The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-12
RANCHMAN SHOT
DOWN IN WYOMING
Bullet Fired by Hired Killer, So
Common in the State in
Times Past.
VICTIM Is THOMAS o'NEIL
ANOTHER CHAPTER IN FAMOUS
FEUD.
Especial to The Herald.)

Cheyenne, Wye, Feb. 11.-Tom
O'Neil, the Chalk Bluffs ranchman,
was shot by an unknown assassin at
his ranch twelve miles south of Chey-
enne Saturday afternoon, but will re-
cover. The bullet, a .30-.30, passed
through the f1eshy part of the left leg
between the knee and hip and lodged
in the right leg about five inches
above the knee. Cheyenne surgeons
were called to the ranch by telephone
and dressed the wounds.
The shot was fired by a, hired killer,
who adopted the tactics followed so
successfully for many years by the
late Tom Horn, the slayer of Willie
Nickel, Matt Rash. Isham Dart, VIII
liam Powell, William Lewis and
others, but, unlike Horn, he is a
coward and did not come close upon
his victim, as did Horn. In this case
the assassin fired from a distance of
at least a mile, not daring, evidently.
to come closer to O'Neil, for the bullet
had almost spent itself by the time it
reached its victim. The circumstances
show also that the assassin aimed at
ONeiPs body, the trajectory of the
bullet alone saving his life.
OGtSOH1S OF FeuQs
The shooting of O'Neil is but the
enacting of another chapter of the
O'Neil-O'BoyIe feud, which has been
on in Weld county, Colorado, and in
the southern part of this, Laramie.
county for several years. A few weeks
ago, while on the roundup the horse
of one of O'NeiPs cowboys was shot
from under him by the hidden assas-
81 Dot
and bitter enemy, was arrested for the
crime, but there was no evidence
against him and he was released.
HayStackS and outbuildings have
been burned, fences cut and stock
scattered, and unless one or the other
OF the feudists moves out of the coun-
try there will surely be a killing be-
fore long.
O'Boyle claims to be the injured
person, and points TO the fact that a
few years ago, while absent from his
ranch, some one broke in and, after
drilling small holes in the canned
goods, inserted deadly poison, and
then sOldered the holes over.
O'BoyIe came to Cheyenne Satur-
day; accompanied by his foreman, who
has also been suspected of shooting at
O'NeiPs cowboys, SO as to prove an
alibi, and, strangely enough, inserts
a notice in local paper offering a re-
ward for the arrest of the persons
guilty of cutting O'NeiTs fences and
scattering the cattle over his.
O'BoyIe's, range. This was the first
notice the public had received that the
fences had been cut.
O'NeiI Has Little to Say.
O'Neil was called up over the teie-
phone yesterday. He had little to say
regarding the shooting He has his
own ideas as to who is directly re-
sponsible for the attempt upon his
life. He says he was rounding UP cat
tie about two miles from his ranch.
and about six miles south of the Colo
rado-Wyoming line, in Weld county.
He had dismOunted TO pick up a stone
when he felt a sharp sting in his legs,
and soon fell to the ground. He did
not hear shot fred or see any smoke,
but he knew he had been shot. With
great difficulty he crawIed into the
saddle and rode home and reported
the matter to Cheyenne.
Sheriff Smalley has been notified.
and in turn notified the sheriff of Weld
county, and together they will do
everything possible to run down Tom
Horns successor.