Conducting Investigations:
Inside Federal Prohibition Enforcement in Wyoming
This is the story of some long-lost files, some citizen complaints about wide-open bootlegging and official corruption in a remote Wyoming boom town. It may be that the case was quite ordinary, but it never may be known because the file is one of a mere handful that survives from the Bureau of Prohibition’s records created in the 1920s. Agency files for much of the United States are either missing or were destroyed when Prohibition was repealed and the agency went through a series of reorganizations. Consequently, there are few examples of the process through which federal officers tried to break up illegal liquor-making and selling. One such file, held in the collections of the Seattle Branch, National Archives, probably was typical of other cases. At the same time, it is unusual for insight it provides into the workings of a small oil patch town in the 1920s, an era of intense depression in Wyoming. It also demonstrates how important informants were to enforcement of Prohibition laws.
An examination of the files and newspaper accounts of the incidents surrounding the case reveal that, contrary to popular notion, the Bureau was an organized, carefully administered federal agency with competent, honest investigators who responded to citizen complaints. The Bureau faced a disinterested, often hostile public and state officials with political concerns.
Prohibition had lost much of its appeal in Wyoming by 1929. Nonetheless, federal officials continued to enforce the act, ensnaring numerous Wyomingites for illegally manufacturing and selling alcohol. In some places in the state, government prohibition agents knew that local officials were in league with the makers of the illegal booze and they organized a series of investigations designed to break up the collusion.
On November 10, 1928, Lon Davis, chief deputy federal prohibition director for Wyoming, received the following letter sent to his office in Cheyenne from an anonymous writer in Edgerton, Wyoming:
Dear Mr. Davis,
You being State Federal Officer I am wondering whether some information about the Bootleggers here would be of interest to you or an annoyance. I know where their cashes [sic] are and you can get all the way from two to a hundred pints of liquor. Please treat this offer confidential and if the information will be of any use to you I will give it to you. I met you some time ago Mr. Davis and I believe if you are interested in this I can be of services [sic] to you.[1]
Davis, who had held the highest federal prohibition position in the state since March 1923, apparently responded immediately, because four days after the date on the earlier letter, he received a follow-up in which the details of the situation were laid out. A former deputy U. S. Marshal, Davis was well acquainted in the Seattle headquarters. Carl Jackson, the divisional chief there with jurisdiction over Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, had been Davis’ predecessor in the Wyoming job.[2]
“We have a whiskey ring here and the head of the ring are Edgerton’s officers,” the anonymous writer alleged on Nov. 14. After naming several local officials, the letter continued: “This ring think they are just about immune from the law. Your men have been out here but don’t get any evidence because everyone is tipped off. As far as drying up Edgerton, that is impossible but their ears can be knocked down.”
The writer then provided a store-by-store description of where illegal booze was being hidden. “The large cache is in the vacant building next to the Highfull Cafe,” the letter noted. Even legitimate businessmen were involved, the writer said. “Charley the Greek keeps his pints under the Soda Fountain behind the bar…” After naming several others, the writer emphasized, “You can see that if my information wasn’t secret, these fellows would about hang me. I don’t want any of the local law even to know about this information because I don’t know how far this ring extends….”[3]
The official record is silent as to what happened next, but in a later letter, the anonymous writer described to Davis how his men had conducted the raid: “They got some stuff alright but it has been kept very very quiet. Not a word about it in the papers,” the writer pointed out, indicating that a raid made at Salt Creek the previous day probably gave a warning “so some of them had their stuff put away….there were four stills dismantled right here in town when your men commenced looking around.”[4]
At this point, Davis’ informant implicated the local justice of the peace who also happened to be editor of the local newspaper, the Salt Creek Gusher.[5] “You see a fine before the Judge doesn’t mean anything. You see this ring has arrangement made that they pay $178.90 each month to run and then if they are picked up by anyone–county or federal–they are fined before the Judge whatever they are fined is deducted from this monthly payment.”
