The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-10-15
DUMMIES" USED
BYLANDGRABBERS
They Had Planned to
Cheat GovernmentOut
of Is, 600 Acres.
TWO GROUPS
ARE INDICTED
For Months Land Office Officials
Have Worked in Secret Gather
ing Evidence-Claims Cover
Deposits as Rich as Those
in the Cunningham
Mines.
For Months Land Office Officials
Have Worked in Secret Gather

Washington, u. c., October 14.-Af-
ter months of secret effort and patient
waiting. the officials of the General
Land Office were able to announce to-
day the indictment of number of
claimants to valuable coal lands in
Alaska. The entries involved number
154 and cover almost $4,000 acres of
land, all OF which lies in the Bering
Strait district, in which the Cunning
ham claims are located They are
what are known as the English or
stracey and the Christopher simmonds
groups, the former containing eighty
/ and the latter seventy-four claims OF
100 acres each. The deposits covered
by these claims are believed to be as
rich as those of the Cunningham mines.
which cut a conspicuous figure in the
Ballinger-Pi controversy.
Indicted at Tacoma.
The indictments were handed down
in the United States District Court, sit
ting at Tacoma, Wash. and the infor-
nation that they had been returned
was conveyed in two kilograms received
to-day by Commissioner bennett from
Special Agent Christensen, in charge Of
Alaskan matters. to whose efforts tho
findings are especially due. The first
IicSSdS z SOhtdlISd Tic 6lllOuuCEIHSiL VI
the action against the English group
returned against c. F. Munday, A. H.
Stracey. Archie w Shields and e. E.
Siegley. A few minutes later came
the second telegram telling of the in
dictment of Cornelius Christopher,
George Simmonds and Movtimer C.
Sweeney, of the second group. He add
ed that warrants would be iaoaIed az
soon as the indicted men could be ap-
pretended.
The first group of defendants takes
Its name from the fact that num-
ber of people in Western Canada are
supposed TO be interested in the claims
taken up by this party. Stracey. one
of the men indicted. is resident of
Vancouver and is charged with being
instrumental in making some of the
locations. Munday is prominent at
torney in Seattle.
"Dunmieso Are Used.
The charge against the indicted men
is that the entries were made in the
names of dummies" Most Of the en-
trymen were residents of Washington,
and their claims are said to have been
located with an agreement that the
claims should be assigned or decided
to third parties as soon as such parties
Wiling to become interested could be
found by the locator. There is said to
have been further understanding that
the locator should receive large per-
centage of the sale price
The charge differs from the charge
made in the Cunningham claims, in
which there was no allegation that the
entrymen took the claims for persons
other than themselves, but rather that
they had previous agreement to work
or dispose Of their claims as unit. 1t
is said that very few of the claimants
in the new cases ever saw the land on
which their names were used for loca-
tions.
Both groups of claims figured to a
considerable extent in connection with
the Ballinger-P -Pinchot inquiry.