A Tragedy and Trial of No Man s Land. horseback the night of the killing, disap peared, and hence were never arraigned in the Texas court. Sam Robinson, hav ing gone to Colorado, was shortly arrested charged with robbing the mail, and is now serving a twenty-one years' sentence in the Colorado penitentiary. Another one of the horsemen employed counsel to look up some country with which this had no extradition treaty for murder and, finding Belgium the only one with which no such treaty existed, went there, where he has since remained. Nothing has ever been heard of the other four horsemen of the Cook party. Wood and his witness Tonney went to Paris where they spent the time between the indictment and trial of the Hugoton people in July cultivating the friendship of the peo ple and creating prejudice »gainst the ac cused. The man Tonney became a teacher in one of the Sunday-schools, and Wood, se curing the appointment of deputy marshal, subpoenaed the Kansas witnesses for the pros ecution. In the preparation and trial of the case Wood was the real prosecutor, the dis trict attorney having been a mere figure head. Wood had freedom to subpœna whomsoever he saw fit, his list of witnesses running something like three hundred, many of whom had no knowledge of the matter or men. A coach load of this class reached Paris at six o'clock one evening, registered the following morning, were then excused by the prosecuting attorney, received their certificates of attendance, averaging perhaps a hundred dollars each, and started home the same day. Wood engaged in the business of pur chasing certificates where he could, at a dis count, which, with his pay for services as deputy marshal, netted him a handsome sum, his profits resulting from the trial hav ing been variously estimated at from ten to fifteen thousand dollars. Of the twelve men put upon trial for their lives, six proved an alibi, and six — С. Е. Cook, Orin Cook, Cyrus Freese, Jack Law
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rence, J. B. Chamberlain, and John Jackson, — were pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang December 19, 1890. The judge conducted the case and gave instructions to the jury, not upon the theory of killing by any of the convicted, but upon the theory of a conspiracy to kill, overlook ing the impossibility that the Hugoton party should have known or even suspected the presence at the haystacks of any Woodsdale party. The defendants were not tried to ascertain their guilt or innocence, but were tried to be convicted. The court, re cently established, had proven expensive in comparison with punishment meted out to criminals, the member of Congress for the district having written that less arrests, more convictions and less expense must result, or the court would be abolished; hence the town became the backer of the prosecution, with Wood manager-in-chief of the case. When the verdict and sentence of death was pronounced, С. К. Cook, the leader, made a brave and stirring speech which had the effect of arousing widespread sympathy for the convicted men. Following which, measures were adopted to reverse public sentiment which from the first had been against the men. Four of them had served in the Union Army, C. E. Cook was a member of the Traveling Men's Association of Kansas, and all were members of the Knights of Pythias or Knights of Honor. These sev eral organizations were appealed to and made liberal contributions of money. The people of Nashua, New Hampshire, the boy hood home of the Cooks, raised twenty-two hundred dollars, and Judge Freese of Ohio, brother of the condemned Freese, raised a goodly sum, the donations reaching alto gether about five thousand dollars. The case was taken on writ of error to the Supreme Court, George R. Peck and W. H. Rossington, assisted by J. F. Dillon and Judge Freese, volunteering their services free, Peck and Rossington having been led