The anonymous writer complimented Davis for having “a bunch of trustworthy men” in his employ, because they had made two raids and no “tip-off” had been made beforehand. The writer then detailed how a whiskey-selling operation was functioning quite openly in Edgerton. Again, complete with maps and descriptions of the buildings in which such activities were taking place, the writer provided what Davis took to be an allegation beyond the simple report of disreputable parties making and selling liquor. After describing where he might find the still, the anonymous source wrote: “The stills that are running are what are known as official stills either run by the officers themselves or the man that runs it gives one per gallon for all they turn out.” Further, the writer alleged that at least three truckloads of illegal alcohol brought in from Casper had been unloaded behind the local pool hall. One bootlegger, according to the writer, “sells very little whiskey around here but takes it to Dubois.” Another, the writer alleged, “lives in Niobrara County, about 30 miles from Lusk” and “supplies Lusk, Newcastle, Hot Springs also Edgemont.”[6]
Davis reported to his superiors in the Seattle office before deciding whether or not to send his agents to back to Edgerton. The next month, Sam H. Scott, special inspector in Chicago, wrote to B. W. Cohoon, describing the information about the Edgerton investigation. When Cohoon asked for more specifics, Scott wrote that he had received the information from the Commissioner of Law Enforcement for the state of Wyoming “whose name has escaped me at the moment.” The agent added that the man had “personal knowledge of conditions at Salt Creek and Edgerton” and could be relied on to help develop the case. Scott told Cohoon that since Wyoming had no conspiracy statute, that federal agents would have the best chance to make a case.[7]
In May, the case was assigned by the Seattle district agent to Robert B. Melville and Charles A. Murphy.[8] Three days after the case was transferred to the two men, Bemon reported to his superiors about a meeting with Jack Allen, Commissioner of Enforcement for the State of Wyoming, but Allen was unable to confirm any of the charges leveled against the Edgerton officials. Because the earlier cases had been made by federal officers, but oddly filed in state court in Casper, Allen did not know how they were handled.
Allen was still unfamiliar with many aspects of the position. He had held only since the previous December. Gov. Emerson had appointed Allen state law enforcement commissioner when W. C. Irving resigned under a cloud in December 1928. “Happy Jack,” as he was known to friends in Casper, was a Brooklyn, N. Y., native who had come to Wyoming at the age of 13 to work as a cowboy for the P and O Ranch, 14 miles north of Cheyenne. In 1891, he signed on as a cowboy for J. M. Carey’s CY Ranch near Casper. Later, he served in “Torrey’s Rough Riders” during the Spanish American War, returning to Casper to run unsuccessfully for sheriff.[9]
When the special agent asked Lon Davis, the federal deputy prohibition officer, Davis urged that nothing be done until his officers made at least 16 cases. While the two men were visiting, one of Davis officers called from Casper, asking to meet with Davis the next day about a raid scheduled at Salt Creek and Edgerton at the end of May. “It is Davis’ theory that if the bootlegger is knocked over too often–oftener than the amount he is supposed to give to the city, he will squeal.” Davis was surprised that the special agents were showing interest in the Edgerton case. “He does not understand why Salt Creek and Edgerton should be selected when there are such places as Casper, Cheyenne, Kemmerer and others.”[10]
Any individual conversant with statewide happenings would have shared Allen’s wonderment. On May 18, 1929, the Wyoming Tribune, in a front page story, disclosed that the federal grand jury had adjourned the previous day after bringing indictments against 29 individuals for conspiracy to evade Prohibition laws. Heading the list was W. C. Irving, the man Jack Allen had replaced as the head of Wyoming’s law enforcement department. Irving was charged with collecting “thousands for protection money during the time he served” in that office. Also indicted was Irving’s assistant, James Ader, along with various suspected bootleggers from Rawlins, Thermopolis, Cheyenne, Rock Springs and Evanston.[11] The Edgerton “cabal” seemed minor indeed, given the events in Cheyenne and elsewhere.
Nonetheless, Federal investigators continued to press the Edgerton case. Besides being skeptical about the importance of the case, Davis was suspicious about the impetus behind the Salt Creek area probe for another reason. “He expressed a fear that perhaps Salt Creek and Edgerton case may be the outgrowth of politics,” the Seattle-based agent wrote. Davis had told the agent that Allen had lost a bid for Natrona County Sheriff and that “his worse reverses were in the districts of Salt Creek and Edgerton.” When the agent returned to ask Allen about more details, he told the federal officer that he was not able to help with their investigation. “All my men are now up in that district and it would be impossible for us to make any buys there.”[12]
On June 21, Murphy and Melville paid a visit to Salt Creek where they examined the books of R. E. Arnold, City Treasurer. They checked the amount of fines submitted by the Justice of the Peace W. J. Stull from July 12, 1926 to June 12, 1929. On average, the JP (and editor of the Gusher) turned in about $150, the highest amount, more than $450 in February 1928 and the least amount, just $20 in April, 1929.
