New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-11
Mrs. Porter, Witness in
Treasure Case, Haunted
by Death Fear.
BREADS ORDEAL
OF IOWA COURT
Describes How Gang Killed
Father and Sen and
Took 100000.
fp, telegraph to The Tribune. J

Tuitman. Mo-, July 10.-Haunted BY
the dread of assassination, Mrs. Maria
Porter, only witness Of double MUIR
der by a bandit gang which stole $9o'-
600. kept her secret for forty-seVeh
years. But she has confessed, and her
confession has caused the arrest Oh
four men, aged men now, but mere
boys in 1868, when the crime was COM
mitted. She told her story tonight.
Mrs. Porter fears the murderers
weapon to-day just as she feared II
forty years ago, when man Implicated
in the crime sought to enforce silence
on her and was killed as he was about
TO shoot her She is the one llVlhg
witness to the murder of "Old Than
wealthy cattle buyer, who died with his
twelve -year-old son in vain attempt
to protect his fortune from a band Oh
marauders.
As girl of fifteen, Mrs. Porter saw
five men and a boy, all we'll known 10
her. carry the murdered mans body IN
q quilt to its final resting place. She
sbivers in dread at the ordeal before
her. the ordeal Of appearing in open
court Tuesday at Bedford, Iowa, and
repeating under oath the accusation
which caused the arrest OF Bates
Huntsman. Sam Scrivner and Henry
and John Damewood, all wealthy resi-
dents Of Taylor County.
Dark Made Her Swear Silence.
"On the night, by accident, saw
them carrying Old Than's body by
our house in bloody quilt" she said
Jonathan Dark, my brother-in-law,
seized me and swore me to everlasting
silence. Damn YOU he said, 4 ought
to kill you now, for I'll never feel safe
while you live. II you ever breathe
one word of what you saw tonight I'll
wash my hands in your hearts blood
"Those were his very words. and he
meant them, too. A month later he
tried to kill me with a butcher knife,
but somehow I wrested it from him,
and in the scuffle bit a piece out of
his hand. That saved my life. The
last time he tried to kill me, my sister,
his wife, shot him before he could use
his revolver. Then Jonathan Dark,
coughing blood from the bullet wound
in his lungs, died with his head in my
arms and his eyes almost staring out
of his head in terror. He thought he
saw before him old Than's' son, whom
he killed with an axe as the child
knelt praying for his life.
"Safe now? No. I'm not safe and
never will be as long as any one of
those men | saw with the murdered
mans body in the bloody quilt lives.
The old OK team with the trunk full
of gold in it stood out by our fence
that night. | can see il yet as it
looked in the moonlight.
"What a curse that bloody gold has
been! 1t has split up families. It has
J been on five mems conscienecs all their
/ lives, and now it has been found again
| after all these years. II has brought
/ about these arrests and dragged me
into the papers and the courts to tell
/ the dreadful story | never even told
my mother or my own husband until
recently. | was a young girl, just past
/ n1teen, Wnen THIS happened. l ilFeu
with my sister, who was Jonathan
/ Dark's wife, on the Collins farm.
Five Men and Body.
That was near the cave where Dark
an dhs four companions lived most
Of the time. They were out every
night, and we suspected that something
was wrong. but | never knew certainly
till that night.
81 was taking care of my sisters
baby, and stepped outside for a mo-
ment 1t was late at night. Suddenly
heard talking and five men came
around the corner of the house. In a
quilt between them they were carrying
a body The feet and legs were drag
ging on the ground"
The old woman, frail, toil-worn and
tensely nervous, covered her eyes with
bodth hands.
"They carried the body off over the
hill and were going to dump it in an
old well, they said. They brought the
quilt back, all clotted with blood, and
made me wash it. | washed the stains
from their clothing, too.
"Do | know the men? Yes, know
them, though most of them | have
never seen since that night. They
were all young then, and the one who
drove the OK cart with the trunk full
Of gold was only a boy of twelve"