The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-02-16
NORTHERN PACIFIC CANNOT SET
TIE ON CLAIMANT.
NAMES new DEFENDANTS
Asks Relief from Responsibility Of
Determining Who Is Entitled
to Reward.

Disguised with the wrangle and de-
spairing of ever being able to pay
the money to the rightful claimant,
the Northern Pacific now proposes to
clear itself of all liability in the mat
ter of the reward offered for the ar
rest and conviction of the parties
who earlier in the winter attempted to
wreck it's trains with dynamite be-
cause of refusal to pay the blackmail
demanded of it's officers.
With the arrest and conviction OF
Gravelle the company's troubles be-
gan. Men almost without number
demanded the money, each claiming
that he alone was entitled to it, as
to him vas the company indebted for
the sequestration of the dynamiter.
Among the most insistent claimants
was the Helena chief of police, Thorn
as Travis. AS Oon as Gravelle was
convicted he demanded the full
amount of the reward, $4,000. The
company declined to pay him and he
entered suit in the district court for
recovery of the amount. Disregard
ing the action of the Helena sleuth,
the other fellows who believed them
selves entitled to compensation con-
tinued to press the company and have
claims pending. Last Saturday the
company made a o that was some
what of a surprise. Through its at
torney it deposited the amount OF
the reward with the clerk of the dis
trict court and gave notice of a mo-
ton to be relieved of all responsibility
in the suit and for the substitution
OF the other claimants as defendants
in the action.
Wants These Named.
In the notice it is set forth that in
addition to Travis, Frank Latta, A. G.
Reynolds, Bert Coty, Michael Sheri-
dan and Robert Collins have made
claim for the money. 1t is asked that
these parties be named as defendants
in the action, in place of the com
pany, in order that the relative merits
of the several claims may be decided
in a judicial manner
Accompanying the notice was an
affidavit in which the circumstances
of the offering of the reward and the
conviction of Gravelle are
that the company is willing and ready
to pay the reward offered, but that
several demands have been made,
it is unwilling to Judge between the
claimants, and that the said com
pany is ready and willing to deposit
and does herewith deposit with the
clerk of this court the said $4,000,
and asks to be relieved of further liza
'bility in said action"
They All Assisted.
Some speculation is INDUCED in as
to why the name of Major James
Keown, who headed the posse that
accomplished the actual arrest of Ora |
velle does not appear in the notice of
the company. Latta and Reynolds
were with Keown and assisted in ar
resting Gravelle. At the trial they
furnished important testimony for the
prosecution. Coty was probably the
best witness, and in addition
is credited with having supplied the
with clues that led them to
suspect the real culprit. Sheridan
and Collins are the men who saw
Gravelle at the haystack zeal Vose
and in which dynamite was found.
On top of this it is still further claim
ed that Sheridan's Identification of a
photograph Oh Gravelle as the man
he saw at the stack was directly re-
%sponsible for Gravelle's arrest shortly
afterward.
In his complaint Travis alleges
that he alone furnished the informa-
ton which led to the arrest of the
guilty man.
You Should Buy lard at A. ]. Oils.