Armed with their audit, the investigators then interviewed Justice of the Peace Stull. State Prohibition Agent L. C. Hurtt attended, too. After looking at his records, the agents pointed out that the numbers did not correspond with those of the treasurer. Judge Stull had a ready reply: “In a great many cases, men came to his office and pleaded guilty to liquor violations without there having been any form of complaint filed and no records were made in the office in these cases.” When asked about what was done with the evidence, he said it was “always destroyed.”
The agents told him that the whole case could be turned over to a federal grand jury. “Whereupon the Judge inquired about what it is we want to know about the monthly payments by bootleggers.” The judge “asked why we did not tell him that when we first came and he then admitted collecting $50 a month from the men running the joints.” He knew of no ordinance that allowed such collections. But it wasn’t really fines, he said. It was an “occupation tax.”[13] Stull then explained that the practice had been going on for at least five years through the administrations of three mayors. He named four men who had paid $50 each in fines for May. All four were bootleggers, he admitted.
Later, the same day Murphy interviewed Dora Pocan who claimed to have lived in Edgerton from Feb. 11-July 23, 1927. “On or about July 9, 1927, I was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Tom Heaney and Town Marshal Fred Rose on a charge of possession of intoxicating liquor,” her affidavit said. When taken before Judge Blake’s court, she was fined $50 plus costs. She claimed she continued to be harassed by local officers who ordered her to leave town, “saying it was the order of Mayor Mike Keifer.” She said she went to Casper and complained to Sheriff G. O Housley that she was the only one being prosecuted for liquor violations in the area while it was known that many others were involved. The statement was taken by Murphy at Lavoye where she had been operating a small restaurant with “a small stock of groceries” since that May.[14] Despite her complaint to the sheriff, she said, “nothing was done.”
Stull’s newspaper had remained relatively silent about the presence of federal officers and totally quiet about any suspected bootlegging in the vicinity. In the June 21, 1929, edition of the Gusher, published the day “Judge” Stull was interviewed by federal officers, the Gusher ran the following story in the local news without a headline:
Dan Shea, proprietor of the Half Way House, had an unannounced visit from federal men Saturday evening. The minions of the law were en route to Casper and one decided he wanted some cigarettes when the Half Way House was reached. He entered the place and found Danny in the act of serving liquor to a guest. He was invited, and without hesitancy, accepted the invitation of the federal men to accompany them into Casper where Mr. Shea appeared before U. S. Commissioner M. P. Wheeler and put up a bond of $2,000 for appearance before the federal court to answer to a charge of illegal possession and sale of liquor.”[15]
Two weeks later, in the July 5 edition of the Gusher, Stull commented again about the local situation but, not surprisingly, with none of the emotion of the anonymous letter writer. “Word reached Washington that the 18th Amendment was not being rigidly enforced or generally observed in Natrona County, so a bunch of federal investigators were sent out to look into the matter. They have honored the field with their distinguished presence quite often the past two weeks to check up on reports reaching Washington and have found to some extent that they are not wholly without foundation.”[16]
The two investigators issued their preliminary report on July 27. “Owners of pool halls and gambling halls in the town of Edgerton had been paying stipulated monthly fines to the town in exchange for the privilege of being allowed to operate unmolested by town authorities.” The report was particularly critical of Blake, the municipal judge. “His records show monthly fines have been paid, and that if a citizen of Edgerton had been fined in some other jurisdiction for violation in Edgerton, the amount of such fine was placed to his credit by Judge Blake against future monthly fines to be paid to the town.”
The report was promptly filed in the agency records in Seattle. The two investigators turned their attentions to cases in the Pacific Northwest and, a few months later, the agency field offices were reorganized. On July 26, 1929, barely a month after the report was filed, the case was transferred from Seattle to Denver. An order from the Seattle headquarters directed that:
Because of the fact that the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are now to be included in the newly created Denver Division, it is requested that authority be granted this office to transfer to the Special Agent in Charge, Denver Division, such jacketed and unjacketed cases which have to do with investigations in the states above mentioned and which are now under investigation by special agents of this office.[17]
The Wyoming cases, including the Edgerton files, no longer would be handled out of the Seattle office. Somehow, the Edgerton case files missed being shipped. Apparently, the papers sat in a file drawer for many years until they were transferred to the National Archives Seattle Branch.
