Billy Richardson vs. Poker Jim Roberts

By Shane Dunning

http://www.redshalereflections.com

Last month the good people at the Powder River Examiner asked me to follow up on an item they discovered in their regular review of past issues. The Examiner issue in question was dated November 4, 1921, and headlined "Protection for Stockmen."

The legitimate stockmen of southeastern Montana are being reassured of protection in the event they attend the big meeting called for November 19 at Piniele. At that time, an organization will be perfected to assist in ending the unlawless traffic in horses and cattle and to drive the alleged gang of thieves from the country.

The article was an oblique reminder that news, as it is happening, often occurs in bursts followed by lulls. Based on a tidbit of an article from 100 years ago, present-day readers could be forgiven for thinking the former residents of this area seemed a bit reactionary. Such a notion would be wrong. This meeting was, in fact, a minor point in a serious range crisis that occurred throughout southeastern Montana and eventually forced state officials in Helena to action. This column will focus on the prelude to this meeting, namely, the conflict between "Poker" Jim Roberts and Stock Inspector Billy Richardson.

By 1921, Powder River County and Carter County had recently been established as separate authorities distinct from Custer County. Fifty-two-year-old James Roberts came to Montana from Beeville, Texas, in 1895. After 1920, he resided near Ridge, Montana, in the tri-state border country where Wyoming and South Dakota meet the Treasure State. By early 1921, Roberts and his associates had established a history of playing loose with other people's livestock. The Ekalaka Eagle reported in February of that year:

County Attorney Nelstead was in the south of the county last week looking after some criminal cases. Jim Roberts, known as "Poker Jim," was accused of selling beef without having the hide inspected. The case will be heard before a jury in Justice S.B. Martin's court in Alzada on the 11th. Jim lives in the Ridge country. He gave bonds for his appearance in the sum of $200. Andy Anderson and Babe Ellis were also held on a charge of larceny, and their hearing set for the 11th also. Harry Atwater of Sturgis will appear for all defendants in these cases.

Roberts eventually pled guilty and received a $150 fine. Anderson and Ellis were released due to "lack of sufficient evidence." It appeared that Roberts was running a significant operation in the southeastern part of the state that involved multiple men and took advantage of the difficulties enforcing livestock laws across three states, with capitals in far-off Helena, Cheyenne, and Pierre.

Things started to become much more serious that summer. In June, Stock Inspector Billy Richardson arrested Poker Jim for rustling livestock at his headquarters on Willow Creek. Roberts was released on $2,000 bail, and, according to the Ekalaka Eagle in early July:

When he reached his habitat, he found that during his enforced absence somebody had burned his "layout," his house and buildings. It is said that he accused one Whitehurst of having had a hand in the burning and proceeded to work him over in the old fashioned way with his fists.

Stock Inspector Richardson is said to have made a move toward arresting "Poker Jim" on the charge of assault in a high degree. Some gun play is said to have taken place between Richardson and Jim and that immediately each side secured reinforcements. The battle raged on and off for some time between the Richardson posse and "Poker Jim's" adherents, about a dozen men participating. It appears that most of the shooting was done at long range, and nobody was wounded except a pet saddle horse belonging to Bill McCracken. The story goes that Jim and his followers headed for the McCracken ranch, being followed by the Richardson crowd and that at this place some long range shooting took place also.

It is said that the war has quieted down for the time being and that some arrests are likely to follow. The general belief is that things will "pop" loose again and that more serious results will no doubt follow. Just who is at fault and the cause of the trouble has not been definitely established, and it appears to many that all sides are on the "outs" down in that section, a section of the country that has furnished its share of the excitement in time gone past.

The Eagle's rather anodyne version of events suffered compared to Richardson's, which was related in a letter to State Livestock Inspector Frank Levigne and published throughout Montana under the headline "Reads Like Yarn of Old Montana."

One night recently Richardson attended a dance at Ridge and, according to a letter received by Stock Inspector Levigne, a fellow by the name of McCracken, whom Richardson is gathering evidence against on a horse stealing case, tried to pick a quarrel with him at the dance and told him he would get him.

The next day Richardson went to the home of rancher MacMains, from whom a black horse was stolen, and with MacMains started on a trip to look for evidence against McCracken. Richardson went ahead early in the morning and MacMains was to meet him at a neighbor's, a rancher named Martin. Richardson had his breakfast at Martin's and while waiting for MacMains, laid down in the shed to take a nap. While asleep, Mrs. Martin saw two men, who were on horseback, going after a man on foot some distance from the Martin house. She awakened Richardson, who discovered that the riders were "Poker" Jim Roberts and Mack Whitehurst. They "beat up" William Heron, the man on foot, because he wouldn't tell where the black horse alleged to have been stolen was hidden by the officers. Their object, according to the letter from Richardson, was to do away with the evidence against McCracken. Following the beating given Heron, the two men told him to go and tell Richardson to come out of the Marin place because they would get him (Richardson) anyway.

It was around this time that MacMains arrived on the scene, and, after exchanging some ineffectual gunfire, Poker Jim and Whitehurst fled the scene. Richardson sent to Ridge for assistance. "I sent for four men and ten came." The stock detective's posse located their quarry at sundown near McCracken's place, but the fading sunlight prevented Roberts' capture. "About fifty shots" were fired at this location.

We went on into McCracken's and got close enough to see them corral four horses. Three of us went to the east of the house, and three went to the west and left four of the boys to watch the north.

Then four men came towards us from the McCracken place, mounted and armed. I told our men to hold their fire and let them come. Just then, their rifles cracked and a shot just missed Ormesher, who was on my right, and one bullet hit on my left. We opened up on the four men, Jensen shooting also. They then turned back and went northwest past the house and Jensen opened up on them again. It was so dark by this time that we could not see at all and about 11 pm we went home.

Richardson was able to get a bench warrant against Roberts for assaulting Bill Heron but could not get the warrant served, as the Ekalaka Eagle quoted the Broadus Examiner. The Carter County paper then chose to add its ending when it reprinted the Examiner's story.

Richardson failed to get "Poker Jim." Sheriff Boggs does not employ any press agent or stage any big battles, but he went quietly down to the south end last Friday and returned with the redoubtable "Poker Jim." Boggs didn't get up any posse nor use any handcuffs, but his man is now in custody and will be arraigned on Saturday before Judge felt who will hold a short term of court here.

Poker Jim was arraigned by Judge Felt and released on bail, with trial to begin that October. Once released, Roberts hauled lumber to his place and quickly built a new cabin, which did not last long. Stock inspector Billy Richardson was himself arrested by Carter County Sheriff Boggs for "tearing down the new cabin recently erected on Poker Jim Roberts' place on Willow Creek." Richardson was released on a $1000 bond.

These episodes exhibited the decidedly odd environment that existed in Southeastern Montana at that time. It appeared that Roberts and his friends had some sympathetic ears in Ekalaka proper, the Carter County legal system, and out-of-state livestock interests. Bill Richardson was branded an aggressive show-off with a personal antagonism towards Roberts. Whether most of the local populace felt this way or was scared into acquiescence is impossible to know.

What is clear is that livestock interests further removed from the Tri-State border (such as Broadus) were more than concerned about this chain of events and demanded action from Helena. To them, horse and cattle rustling had become such an "industry" in Custer County that it controlled the local levers of power. To respond to this challenge, the Attorney General of Montana, Wellington Rankin (a scion of the famous Rankin family), traveled to Broadus with a slew of local dignitaries to deliver an address. This remarkable speech sparked the Pienele meeting referenced at the beginning of this column and nearly started another vigilante wave in Montana. That story, however, is a story for a future column.