The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1907-08-09
40 TO HARVEST FIELDS.
Crooks Plan to Get Part Of Crop
Money.

kOta have received Information to the
effect that the usual number Of expert
cracksmen and general all-around
'Yeggmen" are accompanying the in.
fux of harvest hands to South Dakota,
and in anticipation of more than the
usual number Of hold-ups and robber.
les of the smaller banks and postof-
fees are exercising the utmost Wig
lance in the effort to weed out the
crooks and reduce the number of rob
berries and crimes to the lowest posi-
BILE limit.
Harvest and threshing time is a ia.
vorite season of the year for the
cracksmen to carry on their opera.
tons in South Dakota and the other
great wheat growing states. At this
time Of the year there are thousands
of strangers distributed over the state,
and by the expert cracksmen posing
as harvest hands it makes it exceed.
ingly difficult for peace officers to de.
tect them prior to the commission by
them of a bank robbery, postoftice rob.
berry or other serious cine.
The presence of the thousands Of
strangers in the state also makes it
difficult for the officers to locate and
arrest the yeggmen after they have
made a killing" by holding up some
bank Of postof1ice. 1t is easy for the
craftsmen to mingle with the genuine
harvest hands and thus cap detec.
ton, and at the same time watch their
opportunity to make another killing"
In the guise of harvest hands they
have frequent opportunities to visit
the interior towns of the state, spec.
tally on Sundays when most of the
harvest hands congregate in the towns
for a little vacation, and during these
visits they can familiarize themselves
with the surroundings Of the banks
and postofices and lay their plans for
other robberies.
During recent years many Of the
yeggmen have been wise enough to
leave the postoffices severely alone,
owing to the persistency with wiz.
Capt. Seth Bullock, United States mar
shall fog South Dakota, and his ef-
ficient deputies follow the train of
those who have been bold and reckless
enough to modest the poStoffices Of
Uncle Sam. But although the princi-
pal efforts of the yeggmen are confined
to the banks Of the smaller towns,
which have large deposits at this sea-
son of the year when the crop has to
be moved, they occasionally yet make
a killing by attacking postofices.
A lower class of the crooks who join
the influx of harvest hands to South
Dakota, and who pose as harvest
hands themselves, confine their efforts
to robbing their more energetic COM
panions,-the genuine harvest hands
who by the sweat Of their brow earn
the money which the crooks covet and
which they succeed in securing by fair
means or foul. If they cannot secure
the money as the result of trickery
n cards, they do not hesitate to beat
their intended victims into a state Of
Inconsistencies and then rob them of
their hard-earned dollars.
In some instances this class of
crooks do not hesitate to take human
life in order to secure possession of
the money for which their victims
have worked in the harvest fields Of
the state. Each season this class of
crooks commit from two or three to
half a dozen murders, the bodies of
their victims usually being found at
some unfrequented spot, where they
have been inveigled by the desperate
crooks and then murdered and robbed
by them.
During the harvest and threshing
season last year about half a dozen
crimes of this nature were committed
in the agricultural portion of the state,
and in nearly every instance there was
not a single clue to the identity of the
m%urderers and no arrests could be
made. The crooks are shrewd enough
not to leave any clues and the officers
have been compelled to abandon eff
forts to locate and arrest the murder
ers.
Although the present harvesting and
threshing season has scarcely opened.
several murders already have been
committed by this lower and more des-
perate class of crooks, who were early
on the ground this season. In only one
instance have the authorities been able
to secure sufficient evidence to war
rant an arrest, and the other cases.
like those of former years, have re-
NAMED unsolved mysteries.
The state peace officers and the Uni
ted States authorities of South Dakota.
owing to the prosperous times during
harvesting and threshing seasons have
had to deal with some of the sharpest
and most desperate yeggmen and
crooks in the United States, who are
drawn to this part of the country at
this season of the year by the excel
lent opportunities which are afforded
them to make big killings" in their
line OF endeavor.
To-