Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-12-12
WESTERN BANDIT HUNTERS
Bandits Are Game But Bandit Hunt.
efS Are Gamers.
JOSEPH LeFORS IS A Man OF Note

Only Two Notorious Train Robbers
ever Got Away and They May yet
be Arrested-How Tom Horn Was
Run to Earth.
When Bill Carlisle, train robber,
surrendred TO n posse headed by
Charlie" Irwin, detective for the I'm
ion Pacific, the other day out in wy
oming, he added another credit mark TO
the record of the brave officers who
have upheld the law in remote sections
of the west These men have made
banditry the most unpopular calling
beyond that indeterminate meridian
where the west begins.
Carlisle was captured in a lonely
ranch house where he had been trailed
| in n blizzard When he jumped
through window and tried to make
his getaway" a shot brought him
down and he was taken back to
the Wyoming penitentiary seriously
wounded. lie will have plenty Of time
70 reflect upon the fact that while
western bandits may be game, west
ern bandit hunters are gamer-and
| there are more of them.
About the only men who essayed
train robbing in the west and got
away with it" are Butch" Cassidy
and Harry Lonsabaugh, leaders of the
socalled "Hole-in-the Walp' gang Of
Wyoming. Cassidy and LongabauGh
ire now in Argentina, where they
bought ranches with some Of the
thousands thy took from trains and
banks in the west Some day they
nay he brought back to this country
and it is almost certain that If they
ire the man who will do the bringing
IS quiet spoken, sharp eyed citizen
IT Cheyenne, Joe LeFors, the man who
trapped Tom Horn, one of Wyoming's
most noted gun men.
LeFors Exploited in Novel.
LeFors's exploits in the Hole in the
Wall country were made the subject
Of a novel which had big sale, but
his capture OF Tom Horn never got
into fiction. Horn was formerly
scout in the lArizona campaign against
Geronimo. He was paclmaster in
Cuba and was known as one OF the
yreatest riders, surest shots and i'm.
llacable of foes. He was suspected Of
many killings in the cattle and sheep
country of southern Wyoming and
1orthern Colorado. Horn had been
hired by some big cattle outfits that
we're having trouble with homestead
,rs and sheep men, and it was sus-
Jectcd that he was using heroic meas
Ires to rid the range of his employers
cnemies. Finally Willie Nickel, the
,on of a homesteader in southern
Wyoming, was found on the range
shot dead. A stone was under the
roy's head, something which had been
noticed in other cases where ranchers
)r sheep men had been killed.
LeFors knew at the first intimation
that he was. suspected Horn would
kill. lie caught Horn off his guard
when the gunman was drunk. A Ste
nographer was planted" near at
hand by o capable district attorney
md soon the state was in possession
Of Horns own statement that he had
| 'iilled young Nickel and that a stone
lnder the head was the bad mans
method of Identifying his own vic
Tins. He was arrested and was duly
| hanged, though certain cattle interests
| made a hard fight for his life.
"BIack Jack" Had Ignoble Finish.
A few years previous to the appear
| 1nce of the Cassidy gang in the west
,rn theatre Of action q train robber
| known as BLACK Jack" Ketchum had
the officials of several states consider
| ably worried. Unlike Carlisle, BLACK
Jack" never worked alone. He had a
| numerous and straight shooting gang,
| including his brother, Sam Kctchum,
Bob McGinnis and. others "Black
lack" seemed to have a spite against
| the Colorado & Southern railroad in
| particular. He and his gang held up
one C. &. S. train after another.
They had beautiful opportunities to
work because the Colorado & South
crn runs though an unfrequentcd part
of northern New Mexico, after cross
ing the Colorado line. That part OF
the country is pretty well settled by
dry farmers now, but in "Black Jacks"
day it was a train robbers paradise.
When il became evident that strong
gang of robbers had picked the c. d
s. for its prey, members of the train
crews began to go "hccled." Special
detectives were put aboard the trains
and among these was ono w. II.
| Billy) Reno. Likewise among the
train crews was a conductor named
Harrington who was 10 prove "Black
Jacks" undoing.
1T would he foolish to call Bill Car
lislc the last of the bandits" Probl-
| bly, there will he train robbers as long
as trains eXist-and when airplancs
take their place no doubt there will be
aerial Butch Cassidys and Black Jacks
ANCIENT ARABIC PRESTIGE