Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-09-17
JOHN DOES NAME
is MADE KNOWN
Unnamed Defendantin BOrah
Case Said to Be Ex-GOy.
Steunenberg


defendants indicted with Senator w.
E. Borah for land frauds is none other
than the late Ex-Governor Frank B.
Steunenberg of Idaho.
This disclosure, by far the most
sensational in recent months in con-
nection with federal prosecutions in
the West, leaked out this morning.
The statement Is absolutely authentic.
The government authorities refuse to
give official confirmation of the con-
nection of the murdered Idaho COVER
nor with the alleged land conspiracy,
yet from sources absolutely relieble it
has been learned thet Steunenberg
was actually indicted.
Senator Borah was indicted last
March for completely in the alleged
land grabs of the Barber Lumber
company. Most of the details of the
/ Indictment were made public for the
first time on September 4 at Boise,
Idaho, where the trial is to be held
The list of defendants was made pub
| lie, and in the list was one man desig-
mated as John Doe. There was more
or less speculation as to the real ideh-
tity of this mysterious defendant.
John Doe is Governor Steunenberg.
| 1t is another page in the dark his
tory of the West by which men, living
and dead, are bound together lin a
chain of circumstances that can not b.
dissolved by any degree of dissimi-
larity or mutual opposition. Steunen-
berg. the murdered governor; Hay
wood, Meyer and Pettibone accused of
the murder; Borah, already under in
dictment prosecuting the defendants;
Borah in his turn, on trial in the
courts, and Steunenberg, long ago in
his grave, names as co-defendant-
thus runs the strange story that has
continued year after year. in the his
tory of the troubled affairs of the
Western states.
Why the connection of Governor
Steunenberg with the alleged land
fraud conspiracy has SO long been kept
secret by the government officials is a
subject for speculation. 1t is not hard,
however, to find motive for the con-
cealment The indictment was return
ed few months before the Haywood
trial opened in Boise. The govern :
ment, to speak mildly, was not oveE.a
partial to Haywood's side of the case.
II at that time it had been found out
that the murdered governor was ac-
! cused by the government of having
participated in a gigantic piracy of
public lands, the effect upon the Hay
wood trial might have been very mark
ed. So the officials "sewed up the
most startling part Of the Borah story,
and so carefully was the secret guard
ed by the government sleuths that not
until today, half year after the in
dictments We're returned, did the
slightest hint leak out that the indict-
ment of United States senator was
not the biggest sensation connected
with the case.
Death Saved Him.
Just how the dead governor will be
connected With the trial does not APP
pear. Naturally, even the United
States government can not fine or inn
prison a dead man. 1t is understood
however, that all the evidence con-
Meeting Steunenberg with the alleged
gigantic land grab will be brought ont
in the trial. Probably the government
considers the evidence necessary in or
der to establish the existence of a con-
spiracy which will involve the other
defendants
The land grab alleged in the Borah
Indictment is one of the biggest in the
history of land piracy in the United
states. 1t is charged that by a con.
splracy the defendants secured az mn
acres OF valuable timber land fo~ the
BARBER Lumber company The land
concerned is located in Boise county.
ana the means by which the fraud was
alleged to have been contaminated q,
fraudulent entry. The land involvaa
is valued at $1,000 900.
The defendants will have senarat r.
trials, and the first, that Of Senator
6orah Is set for September 2s. Borah
VIII be represented by James H Haw-
ley who was associated with him ~
the Haywood case The governn,ant
prosecution will be in the hands Of M.
G. Burch and s. R. Rush, assistant at
torney general of the United states.
L. c. Wheeler. head of the Denver SCI
cret service Office. which has charge Of
the government investigation OF land
frauds in the Western states, will pre-
pare the evidence to be used in the
trial