In the interim, all other investigative files of the department were transferred to Washington, D. C., when the agency in April 1930 was renamed the “Bureau of Industrial Alcohol.” In January 1934, the agency was transferred from Treasury to the Department of Justice where it became the “Alcoholic Beverage Unit, Division of Investigation.” Four months later, portions of the reorganized agency went back into Treasury as the “Internal Revenue Alcohol Tax Unit.” Eventually, its functions were absorbed, part into the Federal Bureau of Investigation and part into what became the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Department of the Treasury. The investigative files apparently were transferred along with the other agency records at each stage. What files that were not absorbed into those records apparently were destroyed–except for the wayward Edgerton file and several dozen others.[18]
Like the Bureau of Prohibition, the town of Edgerton’s fortunes went into similar eclipse. On May 1, 1930, the Salt Creek Gusher reported that the “Scott block,” a dance hall, cafe, market, post office and telephone exchange,–ten buildings in all–were destroyed by fire. The Gusher suspended publication; Stull resigned his justice of the peace office and moved away. Bootlegging, presumably, disappeared with the dramatic drop in population.
Even though the investigation came to naught, the process provides a fascinating picture of the federal investigative process carried out by the Bureau of Prohibition and how, even in the case of remote towns in one of the most lightly populated states, the agents responded to citizen complaints. The exhaustive investigation into the illegal activities supposedly taking place in Edgerton seemed to contradict Judge T. Blake Kennedy’s retrospective assessment of the Bureau some 20 years later:
Even though the law would have a reasonable expectancy of enforcement under ordinary circumstances, the Prohibition Department was not by any means equal to the occasion. The enforcement agencies were not equipped with agents and employees who were skilled in the matter of preparing cases for prosecution like those who were in charge of the other classes of Federal crimes–the Post Office Department or the Treasury Department. No doubt it was very difficult to secure the proper types of men to fill the positions in the Prohibition Agencies. This added greatly to the matter of securing convictions and also to the trials and tribulations of the Judge upon the bench.[19]
Sons of Temperance established a division with 32 members in 1875 in Laramie
Frances Willard, national temperance leader, came to Cheyenne in April, 1880, to organize a chapter of the WCTU.
Children’s temperance organizations , known as “Bands of Hope,” were formed in Evanston and Laramie.
In 1884, 125 Band of Hope boys and girls marched in the Fourth of July parade in Laramie wearing red, white and blue sashes and carrying flags and banners.
1884: Legislature skipped a temperance lecture and took an excursion train to Salt Lake City earlier in the day
1888: strongest support in Laramie
Rawlins, Carbon, Rock Springs, Green River City were “wide open towns”
1910: strongest support in Platte, Goshen, Big Horn
Casper, Rawlins, Cody, Sheridan, Rock Springs were “wide open towns”
“More killings took place in the saloon and dance hall by far than occurred on the range.”
Sunday closing of saloons: 1900
Licensing of saloons: 1903
Requirement that saloons could operate only in incorporated towns: 1909
Many Progressives viewed it as damaging to families
U. S. Army banned use on bases and restricted liquor sales near army forts (1910)
By World War I, liquor viewed as damaging the war effort (inefficiency)
The week of June 1, 1933: Judge T. Blake Kennedy ordered removal of 33 prohibition violation cases from Casper to Cheyenne. Included among those indicted were: Mayor E. W. Howell, Casper Police Chief Michael Quealy, Natrona Co. Sheriff G. O. Housley. Trial was set for July 17, 1933.
Priorities — Finding music and the drinking of alcohol somehow incompatible, the Casper Town Council banished instrumental and vocal music from all saloons in the last half of August 1907.
Not blaming the inability for saloon patrons to carry on conversation above the sound of a band or citing the dangers of mixing alcohol with music, the Aug. 21, 1907, Natrona County Tribune made it clear that music was interfering with the purpose of a saloon, which was to drink.
The NC Tribune: “This order was due to the request of a great many people. It was argued that when they were having a social drink they could not drink and keep time with the music and oftentimes they would have to forego their beverage and dance to the sweet strains of the piano and violin, and they did not want it that way, hence the order of the town council.”
Another action of this special session of the Town Council was to order 1,400 feet of cement sidewalks be built in the downtown area, especially on Second and Center streets.
