The Green Forest tribune., 1902-08-16


 ceeding, he bolted for wheat } field close by. At the edge of the
 field he stumbled, falling on his face, and crawled into the grain on his hands and knees.
 Shortly after Tracy disappear ed a shot was heard from the direction of the wheat field. No investigation was made, however, until this morning. As soon as dawn came an entrance was made into the wheat field. Tracy dead body was found lying amid the grain with his face turned toward the sky.
 The body and personal effects were taken to Davenport.
 Tracy was about 35 years old. No one knows just where he came from, but he is thought to have been born in Boston. He began life as miner in Creede, Colo., where he was the support of his aged mother. The woman whom he was engaged to marry, Anna Montgomery, eloped with his dearest friend, a miner named Conway. Soon after the couple returned to Creede Conway's dead body was found in a gulch and Tracy had fled. Within the next few years Tracy killed Valentine Hoy, a ranchman of Routt county, Colo.; bound and gagged the sheriff of Aspen county and started for Oregon. He became confirmed desperate and saw the inside of several prisons.
 In Portland, one of the cities near which Tracy piled his trade of robber and "hold up" man, he shot an old man who refused to surrender his property. For this and other crimes he and Merrill were urgently sought by the police of Portland and other Oregon and Washington com munities. This was in February, 1899.
 They first caught David Merrill , who lived with his mother, brother and stepsister. The police surrounded the Merrill house and finally caught the man hid ing in a bureau full of clothes. From Merrill s mother they learn F ed where Tracy was and sent 8 message in Merrill's name, ask- ing him to meet a disguised de- tective named Weiner. Tracy was being led by Weiner into an am- bush when he became suspicious 1 and suddenly jumped into lo- i, comotive that was passing slowly , by them, shooting the detectiv e i, in the face from the cab. He then compelled the engineer, at the pistols point, to go head at full
 speed. The news was telephoned a head and Tracy was surrounded f by mob. A plucky butcher knocked him down and held him until he was taken by the officers, one of whom was the man he had wounded. The two criminals :. were then lodged in Portland jail
 Within two months they were , tried and convicted of several robberies. Tracy was sentenced to twenty years and Merrill tc i, thirteen years in the Oregon
 state penitentiary in Salem. r A chronology of Tracy's career :, since making his escape from the :, penitentiary runs like this: Killed 8 four men, three guards and one ] convict to get out of prison. The l next night he returned to Salem ] and robbed citizen stripping ] him of his clothing and with his 0 pal Merrill stole a team of horses r and made for Portland. The <. day they robbed the posse ir e pursuit and took horse anc y buggy.
 l On June 12 they broke through
 a cordon of 250 militia and escap, t ed. On the IA they stole two o horses at Oregon City and rodt , through the suburbs of Portland
 and the next day forced thei r passage over the Columbia river h On the 1T they exchanged h shots with a posse and Tracs r wounded deputy sheriff. A
 Ridgefield they stole two horses 8 and continued their flight. Or y the 23 they robbed a residence a y Lacenter of clothing and cash e, ,l okU o1e "nch