ORIGINAL WESTERN OUTLAW AUTOGRAPH TOM MCCARTY gunslinger GANG ROBBERS COWBOY For Sale

AN EXTREMELY RARE AUTOGRAPH OF (JOHN) THOMAS MCARTYFROM THE MCCARTY GANG - ROBBER\'S ROOST C1880S. ON PIECE OF PAPER MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 2.5\" X 5\" INCHES
READS AS FOLLOWS:
if you want to corispondwith me i will make my wordsgood are will not cost youone sent yours truly thomas mccarty
The McCarty Gang was a group of outlaws run by Tom McCarty, a Mormon bandit who was one of the first to introduce Butch Cassidy to the life of banditry.
Tom McCarty and younger brother Bill began to rustle cattle in the 1870s, but by the 1890s, they formed the McCarty Gang and stepped up to robbing banks. In addition to Tom and Bill McCarty, the gang also included Tom’s brother-in-law, Willard Christianson, aka, Matt Warner, and Bill’s son, Fred.
The gang’s first hit was the Wallowa National Bank in Enterprise, Oregon in 1891. This was followed by another hold-up at Summerville, Oregon, and a failed attempt to rob a train. In 1892, his brother, Bill, and brother-in-law, Matt Warner, held up a bank in Roslyn, Washington. When an angry crowd approached them, Tom opened fire, wounding two men.
The next year, the McCarty brothers, along with their nephew, Fred McCarty, robbed a bank in Delta, Colorado, in which, Tom shot a killed the cashier, A.T. Blachey. When citizens heard the gunfire, they rushed the bank and shot and killed Tom’s brother, Bill, and his nephew, Fred. Tom McCarty was able to escape and fled to Montana where he settled down and worked as a sheepherder. However, around 1900, he was killed in a gunfight in Bitterroot County.
Willard Christianson also settled down in Utah and died a natural death on December 21, 1938, at the age of 74.


In-law to Outlaw: The Story of Matt WarnerIn 1876, Tom, Bill, and George McCarty moved with their family to central Utah, near the small towns of Ephraim and Levan. Tom met and married Tennie Christiansen, the daughter of a local merchant. Within a year or two, Bill and George were also married. The lure of good range near the La Sal Mountains in south-eastern Utah was strong and several other families joined the McCartys in a move to an area south of Monticello. The married McCarty brothers and their father, Dr. McCarty, soon established a successful ranch.
As the McCartys were settling in to their new homes, Teenie\'s younger brother, Willard Erastus Christiansen was enamored of Alice Sabey of Levan. After several run-ins over the girl with a local bully named Andrew Hendrickson, thirteen-year-old Willard settled the matter by picking up what was at hand and leaving the older boy unconscious on the ground. Believing he had killed the boy, Willard returned home for his outfit and his gun and left town in a hurry.
He worked as a ranchhand on his way north and eventually came to Diamond Mountain, which got its name from a diamond salting scam years earlier. The area, known as Brown\'s Hole was on the Green River, south of Rock Springs, Wyoming and had long been a haven for outlaws. A no-man\'s Land where Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah joined borders, Brown\'s Hole at that time was seldom molested by lawmen from anywhere. As a schooling ground for a budding outlaw, Willard could not have found a better campus.
He went to work for a local rancher named Jim Warren. Jim Warren, as Willard soon discovered, was pretty fast with a brand. Within a few months, Willard soon had enough of a herd to start his own ranch. After a gunfight with a Mexican named Polito, Willard began to consider himself a real badman and outlaw, although he rode 20 miles to get a doctor who saved the lung-shot man\'s life. While he would not know it for some time, the boy he had injured had also recovered. Regardless, the die was cast and another young outlaw was born. Somewhere along the trail, he began to call himself by the name he would make famous--or infamous, depending on your point of view--Matt Warner.
During the early 1880\'s, Matt built his ranch at Diamond Mountain and supplemented his income by various criminal activities. After joining in a large rustling raid with Cherokee Bangs, about whom little is known, Matt decided the Diamond Mountain ranch was a little too hot. He and Joe Brooks, one of his hands, picked up a wagon train somewhere headed for Arizona.
Upon arrival, Matt and Joe held up a combination store and bank in St. Johns, Arizona, netting the princely sum of $897. An unexpected chase by a local posse ran the pair all the way back to Robber\'s Roost in southeastern Utah, where they holed up for a couple of months. Leaving Robber\'s Roost, Joe headed back to Diamond Mountain and Matt went in search of his brother-in-law, Tom McCarty.
Matt found Tom and another man, Josh Swett (or Sweat), in Fort Wingate, Arizona. The three men formed a partnership and embarked on a cattle raid into Mexico. With 200 cattle, they returned safely to New Mexico where they sold the herd for $3.50 per head.
Matt reportedly met William Henry McCarty alias Kid Atrim and William Bonney, but better known as Billy the Kid, during this time. If true, the incident occurred before July of 1881 when Billy the Kid was killed by Pat Garrett. For more about Billy the Kid go to attempted raid into Mexico went well until they encountered Federal Officers after crossing the border. During the ensuing battle, the three men made their escape with Josh badly wounded. Thus began a 600-mile chase, which somehow Josh survived until he could be left in Kanab, Utah with friends. Matt and Tom continued to Frisco, a mining camp west of Milford, Utah.
Discovering the booming Frisco was a ready market for beef, Matt and Tom bought a small herd of cattle and drove them to Frisco. Billy Sackett, the town marshal, had heard of their escapades in New Mexico and arrested them for rustling. A trial was held shortly in Milford and the pair was acquitted. Angry over their release and apparently believing Matt and Tom guilty of local crimes, Sackett made them walk the fifteen miles to Frisco.
Upon reaching Frisco, Matt and Tom rode out to Tom (Black Jack) Ketchum\'s \"ranch\" some forty miles west of Milford. This ranch was known as a refuge for outlaws. Matt and Tom took a break safe from the eyes of the law--so they thought!
A few days later, two men claiming to be prospectors arrived at the ranch. Tom, however, was suspicious and examined their belongings with gun in hand. Handcuffs gave the men away and soon Tom sent them on their way in their own irons. Facing a long walk across the desert, the future looked bleak for the two officers. A short while later, Tom rode up to the frightened men.
Instead of killing them as the officers had feared, Tom had relented and freed them. Giving them canteens and offerding them goodbye, Tom rode off again.
Tom McCarty and Matt Warner soon separated, with Tom eventually wandering into Cortez, Colorado, and Matt heading again to Diamond Mountain. He discovered the law was still interested in him for earlier rustling activities in Wyoming and he moved his herd of horses into the White River country near Meeker, Colorado.
Matt sold a hundred horses to a man in Meeker who paid him off in hundred- dollar bills. A fellow named Cap Davis who ran a local boarding house where Matt stayed became very interested in Matt\'s bankroll. Being of a somewhat suspicious nature, Matt kept his eyes open and when he saw two riders approaching the next day, he was ready. Recognizing the men as two with whom Davis had been talking, Matt drew his gun and held them up instead of the other way around. Incidents such as this probably kept more attention on Matt than he needed. Prudently, he moved on again, this time to the La Sal Mountains near where the McCartys had ranched.
Dr. McCarty and his son George had long since moved to Haines, Oregon. Tom and Bill had sold out a few years later and when the money was gambled away, had hit the outlaw trail for good. Matt established himself and began training horses to race.
It was during a race at Telluride, Colorado in about 1885 he met a young ore hauler who called himself Roy Cassidy. Cassidy, soon to be known everywhere as Butch, was about nineteen and Matt was the ripe old age of twenty-one. Matt and Roy hit it off so well, despite Cassidy losing everything to Matt, they became partners in the racing business.
Using a horse called either Betty or Babe, depending on who is telling the story, the pair beat every horse in southern Colorado and Utah. They still found time for a reunion of Tom McCarty and Matt in Cortez. So far as we know, this is the first time McCarty and Cassidy met. It would not be the last.
Matt and Butch were so successful and well known on the racing circuit, eventually they could only find Indians who would race them. After winning one Indian\'s pony and a load of blankets, an Indian objected and Tom beat the objecting party with a quirt. Matt threw down on the crowd and the men left in a hurry for Tom\'s cabin.
Sure enough, the next morning the Indians arrived demanding their horse back. When one of them pointed a rifle at Tom, Tom shot the Indian off his horse, putting an end to further discussion.
Between 1885 and late 1887, these three desperadoes apparently were content to race and on occasion work as ranchhands. Then the Denver & Rio Grand train was stopped November 3, 1887 just outside Grand Junction, Colorado.
Despite careful planning, including blocking the track, the bandits came up empty-handed. Investigating officers blamed Tom, Bill, George McCarty, and their gang. More likely the leaders were Tom McCarty, Matt Warner, and Butch Cassidy as Bill and George were reportedly in the Northwest at that time.