The Wyoming Bureau of Prohibition: A Study in Corruption
Edgerton’s corruption was promptly overshadowed by the case brought against the former State Commissioner of Prohibition W. C. Irving who had served about 1 1/2 years as the state’s law enforcement commissioner. He took over in May 1927 when the previous holder of that position, A. S. Roach, accepted appointment as warden of the state penitentiary at Rawlins.
An investigation into the operations of Irving’s office began in November 1928 when Gov. Frank Emerson, hearing of “irregularities” in the law enforcement department, wrote to Lon Davis asking for federal government assistance to check into the rumors. Davis sent agents into the field and, later, sent the governor’s request to other agencies. In January 1929, the U. S. Treasury department sent two special investigators to work on the case.[20]
Before the treasury investigation could get underway, however, Irving abruptly resigned from his position on December 1. Newspapers reported that the cause of his resignation was “ill health” and that “he will shortly leave the state for an operation.”[21] But Irving’s whereabouts were soon unclear. Investigators believed he fled to either Mexico or South America. Some reports indicated he had been kidnapped.[22] After weeks of newspaper and official speculation, Irving, who had fled to California, turned himself in, declaring he was innocent of all charges. The record did not point toward Irving’s innocence, however.
“They say that Irving, with Ader as chief collector and assisted by deputies, had a flat rate of $50 a month levied on ‘speakeasies’ at Rawlins,” the Wyoming Tribune account noted. Elsewhere in the state, “the amount varied according to the size of the business ‘protected.'” Further, Ader had a business connection with Irving, federal authorities claiming that he and Irving had been partners in a Parco (now Sinclair) poolhall known as “the Bucket of Blood.”[23]
The strongest evidence outside the Rawlins payoffs involved the operators of a large still near Thermopolis who paid for protection “at the rate of a dollar a gallon on the finished product,” according to the Tribune.[24] On May 17, 1929, about the time Murphy and Melville had been assigned to investigate the Edgerton happenings, a federal indictment was returned against 29 individuals, including Irving, his former assistant, other employees of the Prohibition Bureau, and the mayor and council of Thermopolis. All 29 were served with bench warrants. U. S. Attorney Albert D. Walton prosecuted the case. Well-known as a dependable ally of Sen. Francis E. Warren, Walton was U. S. Attorney throughout the Prohibition era in Wyoming.[25] Because of Irving’s connection to their case, prosecutors decided to try all of the defendants at once.
Some of the best known lawyers in Wyoming represented various parties. Two of the accused, H. Hansen and William Montgomery, were represented by Joseph C. O’Mahoney, a Cheyenne trial lawyer who later became U. S. Senator. Twenty of the defendants pleaded not guilty on Aug. 1, 1929 with one other making a similar plea on August 6. On November 11, the judge issued an order setting the trial for January 27, 1930. Subpoenas were issued to numerous people in Rawlins on December 23 and many others in Thermopolis a week later.
On opening day of trial, one of the defendants, Tony Kunelis of Rawlins, was arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty. The judge dismissed the case against Kunelis, discharging him after plea of abatement entered. On the scheduled day of the trial, one defendant, Saunders, was ill. His counsel asked for a separate trial.
After a flurry of motions were filed by the six lawyers representing various defendants, the trial was set for Jan. 28, 1930. Gov. Frank Emerson was subpoened to testify along with various individuals in Thermopolis and Rawlins. All 23 defendants were tried in the district courtroom of the U. S. Courthouse in Cheyenne. After three days of testimony, during which the prosecution tried to show that Irving and the Prohibition officials had engaged in a huge conspiracy of corruption with city officials and bootleggers in various cities of the state, lawyers for six of the defendants moved for directed verdict.[26] Judge T. Blake Kennedy, well known nationally for his controversial rulings in the Teapot Dome cases a few years earlier, denied the request and the trial continued on February 1. After brief summations, the case went to the jury that afternoon.
The 12-man jury returned with two verdicts: not guilty as to Jahn, Graham, Murphy, Boyd, Robinson, Seitz and Ray, the acknowledged minor figures in the case. In Irving’s case however, the jury accepted the prosecution’s contentions. The former head of the Prohibition bureau for the State of Wyoming was found guilty of corruption along with four well-known bootleggers, Marcante, Redmon, Alfonso and Bell.
