The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-21
TWO BUTCH cASSADAYS
Counterfeit Killed, Real One Still
Alive.
GANG IS BROKEN UP
PRosPECToRS DRIVING ROB-
BER'S BOOSTERS AWAY.
Some of the Old Crowd Still In the
Country, But They Are Mainly
the Hangers-on-Butch Cassaday
and His Partner, 10y, Likely to
Be Heard From.
Especial Correspondence

Il
in the haunts of the Robbers Roost
| country call to mind the fact that the
chief executive of the state was in no
| immediate danger of being kidnapped or
made away with. The facts are that
the leaders of the much talked-of and
| dreaded BOOSTERS are at this time to
| the north of the locality penetrated by
the Utah executive. According to per-
sons who know them and have seen
them within the last two weeks, Butch
CaSsaday and Eliza Lay are now across
the Green river to the east and north
of Vernal, Uintah county, some fifty
miles, and a distance inland from the
railroad, at least calculation, some 200
miles. About the time Sheriff Preece
of Uintah county captured Pete Mel
son. one of the gang, on the Uintah
reservation, Cassaday and Lay were
known to be not far away. Like the
once-notorious James gang of Missouri,
these Robbers BOOSTERS have their
friends and sympathizers. and about
the last persons in the world, so to
speak, to know of them would be the
| officers of-the law. What they are do
ing or what they have been up to in the
locality mentioned, the persons who
have seen them do not pretend to say.
That they have been and are now in
the locality indicated, is sufficient.
When people talk of them there are
few questions asked. 1t has, perhaps,
become a custom. They are there,
and the $500 on the head of Cassaday
dead or alive, and the $500 offered for
Lay. But this promised reward has no
charm for the average citizen, who,
perhaps. Is we'll enough content that
these fellows have not disturbed him
or his.
Two Bad "Batches."
People here who are familiar with
the history of the gang and the char
acterS who once contributed to it's
makeup, say there were two Butch
Cassadays, the real one still being
alive. but that the counterfeit was
killed about a year ago, when the
posse went out from here and brought
back with them as trophies of the
chase two dead men. The original and
only genuine Butch Cassaday is alive
and thriving. His side partner and
first lieutenant, Lay, is with him, and
it is matter of time only until they
are heard of in the way of some high
handed robbery like the one at Castle
Gate, when PaymaSter Carpenter was
relieved of several thousand dollars of
Pleasant Valley Coal company money.
This occurred in April, 1897.
Three other members of the gang,
the whereabouts of whom are we'll
known to the sheriffs of eastern Utah
counties, are John Griffiths, alias
Blue john" and Jim Hawkins, alias
"Silver Tip" and Ed Newcomb, known
as the Indian" They have been seen
frequently this spring by prospectors
and travellers through the country in
that section of Wayne county north
and adjoining the Henry or Sinbad
mountains. They are very much in
evidence when people whom they know
will not betray them are about, but
when an officer goes into the country,
they appear to be swallowed up by the
earth, unless taken by surprise, as was
the case when blue John" was run
onto few weeks ago by Sheriff futile
and posse of Grand county. The Her.
aid correspondent the other day talked
with man who, less than two weeks
ago, met and conversed at length with
John" He was at the time limping
about from a wound received from a
shot fired by Sheriff Tylers posse, and
which took effect in the left leg. The
bullet lodged in the flesh. just above
the knee, and was removed by the out
law himself, with the aid of pocket
knife.
Gang Broken Up.
There is good reason to believe that
the gang as at one time organized does
not longer exist; or, if it does, the bad
element" has been weeded out or got
ten rid of by the better element"
Cassaday and Law and some of the
others, who have been above small and
petty thieving. such as horse and cat
tle-stealing and raids upon small
ranchmen, have not been seen or heard
of south of the line of the Rio Grande
Western railway in many months. But
they have left behind them a gang of
petty thieves of the class of Blue
john" ''Silver Tip" and the Indian"
who will rob anything from a chicken
roost to a sheepherder's tent, and for
their work the Rooster gang has been
given the credit. The three mentioned
above may or may not have belonged
at one time to the outfit. If they did
not, there was that bond of sympathy
that always exists between birds of a
feather.
Contrary to popular supposition. the
Robbers Boosters have had no caves
or impenetrable canyons where they
or few of their number could lay in
wait and shoot down officers when the
latter came to look for them. The
fact is, the Roost is on a high knoll,
out on the open desert. where a view
can be had for many miles to every
point of the compass. There is not
enough water in sight to quench the
thirst of a coyote. The place is an old
only by an eruption of the earth, which
has thrown out a number of large
boulders. Nearby. however. there are
great cliffs and rugged mountains, in
which any number of men could sue
cessfully hide AMI defend themselves
from an invading foe. The idea that
the gang lived in a cave originated.
perhaps from the fact that up a big
ravine. and not far from the Roost. is
a large cave that local historians and
1.-The oldest inhabitant" say was. in
the days of the big cattiemen, used for
a corral This is not far from the main
Travelled road and has been used by
and cattle and sheepmen,
who have been in the country for GER
tain seasons. many and many years.
Like all other caves in out of the way
and inaccessible sections. this one has
the usual buried treasure fable, and
there has not been a season for years
that someone did not come along and
explore it for the buried treasure boxes
of Captain Kidd ct al.
Destroyed By Progress.
From conversations had with Off