The San Francisco call., 1898-03-04
Murderer Wilett Confronted by Gabriel.

nothing on me, but even if l had 1t
 would have done me no good. He put the shackles on me and took me to the
 Klondike saloon. From there we took
 the train to Prescott, where we arrived 1 about o'clock Sunday night We left for this place at 1 o'clock Monday
 morning.
 'I came on without giving them any trouble You know I could have com 1 pelled them to get out requisition pa 1 pers, but I didn't care to cause any de- lay, so I signed a paper that would go willingly"
 Here his grin broadened, and the
 cause of it was told in the following
 significant story, which showed how
 this mans nerve and cunning never de- serted him:
 "On our way up here from Pres cott," he said, we stopped over at Ash Fork and went to the Klondike
 saloon. We had a few drinks there
 the Sheriff and myself and some three
 or four cowboys-and then the Sheriff
 ordered me to go and sit behind the
 bar. I had shackles on my feet, but
 my hands were free. l sat in a
 rocker behind the bar. Looking about
 me I spied a revolver about a foot
 long, of fl caliber, lying on a shelf
 under the counter. 1 rocked myself,
 and gradually edged near to the gun.
 When I lifted it up it caught on the
 raised edge of the shelf, and l guess
 the barkeeper must have heard the
 noise. I was watching him, and l mo-
 ticed that a sudden change came over
 his face. I had an overcoat on that
 the Sheriff loaned me- and I slipped
 the gun into one of the pockets of the
 coat. Soon after the Sheriff asked for
 the coat, and I had to give it up and
 with it the gun. I guess the bar keeper must have given me away to the Sheriff. I could have killed the Sheriff then, but 1t would have done me no good, and I have no feeling against the Sheriff, because he was simply doing his duty. He asked me why I took the gun. He said people didn't pack those toys around just for the fun of the thing. l told him that I intended to wait until we got out on the train to about Bagdad, when I proposed to make him take off my shackles by getting the drop on him. He told me that forty guns held to his head would not have induced him to do that, and I guess that's so. didn't sleep well on the train on ac- count of the shackles. but the Sheriff did not get any sleep at all during the entire trip to San Francisco, where he | turned me over to Sheriff Mansfield"
 After having worked himself into good humor by this relation, he | warmed up to Gabriel and began of 1 his own accord talking of mutual ac- 1uaintances and matters in and about | Salida and Ripon. where he had | worked for Gabriel. He asked to be allowed to talk to Gabriel alone, but this the Deputy Sheriff could not permit When Willett was working Or Gabriel after the murder at Baden, le had told Gabriel that he might be arrested, and that if he were he want ad Gabriel to bring him some poison concealed in a plug of tobacco. This lad come to the knowledge of the Deputy Sheriff.
 Wilett said that he was known by his fight name in Ash Fork, as he had ived there before. He believed that ome one infAsh Fork who knew his name had written to Sheriff Mansfield 1t the time of his arrest he was en- ragged in chopping wood about three niles outside of Ash Fork.