The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-03-07
STATES ATTORNEY
OPPOSES PARDON
BENSON COUNTY OFFICIAL SAYS
HORSE THIEF sHAFFER WAS
LUCKY TO GET ONLY
FOUR YEARS.

Minnewaukan, N. D., March T.
States Attorney Sinness, of this coun,
ty, who prosecuted H. A. M. Shaffe,
at Devils Lake last winter for hors,
stealing, in commenting on the adver.
tised effort of Mrs Shaffer to secure 9
pardon for her husband on the strength
Of Frank c. McDonald's recent ar.
rest at Buttee, Mont, says:
mo reasonable argument can bs
based on the fact that Mcdonald, one
of the states witnesses, has gone
wrong since his release from the peni-
tertiary. In fact the state never re-
| lied on McDonald's testimony for a
conviction Of Shaffer. We traced Mr..
| Skaters movements almost from the
moment he laid hands on the Muir
dock team about midnight of Aug. 6,
1906; at o'clock that morning he
was at the home of well to do Rus
sian farmer, some twenty miles south.
driving this Same team, same buggy.
same harness and same everything.
Here he had breakfast and tried first
to trade, then to sell the team He
finally offered the team so cheap that
these people became suspicious and
refused to buy 1t. At this place he was
positively identified by the farmer, his
wife, his grown up son and daughter
and the hired man. We produced as
witnesses at the trial the men of this
family, the wife being i'll and her con-
dition necessitating the daughter re-
naming with her. From this place he
went west some four miles where he
attempted to deal the horses with an
ynyhn
fed both Mr. Shaffer and the team.
About IL o'clock the same forenoon
he appeared at the home of Will Casey.
east of Fessenden, above five miles
from the place where he made his last
attempt to SELL Casey, a very bright
fellow, positively identified Shaffer
and the team. He also identified the
photograph of Shaffer as the man at
his place with the grey mares before
ever he gnew that the Murdoch team
was stolen. At o'clock of the after
noon of the same day Shaffer ap-
preached County Commissioner Ly-
ness, who lives about eight miles
southeast of Fessenden. Mr.. Lyness
farms some thousands of acres there
and has large buildings and a great
deal of machinery about his place.
Shaffer represented himself to Lyness
as repair expert in the employ of |
the International Harvester Co., and
job fixing machinery. |
Eventually the conversation drifted to |
the horses and Shaffer suggested that
the team of grey mares were too heavy |
Tor road work and wanted to trade. |
After about two hours dickering Ly-
ness finally bought the team, went |
With Shaffer to a bank at Fessenden
where bill of sale was drawn and
here Shaffer was paid for the mares. |
From there Shaffer went to a livery I
BARN, got team and drove home re-
.urning the team by a stranger a day /
Or two later. In TIL Murdoch case
hen, we had no less than eight or
line responsible disinterested people,
seven of whom were on the witness /
stand, who Fpositively Identified Mr.
shaffer as the man who peddled the
Murdoch team through northwestern
Wells county. and who finally sold
hem the same day they were stolen
In the second case we had against
lin, that for stealing four horses from
|. w. Knauss In the spring of 1905,
md in which case he entered a plea
II guilty as charged, we traced al
most every movement he made the
lext day with these horses through |.
he Russian settlement between Lin-
ioln and. Harvey, over In Mclean Il
county, where he got breakfast, trad
I'd horses, got dinner, sold horses, got 4
n fist fights and gunplays over horse
rades, and all that sort of thing, un-
il he had finally sold or traded three
Il the four stolen horses We had
ome thirteen or fourteen responsible
armers as witnesses In that case who
positively identified Shaffer as one OF