The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 20, 1898, Page 17

ENTRA'NCE. TO THE. in March, a blustering day 1874, a man travelin county road ley, Mendocino Cou the Strong Inn refreshments. scquainted with the he recognized instantly th was wrong. He pushed and found There were in could Strong hers Found by Accident Living Comfortably in a Cave Near the Yosemite Valley After a Disappearance of 25 Years. town he dropped out of the world’s sight. were never able to find a single trace of him. and for twenty-five years- that was the end of Geiger. Now comes the strangest part of the strange story. | UST twenty-five years ago this month a lone woman was murdered in ‘ Mendocino County by a rich rancher. | D. H. Geiger was suspected of having killed her. | ched when the law officers smuggled him into the 1 | | | At the time he boasted that he was ‘‘ worth a million” and would never On the evening of the day on which the Suprem= Court -ffirmed the judgment Geiger succeeded in getting out of jail, and on the outskirts of the Search as they might the officers A price was set upon his head =g QA\IE bl fed o ‘:’ land fight. i in danger of being Iy g juil of another county. foed in Sin Quentin. Z suffer punishment. o bed ped fed bed b2 o ped The crime was the outcome of a In due time he was tried and sentenced to life He was old days. times. returned home. a queer looking cava. fagauSegegagPeoRaRaFugagaFeReagegeFegePaFuRaRuPuFeFeFaFaF-TTaFoFetePeRepaReReTFoPoReR R aFoReRoReRofaPcPetasotateol-FeteetoRagoRoRagageReguTalot Several months ago E. M. Bailey, a Berkeley resident, was camping in the Sierras on the Yosemite reservation. That is the first time that Geiger has been recognized in the last twenty-five years, though he claims to have visited San Franc surrounding towns very frequently in that time. Bailey left Geiger in the secret cave in the Sierrasandsoon afterward j=3=fegeRugeRef=FogagaRegeRegegaRagalepaRegegeeepageFagageFeFogaBaRegagoRagelogegegegegageegegagagageyugegogagaagagagaRaFagagogaRugagegaFaFag- 3.1 He had known Geiger in the One day Bailey was out looking for the hors:s and ran across Filled with curiosity he startsd to explore it, but he had no sooner passed the entrance than the sharp click! click! of a Winchester brought him to a halt. “Hulloa, Geiger,” said Bailey, and the two men fell to talking of old GE!GER co and the feteRegegegegaRoRaReRaFeaFeyaFelugoda] et L THE (OHDEHNF_D MURDERER excellent provisions and clothes, tos gether with books, guns and everything their tastes in luxuries call for; that Gelger not only visits San Francisco sometimes, but that he was in the office of Captain Lees when the latter was chief of the detective department. “On the 17th of last September,” Mr. Bailey, in relating the r meeting he had with Geige: alone in camp at Registrati Flat, the Yosemite Reservation. An old man, gray but robust, came down to where I was sitting before the campfire. Some- thing about him seemed familiar. I have a good memory for faces and gradually my memory worked back through the past till finally T had him— it was Geiger—but I kept my conciu- sion to myself. I looked at him until said “] HAD HARDLY PASSED THE ENTRANCE OF THE CAVE WHEN THE SHARP CLICK! CLICK! OF A WINCHESTER AND THE ORDER, ‘HANDS UP!I” BROUGHT ME TO A STANDSTILL.” the traveler reporting these things » the citizens ga ranch and tk E: made to ¢ would throw light on n that very between hbor 1 not sell t t men lé ; and while of the part the search for the missing Mrs. For 1 days the search W ir direct result. Pub- ¢ the while and the Geiger and Alex- An armed com- by the citizens revent them leav- An Indian following up a slight clew of the murder in a rough, almost in- accessible, corner of the county, picked up a piece of comb, such as women use to hold their back hair place. A ttle farther along the trall he came upon the body of a bullet hole told the story of the eath. became the In- The trail he was. following rougher, but, rough as it was, dian ¢ erned that a horse with a load had been driven or led t way. The path was so rough that it appeared ex- traordinary that any rider should have attempted to traverse it. The Indian struggled forward hurriedly and pres- the body of a horse. The had been shot to ious trail the track- er was following ended beside the dead horse, The Indian knew now that the wil- derness was about to disclose themys- tery connected with the dead dog, the dead horse and to reveal the strange that had led unknown per- into this wild and brush-covered spot among the mountains. Through a near-by canyon flowed a creek. Instinet led the Indian to itinize the banks of the creek. A little way off he saw a pile of stones close to the edge of the creek. He went forward wondering more and more, and stood beside ‘the stones. At once he perceived that the stones had been piled there only a little while vident that unknown ns had buried something under- th those stones. The Indian looked thought a bit. As his gaze moved over the scene his eye was caught by some . object moving In the icy stream, something white that moved constantly up and down, up and down, where the stream brawled its loudest over its stony bed. Several of the stones had fallen from about the pile, and that white some- thing had been laid bare by the run- ning stream. The Indlan stepped nearer, and, pending down, saw a human foot en- tirely naked and a human ankle. The water gave the foot constant motion; purpose son about him and as if the dead person who slept under the stones were struggling vainly and impotently to get away from this hor- rible cairn. The foot was that of a woman. The Indian, trembling with his hor- rible discovery, ran back to Sherwood Valley and told what he had seen. A posse of armed men quickly organ- ized and followed the Indian back to the secret grave. They reached the cairn, uncovered the body and found all that remained of Catherine Strong. The discovery of the body started anew the threads of vengeance and lynch law, and when the names of D. H. Geiger and James Alexander were' used strong oaths followed. ' Several of the most headstrong broke away from the group and spurred back to Sherwood Valley, carrying the story that Catherine Strong had been taken from her bed at night and foully shot to death. 