The Saint Paul globe., 1900-03-18

with $1S,5OO Three years later he rode
into South McAlester one summer after
noon hitched his bucksllin mare before
the bank door. and few minutes later
walked out with $4,000 leaving two men
dead. This and other equally desperate
deeds cost him his freedom. A posse
captured him after a battle in the foot
hills near Dead Horse mountain, in the
Illinois district of the Indian territory,
and he was jailed at Fort Smith Not
even then did his criminal record cease.
In an attempt to escape he killed two
guards and with one arm shot from the
shoulder was taken back to his CELL
Then justice came with rope and a
priest, and the place which knew him
waited long for his presence, The old
beam was
PARTIAL TO MEN.
but occasionally served for q woman's
execution. Thus it was that Margaret
Yancy, school girl trusting maiden, un-
welded wife, murderess. mule driver in
disguise and hnally the leader of an
outlaw band which preceded the elder
Dalton and his followers. ended her
eVentful life upon it. The daughter of a
respected lawyer in a thriving Arkansas
town before the war. she died the worst
of criminals, mourned by none. Two
weeks after her execution, "Verdigris
Kid seventeen years old at his death,
went the way of all the rest after short
but meteoric career. Having killed a
friend in a drunken frolic, he took to the
road, murdered and robbed with the
frantic haste of one craZed with the
scent of blood and stretched rope with
the rest. Strangely enough his execution
was followed by that of Shadow Pare
sin" u lank Georgian of the cracker
stamp, whose father Verdigris killed for
the sake of $l5. Paregin followed the
Kid like a hound for months. Their
duels We're frequent, but by a chance
neither was killed. Faregin was shot
through the lung at one time, through
the arm at another and through the
thign, laming him for life, at a third
meeting The Kid Jared likewise for in
juries He WAS Shadows bitterest
enemy and often sWOre that if ne lived
long enough he would see him drawn
and QUarlered.
But it was Henry Star, the cleverest.
most gentlemauiy and shrewdest outlaw
who ever lived in the Southwest, VINO
cheated the old beam. A train robbeF by
instinct and gifted with surprising Grim
inal genius, he made a haul of $4,000 and
lived like a prince at Colorado Springs
under the very eyes Of the government
officers, who were looking for him. for
two years. Then an old man who had
known him when boy, recognized him
on the street one afternoon, give him up
and pocl,eted $2J 600 for his trouble. Six
men were killed in various affairs in
which Star was concerned. He was
jailed al Fort Smith IN the notorious
''Mmderers' Row" and for eight years
went tC trial for his life regularly. Three
times he conducted his own defense and
despite the best efforts of the govern
ment attorneys, was never convicted. At
one time so certain was his conviction
that the
JAILER ORDERED A ROPE
for the execution 1t was purchased, test.
ed and laid away. A chance turn and
Star was again safe. The rope was never
used. A portion of it is now in Stars
possession He is confined at the gov
ernment Jail, Columbus. O.
Not the least interesting anecdOte in
the history Of the beam recounts that old
Uncle Dick" the jailer, had portion of
it turned into a gavel about the time Of
the Republican national convention at
st. Louis in 1886 Polish and vanished
and bound with three solid silver rings.
the gavel looked very proper and re-
spectacle. 1t was sent to the chairman
of the convention with the request that
it be used in the deliberations of the
convention.
The Republicans wouldn't be hoodooed,
however. The gavel was returned and
as Il result, Mckinley was nominated.
There are men in Arkansas today who
hold that had it been used, the nominee
of the convention would have been de-
feated and a good Democrat elected in