Matt\'s next escapade of note was March 30, 1889. A man carrying a bottle of liquid walked into the First National Bank of Denver and demanded to see the president. Proclaiming the liquid to be nitro-glycerine, the man demanded $21,000, which the president promptly got from the cashier. Walking out of the bank, the man handed the money to an accomplice and faded into the crowd. Although Tom denied the robbery in his memoirs and Matt never mentioned it, evidence at the time pointed strongly to Tom and Matt.
June 24, 1889, Matt, Tom McCarty, Butch Cassidy, and others, rode back to Telluride. This time they had come to make a sizable withdrawal and they intended to beat a posse on their fast horses. The robbery was well planned and went off without a hitch. The only problem arose later when Cassidy\'s younger brother and another man were arrested while transporting supplies to the outlaws. Cassidy\'s younger brother, Dan Parker was sent to Wyoming to answer to old charges there and the other man talked his way out of trouble.
Matt and Tom spent the winter of 1889-1890 in Star Valley, south of Jackson, Wyoming on the Idaho-Wyoming border, using the names Tom Smith and Matt Willard. Matt married a fourteen-year-old girl named Rosa Rumel. Tom\'s wife had died and he married Sarah Lemberg.
Hard times fell on Star Valley that winter and the only storekeeper in Afton, Wyoming refused to extend any credit. Matt and Tom held him at gunpoint while the settlers took what they needed, then paid the man half his price. Such antics, to some extent probably apocryphal, were not necessarily done from any Christian charity; every outlaw knew he would need a place to lay up for a while and these acts of generosity with someone else\'s money bought a lot of friends.
As the valley became more accessible that Spring, so did Matt and Tom. Moving on again, the two outlaws and their wives went to Butte, Montana where they blew the rest of their proceeds from Telluride. When the money was nearly gone, the wives were sent back to Star Valley; Matt and Tom headed out to Haines, Oregon.
There they found brother Bill, Letty, and Fred, Bill\'s teenage son, broke and having a tough time. Butch had remained in Wyoming and it took little persuasion for Bill to take a hand in the game. The first little robbery netted only enough for Matt to send for Rosa -- Sarah refused to come.
The bunch moved on as Haines became too hot for comfort. Using the name Ras Lewis, Matt and the rest bought the 7 U ranch near Cooley, Washington. Then they really went to work.
A string of robberies in Oregon and Washington filled the coffers but kept them on the move. Rosa was constantly complaining about the hardships and begging Matt to quit the business and settle down. There were reports Matt abused her during this period which he hotly denied to his dying day. Rosa\'s sister, Sadie Morgan, had come to live with them and she eventually caused Matt a great deal of trouble over her fears for Rosa.
A few days before his daughter was born, Matt and the gang robbed the bank at Roslyn, Washington of $20,000. When he returned after a hectic chase, he promised Rosa that in a few days he would dig up his stash and they would leave to make a new start. Unfortunately, the law had other plans.
Acting on a tip from Sadie, lawmen arrested Matt and soon had George McCarty in the same cell. A lawyer told Matt he could get off if he had enough money to put in the right places. Matt told the lawyer where he could find $41,000 and drew a map to the exact location.
Despite an aborted escape attempt, the two men were soon freed and Matt asked the lawyer how much their freedom had cost. When the lawyer replied, \"$41,000,\" Matt was shocked. The lawyer, to prove what a decent fellow he was, gave Matt $500 out of his own pocket. Matt was broke again and he found his ranch trashed by treasure hunters.
Trading the ranch for a horse and saddle, Matt rode toward Diamond Mountain, where he lived more or less quietly for two years. Despite her statements to the press and the efforts of her mother and sister, Rosa rejoined Matt at the Diamond Mountain ranch.
On September 7, 1893--less than two months after Matt and George were freed -- Tom, Bill, and young Fred McCarty held up the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Delta, Colorado. This was to be the last venture into banking for any of them. When the smoke clear ed, Bill and Fred were dead, killed by a local sharpshooter named Simpson. Tom disappeared a few years later after sending his autobiography to Matt Warner\'s father who published the book in 1898.
Matt\'s wife, Rosa, developed bone cancer in her leg and Matt spent as much time as he could in Vernal, Utah where she went for treatment. A man named Coleman hired Matt and Bill Wall, a local gambler, to frighten off three men he believed were after his mining claim. The situation escalated into a sudden gun battle.
After all was said and done, two of the three were dead and the other a cripple for life. Matt and Wall were arrested and charged with murder, despite much evidence they had acted in self-defense. Matt was being tried for his past and, despite the best efforts of his friends--the Montpelier, Idaho bank robbery by Butch and company reportedly paid for defense counsel -- went to prison on September 21, 1896.
While he was in prison, a son was born (given away and not to survive to adulthood), and Rosa died. January 21, 1900, Matt was freed to begin his life anew.
Until he died, December 21, 1938, Matt lived as a respected man in Price, Utah. He remarried, fathered three children, was elected as justice of the peace, and served in several positions in law enforcement.
He ran for sheriff of Carbon County, Utah in 1912 and would surely have been elected had he run under the name of Matt Warner; as Willard Christiansen, he was soundly whipped because no-one knew the name.
The story ends here except for a post script.
Charles Kelly first published his book, \"The Outlaw Trail,\" in 1938. According to a later revision, Matt Warner was totally angered by the reports published in the book that he had abused Rosa. Despite Kelly\'s efforts to assure Matt that all he had published was from newspaper articles quoting Rosa herself, Matt left for Price and drank himself all the way home and continued until he died a few days later. Kelly says Warner\'s family blames him for Matt\'s death.
Imagine yourself as a television network executive at NBC in 1973. The bright, happy Western classic “Bonanza” is about to be canceled. In a last-ditch effort to save it from the ax, you’ve been asked to put a fresh, “western-noir” spin on the show so that it can compete with the darker TV fare that’s now in fashion — like “All in the Family” and “M*A*S*H.”
Here’s something you might come up with: Old Ben Cartwright, now that he’s built the Bonanza Ranch to prominence, moves to Oregon with son Adam, leaving the Bonanza to his other two sons, Hoss and Little Joe. After running the ranch for a few episodes, the boys get impatient, sell the Bonanza and promptly burn through the money at the gambling tables in town. To support their lifestyle, the two become family-style outlaws: large-scale cattle rustlers, bank robbers and friends of the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy.
Oh, and along the way, they move to Oregon.
Your new, “improved” Bonanza would surely not have lasted a minute in an NBC pitch meeting. But it’s the basics of the story of a famous outlaw family called McCarty, a gang of brothers and brothers-in-law that made life in eastern Oregon very lively for the first few years of the 1890s.
By the way, the McCartys were, as far as I\'ve been able to learn, unrelated to William McCarty Jr. — a.k.a. Billy the Kid.
The McCarty family came from the gorgeous cattle country of San Juan County, Utah. The old man — Lorne Green’s Ben Cartwright character, in our rebooted “Bonanza Noir” — was a surgeon in the Confederate army during the Civil War, who became a successful cattleman in Montana before settling down there and building, with his sons, a ranch that should have made them wealthy squires.
Instead, it made the boys $35,000 and a ticket to the Outlaw Hall of Fame — and, for one of them, to a casket.
On the Outlaw TrailOne of the boys, Tom — the “Little Joe” character — hit the outlaw trail right away with his brother-in-law, Matt Warner, and soon fell in with Butch Cassidy. Several high-profile bank robberies later, Tom, Matt and Butch were outlaw royalty. They became famous as “The Invincible Three.”
Brother Bill — the “Hoss” character — became a large-scale cattle rustler. Eventually, though, he gave up the outlaw life, bought himself a spread near Baker City, and with his son Fred, tried hard to make a go of it as a legitimate rancher.
Meanwhile, Brother George — the “Adam” character — had still been under the stabilizing influence of old, respectable Dr. McCarty (“Ben Cartwright”), running cattle in Harney County near Haines. But after Dr. McCarty moved to Myrtle Point, George, too, was at loose ends, and feeling his larcenous oats. As Bill tried to make a go of his new ranch, George was trying to make a go of a mining claim a few dozen miles away, in the Wallowa Mountains mining town of Cornucopia. Neither of the two was having much luck.The Wallowa Mountain mining town of Cornucopia, where GeorgeMcCarty’s mining claim was located. (Image: Baker County Library)That’s probably why, when Tom and brother-in-law Matt rolled into town and asked if they’d like to get back into the family business, neither required much convincing.
Building an outlaw empireThe McCartys started by rigging Bill’s money-losing ranch — the New Bonanza, if you will — as an outlaw hideout, with secret chambers and tunnels and hollowed-out haystacks. Then Tom, his pockets still jingling with the proceeds of his robberies with Butch Cassidy, went out and started buying remote pieces of property around the area that the gang could use as hideouts and staging spots for rustled cattle.