Judge Kennedy waited just two days before pronouncing the sentences against the convicted men. On Feb. 3, Irving was sentenced to 18 months in Leavenworth and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. Mercante and Redmon each received one year in Laramie County jail and fined $500. Thermopolis bootlegger Mike Bell was given one year in Hot Springs County Jail and a $500 fine. Alfonso was sentenced to six months in the Laramie County Jail and fined $100.
On Nov. 10, 1930, Saunders case dismissed. Sentences for Mercante, Redmon, Alfonso and Bell were reversed by the Wyoming Supreme Court on July 2, 1931. Other pending charges against the four men were dismissed the same day for failure to prosecute (Nolle prosequi). Ader and one other man who had been indicted were never prosecuted and the cases against them were dismissed in November 1931.[27]
The Edgerton case bore some similarities to the broader situation involving Irving and associates.
[1]Anonymous to Lon Davis, Nov. 10, 1928. Bureau of Prohibition Investigation Case File, 1924-33, Box 11, RG436 Records of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. National Archives–Pacific Northwest Branch, Seattle.
[2]Davis had served as Laramie County undersheriff for Sheriff Ed J. Smalley for two years and had been deputy U. S. Marshal for only 20 months when he accepted the Prohibition position. Jackson was a Laramie native. “Lon Davis Given Office Director of Prohibition,” Wyoming Tribune, March 11, 1923, p. 1.
[3]Anonymous to Davis, Nov. 14, 1928.
[4]Ibid.
[5]Microfilmed copies of the Gusher are on file in Wyoming State Historical Department, Cheyenne.
[6]Anonymous to Davis, Feb. 1, 1929.
[7]Letter, Sam H. Scott, Special Agent, Treasury Dept., Chicago, to B. W. Cohoon
[8]R. A. Beman to Melville and Murphy, May 20, 1929.
[9]When U. S. Marshal Hugh Patton died in 1932, Allen was named his replacement, serving until June 1, 1934. That fall, he was elected sheriff of Natrona County, a post he held continuously until his death in October 1942. Obituary, Wyoming Tribune, Oct. 13, 1942, p. 11.
[10]Capt. R. A. Beman, Special Agent in Charge, letter to superiors, May 23, 1929.
[11]Wyoming Tribune, May 18, 1929, p. 1.
[12]Beman letter, May 23, 1929.
[13]Memorandum, Murphy and Melville, Casper Wyoming, June 21, 1929.
[14]Sworn statement of Dora Pocan, June 21, 1929, Lavoye, Wyoming. The cafe’s opening was noted in the Salt Creek Gusher, May 10, 1929, p. 3: “The place is on the highway…Chicken will be a specialty.”
[15]Salt Creek Gusher, June 21, 1929, p. 1.
[16]Salt Creek Gusher, July 5, 1929, p. 1 (no headline).
[17]Unsigned memo; letter from W. D. Smith, Denver, to Beman, Seattle, Aug. 29, 1929, acknowledged the transfer order. National Archives, Seattle Branch.
[18]My thanks to Joyce Justice, National Archives, Seattle Branch, for bringing the long-lost files to my attention in the summer of 1993. After inquiries to the National Archives and to other branches, it was determined that the Edgerton file and the few others, amounting to less than two cubic feet, were all that remained of the extensive investigative files maintained by the Bureau of Prohibition.
[19]Unpublished memoirs, T. Blake Kennedy, vol. 1, p. 483. T. Blake Kennedy Papers, Collection #405, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
[20]The specifics of the case are drawn from the Wyoming Tribune account and from the trial record, Case File #2896, Wyoming Criminal Case Files, RG21, Box 98, National Archives, Denver Branch.
[21]”W. C. Irving Resigns Place as State Law Enforcement Officer,” Rawlins Republican, Dec. 4, 1928, p. 1.
[22]See, for instance, “Irving May Have Been Kidnapped,” Salt Creek Gusher, July 12, 1929, p. 1.
[23]Ibid.
[24]The outcome of the case is indicated in United States v. Irving et al, Case File #2896, Wyoming Criminal Case Files, RG21, Box 98, National Archives, Denver Branch.
[25]See Virginia Cole Trenholm, ed. Wyoming Blue Book II (Cheyenne: State Archives and Historical Department, 1974), 483.
[26]The last names of the seven were Boyd, Ray, Seitz, Robinson, Jahn, Murphy and Graham. All were minor figures in the case from the beginning. The Cheyenne newspaper even questioned why they had been named in the original indictment. See Wyoming Tribune, .
[27]Case File 2896, National Archives.