Bisbee daily review., 1908-01-24
HUNTER WAS
BAD MAN in
COLORADO
Man Killed AT Superior Was An
AIIround Bad Man and Fugi-
tive From Colorado Peace
Officers.

GLOBE, Jan. 2S.-The complete
identity of George Ditmore alias
Hunter, who was shot down with A. J.
Daggs at Superior on January l. has
been established. Ditmore fed from
Colorado during the heat of the Grip
pie Greek strike to avoid prosecution
for the coldblooded murder Of John
Crowley, peaceable miner. and foa
shooting down without warrant for
mer Congressman John Glover in his
during the great strike of 1904.
Ditmore was notorious gun man
having figured in the Couer d'Alene
strike. He entered the CRIPPLE Creek
district shortly after martial law was
declared and worked with the militia
and for a time as deputy sheriff under
Sheriff Bell, who was placed in office
over Sheriff Henry Robinson by the
members of the mine owners assoeia-
ton and citizens committee. He was
particularly offensive to members of
the Western Federation and subjected
them to all manner Of abuses. Dur
ing the strike a number of miners left
Victor and Cripple Creek and went
to Dunville, a small station on the
Florence and Cripple Creek railroad.
where they engaged in prospecting.
They We're attacked by members of
the militia and number of deputy
sheTiffs and several of the prospect
ors were taken as prisoners. John
Crowley, an inoffensiye, hard-work-
ing miner and one of the most peace
able in the district, was among the
prisoners, and he was captured by
George Ditmore. a member of the at
lacking party. After they had carried
Crowley quite a distance from the
scene of the attack, Ditmore announc-
ed that they had taken him far enough
and taking a six-shooter from his
belt shot Crowley dead in cold blood.
A few weeks prior to this, Sherman
Bell, then in charge Of the troops, gave
an order that all private citizens be
relieved of firearms Of all kinds. John
Glover, a prominent lawyer and a pro-
nounced friend of labor, was practicing
in Cripple Creek and among Other
things had a gun in his Office. Dit
more went to Glover's Office in the
capacity of a deputy sheriff and de-
manded the gun. Glover refused to
give it up and he was shot by Dit
more in the shoulder and through the
arm. Glover caused Ditmore's arrest
but he was released on bond, and
fed from the district before his case
could be tried, holding up a saloon
man on West Bennett avenue in Grip
pie Creek and securing large sum of
money the night before his departure.
After reaching Ell Paso he made
written confession of this crime,
which he forwarded to the sheriff of
Teller county. It is presumed that he
came direct to Arizona and worked
around the less frequented camps I'M
der the name of George Hunter. fear
ing the peace officers of Colorado and
not the members of the Western Fed
Grafton of Miners. as he had claimed.
1t is reported that he has been in a
number of bad scrapes during the
| past three years in Arizona. He was
well known by all Cripple Creek dis
trict miners throughout the country
as bad man, brutal in the extreme
to those hopeless ones who fell under
| his domination, and as a heartless
slayer of humans The fact that he
died with his boots on causes but little
surprise and excites almost anything
but sympathy in circles OF fair labor.
l.