Meanwhile, the rest of the gang was coming together, a group of wives, sisters, nephews and cousins, all tied together by blood and kinship. Those ties would make the McCarty gang very strong. They would also lead directly to its ultimate destruction.
A bank-robbing BonanzaThe gang’s first hit was the Wallowa National Bank in Enterprise. It was a textbook bank job. They put on homemade horsehair beards to hide their faces without wearing masks — masks, of course, would draw suspicion. Tom stood guard by the door, keeping customers from coming in; Bill and Matt strolled into the bank and stuck a six-shooter in the teller’s face. They got out before the townspeople knew what was happening.
This last item was critical: Eastern Oregon was famously hostile to bank robbers, and five minutes could mean the difference between a clean getaway and a running, unwinnable gun battle on Main Street with 50 or 60 angry depositors behind Winchesters borrowed from the local hardware store. The McCartys would eventually learn this lesson the hard way.
In the meantime, though, they were on to a string of successful stick-ups. A few weeks later, they jacked up the Summerville bank at 9 p.m., taking advantage of the cover of darkness. This heist went even more smoothly, and netted them a full $5,000.
An attempt to rob the wealthy patrons of the Hotel Warshauer in Baker City didn’t go so well. In the middle of the operation, a cop saw Tom and Matt in an alley looking scruffy in their horsehair beards and tried to arrest them for vagrancy. Matt clobbered him with his rifle and they all ran for it, empty-handed.
An attempted train robbery ended with even more embarrassment. They piled a bunch of debris on the tracks and lurked, waiting for the train to stop so that they could rob it; but the engineer, who was clearly no greenhorn, knew immediately what was going on and opened up the throttle wide — risking a high-speed derailment because he knew there were men with guns waiting in the bushes.
He won the bet. The cow catcher cleared the junk and the train disappeared around the next bend as the four disappointed bandits watched, coughing on its coal smoke.
The gang’s endOregon was getting too hot for comfort, so the gang moved up to the Washington Territory and pulled a string of heists up there — successfully knocking over banks in Wenatchee and Roslyn and nearly getting caught and shot trying to rob a circus. But then Matt’s sister-in-law came to stay with them, and, convinced their lifestyle wasn’t good for her sister (Matt’s wife), ratted them all out. Matt and George were arrested, and their lawyer got them sprung but then cleaned out their entire stash — $41,000 — as his legal fee.
After that, the gang decided the Northwest was too hot for them, and they headed to Colorado — for one last bank job, on Sept. 3, 1893, in Delta.
During this heist, one of the boys shot the teller in the head, murdering him. Alerted by the gunfire, the town started rallying, and by the time the robbers left the bank, the local hardware store owner was ready for them with his .44 Sharps rifle. As they galloped out of town, he picked off Bill (in our “Bonanza” reboot, that’s Hoss) and his son Fred. Both were dead before they hit the dirt. (The newspapers said Fred was shot first, and then Bill was picked off when he rode back to try to get his body.)
The others got away. But after that disaster, the McCartys never rode again.
A one-time opportunity to view and handle the famous historic Sharps rifle, which ended the historic exploits of the McCarty gang in 1893 took place on Saturday, July 9th, at the museum. The 1874 Sharps rifle was on special display and was available for close-up viewing and, under close supervision, we also allowed the rifle to be handled by the public. Appropriate protective gloves provided by the museum were required, and we did not allow anyone to dry-fire the rifle. A photographer was on hand to take photographs of anyone wishing to have a permanent memento of handling the rifle.
The Sharps rifle was temporarily removed from the permanent bank robbery exhibit so that close-up, detailed photographs could be taken of the markings on the rifle. This had been done years ago, but with photographic quality so much better now, we decided to update our documentary photos. With the rifle out of the exhibit, the Board of Trustees decided to use it as a draw for an open house, and a $10 admission fee was established for the event.
The robbery of the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Delta took place on September 7, 1893, when brothers Tom and Bill McCarty, along with Bill’s son, Fred, encountered the marksmanship of W. Ray Simpson, a hardware merchant who was in his store across Main Street from the bank, when he heard two shots inside the bank, one of which killed bank cashier, Andrew Blachly. Simpson, with his single-shot Sharps rifle in hand, ran over to Third Street and was approaching the alley when the three McCarty outlaws galloped past him as they sought to escape toward Second Street through the alley. Tom McCarty was in the lead, followed by Fred and his father, Bill. Simpson’s first shot removed the top of Bill’s head, and he dropped just behind where the present-day museum is today. Fred made it to the end of the alley when Simpson’s second shot hit him in the head, and he died against a fence then at Second Street. Tom McCarty escaped from Delta only to disappear into history. When, where or how he died is a mystery to this day.
Also present at the open house were four descendants of Tom McCarty, the great grandfather of all of them. Tom McCarty was the only McCarty who escaped the marksmanship of Ray Simpson that day in 1893. The four McCarty descendants, all cousins today, took the occasion to have a small McCarty reunion in Delta, since they had traveled from distant homes in Utah and Texas for the occasion. Only Kristi Johnson, from Utah, great granddaughter of Tom McCarty, had ever been to the museum.
All brought photos and other family memorabilia relating to the McCarty legacy which few have ever seen. This was a unique opportunity to visit with related family members of the (outlaw) McCarty lineage, and it was truly a momentous occasion.
SEPTEMBER 9, 1893
THE OMAHA DAILY BEE, Nebraska, September 8 and 9, 1893 A two issue set reporting the Farmers and Merchants Bank robbery of Delta, Colorado, but the infamous McCarty Gang.The first report is on pg. 2 of the Sept. 8 issue with column heads: \"BANK ROBBERS SLAUGHTERED\" \"Three of Them Raid A Colorado Town and Two Meet Death\" \"Cashier of the Delta bank Murdered\" and more (see). This lengthy report provides much detail with more info found in the hyperlink.The second report is on the front page of the Sept. 9 issue, headed: \"Colorado\'s Outlaws\" \"Identity of the Two Dead Outlaws Who Tried to Rob the Delta Bank\" which offers various details on the chase after Tom McCarty & more.In reality the two dead outlaws were McCarty\'s brother and nephew. This would be the last known robbery by Tom McCarty.
McCarthy (McCarty) GangSource: The Sun, Sep 8, 1893THE CASHIER SHOT DEADTwo bank robbers killed as they ran off with the plunder.An exciting three minutes in Delta, Colorado. - Cashier Blachly killed as he raised the alarm - Well-aimed shots from Mr. Simpson\'s rifle pick two of the outlaws from their horses -chase given to the third, but he escapes to the mountains.
Delta, Col., Sept. 7.-The usual attempt to rob a bank in a bold manner ended disastrously here this morning, when three young desperadoes tried to make away with the funds of the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank.
Cashier A.T. Blachly was shot in the neck and instantly killed, and two of the robbers were picked from their horses as they rode down an alley by the clever marksmanship of W. Ray Simpson, a hardware dealer, and the money was recovered from their dead bodies.
It was about 10 o\'clock when three men on horseback appeared in the alley at the rear of the bank. Two dismounted, leaving the other man to hold the horses. The men entered by the front door and appeared at the window.
At that moment only the cashier and his assistant, H.H. Wolbert, were in the bank. They both went forward to wait on the customers, when they were covered with revolvers and ordered to hold up their hands.
Cashier Blachly yelled, and was promptly cursed by the robbers, who told him to keep quiet. He yelled again, when one of the robbers fired his revolver and Blachly fell dead, the ball having passed upward from the neck. The men then vaulted over the partition, grabbed what money was in sight, and fled through the rear door. As they did this Wolbert picked up his revolver, but was observed by the robbers, who got the drop on him. They did not shoot, but ordered him to throw away his revolver, which he did very quickly. They then dashed into the alley, mounted, and fled down the narrow way toward the Gunnison River.
When the first shot, which killed the cashier, was heard the cry was raised that the bank was being robbed. Men rushed for revolvers and guns and then ran toward the bank. Among them was W.R. Simpson, a young hardware merchant, whose shop was across the street from the bank.
He picked up a rifle and started up the street. As the robbers came out of the alley and crossed the street Simpson fired and one of the robbers fell, the top of his head being fairly taken off by the ball.
Simpson then ran to the alley and fired after the other two fleeing men. He shot twice, killing first another man and then his horse. The second man was also struck in the head. The remaining survivor escaped across the river and down toward Grand Junction.
A posse was soon gathered and started in hot pursuit. The robber\'s horse was fresh, and he gave them a pretty chase. A number of ranchmen came into town this afternoon from down the valley, and reported having seen the man riding by several miles ahead of his pursuers.
