Sunday morning globe., 1901-08-25

WN ~ NV a. MANlH MAHhANh MHANf NC
Guire said to his companion.
When they had cleared away the
snow to a depth of four feet they came
upon pool OF blood tnat had frozen
upon the broken surface Of an earlier
fall Of snow. with this evidence in
sight Mcclure and his companion pro
ceeded to uncover the trail TO that
depth for a distance of 1875 feet one
way by eight feet in another Some
OF this work was done while the ther-
mOmeter indicated 40 degrees below
zero At last they accomplished the
work, and then they had uncovered the
entire scene Of the murder and found
where the men had been shot to death.
Mcclure made a report of his nnd,
and men we're sent out to seek OBnen
and Graves. Mcclure, however, con-
tinued to study O'Buens camp. The
bodies were still to be found and un-
less they could be shown the case
against the suspected murderers would
not hold water. IL was week before
Mcclure hit upon the hidden trail lead
ing from the rear OF the camp by a
circuitous course back to the river, but
wnen he did find 1t he followed II to
the end as a bloodhound follows a
scent It led him back to the river
at a point where the ice had been cut
through. Evidence OF this was shown
by several large cakes Of it piled up
beside the opening which had frozen
over again.
I'VE Il need dynamite for this job, "
--cUuire said, and he and his com
panion tramped back to Mimic for the
explosive and for help to explore the
river.
Three acres Of ice were blown up
with dynamite. In places it had been
jammed and was l6 feet thick. When
this space had been cleared the bot
tom OF the river was dragged thorough
ly, ut the bodies were not found.
They had been swept down the river
by the current. and IL was months af-
terward and miles below that they
lOated ashore when the ice broke up.
But they were well preserved, and the
condition Of each served to strengthen
the theory of Mcclure that they had
been snOt from behind. Besides other
wounds, each man had been shot
through the head, and the prosecution,
following out McGuire's theory con.
tended that these latter shots had
been fired after the attack to make GER
tain that the men were dead.
One Of the bits of evidence gathered
by Mcclure which served to establish
the fact that these men had been mur-
dered near O'Brien's camp was hui
man tooth which MCGUIRE had found
in the pool of blood he FIRST uncovered.
That tooth fitted into the lower jaw
Of Rene, having been driven out by the
bullet Jnat killed him.
OBrien was caught near Tagish by
mounted police, and taken to Dawson
City Graves has never been seen
since the murders we're committed.
o Brien says that he went away" He
has always denied that either he or
Graves committed the murders but
that peculiar freak nugget was found
on him when he was arrested, as well
as other things belonging to the muir
dered men. These, he claimed, had
been given to him by some men who
had stopped over at his camp.
When tie case against O'Brien for
the murder Of Relfe came up for trial
in Dawson it was seen that the gov
ernment was determined that he
should not escape the penalty Of his
crimes. Eighty witnesses, one OF them
coming a distance Of 5000 mnes to tes-
tify, had been summoned to tell of his
previous bad character and Of the cir
cumstances which pointed him out as
the murderer. One Of the most start
ling pieces of testimony given in the
trial was that Of one Chris Williams.
He. tostidad that ia loIS he met O'Brien
I'm Juneau, and o Brien proposed 20
him to go to the Yukon country and
enter into a wholesale highway rob
berry and murder business and throw
the bodies under the ice. O'Brien said,
he testified. that no one would be the
wiser. Williams re piled to O'Brien
that he was not in that kind OF bust
ness, and dropped the subject.
The trial lasted 13 days. O'Brien
seemed amused at the proceedings.
"They haven't anybody to swear that
he saw me do ~ he said over and
over again. They can't convict But
they did. The jury was out less than
two hours, when 1t returned with a
verdict Of guilty Later, when OBrien
was called into court to be sentenced
and he was asked If he knew Of any
reason why sentence of death should
not be passed upon him, he stood up
and said, There are just five reasons %
and made a rambling address to the
Court. i'm which none Of the five rea-
sons was given.
He wih be hanged on August %, and
1t is believed that when he realizes
that escape is impossible he will make
a confession That confession, IL is
confidently expected, viii clear up
more mysterious disappearances than
that one of his partner in crime,
Graves.
It mas developed that OBrien is an
assumed name, and that the man left
a paper disclosing his real identity.
It is believed that he is OF good family,
and that his real name and lineage,
when disclosed. will create a sensation.