The Colorado statesman., 1908-01-11
MANY INDICTMENTS.
For Illegal Fencing and Other Crime.
Against Uncle Sam.

Denver. - Twenty-nine indictments,
two of them against millionaires among
the most prominent citizens of Colo
RADIO and Wyoming, were returned
Thursday by the federal grand jury
that completed its labor and submitted
its findings to Judge Lewis.
The millfonaires accused are Edgar
n. Biggs, prominent lumberman of
Denver, and Ora Haley, cattle king of
Laramie, Wyoming, who controls ranch
and range property in all the impor
tant cattle states of the West.
Biggs is accused, with Welch w.
Nossaman, of conspiracy in acquiring
timber land for the New Mexico Lum-
Der company near Pagosa Springs.
Haley is accused of illegal fencing OF
10000 acres of range land near the
Colorado-Wyoming boundary.
In addition to these the principal in
dictments returned were against Viii
liam r. Mason and Joseph Wander
weide for conspiracy to murder Joseph
A. Walker, federal secret service agent.
who was shot by Vanderweide at the
Hesperus coal mine near Hesperus,
Colorado, November Sd, while engaged
in an investigation of the property.
Kemp V. Bigelow, the boy bomb
maker, now serving a sentence in the
state reformatory, was indicted on
three charges of using the mails to Sc
cure money by means of fraud. The
other indictments with the charges fol-
low:
Robert W. Bradley, alias Robert w.
Emison, counterfeiting; eight counts;
bond fixed at $4,000.
Moses Fisher, having counterfeit
coins in his possession; bonds $1,000.
Daniel Hansen and one Cochrane,
perjury in connection with land frauds
in the southern part of the state; bonds
for Hansen and Cochrane fixed at
81 900 each.
David H. Muir, violation of the oleo-
margarineAact; bonds $500.
j. Maurice Finn, a well known attor-
ney, Withholding pension accounts;
bonds 5000.
William H. Hawks and ]. l. Rawl, il
legal fencing of government lands;
bonds respectively $1,000 and $500.
David Meisner and William H.
Probst, stealing mail pouch bonds
$500.
Charles O. Erbaugh, using the mails
to defraud; bonds $1,500.
William Whelan and James Murphy,
using the mails to defraud; bonds
$4,000 each.
Charles ]. Keesee. sending obscene
matter through the mails; bonds
$1,000.
Charles Shawl, forging money order
Endorsements; two counts; bonds $500.
William H. Hildreth, postmaster at
Basalt, embezzling money order and
postal funds.
Claude l.. Meyer, making false affi-
davit; bonds $1,000.
Max Kaplan and ]. NJ. Princeton, de-
stroying evidence in federal case;
5000
One Buckley, sending obscene matter
through the mails, three counts; bonds
5000.
One Vanbuskirk, breaking car seals;
bonds $3.50.
D. Ormond and Abbott; bonds $100
each.
The indictment of Ora Haley, Hawks
and Rawl marks the beginning in this
state of the crusade planned by the
government against the big ranchmen
in all sections of the country who have
taken the liberty of fencing grazing
lands for their herds or tiocks, which,
if carried out according to the plans
mapped out in Washington, will
bring to life again the old conditions
of range riding and real cowboy herd
ing thtt is now practically obsolete.
Millions of acres of government
land, it is reported by the land office,
has been fenced by the cattle barons
to keep their herds within short dis
tance of the home ranches, that the eX-
pensive roundups and shipping drives
might be done away with. This land,
;t IL, &c n
less the cattlemen see fit to purchase
it under land office regulations they
have no right to set it aside as pri'
vate preserve.