Other parties left later, going across into the Escalante country, hoping to head off the man. He will be promptly lynched if caught.
At the time the robbery was going on a lawyer named W.R. Robertson, having his office in the rear of the bank, heard the first shout and ran out into the alley into the arms of the robbers holding the horses, who quickly covered him with a revolver and kept him there until joined by the escaping robbers from the bank.
The men have been seen about this part of the country for several days. No one knows them. While here two stopped at the hotel, registering as Clarence Bradley and James G. Bradley. About $1,000 was taken by the robbers, and it was all recovered from the dead bodies of the two men left in the alley.
Since they were placed in the undertaker\'s shop they have been identified by several as the same fellows who held up the bank of Telluride four years ago.
Clarence Bradley told one man here that they came from the Rogue River country, Oregon, and that they had been herding cattle in Utah. A reward of $500 has been offered.
This evening one party of pursuers returned to town saying that the trail had been lost, the man escaping into the mountains. As he has a good mount he will no doubt make good his escape.
Mr. Blachly was about 47 years old. In 1878 or thereabouts he conducted a drug store at Canon City. As the railroad was extended he followed it, keeping at various periods a drug store at Arkansas Ctiy, Mears, and Sargent.
Finally, when the Denver and Rio Grande reached Gunnison, he located in that city, opening a drug store, as in other places. In 1885 he failed in business. Then he went upon a ranch near Delta for a time, leaving it to become cashier of the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank. He has relatives in several places in Connecticut.
Denver, Sept 7. - Speaking of the Delta Bank robbery this evening, President Moffatt of the First National Bank said: \"I think the robbers are of the same gang of scoundrels that has been doing so much mischief in the West, and probably one of them robbed me.\"
THEY ARE AFTER HIMThe Dalton Bandit is Fleeling Toward the High HillsSource: San Francisco Call, Vol 74, No. 101, Sep 9, 1893Delta, Colo., Sept 8-Two of the posse which started yesterday in pursuit of the bandit who, with two companions held up the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank and killed the cashier in doing so, returned late last evening without the fugitive. Other parties are in pursuit, and although the outlaw has taken to the mountains, he will be captured. Ex-Chief of Police Farley of Denver is of the opinion the robbers belonged to the McCarthy gang, who operated so extensively in Denver.
END OF A BAD GANGThe Delta Robbers Identified as the Oregon McCarthys.Source: San Francisco Call, Vol 74 No 103, Sep 11, 1893Delta, Colo., Sept 10-The men who were killed last Thursday while attempting to escape after robbing the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank and killing its cashier, were positively identified to-day as Tom and Fred McCarthy, father and son. The Third man who participated in the robbery but escapes is Billy McCarthy, also a son of Tom McCarthy. These men constituted the McCarthy gang of Oregon, and are wanted there for robbing stages and the United States mails. There is a reward of $10,000 for them on that account. The dead men were exhumed and identified by Sheriff Condee of Baker City, Or., who attempted to arrest them in Oregon, but was prevented by the McCarthys getting the drop on him.
Ex-Chief of Police Farley of Denver also knows the gang and says Tom McCarthy was the man who robbed President D.H. Moffatt of the First National Bank of that city some four years ago, securing $21,000. Budd Taylor of Moab, Utah, who claims to be a relative by marriage to the McCarthy family, also identified the men. Billy McCarthy, the escaped robber, is still at large, but the pursuit has not been given up.
THE DELTA BANK ROBBERYWife of One of the Robbers Said to Be Here.Source: The Salt Lake Herald, Sep 15, 1893The Report of the daring bank robbery at Delta, Colo., a few days ago, was read with interest here, and now it is said the the wife of Bill McCarty, or rather his widow, for it is believed that Bill was one of the two robbers who was killed, is living this city. Sheriff Belknap[sic] is looking the matter up, according to an article which appeared in the Ogden Standard yesterday, reading as follows:
Sheriff Belnap yesterday received two photographs from Delta, Colo., one each of the two bank robbers who were killed at that place last Thursday, while attempting to rob a bank. The sheriff has in his gallery the photos of three of the McCarty gang-Bill, Fred and Tom, and he is of the opinion that the ones who were killed were Bill and Fred. It was stated in the dispatches that the killed robbers were Bill and Tom, but a careful comparison of the pictures shows that Tom was not one of those who departed this life full of lead and an unsatisfied longing for gold galore.
The pictures of Tom McCarty, who escaped the fusilade of Winchesters, shows him to be a young man with a smooth, attractive face and rather slender form. Bill\'s picture shows a middle aged man with a rather rough, coarse face, covered with a beard.. Fred was the son of Bill, a young man of about 20 years of age, smooth, very full, round face, and quite fleshy. The two pictures sent from Delta tally closely with those in Sheriff Belnap\'s gallery, representing Bill and his son Fred and hence he thinks they are the ones.
The pictures received yesterday were taken within a few minutes after the shooting was done and on the spot where they fell. The picture of the older man, or the one identified as Bill McCarty, shows the top of the head shot entirely off, the bullet entering the back of the head and coming out in the forehead just between the eyes. The body was evidently held up on crutches while the picture was being taken, supported by some one in the rear. The face is covered with short beard stubble, and presents a ghastly, forofferding appearance.
The picture of the boy shows a stout heavy youth with smooth face. The bullet which terminated his career also entered the back of his head and came out throught the forehead, but the top of the head was not torn off. Last summer when Bill McCarty and his son were in Ogden, the boy purchased a pair of pantaloons from a prominent dealer, who remembers that the could find nothing to fit him in length that was large enough for his limbs. In order to be fitted the boy took a pair that were fully a foot too long and had them cut down, and even they were a very close fit.
Sheriff Belnap, acting on instructions, wil go to Salt Lake city today or tomorrow to find Bill McCarty\'s wife, who is thought to live there, and talk with her regarding the gang. Afterwards he may go in search for Tom, who is believed to have been the third member of the gang, the one who escaped.
THREE ROBBERS DEADShot Down by Citizens are Robbing a Bank-Four Citizens Were WoundedSource: Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896The Thieves raided the bank, marches the employees into the street and then made a rush to escape, but the citizens stopped them with their guns.Meeker, Colo., Oct 15-Three men entered the Bank of Meeker yesterday, which is connected with the storeroom of J.W. Hughes & Co., who own the bank. Two of the men held the store employes at bay while the third went into the bank cashier\'s window and firing one shot, ordered the cashier to throw up his hands. The order was not obeyed and the robber fired again, whereupon the cashier\'s hands shot up. The manager of the store was then forced to open the bank door, and after gathering up all the money in sight the robber marched the cashier and store employes into the street with hands uplifted. They then rushed out the back way with their booty.
Citizens attracted by the shots had pretty well surrounded the building by this time, and being armed, opened fired on the robbers, two of whom, Charles Jones and William Smith, were killed by the first volley. The third man, George Harris, was shot throught the lungs, dying in two hours. He was fully identified and gave the other names, which are believed to be fictitious.
Four citizens were wounded. District Game Warden W.H. Clark, was shot in the right breast, not fatally injured.Victor Dikeman, a clerk, was shot through the right arm.C.A. Booth, a clerk, scalp wound.W.P. Herrick, finger shot off.
It is believed one of the dead men is Thomas McCarthy, who robbed the banks at Telluride and Delta, Colo.The coroner\'s jury returned a verdict of justified homicide.Meeker is 90 miles from Rifle, on the Denver and Rio Grande, the nearest telegraph station.
THE MEEKER ROBBERYBelieved the Dead Men Belonged to the McCarthy Gang.Source: Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896Denver, Oct 15-According to the lastest advices from Meeker, Colo., which is 90 miles fromt he nearest telegraph office, the three men who were killed after robbing the bank have not been identified. The robbery was one of the most daring ever perpetrated in the west occurring, as it did, in broad daylight, and at a time when there were 20 or more people in plain sight.
It is believe here that the robbers were members of the McCarthy gang that committed several daring train and bankrobberies in Montana, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.
It is also supposed that the man who robbed David H. Moffat, president of the First National Bank of this city, of $21,000 in 1889, was a member of this gang. The McCarthys formerly lived in an out-of-the-way place in Oregon, in which they were regarded as wealthy ranchmen.
In an attempt to rob the bank at Delta, Colo., about a year ago, John McCarthy and his son were killed, but Tom McCarthy escaped.
