Chapter XII: Attempts to Muzzle the Press

A few weeks after the arrival of the invaders at Fort Russell it was determined by them and their friends to regulate, or muzzle the press of the state. It had been claimed that all of “the best citizens” approved the raid with its red-handed murders. There were some newspapers, however, that dissented from this view, and that did not hesitate to call murder and arson by their proper names. To be held up to public gaze as guilty of cold-blooded murder did not suit the sensitive natures of the men who had merely killed two of their fellow citizens in one day and burned the body of one of them while they sat around the camp fire meal and joked about the incense that rose from the burning pile. This sort of talk must be stopped.

Colonel E. H. Kimball was editing a paper at Douglas, Wyoming, and he dipped his pen in gall each week when speaking of the outrages committed by this gang of outlaws. He printed their names in full and told just what crimes they had committed. He must be destroyed and the power of his press overcome. So a dozen or more of them filed informations against him for criminal libel. One of the charges was made by George W. Baxter, of Cheyenne, general manager of the Western Union Beef Company. Upon this a warrant was issued and Colonel Kimball was kidnaped and brought to Cheyenne, where he was lodged in jail. He was held for 30 days before he could give bonds, the law requiring bondsmen to be residents of the county where the accused is in prison. This had the effect of temporarily stopping the issue of the paper, as Colonel Kimball was a poor man and could not hire the work done while he remained in jail. The case never came to trial.

The editor of the Northwestern Live Stock Journal offered to sign the bonds of Colonel Kimball, and as a reward his paper was boycotted by the cattlemen in any way connected with the raid. Later four of them entered his office one day and made a personal attack upon him, undoubtedly with murder in their hearts. But their designs were frustrated and the editor still lives.

The next attempt to regulate the tone of the press was made by this same man Baxter on the Cheyenne Daily Leader, because it dared to condemn the work of the assassins. He owned a few shares of the Leader stock and began an action for the appointment of a receiver so as to get control of the columns and shut off the truth about the invasion and its supporters. The trial was long and expensive, but finally resulted in a withdrawal of the complaint. These efforts at destroying the press were so barren of success that it was concluded to make no further attempts in that direction.