£1,000 FOR HIS HEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 160, 8 July 1899, Page 7 (Supplement)

£1,000 FOR HIS HEAD.

Utah, by a special act of its Legislature, has set a price on the head of Tom McCarthy, dead or alive. Whoever captures or kills McCarthy will leceive the sum of £1000 from the state treasury on delivery of the prisoner, or his head. It is a hard way of dealing with a human being, but McCarthy is a hard man and ordinary methods are useless in his case.

Tom McCarthy is a bandit and cattle thief who heads a band of outJaws that for years has terrorised the people of Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. He makes his headquarters in. the Blue range of the Rocky mountains, where in a sequestered canyon he has a secret rendezvous in a cave, luxuriously furnished and equipped with an electric-light plant, fortified with artillery, ancl supplied with stores of iced and ammunition against the possibility of a siege. A little over a year ago, three Governors —Adams of Colorado, Wells of Utah, and Richards of Wyoming —entered into arrangements whereby the militia of the three states were to be sent against the robbers. Plans were made and the matter was well under way when the first signs of hostility between this country find Spain were heralded. The soldiers were needed against a greater and more than local foe, and the repression of the outlaws was laid for a time upon the gubernatorial shelf. Perhaps it was well, judging by the talis of the gang and its strength wh.cli are current.

In fact, it has been decided by the administration of Utah that the soldiers are not the agency which can combat and overcome the McCarthy brigands, or make the attempt with the best chance of success. The movement of a body of troops and a military campaign would be too much like an optu book for the eyes of the vigilance of this baud, which has long ago taken precautions against just such a move on the part Of outraged

justice. People, excepting those who are acquainted with the history and methods of the McCarthy band, will probably smile incredulously when told there exists within the bounds of their nation an organisation of criminals, held in absolute control by a man whose gcnralship, inventive abilty and remarkable personality arc: equal to many of the most famous generals of olden and modern times; a man whose exploits make those of Jesse James and leaders of his stripe seem like child's nlay, and whose influence is felt not'only in the territory he harasses, but in the marts of the greatest American cities. Will not the smile change into a look of wonder when it is told that the men under the government of this king of bandits live in a fortress more impregnable than the walled city of Acres, or the Rock of Gibraltar; whose natural protection is enhanced by artificial means in keeping with the most fam&stic dreams of Jules Verne, and whose interior, in its rich and gorgeous tit tings, would turn green with envy the owner of the fabled cave of Monte Cristo? And, yet, these things are true.

WILL KILL OFF THE BANDITS.

The pecple have come to the conclusion that the only way to deal with the gang is through men as wary as they. The posses to be sent against them will not besiege the rocks wLich hold the gang, but they will depend more upon killing the members by one as they venture out for supplies. They will try to invest

the place and starve out the outlaw.'.. They may be successful, but it will not be done, according to the judgment of people who know, in a few days or weeks. It is generally believed that there will be bloodshed en both sides before the object of the Legislature is accomplished. Tom McCarthy, the leader of the Blue Mountain robbers, or the "Hole iv the Wall society," as it is often called, has been called the Napoleon cf tratlav ry. His origin is in doubt, but it is known that, lie is wanted in several parts of the country for crimes of unusual atrocity. His appearance is anything but prepossessing. He is about 5 feet 6 inches in height and weighs about 175 pounds. His forehead is narrow and forbidding, and covers deep set, grey eyes. A fold of iut curls over the point of his chin. His mouth is wide and his teeth are irregular. His nose is a pug and his ears are turned forward.

With a small following McCarthy perpetrated several mail and express robberies a number of years ago on stage coaches over the Utah desert and in the mountains. It was his first appearance in the country >in this role, and before long his daring exploits gathered about him a choice company of criminals from the neighbouring states and territories. After moving about considerably, always pursu-ecl by the sheriffs, the company settled in a certain point of the Blue Mountains, on the line between Colorado and Utah. The loss of some of the most daring of his comrades has seemed to give McCarthy an idea of ectal-ishing a rendezvous where he might retreat when sorely pressed.

M.'ners and prospectors have in a number of instances wandered close iqon the retreat of the bandits, and hive always been warned away, and never molested if their business in the locality was clearly peaceful. A few have engaged in a fight with the outlaws, who were retreating to their granite fortress, and have lived to tell about it. From these sources a faint idea has been gained of the character of the place. Now and then one of the band, while visiting a town not many miles away, has revealed a number of things in his cups.

MCCARTHY'S WONDERFUL CAVE

The exact locality of the retreat of McCarthy and his men is not known, though there are persons who could guide a party within three or four miles of it. The path runs through a narrow canyon, and leaves it at a particularly wild and tortuous place for a serpentine trail running a mile or more up and down the heights. Again, at the end of the trail, there is a passage-way blasted and cut through the solid rock. Tile termination of this shorter pathway brings the robber to the entrance of the gathering place, which is nothing less than a great cave or amphitheatre in the centre of the rock.

This is the throne-room of the Irishman, and from this there run in all, directions tunnels, their openings art-; fully concealed, so great are the pre- • cautions of the band, and their other ends terminating at one side or the other of the mountain. This is known from statements made by miners and mechanics who were taken and leaving the place.

But the most remarkable feature of all is the fact, boasted of by more thSn one of the gang, that the cave possesses an excellent electric motor and dynamo, taken there piecemeal on horseback. It is even said that the system is used to light the rocky recesses, but the chief boast is that it is for another purpose. Robbers say that wires run from the room of the chief to all approaches of the fortress and communicate with charges of dynamite. They have stated that it would

be possible for them to annihilate a regiment of soldiers and that the exploding of dynamite in the approach from the west side would close the passage instantly, after which they could either lie in the cave with security or escape from one of the many openings and scatter over the country. The fortress is about fifteen miles from a place. It is said that there are about 200 men in the band, and it is known that many fugitive murderers and escaped convicts, the latter from all States, and especially from Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Nevada, are in the number. SKELETONS OF FIFTY MEN.

As the country gradually fills up, the robbers are abandoning their practice of holding up trains and travellers, and are confining their depredations mostly to herds of cattle and sheep. They are said to operate extensive grazing pastures in the heart of the Blue or Book mountains. They are experts at re-branding cattle, and make a specialty of gathering up stray mavericks. It has been known for years that they have agents at different points. The police believe that the band has representatives in Chicago, Cheyenne, and Denver, while there are firms in the East in collusion with the gang. McCarthy ships his cattle East, Where they are sold, and he receives the cheques in return by mail. These cheques are cashed almost daily in Western banks, though always through a third party. For some time there has been a standing reward of £1,000 offered by the government of Utah for -certain notorious members of the gang, dead or alive, and more than one have been shot ahd carried to Salt. Lake. Several of the outlaws have been tried for murders committed in the county, and in the town of Moab itself, but the juries invariably acquitted the accused. People say that no one can tell who are members of the gang, and there is never a trial but that one of them gets on the jury. The men of the mountain fastnesses always pose as mountain herders and dress as such. McCarthy has spent large sums in getting the best counsel to defend any of his men who have been placed on trial.

A former United States deputy marshal of Utah is authority for the statement that there are fifty skeleons lying in a gulch not a great way from the mouth of McCarthy's canyon. The marshal says that he saw the place hmself, and that the skeletons represent persons put out of the way by robbers, who feared they would reveal secrets they had stumbled across. McCarthy is said to encourage such crimes; but a story is told of him to the effect that a prospector one day wandered too near the hiding place of the gang, and McCarthy sent him £20 with instructions to leave at once.