FAST MAIL HELD UPFailing to Blow Open the Express Safe Rifled the Mails.Source: Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896Ogden, Utah, Oct 15-The Union Pacific fast mail, due here at 2 o\'clock yesterday morning, was held up by three masked and heavily armed men a half mile east of Uintah. Two of the robbers clambered over the engine tender, and with oaths, backed up by revolvers in each hand, compelled the engineer to stop the train. He did so and the robbers immediately attacked the expresscar. An attempt was made to force the safe with dynamite, but the charge failed to explode. In the meantime the engineer started to run. He escaped a fusillade of bullets and made his way to the city. The robbers then went to the mailcar. While they were sorting the registered packages the conductor cut the engine loose and opened the throttle and started for Ogden. Near the city he overtook the engineer and brought him to Ogden.
Several large posses of men have started on the trail of the robbers, including many old scouts, who know every foot of the county.
The Robbers Still FreeOgden, Utah, Oct 15-Several posses are still in search of the robbers who robbed the Union Pacific, but so far have found no clew[sic]. A bottle of nitroglycerin and several sticks of dynamite have been found near where the train was held up. Three of the registered mailracks rifled were for San Francisco and four for Sacramento.
MOST DESPERATE PLOT UNEARTHED
A BANDIT WHO LIVES IN A PALACE CAVE.Utah Has Offered a $5000 Reward for His Capture, but He Seems to Take Life as Quietly as Usual.Source: San Francisco Call, Vol 85, No 151, Apr 30, 1899Salt Lake, Utah-In the heart of the Rocky Mountains, protected by towering precipice and yawning canyon, is the luxuriously furnished, electric lighted fastness of a bank of robbers which has for years terrorized a great deal of three states, and on the heads of whose members is set a price, \"alive or dead.\"
The Legislature of the State of Utah has determined that the famous Tom McCarthy gang of bandits and cattle thieves must be broken up. A bill providing an appropriation for the purpose of hunting the men down has passed the second reading, with all chances for actment into a law.
This bill sets aside a sum of $5000 with which a war to the death is to be launched against the members of one of the most notorious bands of murderers and cutthroats known to the history of America. It is proposed that the dealings with the robbers, who have held portions of three States in abject terror for three years and whose agents are scattered the length and breadth of the land, will be as harsh and merciless as those used by the outlaws themselves. They may be invited to surrender to submit to the punishment their crimes deserve, and those who refuse and defy the officers wil be hunted down an dealth with through persuasion of powder and ball.
It has been generally acknowledged for some time that ordinary methods of procedure will not do with the men who lawlessly reign in the heart of the Blue Mountains, or Roan Ridge. They are not inclined to submit to the law in any extremity, for they are all amenable for the greatest of crimes and will probably die fighting rather than be taken and compelled to submit to trial before a court.
Combination of Governors.Little over a year ago, as will be remembered, 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 the country and Spain were heralded. The brave boys were needed against a greater and more than local foe and the repression of the outlaws was laid for a time upon the gubernatorial sheif. Perhaps it was well, judging by the tales of the gang and its strength which 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 attempt with the best chance of success. The movement of a body of troops and a military campaign would be too much like an open book for the eyes of the vigilance of this band which has long ago taken precautions against just such a move on the part of outraged justice.
The people 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 which hold the gang, but they will depend more upon killing the members one by one as they venture out for supplies. They will try to invest the place and starve but the outlaws. 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 on both sides before the object of the Legislature is accomplished.
Tom McCarthy, the leader of the Blue Mountain robbers, or the \"Hole in the Wall Society,\" as it is often called, has been called the Napoleon of outlawry. His origin is in doubt, but it is known that he is wanted in several parts of the country for crimes of unusual atrocity. His appearance is anything but prepossessing. He is about five feet six inches in height and weight about 175 pounds. His forehead is narow and forofferding, and covers deep set, gray eyes. A fold of fat 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 neighboring States and Territories. After moving about considerably, always pursued 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 had seemed to give McCarthy an idea of establishing a rendezvous where he might retreat when sorely pressed.
Fastness of the Bandits.Miners and prospectors have in a number of instances wandered close upon the retreat of the bandits, and have 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; but at the present time the exact locality of the retreat of McCarthy and his men is not known, thought 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 particular 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 passageway blasted and cut through solid rock. The termination of this shorter pathway brings the robber to the entrance of the gathering place, which is nothing less that a great cave or amphitheater in the center of the rock.
This is the throne room of the Irishman, and from this there run in all directions tunnels, their openings artfully concealed, so great are the precautions of the band, and their other ends terminating at one or the other side of the mountain. This is known from statements made by miners and mechanics who were taken by the gang to do the work and who were blindfolded while aproaching and leaving the place.
By the most remarkable feature of all is the fact, boasted of by more than 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 room to 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.
A former Deputy United States Marshal of Utah is authority for the statement that there are fifty skeletons lying in a gulch not a great way from the mouth of McCarthy\'s canyon. The Marshal says that he saw the place himself, and that the skeletons represent persons put out of the way by robbers, who feared they would reveal secrets they had stumbled across.
POLICE SAY ROGERS WAS MCCARTHY GANG MEMBERMade Tunnel From His Saloon to Rob BankSource: San Francisco Call, Vol 107, No. 2, Dec 2, 1909According to the police John Bennett Rogers, who was arrested in the Lacey saloon, 640 Market street, early Tuesday morning for burglary, was a member of the gang headed by John McCarthy that tunneled from Rogers\' saloon in Los Angeles opposite the First National Bank to the bank several years ago with the object of stealing $250,000.
McCarthy was the only one arrested. He was sentenced to serve a term of 10 years in San Quentin. The other known members of the gang were Louis Matheny, Frank Stevens and John Stewart.
It was the same gang that committed numerous burglaries in Oakland just prior to the Los Angeles attempt, when Joseph Touhill, a member of the gang, was shot and killed and Policeman Cashel met a similar fate.Thompson Mercantile; Tom McCarty Gang and Marshal Dick Plunkett in Cortez In 1889.

Frank Clyde Thompson came to Montezuma Valley with his parents in 1887 at which time his father A. L. Thompson, drove into town with three wagon loads of dry goods and groceries. Thompson opened the first mercantile establishment in Cortez in his wagons on the corner of Main and Market Streets; his first sale having been $250.00 worth of supplies to Angus Stocks, the Mormon contractor, who helped Peter Baxstrom erect the Company Building. The A. L. Thompson Mercantile Co., had to do business from wagons until a building could be erected. Frank Clyde began his business career in his father’s establishment, and on being asked for an early-day incident that had left its impress on his mind, he replied: “I remember the time that Tom McCarty took the town in 1889. He and his gang rode their horses right into the saloon, the Hotel, Mrs. Lamb’s Millinery Store and some of the private houses. They killed all the dogs on the streets, shot out the lights, and had the whole town terror stricken.”
Dick Plunkett, who was marshal, was too good natured to enforce law and order, and Cortez was a “wide open” town. The leader of the gang undertook to ride into our store, but there were ladies shopping in there at the time, and father told them they must get out. Sherlock, the leader, said he was going to ride in anyway. Father told him there were ladies shopping in there, and if he did, he would have to ride over his dead body. Sherlock galloped away, but turned his wrath in another direction and created much havoc before leaving town.
THE GOOD NATURED MARSHAL
Dick Plunkett came to the United States from County Down, Ireland. He arrived in New York and immediately came west, locating first in Colorado. He was one of eleven brothers – all big, athletic men- and had sold cattle in every county in England, so he was not a green unsophisticated lad when he came to this country. Without waiting even a day to see something of the east, he came out to join his brother-in-law in the sheep-raising business, near Pagosa Springs in Southern Colorado. Seven weeks of loneliness and monotony of a sheep ranch were all he could endure. It was his remarkable prowess in athletic sports and demonstrated courage that first commanded popular attention and interest. The town of Montezuma, just then infested with the toughest “bad men” in the land offered him the job of Marshal.
(Montezuma now a ghost town between Dillon and Loveland). He entered upon his duties with enthusiasm that disgusted the bad men. They tried to kill him as it seemed to them it would not be difficult. Marshal Plunkett only carried a cane. The idea of arresting one of them with his bare hands seemed absurd. But to their astonishment and shame he did it. They shot him many a time but a few bullets more or less in his powerful frame did not appear to have any effect. Broad, deep-chested, strong limbed, weighing 250-260 pounds and always in condition he could jump over a horse or turn somersaults and handsprings forward or backward and he soon taught them to know him as their master. It was reported “this officer never smokes or chews tobacco, never swears, and never was known to be angry. Even when fighting for his life he laughs and seems to enjoy the excitement. “
A criminal whom he thought to arrest might get one shot into him but before he could fire a second would find himself on his back, with Dick’s grip on his throat, the handcuffs on his wrist and if he did not happen to have a broken limb or rib as a result of the sudden mix-up, should consider himself in luck. No provocation or numbers opposed to him would make Dick shoot to kill. If they opened fire on him at too great distance for him to quickly close with them, he might use a revolver – and he could shoot very straight – to hit their legs and bring them down, but that was as much as he would do.
