The times., 1898-12-04
made Him 4 DESPERATE.
Story of the Once Notorious
Rattlesnake Dick.
CONVICTED, But INNOCENT
He Made Good an Osth to Avenge
the wrong Done Him-His Career
of Murder and Robbery i'm Cnif-
fornia-His Last Fight for Liberty
and Life.


Placer County, Cal. to a Los Ange es
correspondent of the New York Sun,
"was that made by Rattlesnake DICK
way back in SO when Bill Crutcher was
Sheriff of Placer and tried to arrest him.
Rattlesnake Dick was one of the mest
picturesoue dare-devils of those days and
as reckless a ruffian as the sheiihs ana
the Wells-Fargo people have ever had
to contend with on this coast He startea
In with being a quiet, respectable, hard-
working young man, but fate and re-
yengeful 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 lis own
gang, turned against him.
..Dick's real name was Richard Barter.
and he was the son of a colonel IN the
English army. He came TO California in
1SzO when he was only seventeen years
old. and started in to try to win his Tor
tune by hard work, quietly and decentiy.
Although he had never battled around
the world any way-I guess II was ms
first venture from home-he was a n AMY,
plucky sort of young chap, ana puck-ea
right down to hard work as II hed al
ways been used to it, He WORKED IN the
mines in Placer County for ab Ut thee
wears. and although he never made any
big strike, he was getting on fairly wen.
Then. one day in '53, miner from Iowa
Mn started down TO Sacramento W u
lot of dust packed on a mule. DAY OF
two afterward his mule turned up IN
camp, and his partner organized a searcn
for him. They found his body half buried
beside a bowlder, with several buiietS IN
it. and no trace OF ms oust any "iiei e
uis mariner accused Dick Barter OF hav-
Ing committed the murder for the pur-
nose of stealing the dead mans dust II
was known that Dick had been over that
road at about the same time as the dead
man. must have passed the plcce where
his body was found, and that was ABOUT
nil the evidence there was against h m.
But there had been too much OF u az
sort of thing going on and everybody feit
that something must be done to 1nsp re
respect for the possibility of punishment
and make life and property little saler.
"Barter protested his innocence, but the
dead mans partner succe eded IN iishihs
up some evidence that made II look as IL
Dick Nigh lie uity They fouha some
gold nuggets in his cabin. beneve, thai
the Ofher man Ssitu lft Nsi1 EhiN i's.- ~
lonced to his partner. The end of ii was
that Dick was arrested ard tried, and,
mainly because everybody felt that an
example must be made, he was sentenced
10 prison for two years Rather queer
sentence I'll admit, for If he was guilty.
he deserved more. and if he WASH ne
ought TO have been acquitted. But
reckon the idea was not 10 make II 100
hard on him for fear he might not De
. ~frN-la
felt that somebody had to be punished.
He served his time and when he came
cut he was a changed man He swore
that II the officers 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 revenseful
against Jim BogRs. the sheriff who had
arrested him, and he swore by everything
he could think of that he would lead
Boges a busy life from that time on; but
he declared. too. that neither Boogs nor
any other officer should ever take him
again. And then he started out on his
self-appointed mission to get even with
the law. the officers, and the institutions
which, he declared. had wronSfully ac-
cused and punished him. And he Just
everlastingly did il. too.
THE first thing he did was to go up into
Shasta county and hold UP stage in or
der TO get some money with which to get
his scheme started. Then he came right
back TO Placer county and organized a
gang of the worst desperadoes he could
get hold Of All told he had about a
duzen of the most reckless, brutal charac-
tiers 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 I'M
plicit 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. ol
course. Dick held these villains together
with the booty which they captured
He himself did not care at all for the
money they stole, and divided 1t all ul
among members of his gang. They al
said that he never kept any more fol
himself than was necessary Tor very
meager personal needs. His sobriquet oi
.Ratlesnake' was given TO him because
he said one day when he was fuminf
about his Imprisonment and talking
about what he intended to do, that ht
would strike like rattlesnake at ever!
damned officer of the law that gave hin
q chance
zone of the first things that Dick ant
his gang did was to ho.d up the Wells
Fargo gold train, that was coming dow
to Sacramento from the gold camps UP II
the mountains. II had $4,000 packed OF
mules, and had got as far as Tri-It,
Mountain, in Placer County, when Dicl
and his gang appeared on the scene III
did not have all his men with him. ] be
Iieve there were less than ten of then
all together. but they fought like tn
dare-devils they were. and Dick engin
eered the thing like a born general. Pos
sibly his army ancestry gave him by her
edity some knack at military tactics, ant
ability in the management of men. A
any rate they vanquished more thai
twice their number and left several mel
dead and twenty others tied up to TIL
trees either more or less wounded o
scared out of their senses. They car
ried away the whole of the $50 600. and bu
ried half of it near Folsom, having di
yided the rest of 1t among the gang.
Jack Barkley. a wells-Fargo detective
and as brave a man as ever handled
gun. pursued Dick and his gang with
posse of five men and came upon ther
near Folsom, just after they had burie
the money. 1t was near midnight whe
he came upon their hiding place, and fou
of his posse had so little stomach for
fight In the dark that they deserted an
ran away as fast as their horses could 81
leaving Jack and one man to face what
ever might happen. Most men would hav
withdrawn very quietly and gone to hur
for re-enforcements. But Jack and his or
assistant weren't made of that sort c
stuff. They just sailed in for all the
were worth and gave ii to the outlaws he
and heavy. They took advantage of til
darkness to make the gang think thef
was large party of them by circlin
round and attacking them on all sides.
''Dick's men had been drinking an
quarreling. and one or two of their nun
Der had been killed in fight amon
fhenselNes inst hefnrsa RarkleN's arriva