Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-26

At the Jail when the outlaw was stripped for
examination he was found to have two old
bullet wounds not yet fully healed. This i'm
formation as related in q previous article, was
forthwith wired to Special Agent Reno. Reno
hurried to Carlsbad with Jim Hunt, merchant
OF Cimarron, who had seen the BLACK jack
gang in that town time and again. The
boyish- looking prisoner was at once identified
as Bill McGinns, alias Ezra Lay. Reno recog-
nized him as the slender outlaw who had fig
ured in the battle Of Turkey Canyon.
Meanwhile the other outlaw, who had gal.
loped of after the fight at Chimney Wells, had
been seen as he passed q place called Dagger
Draw and was recognized as Will Carver, the
Stocky bandit who covered his wounded friends
during their retreat from Turkey Canyon.
Ezra Lay, under the name of william Nc
Gmnis, was duly tried and convicted at Ration.
N. NJ, being sentenced to life imprisonment
for the murder of Sheriff Edward Farr. Lay
made q model prisoner. Because of this and
his youth ne was pardoned in 1906 and never
again renewed relations with any of the BLACK
jack fraternity. Thus q third member Of the
gang disappears from our list
In the middle of February 1901, there drove
into the little old COW town of Sonora, Tex.
three elegantly dressed men in a rubber tired
buggy-an unusual sight in that land of COW
cred wagons. boots and spurs The three
strangers announced themselves as horse buyers
from Iowa. They drove about the countryside
and always seemed to have plenty of cash.
Frequently the trio changed fat rolls of 20
dollar gold certificates at the First National
Bank. Well dressed, obviously prosperous and
always riding in their cleaning new buggy.
these men soon became known as the Rubber
tire Outfit"
Local horse dealers looked upon the new
corners as easy marks. Whole herds of ancient
plugs" were rounded up on the cactus flats
for immediate sale to the greenhorns but the
MnYo not iI,Io
and out of thousand they bought only one
horse-a good animal that had got among the
rest by accident
Presently, the "Rubber-tire Outfit" went on
to the neighboring town-Paint Rock Concho
County. There they established their head
quarters out at the camp of old Mr. Fitzpatrick
the father of Ben Fitzpatrick, known MEM
Der OF the BLACK jack gang. The Iowa
morse buyers" then purchased three more
ponies, making four all told
Old horse traders began to wonder "why
them Iowa fellers was so choicy" as to blv
only four animals after coming 2 900 miles with
stacks" of gold notes. And how could they
have driven all that distance and still keen
the rubber-tired buggy shiny and the team as
fresh and frisky as though the rig had Just
flashed out from city livery stable? Then,
all of sudden on March 81 the citizens Of
Sonora were startled to hear Of the killing of
OnVer Thornton, sheriff of Paint Rock Officer
Howe of that county phoned to Sheriff E. s.
Br1ant at Sonora and informed him that
Sheriff Thornton had been murdered by the
Rubber-tire Outfit" and that the trio had now
headed back into Briant's own territory
a FEW months before-on September 29
190O-the First National Bank of VIM
n1mucca, New, had been held up and robbed
Of over $4,000 by members of the BLACK
Jack" gang In Fort WORTH Tex, on No