Quite early in Plunkett’s Western career the Indians won his sympathy. He was very protective of the Indians. His first meeting with the red men was while he was Marshal at Montezuma, when he convoyed a party across the Dolores and Mancos mountain ranges, going to obtain blasting powder for use in making an irrigation ditch.
Plunkett was known as a frontiersman, United States Marshal from Oklahoma and all-around conqueror of “bad men” and became known as “Col. Dick Plunkett”. “Texas Sam” was one of the worst characters vanquished by the Marshal. Sam from the Rio Grande was 6’4” tall and very muscular but encountered Plunkett and ended up in handcuffs. Plunkett was elected Marshal of Creede in a contest with Bat Masterson in Creede’s hot and boisterous days. He arrested Ed Kelly, the slayer of Bob Ford.
The McCarty Gang was a group of outlaws run by Tom McCarty, a Mormon bandit who was one of the first to introduce Butch Cassidy to the life of banditry.
Tom McCarty and younger brother Bill began to rustle cattle in the 1870s, but by the 1890s, they formed the McCarty Gang and stepped up to robbing banks. In addition to Tom and Bill McCarty, the gang also included Tom’s brother-in-law, Willard Christianson, aka, Matt Warner, and Bill’s son, Fred.
The gang’s first hit was the Wallowa National Bank in Enterprise, Oregon in 1891. This was followed by another hold-up at Summerville, Oregon, and a failed attempt to rob a train. In 1892, his brother, Bill, and brother-in-law, Matt Warner, held up a bank in Roslyn, Washington. When an angry crowd approached them, Tom opened fire, wounding two men.
The next year, the McCarty brothers, along with their nephew, Fred McCarty, robbed a bank in Delta, Colorado, in which, Tom shot a killed the cashier, A.T. Blachey. When citizens heard the gunfire, they rushed the bank and shot and killed Tom’s brother, Bill, and his nephew, Fred. Tom McCarty was able to escape and fled to Montana where he settled down and worked as a sheepherder. However, around 1900, he was killed in a gunfight in Bitterroot County.
Willard Christianson also settled down in Utah and died a natural death on December 21, 1938, at the age of 74.
he following is a true story, although some details may be subject to scrutiny as accounts have been compiled through several sources and many years have passed.
On a warm Saturday, in the late Summer of 1893, the serenity of a quiet morning was shattered by an eruption of violence in downtown Delta. The growing town was just beginning to come into its own as the arrival of the Denver and Rio Grande railroad was transforming the west. The area had seen its share of brutality and bloodshed in the past, from conflicts with the native Utes to incidents with the Night Riders, a group of cattle ranchers who terrorized local sheep grazers in the area. However, as the dawn of a new century approached, a sense of peace seemed to have settled on Delta - until the morning of September 7th.
Tom McCartyTom McCarty, Leader of the McCarty Gang
Courtesy of Delta County Museum The calm was broken by a faction of the infamous McCarty Gang who had chosen that day to rob the Farmers and Merchants Bank on Main Street. Their leader, Tom McCarty, was a former miner and rancher-turned-outlaw who began rustling cattle with his younger brother, Bill, and soon graduated to holding up banks. The two, along with Matt Warner, Bill’s son Fred, and various other associates, robbed banks in Washington and Oregon and then worked their way through Utah to Western Colorado. It’s widely accepted that Tom introduced the art of the stick-up to Robert Leroy Parker, who would later ride under the alias of Butch Cassidy.
The BankThe Farmers and Merchants Bank in Delta, 1894
Courtesy of Delta County Museum When money began to run short for the outlaws it was time to pull another job. Tom had recently laid down $40,000 in cash, that he had lifted from some good people who mistakenly trusted the security of their bank in Telluride, in order to pay a lawyer for freeing some family members from jail. Funds were suddenly tight and the new caper that Tom ran by his gang was to take place in the quiet and unassuming town of Delta. What he failed to account for was the sharpshooting merchant at the local hardware store from Kentucky who, by chance, was polishing his .40 caliber Sharps rifle on the steps of his shop when everything went south.
Ray SimpsonThe sharpshooting hardware clerk, Ray Simpson
Courtesy of Delta County Museum Ray Simpson was part owner of a local hardware store that would later change hands, as well as locations after a devastating fire, and eventually become Delta Hardware. Ray was a dead shot with the rifle he happened to be holding when the shooting began. It’s rumored that Simpson had suffered from a nightmare about a robbery the previous evening. While cleaning his gun, he was reportedly recounting the dream to his father on the steps of the hardware store when the first shot rang out. Ray grabbed some rounds, leaped from the porch, and ran to the corner of Main and Third Street as he realized the shots were coming from the bank.
RifleRay Simpson\'s Sharpes 40 Calibre 1874 Rifle
Courtesy of Delta County Museum Minutes earlier the McCarty Gang had ridden into town from their camp in Escalate Canyon and tied their horses in the alley behind the bank. They had spent the previous days casing the bank in the guise of ranchers in the market for land. Tom stayed with the horses and kept an eye on the street while Bill and the 17-year-old, Fred, drew their pistols and entered the bank. At about a quarter after ten in the morning, tellers Andrew Blachly and H.H. Wolbert found themselves staring down the barrels of revolvers amid demands to empty the safe. W.R. Robertson, an attorney who made use of an office in the back, was tending his books there at the time.
BlachlyAndrew Blachly, Bank Teller and father of 9, killed in the robbery.
Courtesy of Delta County Museum Blachly, a father of eight sons, began to cry out that the bank was being robbed in order to warn Robertson. When he refused to be silent, the shaken young Fred shot Blachley dead. Suddenly aware that the shooting had sounded an alarm, the two quickly grabbed a bag of coins and a stack of cash before making their exit. A good bit of their meager haul took to the wind as they hurriedly mounted their rides with Tom, who had trained his gun on Robertson at the back door. The three reigned their horses around to the north and broke into a gallop but Ray Simpson had already taken up his position and fired. His first shot proved deadly for Bill McCarty. Later, the undertaker would have to wedge Bill\'s hat back on his head in order to hold it together for the photograph.
pistolsColt Peacemaker and Colt New Navy recovered from the bodies of Bill and Fred McCarty
Fred reeled his mount around and fired three shots at Simpson, narrowly missing each time, as the sharpshooter reloaded his rifle. Ray took aim and the bullet dropped young Fred McCarty to the dust as Tom raced out of town. The deceased father and son were propped up, photographed and unceremoniously buried together in the same grave. The posse that went after Tom never caught up to him and Tom McCarty disappeared into the myth of the Wild West that was soon to fade to memories itself in the new century. Some say Tom was shot over a card game in Bitterroot, Montana but not before he sent several threatening notes to Simpson vowing his revenge.
Bill and Fred deadPost-mortum photographs of Bill and Fred McCarty
Courtesy of Delta County MuseumNewspaper articleExerpt from The Omaha Daily Bee
If you stand at the corner of Third and Main in Delta on a quiet Saturday morning, it’s not hard to imagine the events of that day unfolding in sepia-toned slow motion and ending in a single, lightning-quick minute. It was a minute that would leave two would-be bank robbers dead in the street at the hands of a hardware store clerk with a premonition and a rifle. This brief moment in history is just one of many fascinating events that shaped the communities we call home. The Delta County Museum has a complete recounting of the incident and a display of the original weapons used in the shootout.
For a comprehensive account of the robbery including extensive background on everyone involved, check out local author James Wetzel’s book, Banks, Bullets, and Bodies; A Failed Bank Robbery in Delta Colorado.
Tom McCarty’s only arrest and conviction was in 1877 for holding up a railway stationagent in Nevada, for which he was sentenced to one year in the Nevada State Prison.After release in 1878, he never again served time in jail or prison for the many crimeshe committed during the next decade and a half of horse stealing, cattle rustling, trainrobberies, and bank robberies. The closest he got to being held accountable during thatperiod was when Baker County Sheriff Porter Conde botched his attempt to arrestsinglehanded Tom and Bill at Bill’s Powder River ranch in April 1893.At one time there were more rewards for Tom McCarty than for any other outlaw in theWest. The Skovlins list reward amounts in their book about the McCartys: Moffat bankin Denver $2,500; Telluride bank $250; Enterprise bank $500; Summerville bank $250;Roslyn bank $3,000; Baker County reward $1,000; Delta bank $500; and various Utahrewards $2,000. The rewards totaled $10,000 (in today’s money about $280,000). YetTom was never arrested and no one ever collected a penny in reward money.By 1900 Tom McCarty had given up the outlaw life and returned to a place where heknew he was reasonably sure of not being arrested. It had been seven years since theDelta bank robbery, which was no longer in the news, and the statute of limitations hadrun on most of his criminal activity. As added insurance, the place he chose to retire towas the Imnaha River area in northern Wallowa County, Oregon, where he had adecade prior bought property. Just over the ridge to the east of the Imnaha River Valleywas Hells Canyon, through which Snake River had carved the deepest canyon in NorthAmerica, an area about as remote as any place in the United States. Nevertheless Tomwas taking a calculated risk returning to Wallowa County, where in 1891 the McCartyGang had robbed the bank in Enterprise, the county’s seat of government. Theperpetrators of that robbery had not yet been discovered.Tom found employment with Wallowa County. In 1903 the county court appointed TomImnaha road supervisor. Tom’s district covered an area of 325 square miles or 200,000acres, and included nine townships. Tom was reappointed road supervisor in 1905 andappointed Judge of Elections for that precinct. In 1906 Tom and his crew built a six-milestretch of road in his district that became known as McCarty Road. Also named for Tomwas McCarty Springs and McCarty Creek. For a while before 1912 Tom served asJustice of the Peace for the Upper Imnaha District.
