Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1903-05-18
A BAD MANS FINISH.
How Jim Crandall Killed Two Too
Many Cinnamon in Tucson.
done?


Many Cinnamon in Tucson.
1--WE met up with lot of bad men,
some of whose annals have kept the
scribesmen of the western states busy,
but The hardest man that l ever saw
was a grubstake fellow l met up with
about a dozen times while / was as
signed to the Navajo and MOqui
tribes" said an>inspectOr of Indian
agencies. He lived in Tucson when
he wasn't up in the Santa Anita noun
tains looking for pay dust, and for
several years he was the chief con-
tributor of inert subjects to that little
white cemetery that lies TO the west
of the town, more or less covered
with yellow sand. His name was Jim
Crandall. Jim was six feet six inches
in stature, and he weighed $50 pounds.
Every pound that he mad on him was
bear meat-that is TO say. his lie in
the mountains, after the quartz, kept
him down to the minute.
But Jim never used his strength
except TO show off. | suppose there
was not a man in the southwest that
could have COPIED with him in
straightout match of strength, but he
Always leaned TO the bowie and the
gun in close quarters, so that none OF
his victims ever had a chance to feel
the CLASP of his gorilla arms. Sober,
Jim was as mild a man as ever slit
an oesophagus, but when he got about
four rounds OF juniper juice in him
he was a worse terror than a desert
mirage to the sand Indians. Before
met him he had slaughtered seven
men, five of them in straight gun
fights and two in knife plays, and he
had always contrived to duck the law
and make a getaway on the ground of
self. defense, which IS certainly a main
ground down in the southwest terri
tories.
Its a thing l don't like to mention,
but | happened to be with Crandall on
the night he made his lose-Out. He
had just got back from old Mexico,
where he had been doing a dodge-Out
for a year after killing Buck Evans,
the marshal of Tucson, and at the sup
per hour that | met him he was in
several fashions dangerous. But he
had acquired a habit in previous meet
ings of leaning upon me-a reed to
lean upon-and so | didn't care how
he acted so long as he kept within the
bounds of reason. We went to
Chink feed outfit and ordered a stack
of birds nests-which used to mean
in the southwest steak smothered in
onions and French fried potatoes
and / addressed myself to the task of
trying to clip some of the feathers of
of Jim's paradise-bird stories of the
Santa Anita mountains.
81 was just telling Crandall that he
was rough and uncouth and that he
wore too many guns on his person to
suit my cityfied civilized game, when
Jim-the mesquite juice that he had
taken dragging along inside of him
looked up.
Jimmy he said to me, I've got
a big kill on, and I hate Chinks,' and
just then the two assistants of the
Chinese proprietor of the restaurant
walked in, slidingly, with their soft
sandals.
Let 'em go said to Crandall
when saw him going for mis- guns.
They're only parasites, and what do
you care?'
This much said Jim, just as the
two soft-footed Cinnamon were pass
ing into the kitchen.
He pulled both of his guns out, and
bawled Stand still!' to the two China
men. They both came to a halt right
abafI the kitchen.
"'You like die?' said Crandall then
to the two Chinese. and, without a
further word. he plugged both of them
through the heart.
"The Tucson vigilance outfit got
Jim about 10 minutes later. and he
made the most horrible fight for his
lie that I ever witnessed. But San
Francisco doctor has got Jim's bones
nova doctor with whom | am on
terms-and every time that l go out
to the Gate he gives me a peek at
Crandall's dried skull and says.
Aren't you glad you are good" "
WaSuin ctOn Star