The daily sentinel., 1910-10-08
IMPORTANT
CASE SOON
At PUEBLO

district court in Pueblo with which
the secret service department of the
| United States has had to do, will be
| opened on October II when William
| Mason and Joseph Vanderwieder
charged with conspiracy in the muir
| der or Secret Service Agent Joseph
| a. Walker in November, 1907. will
| be brought to trial for the second
time
Both men were tried in the district
court of La Plata county in Durango
and were released when found nor
| guilty but the secret service depart
ment continued to work on the case
| and caused it to be taken to the
United States supreme court. That
court, after considering the former
case. sent il down for trial in the
United States district court first
For three years the agents of the
secret service department have been
employed in gathering evidence
against the two men who were with
Walker when he was shot.
walker, with three associates, had
been in Durango and La Plata coun-
ty for three weeks gathering evidence
for use in the governments prosecu-
tion of timber and land thieves.
Walker was guarding the mouth
of the mine. while his associates.
John Champson, a government geolo-
gist, T J Callahan. a secret service
man from Washington, and Thomas
Harper, coal expert from Pagosa
Springs, Colo. were inside conduct
ing an investigation.
According to the story told bv
Vanderweider and Mason at the time
of the killing they were approaching
the mouth of the Hesperus to 20 to
work when they claimed Walker ord
cred them to halt. They said that
they did not believe he had a right
10 stop them and when he leveled his
revolver and again ordered them to
stop. Nanderweider fired shotgun
he was carrying before Walker had
time to utter another sound or even
pun the trigger of his revolver. They
said that Walker intended to shoot
and that Vanderweider shot In self
defense.
The two men claimed they walked
10 the mouth of the mine where
Walker fell and saw rope ladder
hanging from the edge of the shaft.
they pulled this up and waited at
the top until the three men below
came TO the bottom of the shaft.
Vanderweider and Mason claimed
that before they shot at Walker he
first fired at them when they failed
10 take his command to halt in earn
est
The three government men in the
mine finding that the rope ladder
was gone walked out of the mine
through an air passage quarter of n
milo halnV rho 90
walkers body was taken to Du-
range and Mason and Vanderweider
were placed under arrest. They
made no show of resistance.
AT the inquest into the death of
Walker the next day il developed, it
is alleged, that the secret service man
could not have been facing his slay-
ers when shot as some OF the six
shots which entered his body were
from the rear. Papers, plats and
notes that he had collected in ten
months prior to the shooting were
reported missing.
For some time previous to the
shooting it was rumored that the
government investigation of timber
and coal land frauds in different sec
tons of the country would be ex-
tended to the officials of the Hesp-
erus company, For several DAYS ac-
cording- to members of Walkers
party they had been followed at
distance by strangers and II was then
believed that trouble awaited them
when they opened their Investigation.
Among the papers was list of names
or men prominent in southern Colo
rado who had been indicted and
much information regarding others
who were under surveillance of the
secret service agents. Walker is
known to have had the papers on his
person at the time he was shot and
their absence satisfied the secret ser
vice department that he was n victim
or foul play and not of a misunder-
standing in the passage. of orders,
Chief of the Secret Service wilkie
came to Colorado and conducted per-
sonallY the gathering of evidence
against the two men. 1t developed
that the Hesperus mine was on
claim originally taken out by Mason.
one OF the men implicated in the muir
der and was then sold to the Porter
Fuel company of which John A. Por-
ter of Denver was the president.
Porter was later indicted by the fed
eral grand jury together with a num-
per or prominent business men of
Durango and Denver.
An attempt was made several days
after the shooting to muffle the press
OF the state by application for an in
junction preventing Colorado news
papers from printing comments or
the case. William A. Reese. attor-
ney Tor the two men accused of the
murder, made application for the in.
junction. Judge Pike of Durango
refused to grant the Injunction on
the grounds that the papers had :,
right to print all of the news all OF
the time and that he would be the
judge OF when they passed the point
OF serving comments that were not
news.
Vanderweider claimed when he
shot Walker that he did not know
who he was. that he thought he was
some stranger joking with him, but
that when the officer fired at him II
was then time to use his own weapon.
he said. 1t later developed that
Vanderweider had met Walker in
Denver several months previous and