Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-12-08
BOB AMMON'S.
CAREER ENDED
FINISH OF THE MAN WHO STlRR
Ed THINGS UP IN FERGUS
COUNTY.

In the American Illustrated Maya.
zine for December there Is an interest
ing article on the connection of Col
onel Bob" AmmOn with the motor.
ious FRANKLIN get-rich-quick syndicate,
written by Arthur Train. The writ.
err apepars to know what he is talking
about.
There is Montana interest to the
story as Ammon once lived in this
state, making his headquarters at
Great Falls and carrying On mining Op-
erations in the Gilt Edge district. Dur
ing his stormy career as mining
promoter he had numerous clashes
with deputy sheriffs seeking to serve
attachments and once or twice narrow
ly escaped being killed. He left the
state in disgust about ten years ago
to resume operations in Wall street as
plunger. Then came his connection
with the Miller or FRANKLIN syndicate
and his conviction. He is now serv-
ing time in the Sing Sing penitentiary.
Conviction "Due" Him.
When Robert A. Ammon, member
Of the New York bar, who lived in
Pittsburg before coming to New York,
was convicted, after long trial, on
the 18th of June, 1903, of receiving
stolen goods, he had, in the parance
Of his class. been due" for a long
time, writes Mr. Train. The stolen
property in question was the sum of
$30.5o0 in greenbacks, part of the loot
OF the notorious "Franklyn syndicate"
devised and engineered by William F.
Uh LOT ~
or his legal adviser, the subject of
this story.
For years Bob" Ammon had been
familiar figure in the Wall street
district of New York. Although the
legal adviser of swindlers and conf
dence men. he was a type of American
whose energies, if turned in a less du-
hious direction, might well have
brought him honorable distinction.
Tall, strong as a bull, bluff, good
natured, reckless and of iron nerve. he
would have given good account of
himself as an Indian fighter or from
tlersman. His fine presence. his
great vitality, his coarse humor, his
confidence an, bravado won for him
many friends of a certain kind and en-
gendered feeling among tne pub
lie that somehow, although the asso-
ciate and adviser of criminals, ne was
outside the law, to the circumventing
OF which his energies were directed.
The Franklin syndicate" had col
lapsed amid the astOnished outcries of
/ its thousands of victims. on NOvem-
Der "a. 1899, when, under the advice,
and with the assistance of AmmOn, its
| organizer. 1920 per cent Miller" had
fed to Canada. 1t was nearly four
years later in June, 1903. that Ammon,
arraigned at the bar of justice as a
criminal. heard Assistant District At.
torney Mott call William F. Miller,
convict to the stand to testify against
him. A curious contrast they pre-
sented as they faced one another: the
emaciated youth of 25, the hand of
death already tightly fastened upon
his meager frame, coughing, hollow
checked, insignificant. flat-nosed, al
most repulsive, who dragged himself
to the witness chair, and the swagger-
ing athlete who glared at him from
the bar surrounded by his Gordon of
| able counsel
Trial of Ammon.
The trial of AmmOn involved prac-
tlcally the reprOving of the case
against Miller, for which the latter
had been convicted and sentenced to
ten years in state prison, whence he
now issued like one from the tomb to
point the skeleton, discriminating fling.
er at his betrayer. But the case be.
gan by the convictwitness testify
ing that the whole business was mis-.
cradle fraud from start to finish car
ried on and guided by the advice of
the defendant. He told how he a
mere boy of 81, burdened with sick
wife and baby. untitled by training
and ability for any sort of lucrative
employment. hanger-on of bucket
shops and, in his palmiest days, a
Spectator in tiny lots of feebly mar
gined stocks. finding himself without