The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1903-03-19
Pursuit Has Been Con-
tinuOuS for More Than
Five Years.
CRIME OF FUGITIVE
Ambushed Two Men Near
Minton on Yukon and
Shot Them Down.

With the shadow of black crime hang
Ing over him hunted murderer passed
through Butte last week and vanished.
One of the men who have followed him
for five years over more than half of
North America left the city yesterday.
The story of the murder and OF the chase
after one Of the murderers is probably
the strangest in modern criminal history.
The hunted man has travelled through
much of Alaska and nearly every one of
the Western states since he fed from the
spot where he and George OBrien shot
down three Yukon Prospectors. He is the
second murderer from that section who has
come through Montana during the past
year. Peter Fourner, recently hanged at
Dawson for similar deed, was the other.
Canadian officers captured Fournier after
following him through Butte to Idaho.
Had it not been for the fact that the
Canadian secret service official who stopped
in Butte to pick up the trail of Graves, was
recognized by an acquaintance, the history
of this second pursuit would probably
never have come out until its termna-
ton. 1t is an example of the dogged per-
sistencc OF the dominion officials in such
cases.
The Murder.
In the winter Of I8oS-oo George OBrien
and George, alias "Cockney" Graves, am
bushed Linn, Reife, George Clayton and
lneman named Olson on the Yukon river,
near Mnton. They had prepared place
on lonely stretch Of the frozen river TO
commit series OF murders for robbery.
They drove their victims at the point OF
rifles into blind trail in the thick brush.
There O'Brien shot down two men, while
Graves clubbed the other to death. They
robbed the bodies. Then they found that
Olson, who was dominion telegraph lire
man, would be missed in day or two, so
they burned all bits of clothing and threw
the bodies into a water hole They then
fled. Two feet of snow fell over the
place.
A month later a Canadian mounted po-
liceman Penniquick by name, discovered,
through the strange actions of an Esqui-
mau dog, that blood lay beneath the snow.
A faint brown stain showed, where the
sun ha4 melted away the white covering.
Peuniquick went to work with a pointed
stick and spent two months scraping away
the snow, until he picked up every scrap
of evidence, finding articles as small as a
common pin. In this manner, and by ex-
actly locating each bit of shattered bone,
each blood clot and every broken twig, he
mapped out the crime so that he was able
to show a jury afterward where each man
stood and what he did.
OBrien was captured during the winter.
The bodies were found in the spring. 1t
took a jury but IS minutes to decide the
prisoner guilty. He was hanged a year
ago last September.
The public thought this was the end of
the case. AS matter of fact it has occu-
pied the attention of the Canadian secret
service officials ever since. Graves who
helped in the commission Of the crime,
fled down the river. Passing Dawson on
the ice in the night, he went to the Tanana
country. There he remained until summer
He fed to Nome, when he learned by
chance that officers were still on his trail.
Then he went to Seattle.
Was Close After Him.
In that city he met a countryman. They
talked and drank together. He left town,
and the next day Canadian secret service
officer was asking his companion concern
ing their conversation. The fact that pur-
sued and pursuer passed through Seattle
was never known to the public. The man
to whom Graves talked was Denver Ed.
Smith, a former prizefghter.
oIdNSo hab DSNh d sahoi anu ihio ihNt
kept him near the coast. He was unable
to get berth at any opportune time and
he dared not lurk too long in any of the
seaport towns. As consequence he made
for the interior. He had spent part of
his life as tramp and he went from place
to place with other tramps. He shipped
couple of times on railroad construction
work and on each occasion left the camp
in which he was employed without notice.
The presence of strangers caused this.
During the winter he came to Montana.
He stopped for time in Great Falls, and
from that city he came to Butte. Here he
remained two or three days it is stated,
spending most of his time in saloons. He
slipped out again, few days before a we'll
known Canadian secret service officer ar
rived. This man secured rooms in a lodg-
ing house and searched for a couple of
days to get some trace of Graves. He told
friend who had at one time worked with
the service of his mission. 1t was not until
he had left the city that the facts leaked
out.