.
! The mountaineers began to devise re-
| taliatory measures, and one of them,
! Jules Benet, after whom Julesburg had
been named, thought he would strike
an effective blow to stop what he con-
sidered high-handed proceedings.
shortly after the affair at the
ranch Slade one day rode to Benet's
place on board the stage. 1 was there,
having been working for Benet, and
the Frenchman began to abuse Slade
| for having hired me away from him.
The pony express was about to start,
! and l had been engaged as rider.
! Slade declared that the boy, mean
ing myself, had q right to work for
! whom he pleased. There We're but rev
words and no violent quarrel, when
Jules drew q. revolver and sent a bull
let through SHADES lungs Slade stood
| STILL apparently dazed. Jules snapped
! the pistol again, but it was empty.
Then the Frenchman rushed into his
little store, got a shotgun, and sent a
second charge into SHADES chest, tear
ing it fearfully. Slade fell dead, as l
supposed. Driver Tom O'Brien and
Cy Shurrie carried Slade to the sta
ton, expecting that every breath
would be his last
Meanwhile Jules had locked him
self in the back room of his store. An
hour afterward Ben Thickland, super
intendent of the line to Denver ar
rived. There We're two line men with
him. Ben listened to what had oc-
Cured, and declared in favor of hang
ing Jules. O'Brien said that was right
in his hand. The Frenchman was told
to come out and surrender. He
begged a show for his life, but was
threatened if he did not come the place
he displayed q weapon he would be
killed in his tracks. So Jules, white
and trembling. came out. He was at
once bound, dragged to the corral, a
rope put around his neck, and drawn
up to a pole between two wagons. All
the time he was abjectly pleading, but
non one listened to him.
SAVED BY BEN THICKLAND.
But old Ben ThickIand, though the
first TO propose hanging Jules, came
back in a few minutes to cut him down.
Whether he had relented. or thought
the Frenchman dead, 1 do not know.
Jules was not dead, however. He
gasped a few times, got up weakly, and
then set out over the plains at his top
speed. O'Brien came out and emptied
a siX-shooter at the fleeing Jules. but
while the bullets cut the sand all about
him, not one touched him. He was not
seen on SHADES division for year and
a half
Something had to be done. Slade
was suffering and almost dead. The
nearest surgeon was at Fort Laramie,
300 miles away. AS 1 said, the pony ex-
press was about to start, and the stock
was ready. Mount and ride, boy said
Thickland to me. Alb! that was a ride
Over the sands and sagebrush, along
desolate gullieS, on top of ridges al
:
and made an average Of twelve miles
an hour, including stops. The post sur
geon took a special stage back, and he
must have been man of much skill
l, for he saved SHADES life, though for
six weeks the man was not so much as
] moved off his back.
Jules made his way ninety miles
! east TO Cottonwood Springs, where h
! had a store, an Indian wife, and severa
. children. He was not moleSted there
l the place being off SHADES division
Slade seldom spoke of him, but it wa!
known that some day the two would
meet and there would be d tragedy. A
the end of a year and a half Jules
2 started over SHADES division He sen
; word to Slade, for what reason 1 neve
could understand. If we see eacl
5 other said the latter, something ma.
t happen.
81 have often wondered at the effron
( terry of the man and his recklessness
Slade showed the letter to several. bu
' did not say much about it. Three o
. his men, however. determined to TAX
. Jules, and of this plan Slade knew alb
D solutely nothing. l happened to ride vi
S to Cold Springs ranch and found then
t there. Jules was expected to arriv
= soon. 1t was in the morning. All thi
has been written Of but written wrong
e The men were John Burnett John FIR.
V and Mike ToV1e. They were aware
t knew jules, and said l must point hin
= out. 1 had passed him five miles back
= There was no getting out of it, so, a
e Jules drove up, 1 identified him.
h THE KILLING OF JULES.
:. Burnett advanced to the man and or
y dered him to stand. Instead of comply
a ing, he drew his revolver, and eXcep
a for the most extraordinary accident
: Burnett would have been killed. A
!, the Frenchman drew, Burnett fired
n charge of shot, wounding Jules in th
e hip, but not very seriously. Part c
the charge, however, had carried ava
the hammer of Jules revolver. He re
a allied his predicament and SURRENDERED
= He was taken behind the building
a which was of logs, and bound ther
with ropes that were passed around tn
q logs through chinks. There the doome
= man was left, moaning, to await HI
Il fate.
q In an hour and a half Slade drov
=, up on the stage He was told that julie
was tied back of the house, and RI
! ceived the information with a lit
v nervous shrug. He walked to the spt
10 where the Frenchman half reclife,
! helpless. Jules began to beg, but thel
is was no CLEAN of mercy in SHADES fac
a 1t is no use he said; you mui
d die.
! "'Give me q chance to see my wifi
I have business that she must know