The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 6, 1900, Page 1

T SUNDAY CALL MEEAr ™ &l Q;me pov B = and Rattle- Fhe Widow ttle of Ra hand whe to ta ever “Ben, day he *“there is try who h pressed iced in the dim light syig @& Smalr bag. & man named West, wno lived on Steven- abbed him, struck son street. The morning of the robbery fell to the ground. I was a man called at house and told the six-shooter, and I piped it to servant girl that he wished to go up to { threw the Mr. West's room. brought him home ajd, “There it §8.” last night,” he ad “Why.s sir, you Had 1 stooped for mean Mr. Wigz said the girl. The t jow would have laid me out stranger explained that the name West on the doorplate had confused him and whistle and Jim Bovee came walked upstairs into Mr. Wiggins' room. m the mext beat. ‘“Jim, He left Wiggins unconsclous and minus d." “He's a hitter ail his money and jewelry. *d Yo pick up the The night before Wiggins had been in 1 over and grabbed a galoon and had casu he had a sack of mone “You will riever get me (n' prison while a six-shoofer: wilt keep me out.”’ for him, for we thought he had to come that way. 1 heid up that tree all night,! .and at daybreak made for a roadhouse,, kept by a Dutchman, where Mortimer anight probably have taken ' refuge. I! knocked at the door, and found the Dutch- | an, pale and trembling, standing in the middle of the fioor, a revolver in his hand, lice, but undoubtedly there were as many ¥ more of which we were are. He was 2 murderer and th d an ail- round criminal and as e to catch as ever swung on she ga There was a nobier sort of desperado . who: stalked .this country in the days of old—the stage robber. There was a prince of stage roLbers called Rattlesnake Dick. and' he died as game—but that's anticl- pating. Rattlesnake Dick was first seen arc Rattlesnake Bar, and that’s how he his nickname. nade up his mind s going to n ; 4 4 < there was an_ e way of getting gold send home to his parents Bystande ““Who ist dat?’ said the Dutchman, " than digging for it, and he toox to holding e . n saiG a man who atswered to Mortimer . oThe San Krancisco police” sald T v up stages for a livine. s t t vear Qescription was drinking at the bar at th v hie had gone to tell me. *Be “Ach, tank Got!" said the Dutchman, .yet written down - att_snake Dick aid a fellow stage rob- NE welg » disentangled We yme but evidently paid no attention to “if I'd had time that n and he fell on my neck and blubbered, f:::e! l;:x?i ‘:fi: .}lllexfige ch:nggd it Ig;:n':x?e ber called George Taylor started from 3 d $20 into his ha r've ex ¢ of the bag—$90 Wiggins and left iImmediately. ted a little longer, and if you had for he had feared the coming of Mortl- year to fifteen. Trinity Mountain to hold up a six-m known the time when 1 wou v rol D asting o oa We could see Mortimer's smooth finger- come up the other side of the street, I mer. He gave me a.cup of coffee, und 1 §iC Sefved bis time and @s soon as he train loaded with goid. When they came taken this." said Pete, “but tation, tracks right through the job. He had think, ken, my boy, I'd have given you a never drank auything in my life that wag out got bis hand Into practice by kill- upon the mules they found tha others of pretty short now talk and he hung_around bullet. touched the spot like that Dutchman’'s ing a woman called French Caroline. Mor- their ilk had already relieved the animals arly morning, when Wiggins At last we had a clew to Mortimer. The coffce. 1 had had a pretty hard day and timer was not Immediately found out for of their burden of gold. rtimer followed him night that William H. Coleman spoke on night of it. this murder, and unmolested he went to The posse of men hunting for the thieves heard Wigg outside thl jeft the #: then crim rprised ~ bear M o g - X P T o Lecs and .the oth ¥ % ity ones gave 1 - . s e , and later in the morning he boldly the old plaza we saw Ellen Brenn in the In the meantime Leec: n e others Sgacr: 0. There was a woman called and belleving them the guilty ones gav 1 ) ’ was compiete: B Amixed np the names, but . landed cyowd. Kilen was Mortimer's pal, and we had found Hamilton, & pal of Mortimer's, My Gileen. who kept & lquor chop on ihem chase and fired af them. Raitles b s 8 ach thet him & money and jewelry all right. knew he couldn’t be far away. Following Who gave them a tip, which afterward the outskirts of the town and sold liquor snake and his companion made their way o th No P Mortimer said he had lost s jed for mont to find a trace of up the clew we traced Martimer down to Dproved to be straight. Mortimer had seen . I belleve every thief who ever unharmed through the storm of bullets e > Mrsimer. but he had completely disap- Belmont. A man hamed Rose went down us get off the train from the brush, where A benitentiary had ¢he idea until they came. to old sb Ellen's, - “Sure-thing® ot bl S - ared. There was @ crook named Hoett there (o trap him, but Mortimer was the he Was hiding with Hamiiton. “There's of killing old Mr. Gibson and getting the Who kept a road house—and anything eise 31 fellows with |cd ot Sacramento, that PEATCS A0 10y or him for $100. Hoett smarter rogue of the two. Rose knew every detective from San Francisco who's money which she was supposed to have. she could get. Here George Taylor drew their make-ups. .. and ‘!1()'!