4 T‘hr regular officers of the law real- ized it was time for quick action. er and Alexander were arrested at once and lodged In jail, where the mob could not get at them so readily. . a Geiger and Alexander were partners in the sheep and cattle business. The Strongs occupied a quarter section of land, which cut into one of the Geiger and Alexander sheep ranges. The sheep ran upon the land of the Strongs and the Strong dog, in driving them off, bit some of the sheep. There were the usual quarrels. Geiger and Alexander did their best to get the Strongs to sell their land, ed. During weused of and Alex- but they. steadfastly refu this warfare Strong wa killing some of the Geiger ander stock, and was sent to jail. After this, as was testified later on, Geiger told H. T. Hatch that Strong would never be able to get the new trial he Q@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @ © OFf ali the rewards offered for the recapture of Geiger at the time of his escape from the Santa Rosa jail, May 25, 1875, the reward of $500 offered by Governor Pacheco still holds good. PRER 2R XXX R ER R XX R el 90000060060 was seeking. “Mrs. Strong,” added Geiger with a show of bitter feeling, “ought to be where Strong js!" ‘With her husband in jail Mrs. Strong was left alone to fight her own battle against her wealthy and powerful neighbors. She kept a little inn, at which there were occasional guests, as the house was on the main road. There was no question that she was brave and obstinate. She flung back just as taunting remarks as were made by Geiger and Alexander. As the time for Strong’'s release and return home drew nearer the feud be- came more bitter. “I do not think that it would be any more harm to kill her,” said Alexan- ©eee6ooe T. Blair, alluding to Mrs. ould be to kill a der to W. Strong, “than it dog!” . This remark was remembered when Mrs. Strong’s body was discovered buried under the stones far from her home. Had not Deputy Sheriff Joe Stanley, who served the warrants on Geiger and Alexander, played a sharp trick there undoubtedly would have been a lynching. With his prisoners he elud- ed the pursuing parties and landed them in jail. The two prisoners deemedl their refuge so dangerous that they urged thelr lawyers to use evefy effort to have them fransferred to the So- noma County Jail. It is a part of the interesting history of the case that Constable Hughes, now living in Ukiah, had ‘received from Mrs. Strong some time before the mur- der a letter asking protection from both Geiger and Alexander. Barclay Henley was employed by the Supervisors of Mendocino County to specially prosecute the defendants. Geiger, after his arrest, made the boast, “I have a million dollars back of me, I'm all right.” He was the only one convicted. He was defended by a great combination of legal talent—Judge Terry, W. W. Pendergast, Judge Lamar and Judge McGarvey. Their united ability could not save him. Alexander, his partner, was acquitted. Geiger was found guilty of murder in the first degree and was sentenced. to imprisonment during his natural life. The trial took place at Santa Rosa. An appeal from the decision was promptly made to the Supreme Court. In May, 1875, the judgment was af- firmed. True to his boast, the judgment did not held Geiger. The decision of the court was made in Sacramento about 4 o'clock by Mr. Justice Crockett. At 7 o'clock Geiger had his affairs and plans so arranged that he walked out the Santa Rosa jail without opposition. So cleverly was the plan handled that no one suspected his escape till T. B. Reese, ex-County Clerk of Modoce, thén a law student, reported to the author- ities that he had just seen Geiger om the outskirts of town. -He was the last man who saw the condemned mur- derer. That was in May, 1875, and from thag; day, although the officers” of the law have hunted high and low for Geiger, nothing has been seen of him till last September, when E. M. Bailey, who was an officer of the court during the trial, ran plump into him in a dark cave in Fresno County. Mr. Bailey lives in Berkeley. He was a boy and resided in Mendocino County at the time Mrs. Strong was murdered. He frequently saw Geiger and Alex- ander and knew the.n very well. Mr. Bailey is the man who has furnished the facts for the second chapter in Geiger's remarkable * history—that part that followed the time when he disappeared as completely ‘as though swept from the surface of the earth. Bailey says that Geiger is living with another escaped conviet in a nicely fitted up mountain cave, that they have I was positive of my identification. Then 1 began to wonder what had brought the old man to that spot. “He remai about the camp some time, but went away before the other men in our party returnea. “I had noticed that he had a com- rade. This second man tried his best to watch us and to remain cut of sight behind the trunk of a fallen tree some distance from the camp. Evidently he thought that I had not caught a glimpse of him. Considering that he apparently wished to remain unnoticed and also knowing the character of Geiger, I felt that T had better keep my .suspicions to myself. and this 1 did strictly. “I naturally thought that that would Be the last of Geiger, but, strange to ay, it was not. “A few days after this visit our party crossed the river and went into camp in the Minarette Mountains. Scon afterward several of our pack mules wandered off and I started out to find them. I took my bearings from a high peak some distance from the camp. I had gone some distance through a canyon, the walls of+ which were of solid rocks, when in turning a little bend I saw before me the mouth of a cave. It looked so inviting and inter- esting that I thought I'd just look into it. ' I had barely passed the entrance when click! click! went the hammers of two Winchesters. “‘Hands up!’ shouted a voice. “I was stunned with surprise, but I Continued on Page Twenty-six.