An exciting three minutes in Delta, Colorado. - Cashier Blachly killed as he raised the alarm - Well-aimed shots from Mr. Simpson\'s rifle pick two of the outlaws from their horses -chase given to the third, but he escapes to the mountains.
Delta, Col., Sept. 7.-The usual attempt to rob a bank in a bold manner ended disastrously here this morning, when three young desperadoes tried to make away with the funds of the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank.
Cashier A.T. Blachly was shot in the neck and instantly killed, and two of the robbers were picked from their horses as they rode down an alley by the clever marksmanship of W. Ray Simpson, a hardware dealer, and the money was recovered from their dead bodies.
It was about 10 o\'clock when three men on horseback appeared in the alley at the rear of the bank. Two dismounted, leaving the other man to hold the horses. The men entered by the front door and appeared at the window.
At that moment only the cashier and his assistant, H.H. Wolbert, were in the bank. They both went forward to wait on the customers, when they were covered with revolvers and ordered to hold up their hands.
Cashier Blachly yelled, and was promptly cursed by the robbers, who told him to keep quiet. He yelled again, when one of the robbers fired his revolver and Blachly fell dead, the ball having passed upward from the neck. The men then vaulted over the partition, grabbed what money was in sight, and fled through the rear door. As they did this Wolbert picked up his revolver, but was observed by the robbers, who got the drop on him. They did not shoot, but ordered him to throw away his revolver, which he did very quickly. They then dashed into the alley, mounted, and fled down the narrow way toward the Gunnison River.
When the first shot, which killed the cashier, was heard the cry was raised that the bank was being robbed. Men rushed for revolvers and guns and then ran toward the bank. Among them was W.R. Simpson, a young hardware merchant, whose shop was across the street from the bank.
He picked up a rifle and started up the street. As the robbers came out of the alley and crossed the street Simpson fired and one of the robbers fell, the top of his head being fairly taken off by the ball.
Simpson then ran to the alley and fired after the other two fleeing men. He shot twice, killing first another man and then his horse. The second man was also struck in the head. The remaining survivor escaped across the river and down toward Grand Junction.
A posse was soon gathered and started in hot pursuit. The robber\'s horse was fresh, and he gave them a pretty chase. A number of ranchmen came into town this afternoon from down the valley, and reported having seen the man riding by several miles ahead of his pursuers.
Other parties left later, going across into the Escalante country, hoping to head off the man. He will be promptly lynched if caught.
At the time the robbery was going on a lawyer named W.R. Robertson, having his office in the rear of the bank, heard the first shout and ran out into the alley into the arms of the robbers holding the horses, who quickly covered him with a revolver and kept him there until joined by the escaping robbers from the bank.
The men have been seen about this part of the country for several days. No one knows them. While here two stopped at the hotel, registering as Clarence Bradley and James G. Bradley. About $1,000 was taken by the robbers, and it was all recovered from the dead bodies of the two men left in the alley.
Since they were placed in the undertaker\'s shop they have been identified by several as the same fellows who held up the bank of Telluride four years ago.
Clarence Bradley told one man here that they came from the Rogue River country, Oregon, and that they had been herding cattle in Utah. A reward of $500 has been offered.
This evening one party of pursuers returned to town saying that the trail had been lost, the man escaping into the mountains. As he has a good mount he will no doubt make good his escape.
Mr. Blachly was about 47 years old. In 1878 or thereabouts he conducted a drug store at Canon City. As the railroad was extended he followed it, keeping at various periods a drug store at Arkansas Ctiy, Mears, and Sargent.
Finally, when the Denver and Rio Grande reached Gunnison, he located in that city, opening a drug store, as in other places. In 1885 he failed in business. Then he went upon a ranch near Delta for a time, leaving it to become cashier of the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank. He has relatives in several places in Connecticut.
Denver, Sept 7. - Speaking of the Delta Bank robbery this evening, President Moffatt of the First National Bank said: \"I think the robbers are of the same gang of scoundrels that has been doing so much mischief in the West, and probably one of them robbed me.\"
THEY ARE AFTER HIMThe Dalton Bandit is Fleeling Toward the High HillsSource: San Francisco Call, Vol 74, No. 101, Sep 9, 1893Delta, Colo., Sept 8-Two of the posse which started yesterday in pursuit of the bandit who, with two companions held up the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank and killed the cashier in doing so, returned late last evening without the fugitive. Other parties are in pursuit, and although the outlaw has taken to the mountains, he will be captured. Ex-Chief of Police Farley of Denver is of the opinion the robbers belonged to the McCarthy gang, who operated so extensively in Denver.
END OF A BAD GANGThe Delta Robbers Identified as the Oregon McCarthys.Source: San Francisco Call, Vol 74 No 103, Sep 11, 1893Delta, Colo., Sept 10-The men who were killed last Thursday while attempting to escape after robbing the Farmers\' and Merchants\' Bank and killing its cashier, were positively identified to-day as Tom and Fred McCarthy, father and son. The Third man who participated in the robbery but escapes is Billy McCarthy, also a son of Tom McCarthy. These men constituted the McCarthy gang of Oregon, and are wanted there for robbing stages and the United States mails. There is a reward of $10,000 for them on that account. The dead men were exhumed and identified by Sheriff Condee of Baker City, Or., who attempted to arrest them in Oregon, but was prevented by the McCarthys getting the drop on him.
Ex-Chief of Police Farley of Denver also knows the gang and says Tom McCarthy was the man who robbed President D.H. Moffatt of the First National Bank of that city some four years ago, securing $21,000. Budd Taylor of Moab, Utah, who claims to be a relative by marriage to the McCarthy family, also identified the men. Billy McCarthy, the escaped robber, is still at large, but the pursuit has not been given up.
THE DELTA BANK ROBBERYWife of One of the Robbers Said to Be Here.Source: The Salt Lake Herald, Sep 15, 1893The Report of the daring bank robbery at Delta, Colo., a few days ago, was read with interest here, and now it is said the the wife of Bill McCarty, or rather his widow, for it is believed that Bill was one of the two robbers who was killed, is living this city. Sheriff Belknap[sic] is looking the matter up, according to an article which appeared in the Ogden Standard yesterday, reading as follows:
Sheriff Belnap yesterday received two photographs from Delta, Colo., one each of the two bank robbers who were killed at that place last Thursday, while attempting to rob a bank. The sheriff has in his gallery the photos of three of the McCarty gang-Bill, Fred and Tom, and he is of the opinion that the ones who were killed were Bill and Fred. It was stated in the dispatches that the killed robbers were Bill and Tom, but a careful comparison of the pictures shows that Tom was not one of those who departed this life full of lead and an unsatisfied longing for gold galore.
The pictures of Tom McCarty, who escaped the fusilade of Winchesters, shows him to be a young man with a smooth, attractive face and rather slender form. Bill\'s picture shows a middle aged man with a rather rough, coarse face, covered with a beard.. Fred was the son of Bill, a young man of about 20 years of age, smooth, very full, round face, and quite fleshy. The two pictures sent from Delta tally closely with those in Sheriff Belnap\'s gallery, representing Bill and his son Fred and hence he thinks they are the ones.
The pictures received yesterday were taken within a few minutes after the shooting was done and on the spot where they fell. The picture of the older man, or the one identified as Bill McCarty, shows the top of the head shot entirely off, the bullet entering the back of the head and coming out in the forehead just between the eyes. The body was evidently held up on crutches while the picture was being taken, supported by some one in the rear. The face is covered with short beard stubble, and presents a ghastly, forofferding appearance.
The picture of the boy shows a stout heavy youth with smooth face. The bullet which terminated his career also entered the back of his head and came out throught the forehead, but the top of the head was not torn off. Last summer when Bill McCarty and his son were in Ogden, the boy purchased a pair of pantaloons from a prominent dealer, who remembers that the could find nothing to fit him in length that was large enough for his limbs. In order to be fitted the boy took a pair that were fully a foot too long and had them cut down, and even they were a very close fit.