‘ k}.]x‘nwlnx was the sort of man who would have Mortimer had robbed Myers' pawnshop, worth a rap,” he said, "'so I'm going back Mortimer was the man who did It. rein and turning to Rattiesnake Dick said: le’;u-r met in _my g money he had at- B dered & hundred men for that price, and Mortimer agreed to ghow Rose where to San Francisco. There are too many of ~ She was found dead, and Mortimer, who “Old fellow, we ve been shot at by every Dblers. They were s, hope of getiing pro- BUTCeIng he didn't have (o risk his own the booty was buried. He took him out them to shoot, and, besides. Ben Bohen's was boldly going at large, was arrested, man we've met since we left Trinity A0y stake. but pl rs allowed this falry PR able neck by so doing. to a pretended spot. and while Rose was dressed to the queen’s taste, and I'd hate Dandcufied, And protesting’ Innocence was Mountain. I'm sick of-it, and I'm geing ©one of the bes 0 mplary prisoner _Ome night Hoett came to me In great digging for the treasure Mortimer knocked 1o spoll his pretty clothes! taken to the cabin. The woman was lying to quit the business.” Many a time after- was the big an e - B priso ¢ He had just left Mortimer, him senseless. Mortimer himself afterward told me in a pool of blood, one blood-soaked hand ward did Taylor tell me this story. ambler who ¢ T ihe penttentiary, When oot in a thieves' den, covering & _“We ve ot o get that fellow, and we'll that he did make those remarks, and then eluching a tuft of clotted hair, TheSherift Rattlesnake Dick picked up o fellow was robbed 1 start right now get o a v 2 r more crooks with a pistol. " Lees sald as soon as we started for San Francisco. lcaving me to raised the hand with the tell-tale hair to named Sam Beaver. Near the Widow dollars and came to Fiat ThNA man, S hard SR LN recognize him at first.” saia heard It. ' John Connolly, Jim Bovee, Lees “spoil my pretty clothes” in the brush. - Morcimers shaven chin_ “That hair will Harmon's they met John Boggs and thres man who, (oo It S Mortea made UP MY oett: “he had on & pair of green specks. and myseif boarded an engine and’ went inally he got a fraction of his just hang you,” he sald. -“You a beard deputy sheriffs. Bogss put his hand under Said. he—as bad as they make He just stepped into the room and said, down there. I was something nt»g'dmdy deserts in Ukiah. He was arrested for a yestel > X! he Just ha his ulster as if to draw a revolver, but in Swered, ° ay ! * ensive petty crime and sentenced, under the ~ It did yhnng him, " but not before his a second three shots rang out from Rat- asked me for It the in Ke I've left something in this place and I'm in those days, and had a pretty e: 5 2 3 o {rem. Now in the Ut of hie afterdects Tve left oomoIng 0 oot the first — and expensivé wardrobe, "Well, I had of - hame of¢ FOster, o & Year's Imprison- brother, who came out here all the way fleemake Dick's sixshooter. One oficer In forty years' experlence with crimi- 25 ‘;“, —~ & prefty closeiy, but coula man who tries to leave it." I was near the best of the lot when Lees tumbled us ment. The first night in jafl he broke from Massachusetts-to' break Into the jail fell dead and two were wounded. Rattle- nals Fve never met or heard of one who St motiiag on hi 44 Ul e door and-out before he finished say- on that engine. We got off at Belmont through, and people used to say that he and.rescue him, was shot and killed by snake Dick dug his spurs into his horse didn't sconer or later reap as he had D s o o il e ! concluded Hoett. and hunted him through the chaparral. tore down the jail 8o that the Sheriff could the Sheriff. shouting, “'You will never get me in sown. A criminal is a fool. If he put the ndus' energy and dar- g else be'd bave a long ing it, 3 eve! : W =, ’ V. to the den, but our bird had At the first trace of him we separated, - only.find pleces of it in the morning. The Mortimer was the worst example of one prison while a six-shooter’ will keep me same amount e T E bt R o o n&&'fi%m%eremernrd fold me that and 1 made south and took up guard posse caught him and brought him back kind of desperado of the early davs. I out,” rode swiftly after his retreating ing into anyt in bed. Wiggins roomed at the house of be heard Hoett had been in the room and agalnst a tree, with @ six-shooter ready to town. Fortunately, the clerk of the have related his crimes known to the po- comrade. . bank account.