The Cattle Rustlers of Hangman Creek
A Spokane sheriff’s posse orchestrates a midnight stakeout to bust a sprawling meat-theft ring, leading to a tense, violent shootout in the woods.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
One of the most extensive cattle stealing rings ever organized in the West was broken up by the arrest of five members of the gang near Spokane today. They are the Van Cleve brothers, Jack Conley, and August and George Mills. Their scheme was one of the boldest and most gigantic of its kind ever operated in the Northwest. More than $50,000 worth of cattle have been stolen and slaughtered before the owners had time to identify them. The cattle had been stolen from every part of the country, and in many instances, had been driven as far as sixty miles.
Certain members of the band were 'rustlers,' whose job was to drive the cattle to a slaughter-house on Hangman Creek, where the animals were quickly butchered. The carcasses were brought to a meat market in this city. Some of the hides were buried and some were burned. Detectives have been watching the slaughter-house on Hangman Creek every night for the past week. Last night, Sheriff Pugh and a posse spent the night in hiding close by. During the night, a band of cattle were driven in, and at daylight this morning, the sheriff’s posse surprised three members of the gang while slaughtering the beeves, and took them in custody before they could get to their guns. The Van Cleve brothers were arrested in town this afternoon.
Deputy Sheriff Pugh was shot in the leg this afternoon by John Miles, another of the gang. Pugh called at Miles’ house near Spangle about 3 o'clock and was just in time to see John Miles and John Matthews run out of the back door and make for the woods. He started in pursuit, when they turned and opened fire with their revolvers. One shot took effect, causing a slight wound in the left leg. Pugh returned the fire, wounding both men, but they managed to escape into the woods. Sheriff Pugh left here tonight with a posse to assist his brother in the capture of the two men.
“Their part in the thievery was to drive the cattle to a slaughter-house on Hangman creek, where the animals were quickly butchered.”
While large-scale cattle rustling sounds like a relic of the Old West, it echoes contemporary anxieties about organized retail crime rings and the vulnerability of regional supply chains. The site of this bust, Hangman Creek, remains a vital geographical feature of the Spokane area today.
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