,
and organized a band of cattle and horse thieves. This band of banditti
became so numerous that after a time it extended along the lower line of
Texas into the Indian Territory and up into Kansas. Their ravages were
also felt in Arkansas. They had a regular organized band, and stations
where they could dispose of their stolen property. The cattle that
were stolen were run to the frontiers and sold to cattlemen who were in
collusion with them, and which latter were getting immensely rich out of
the operations of these thieves. They would steal horses, run them off
and sell them to buyers who knew they were purchasing stolen property.
For years this gang flourished. Another mode of securing stock was the
following: A great many estrays would be taken up and advertised. In
every instance some member of the Crunk gang would claim the property
under oath and take it away. The leader of these outlaws stood trial for
nineteen different murders, and was acquitted each time. He could always
prove an alibi. His assistants would come in and swear him clear every
time. He was an intimate acquaintance and on friendly terms with the
James boys, and related many trips that he had made with these noted and
desperate men in their work of "seeking revenge," as he styled it. He
has no love for a colored man, and as he works now in the prison with
a number, pointing to them one day he said to me, "I wish I had a
five-dollar note for each one of them black skunks I have killed since
the wa'." He said he considered "a 'niggah' that wouldn't vote the way
decent people wanted him to should not vote at all." Said he: "I know
of a number that will not vote any mo'. I saw them pass in their last
ballot." "The most money, made the easiest and quickest, was made by our
men," said he, "as moonshiners in Montague County. We carried on this
business successfully for a long time, but finally the U. S. marshals
became too much for us, and we had to close up shop. We had several
engagements with them; men were dropped on both sides, until finally we
concluded to quit the business and return to our old trade of stealing
cattle and horses. The way our moonshiner's nest was found out was very
romantic. A young woman came into the district, and tried to get up a
school, seemingly, but failed. I guess she did not try very hard to get
scholars. At any rate she remained with a family in the neighborhood
for some time, whom she claimed were her relatives. One of