The evening world. Newspaper, September 5, 1922, Page 23

THE EVENING WORLD, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, Single Handed [eld Up Nineteen Stage Coaches, With Soldier Escort, in One Day---Then, in Prison, Edwin B. Trafton, the “Outlaw of Horsethief Trail,’’ Perfected an Invention That Promised “‘Ilonest Wealth,’’ Decided to ‘‘Go Straight, *? Then---Died ! By J. B. Day. opyrient, 1922 by’ Press Pi FEW days ago, Los Angeles drink saloon, laid its clammy fin- gers on the ago-bent jew York Evening World) hing Company. in a soft- Death shoulders of a man who answered to lhe aume of Edwin B. Trafton—and Mais was written to the career of of the Old West's most pictur ue Oeures. Trafton ‘‘turned square three sare ago, after a life of outlawry valling the exploits of Jesse James, Pole Younger, Harry Tracy, Billy Ihe Kid, and the much press-agented 1 Jennings, but he was snatched ut of life when he was about to p the fruits of the first honest por his hands had krown In years. rafton was an outlaw pre-em!- ent; product of the hectic days of ihe old West—the rip-roarin’, gun- jotin’, whisky-drinkin’ West. He the man whose experiences in the med Jackson's Hole country of Wy- ming furnished the basis for Owen Vister’s novel ‘The Virginian.” He as “The Lone Highwayman of Yel- wwstone Park,"’ who held up nine- Mm coach loads of tourists in one jay, back in 1914, with no assistance lave the mute threat of a repeuting ffie. He had tried his hand at horse ealing, cattle rustling. He had served four terma behind rison bars for his infractions of the w oand during his most recent stretch" had perfected an invention an automobile wheel—which bade htr to make him rich—honestly rich fy then Death stepped in Ménder dats of July 25 he wrote to pmes W. ‘Jim'’ Melrose of Denver, ce his resis, but latterly his fe a dead bard fight, sin je handed and alone, Attic against al road to riches."* wend ! ha won the and am 1 the Then he went 1 that group n to explain that he ed a contract with who to finance a company for the manufac- ture of his automobile wheel, and that under the terms f the contract the least he could realize would be $7,500 a year for 1 period of sixtce! He had triumphed over all his ene- mies but one—one he had not figured in the fight—inexorable Death Trafton was born on a farm in Canada sixty-six years ago. He migrated to the United States In his arly thom filled with lure of adventu When the famou n years. gold rush to the apshot of Trafton taken during his famous Yellow. stone | Park coach robbery by one of his victims. ee — Black Hills among the plo tune tn g himse and t termi “went Men of the kok, If, ned b started cr prospectors: was the goal he had set him d scarce turned thirty but butt of his He Black in the Hills VAN BEIT i e his crontes and dranis and lived by his country in 1876 he was A for He ut Iuck was against Will life of the frontier un his better instincts ne ilk of “Wild BIN" Hic- he over Into Wyoming. Chey enne, the present canital of that Com monwealth, was his stamping ground for a time. Uncouth, lacking educa tion, he had withal a native cunning that enabled him to s ep, us it ¢, the just consequences of his forays into the field of forbidden things. In 1880 Trafton transferred his hase tions to the Jackson's then an uncharted w shadow of the towering 'T He helped buil on's Ht ers, train Y n and thelr} on Idest t ru tretehes of co tates—Natiwe prison, w unt tern Dick Llazed the first route the sentence r to } He laughed at and five years went t to hitg old haunts old habits, more hardened t He hud cause, years later tl prison and tt which ted ft, for th rashe ough his ered the bone and uuillet ulder up he Judge and his an ever. 2used the shoul- to droop. it was this drooping houlder that enabled victims of the Yellowstone Purk & rob to \dentify him us the bandit who robbed rafton wns e ] after his relouse f 51 tentlary and then I tt und it was on this draiton Was ulone, but be recall ting hieh shat: between ood y t 1 1 rere fou robbed th wl As the coaches rolled up one after another Trafton spoke no word until the horses had been pulled to an abrupt stop. “Everybody out!” was his first curt command, of every single coach and diver escort as well, and, » his intimate knowledge of vtiry in which he was working, ght to Justice J had a “rep ua a bad Hit Bil"? Duiton and A But when any of this re trio stepped out n k his sang wit 1 in the gang carr i eT isn't. rec t ever underto 14 wpproaching the magnitud 6 Tratton manoeuyred in Yellowstone Purh 4 {ron nerve, hin topo Knowledge of Yellowstone | the fact that persons tray n the park ere forbidden mment regulation — trom rearms of any description, remarkable bandit's trump crime that climaxed his nwith, he pleked a spot Just sharp turn in the road as tor his gigantic coup On the road a shee iff rose On the other there tent. inning this f the hills’. No part of 1922, low the West's Most During’ Lone Ba “Turned Saare Just gE ei) the stage was visible from beyond the eurve In the road When Trafton confessed the rob- bery, which was not until after bis wwe feom the Government prison at Leavenworth, rose, who, as of the United States Department of Justice, tracked him down, that he e spot for three reasons he said, road would keep (he pas second stage from stage shold wn the line lenring on one side of t ave me # place to put the wr uch with fem, ‘The gully at thor bucks would prevent them from ettin’ out of the clearing unless they ran straight into the open, and I tig. ied they wouldn't do that, ‘cause J he afraid Win? shot “Lastly, the country ‘round about so wild 1 knew there a chance of anybody gettin’ me the stuff on me, 1 knew Teoutd tyavel in the dark wit! tin’ lost and T had hi if 1 had to. All that worrled me was t dlers drop on ‘em."