Charlevoix county herald., 1918-10-04
100000 swINDLE
CHARGED AT TRIAL
cowpuncher Captures Only Twenty.
three Wild Horses In Arizona
In Sly Montha


In Six Months.
Omaha, Neb.-One million dollars
was obtained from the sale of "phan-
tom" herds of wild horses In Coconino
County, Arizona, by the promoters"
on trial here. according to Government
attorneys prosecuting the case. Many
were victims of the alleged swindle,
the attorneys say, sums ranging from
$1,000 to $4,000 being wrung from
them.
Forty-two persons originally were
indicted by Federal grand jury on a
charge of being implicated in the al
legged swindle. OF these two pleaded
guilty to using the mails TO defraud,
twelve were released, and eleven, ar
raigned in the United States District
Court, pleaded not guilty. These eleven
are the defendants in the trial now
on.
Examination OF witnesses has de-
veloped that one of the alleged VIC
tins sought in vain for two months,
with field glasses, for sight of the
animals he had purchased.
of Draper, S. D., testified he traded
an apartment building at De Soto,
Iowa, value dat $4,000, for ninety head
of wild horses.
81 didn't know much about horses"
said the witness. II went out on the
rocks of the mountains with field
glasses and looked for them. Occasion
Z h.tn oh tVxyn
miles away, but not in great numbers"
Robinson said cowboys he employed
succeeded after two months in round
ing up seven horses, but they did not
bear the brand his horses were sup
posed to have.
Willis S. Mcdonald of Harding,
Mont testified he traded six room
house and five acres of land for sixty
horses, after being assured he would
have no difficulty in Capturing sixty
choice animals"
Ebert L. Garner, Belle Fourche, S.
D., said that without having seen any
of the horses he exchanged al $11 900
stock of merchandise at Fayette, Iowa,
and forty-five lots on Puget Sound,
w lOI l,UUU utdu.
Ed Mason. cowpuncher and cattle
man of Mitchell, Neb., testified that he
met Clyde Smith and his brother in
Omaha and thru a deal with the for
mer made arrangements to get twenty
five of the wild horses for some prop
erty he owned at Villisca, Iowa, valued
at $500. He was almost tempted to
back out, he said, when he was told
that he would have to go out and
catch the horses himself, but after be-
ing assured the undomesticated equi-
mes would weigh in the neighborhood
of 1000 poun Is each, as his contract
specified, he declared he thought he
would take chance.
But it was different, he testified,
when he went to Flagstaff, Ariz., to
corral his stock. For ten days, with
the aid Of four cowpunchers, he was
not able to rope a single wild animal,
Notwithstanding that he had been a
"puncher" all his life.
Coconino County is about 245 by 1876
miles in area, and Mason was re-
solved that he should have some of
the horses, which, he 'eclared, he had
seen but had been unable to get within
a half-mile of. Accordingly, some time
later, he said, he set out in earnest
search of the elusive animals, and in
the course of six months of constant
camping on their trails was able to
.lasso and bring nome twenty-three
horses.
These, he testified, were very small
and weighed much less than 1000
pounds. After halter-breaking the
"broncs" and keeping them about a
year he was able to realize from $40
to $40 per head, he testified.
Bernard C. Black, reputed as one Of
the best gunner and cowpunchers of
Arizona. testified he was hired to go
with some of the defendants to look
over the range where the animals
were said to be. He declared there
were wild horses to be seen, but that
1t was impossible to tell how many
there were, because he and the party
never got close enough to catch more
than glimpse of them.