The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-12-26
He FOUND A GANG
Wichita Detective Played Part
of Cattle Buyer.
Even Cowboy He Arrested
Didn't Recognize Him.

Wichita, Kan. Dec. 26.-The most in
tensely interesting fiction hanging
about a gang of cattle thieves has no
more hatr-raising climaxes than the
story of cattle rustlers in western Bar
Der county. Posing as a cattle buyer
and riding through the heart of a
region settled by men believed to be
rustlers, w. A. McWain, a private de-
teetive, collected material for a case
which resulted in the arrest of cow
boy, Earl Bowman, and a confession
him.
In his confession Bowman is said to
have implicated four citizens of Clark
and Barber counties and several citi-
zens of Oklahoma.
From the shelter of a canyons rim
the Wichita detective hid night after
night, watching men on horseback ride
to and from Bowman's home tucked
away in a canyon shooting off from
the Medicine river between Belvidere
and Sun City.
Bowman's callers preferred the cover
of night. In fact, McWain noticed that
the, bachelors friends seldom stirred in
the daytime
In following up his plan of casting a
net around the gang of cattle rustlers,
McWain decided that he must get ac-
quainted with Bowman. Accordingly,
he went to the bachelors home and
hired him to drive over the country to
assist in purchasing stock. The de
tective spent a day with the alleged
leader of the thieves.
For nearly two weeks the detective
bought cattle in Clark Kiowa and
Barber counties. On some of his ex-
cursions he ran across men he had I'M
der suspicion. Once, while prowling
about in a remote part of a cattle
range, he ran across several men on
horses They were some of Bowman's
night callers.
He Fooled the ''RustIers.'
The detective put on bold front.
The cowboys rode up to him and en-
gagged in conversation. McWain is red
headed. and has some Irish blood in
his veins The 'punchers" were no
match in the battle of wits that fol-
lowed They rode off beaten, satisfied
that McWain was buying cattle, but
knowing that something was about to
happen.
once McWain, in hunting cattle to
buy ran across an old acquaintance.
The detective once worked for the
Wichita police force and it became his
duty one day to arrest a cowboy. The
cowboy was the man he met in the
cattle range of southwestern Kansas.
The westerner eyed" the detective
all over He walked past him time
after time Their eyes met. The de-
tective played the part of a cattle buyer
so well that even the man he once
placed in the Wichita jail Qec1Qeu IndC
his eyes had deceived him.
Then the trail took a long turn. Nc
/ Vain went to Ashland. There he en-
gagged Paul Resting, a former resident
of Wichita to drive him into Oklahoma.
Resting never suspected that he was
hauling a cattle thief sleuth about the
country At Buffalo, Okla, the chase
! ended.
Then the Buyer Left.
Detective McWain went back to Bel
yidere. Frank Rockefeller, Tom Taylor
and the manager of the Scofield ranch
met him. The sleuth gave them his
story and left for Wichita. Bowman
was arrested, and to this day the cow
boys who forgot how to tell their stock
from Messrs. Rockefeller, Scofield and
Taylor, do not know what an important
part the cattle buyer whom they met
in so many different places at all hours
of the day and night. played in break
ing up their operations and making two
score Of them refugees.
Detective McWain says that cattle
thieving began on the Rockefeller,
Scofield and Taylor ranches in Septem-
Der. Some of Frank Rockefeller's thor
oughbreds found their way out of his
pastures to some other hands. the
owners became suspicious and after
suffering heavily, decided to hire a de-
tective.
In the roundup following Bowman's
confession, a car load of fat cattle
bearing Taylor's brand, were located
IN a corral hidden away in a canyon
near the Medicine river. McWain
found that the gang had formed
chain of stations at which stolen cattle
were hustled into Oklahoma and mar
keted.