* The soldiers proved easy prey, how- ever. They were totally unprepared for the reception they encountered as ¥ jogged @round the bend In t although {t was for the where 1 could hide the approximately te of the eriine, n agent “L knew the sharp with fa dozen places stuff I knew they'd be packin’ guns and tt'd be a case of me gettint the they dismounted and tied their horses. With the four soldiers taken car of, Traftop turned to the big business in hand, When, a few moments later, first coach of the atring of nineteen wheeled around the bend, the four horses moving slowly because of the. combined clreumstances of a curve and a slight grade downward, the driver and a woman tourist seated beside him were atartied at the vision of a lone man, masked with a rifle at his shoulder, standing slightly to one side of the road, At his feet was spread an ordinary horse blanket. He spoke no word un- til the horses had been pulled to an abrupt stop. But his rifle and the four soldier men standing helplessly tn the the centre of the clearing spoke eloquent ly of what was in store for them and their companions 1D) commar When the passengers were out and lined up beside the road, Trafton di- rected the driver to pull over to the far of the clearing. He waited nti the stage was where he wanted it fd then "Now, all you folks pass by drop your contributions on blanket! 1 don't want anything tmioney.'* The proce ybody out!" was his first curt and thie but fon moved with alaerity with the result that when the secon! coach pulled around the bend ton had ae deposit. of Sam's legal tender on the bianket his feet and his victims had gone ti tly Join the four soldiers in the clearing As the couches rolled up one after another ‘Trafton went through the sume process, with little vartation Two young women rf c and were granted permission to “shoot the bandit with cameras they carrted The snapshots they took figured in his trial in the Federal Court at Ch enne, although they were not a part of the Government's case against him, One of these photographs is re- produced on this page. When the last of the coaches and ita soldier escort had been ‘clea up,"" Trafton made « whimsteal speech of y ital In his prison cell Trafton designed the automobile wheel which he hoped would roll him over the self respect and fortune. pu prote were det itriders of the clearing rr “straight road” to Appreciation to Wis ¥ up the corners of bis horse blaniet tled them securely and across ier, back Edwin B. Trafton, blanket. His ‘‘collection’* averaged about $30 to the person. It was nine miles to the nearest station on the stage line and before the first of the robbed passengers had reached this station and reported thelr experience ‘Trafton, mounted om a cow pony he had left secreted near the scene of the robbery, was well om his way toward Jackson's Hole. He cluded posses sent out in quest of Bim, and made bis way from Jackson's Hole into Idaho A strange play of ctreumstances led, several months later, to the tm dietment of another man for Trafton's crime, and equally strange clreum- slances brought about the exoneration of this Innocent man and the capture of the real culprit “Jim Melrose, transferred from the Denver tle of the United States Department of Justice to assist the officers of the W 1s Jurisdiction in unearthing evidence against the man who had been secretly indieted leral Grand Jury, but had nee en taken into custody, started a ome canvass of the scattered ches aod sheep camps in ns Hole country and along 1 \eliowstone Park, a Mexican sheep. day's horseback ride of the robbery, he Mexican had been tranger the day '» and had been and a quan- description the Mexican had been Ime mountain r 1 The wr given | fave Melrose another. i | to be correct= tot jentity of the lone Are lustrate pack, the « ftor had | stolen fis unweloome vis. and packing the “suse of @ lame shoul der, Melrove had known Traften for years, knew record and was aware oft jury he h eived years bet Idaho, When he returned to the sheep camp t lays later with Rogu G photograph of Trart t ! (rom the Denver pirmed his suse . real \deauty of the \ ay and getting him . however, 1916, that Trefion at him over N half of the Unite 1 was enjoying t 4 work in the moving right t highway, 1915, was ars in the on, how- Jel prisoner, was released 1d served three ts sentence, ge the as. wheel patented while t Denver Melrose of them von- to hin deter ht’ in spite of Fortune seemingly about np Death intervened,