Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-09-05
tom KETCHUM TAKEN TO CLAYTON.
He Must Stand Trial for Holding Up a
Train,


Tom Ketchum, alias Black Jack, the
daring outlaw and bandit, was quietly
taken from the penitentiary on Monday
morning last and under the escort of
Deputy us. Marshal F. W. Hall and
Sheriff ii. c. Kinsell was taken to Clay.
ton for trial in the district court for
Union county. Reasonable precautions
were taken for the safe delivery of the
prisoner at his destination, but Marshal
Foraker declined to order special train
and deputize an army of guards as sug-
gested by some of the up-country people
who felt sure that an organized band
would attempt the rescue of Black Jack
between Trinidad and Clayton. The
prisoner was held over night at Trinidad
as a precautionary measure, however.
and taken to Clayton yesterday morning
on special train over the Colorado &
Southern road. Special Agent W, II.
Reno, of the latter road met the officers
from Santa Fe and the prisoner at Trim
dad and accompanied them to the Union
county jail, and there force of special
officers is on duty about the jail and
court house to see to it that members OF
the old Black Jack gang who are sup
posed yet to be infesting the Texas
border make an attempt to effect his
release from custody, for Ketchum is
now in pretty tight place and he and
his friends are fully aware of it.
Some six months or more ago he was
arraigned before the U. S. district court
at Las Vegas and very cunningly enter
ed plea of guilty, the charge being the
penalty for which does not exceed ten
years imprisonment. But the court sus-
pended sentence until other cases are
,haard against the faaons bandit. s:ow
he goes on trial at Clayton on the charge
of train robbery, which, under the New
Mexico statutes, is capital offense
punishable by death, and if he is con-
victed there death sentence will likely
follow, but if conviction fails, he will
either be given ten years Imprisonment
under his plea of guilty in the Las Vegas
hearing or be sent to Arizona to answer
the charge of murder
In April year ago, a month before he
held up the Colorado & Southern tain,
he killed two men, named Winfield and
Rogers in store at Camp Verde, Ariz.,
making good his escape. If he doesn't
escape, he is bound to hang, and with
him dies the most intrepid and daring
bandit the southwest has ever seen.
The story of how ''Biack Jack" held
up the Forth Worth express in Union
county, is dramatic in its daring. Fol-
lowing the example of the former disas-
trous hold-up, he climbed on to the
"blind baggage" between the tender
and the baggage car at Folsom. As the
train left the town he crawled with a
rifle slung across his back over the
tender and, covering the engineer and
fireman in the cab, ordered them to stop
the train, which they did. He then Or
dered them to uncouple the engine and
60 down the track. As they stepped to
one side, the moon came out from bank
of clouds and as the conductor of the
train looked out of the coach to see why
the engineer had stopped, "Black Jack"
presented an exceptionally good target.
The train crew, by orders of the division
superintendent, carried firearms to be
on the alert for another attack. The
conductor raised his shotgun, took deli
berate aim at Ketcham and fired.
The horse and rider disappeared in the
mountains and hot fight with the
bandits, during which Black Jacks
brother was killed and he himself was
captured few days later and brought
to Santa Fe to the pententiary, where
blood poison having set in, his wounded
arm was amn,tatad