Sheriff Belnap, acting on instructions, wil go to Salt Lake city today or tomorrow to find Bill McCarty\'s wife, who is thought to live there, and talk with her regarding the gang. Afterwards he may go in search for Tom, who is believed to have been the third member of the gang, the one who escaped.
THREE ROBBERS DEADShot Down by Citizens are Robbing a Bank-Four Citizens Were WoundedSource: Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896The Thieves raided the bank, marches the employees into the street and then made a rush to escape, but the citizens stopped them with their guns.Meeker, Colo., Oct 15-Three men entered the Bank of Meeker yesterday, which is connected with the storeroom of J.W. Hughes & Co., who own the bank. Two of the men held the store employes at bay while the third went into the bank cashier\'s window and firing one shot, ordered the cashier to throw up his hands. The order was not obeyed and the robber fired again, whereupon the cashier\'s hands shot up. The manager of the store was then forced to open the bank door, and after gathering up all the money in sight the robber marched the cashier and store employes into the street with hands uplifted. They then rushed out the back way with their booty.
Citizens attracted by the shots had pretty well surrounded the building by this time, and being armed, opened fired on the robbers, two of whom, Charles Jones and William Smith, were killed by the first volley. The third man, George Harris, was shot throught the lungs, dying in two hours. He was fully identified and gave the other names, which are believed to be fictitious.
Four citizens were wounded. District Game Warden W.H. Clark, was shot in the right breast, not fatally injured.Victor Dikeman, a clerk, was shot through the right arm.C.A. Booth, a clerk, scalp wound.W.P. Herrick, finger shot off.
It is believed one of the dead men is Thomas McCarthy, who robbed the banks at Telluride and Delta, Colo.The coroner\'s jury returned a verdict of justified homicide.Meeker is 90 miles from Rifle, on the Denver and Rio Grande, the nearest telegraph station.
THE MEEKER ROBBERYBelieved the Dead Men Belonged to the McCarthy Gang.Source: Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896Denver, Oct 15-According to the lastest advices from Meeker, Colo., which is 90 miles fromt he nearest telegraph office, the three men who were killed after robbing the bank have not been identified. The robbery was one of the most daring ever perpetrated in the west occurring, as it did, in broad daylight, and at a time when there were 20 or more people in plain sight.
It is believe here that the robbers were members of the McCarthy gang that committed several daring train and bankrobberies in Montana, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.
It is also supposed that the man who robbed David H. Moffat, president of the First National Bank of this city, of $21,000 in 1889, was a member of this gang. The McCarthys formerly lived in an out-of-the-way place in Oregon, in which they were regarded as wealthy ranchmen.
In an attempt to rob the bank at Delta, Colo., about a year ago, John McCarthy and his son were killed, but Tom McCarthy escaped.
FAST MAIL HELD UPFailing to Blow Open the Express Safe Rifled the Mails.Source: Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896Ogden, Utah, Oct 15-The Union Pacific fast mail, due here at 2 o\'clock yesterday morning, was held up by three masked and heavily armed men a half mile east of Uintah. Two of the robbers clambered over the engine tender, and with oaths, backed up by revolvers in each hand, compelled the engineer to stop the train. He did so and the robbers immediately attacked the expresscar. An attempt was made to force the safe with dynamite, but the charge failed to explode. In the meantime the engineer started to run. He escaped a fusillade of bullets and made his way to the city. The robbers then went to the mailcar. While they were sorting the registered packages the conductor cut the engine loose and opened the throttle and started for Ogden. Near the city he overtook the engineer and brought him to Ogden.
Several large posses of men have started on the trail of the robbers, including many old scouts, who know every foot of the county.
The Robbers Still FreeOgden, Utah, Oct 15-Several posses are still in search of the robbers who robbed the Union Pacific, but so far have found no clew[sic]. A bottle of nitroglycerin and several sticks of dynamite have been found near where the train was held up. Three of the registered mailracks rifled were for San Francisco and four for Sacramento.
MOST DESPERATE PLOT UNEARTHED
A BANDIT WHO LIVES IN A PALACE CAVE.Utah Has Offered a $5000 Reward for His Capture, but He Seems to Take Life as Quietly as Usual.Source: San Francisco Call, Vol 85, No 151, Apr 30, 1899Salt Lake, Utah-In the heart of the Rocky Mountains, protected by towering precipice and yawning canyon, is the luxuriously furnished, electric lighted fastness of a bank of robbers which has for years terrorized a great deal of three states, and on the heads of whose members is set a price, \"alive or dead.\"
The Legislature of the State of Utah has determined that the famous Tom McCarthy gang of bandits and cattle thieves must be broken up. A bill providing an appropriation for the purpose of hunting the men down has passed the second reading, with all chances for actment into a law.
This bill sets aside a sum of $5000 with which a war to the death is to be launched against the members of one of the most notorious bands of murderers and cutthroats known to the history of America. It is proposed that the dealings with the robbers, who have held portions of three States in abject terror for three years and whose agents are scattered the length and breadth of the land, will be as harsh and merciless as those used by the outlaws themselves. They may be invited to surrender to submit to the punishment their crimes deserve, and those who refuse and defy the officers wil be hunted down an dealth with through persuasion of powder and ball.
It has been generally acknowledged for some time that ordinary methods of procedure will not do with the men who lawlessly reign in the heart of the Blue Mountains, or Roan Ridge. They are not inclined to submit to the law in any extremity, for they are all amenable for the greatest of crimes and will probably die fighting rather than be taken and compelled to submit to trial before a court.
Combination of Governors.Little over a year ago, as will be remembered, 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 the country and Spain were heralded. The brave boys were needed against a greater and more than local foe and the repression of the outlaws was laid for a time upon the gubernatorial sheif. Perhaps it was well, judging by the tales of the gang and its strength which 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 attempt with the best chance of success. The movement of a body of troops and a military campaign would be too much like an open book for the eyes of the vigilance of this band which has long ago taken precautions against just such a move on the part of outraged justice.
The people 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 which hold the gang, but they will depend more upon killing the members one by one as they venture out for supplies. They will try to invest the place and starve but the outlaws. 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 on both sides before the object of the Legislature is accomplished.
Tom McCarthy, the leader of the Blue Mountain robbers, or the \"Hole in the Wall Society,\" as it is often called, has been called the Napoleon of outlawry. His origin is in doubt, but it is known that he is wanted in several parts of the country for crimes of unusual atrocity. His appearance is anything but prepossessing. He is about five feet six inches in height and weight about 175 pounds. His forehead is narow and forofferding, and covers deep set, gray eyes. A fold of fat 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 neighboring States and Territories. After moving about considerably, always pursued 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 had seemed to give McCarthy an idea of establishing a rendezvous where he might retreat when sorely pressed.
Fastness of the Bandits.Miners and prospectors have in a number of instances wandered close upon the retreat of the bandits, and have 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; but at the present time the exact locality of the retreat of McCarthy and his men is not known, thought 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 particular 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 passageway blasted and cut through solid rock. The termination of this shorter pathway brings the robber to the entrance of the gathering place, which is nothing less that a great cave or amphitheater in the center of the rock.
This is the throne room of the Irishman, and from this there run in all directions tunnels, their openings artfully concealed, so great are the precautions of the band, and their other ends terminating at one or the other side of the mountain. This is known from statements made by miners and mechanics who were taken by the gang to do the work and who were blindfolded while aproaching and leaving the place.
By the most remarkable feature of all is the fact, boasted of by more than 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 room to 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.
A former Deputy United States Marshal of Utah is authority for the statement that there are fifty skeletons lying in a gulch not a great way from the mouth of McCarthy\'s canyon. The Marshal says that he saw the place himself, and that the skeletons represent persons put out of the way by robbers, who feared they would reveal secrets they had stumbled across.
POLICE SAY ROGERS WAS MCCARTHY GANG MEMBERMade Tunnel From His Saloon to Rob BankSource: San Francisco Call, Vol 107, No. 2, Dec 2, 1909According to the police John Bennett Rogers, who was arrested in the Lacey saloon, 640 Market street, early Tuesday morning for burglary, was a member of the gang headed by John McCarthy that tunneled from Rogers\' saloon in Los Angeles opposite the First National Bank to the bank several years ago with the object of stealing $250,000.
McCarthy was the only one arrested. He was sentenced to serve a term of 10 years in San Quentin. The other known members of the gang were Louis Matheny, Frank Stevens and John Stewart.
It was the same gang that committed numerous burglaries in Oakland just prior to the Los Angeles attempt, when Joseph Touhill, a member of the gang, was shot and killed and Policeman Cashel met a similar fate.