Rankin's Barn Burner In Broadus

My previous column described the violent back-and-forth between stock inspectors and a gang of livestock rustlers in southeast Montana. Much of the excitement was instigated by stock detective Billy Richardson or "Poker" Jim Roberts, suspected ringleader of the rustlers in the summer of 1921. Richardson sent a report to his boss, Montana's Chief Livestock Inspector Frank Lavigne, describing a day-long shootout with Roberts in southern Carter County.

The situation came to attention of the newly elected Attorney General for the State of Montana, Wellington Rankin. Rankin, a Republican, had been elected in 1920 and was the brother of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to Congress and a noted pacifist. Wellington Rankin took his office in early 1921.

Rankin came out of the gate swinging. By September 1921, newspaper reports out of Helena described the AG's impending "war on rustlers." The scale of cattle and horse rustling in Southeast Montana was so widespread that it was being described as an "industry." In a statement before leaving Helena for a stockmen's meeting in Broadus, Rankin said:

In cooperation with the state livestock commission and the county attorneys, this office is making a special effort to stamp out cattle stealing. The cattle rustlers are going to receive considerable special attention throughout Montana in the matter of law enforcement.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the cattle rusting problem was the relative silence of the local community, particularly in Carter County. It was unclear if the populace in the border country were scared into cooperation or were actively encouraging it to their own economic benefit. Rankin believed that an aggressive publicity campaign would reinforce the area's legitimate law enforcement and encourage those officials who had been less cooperative to change. To that end, he and a procession of dignitaries arrived at livestock meeting in Broadus on September 30th.

Listeners were greeted to hearing the currently serving Attorney General of the State of Montana come uncomfortably close to advocating vigilante action by evoking the spirit of Virginia City:

The time is going to come, and it is here now, when the man who would employ men of questionable reputation, the men who would render comfort and aid to these men, is going to be confronted with public sentiment, more deadly than bullets, more deadly than the hands of the law or officers and that public sentiment that you are going to develop and are ready to crystallize will clean up this county and the adjoining counties in the state. That is the spirit which cleaned up Virginia City. You can go into Virginia City now and they will show you where they hanged those men, because it was essential to the growth of the city. The thought crystallized that these men should have been hanged. The officers are not to blame for the rustling in this corner of Montana. You are to blame for not crystallizing this public sentiment sooner.

As if invoking the spirit of Virginia City wasn't enough, the Attorney General (and WWI veteran) publicly challenged the rustlers BY NAME. The Examiner reported:

"Is Poker Jim Roberts greater than the law?" he asked, "I am not going to mince words in talking of these men and I hope some of their friends and associates are here and I wish this man and his bunch were here today. They are: Poker Jim Roberts, Bill McCracken, Babe Ellis, Andy Anderson, Jasper Brooks, Denver Woods, Oscar Woods, Gander Oliphant, Tom McCrorey, Mack Whitehurst.

And there are also others to be listed with them. There is a time coming when they will stop defying the law, and the others associating with them, lending aid and comfort to them. I ask Powder River and Carter Counties, how long are you going to stand for men of this kind? They are saying to you: "What are you going to do about it?" That is their spoken word and their attitude. And why, and how long, I say, are you going to stand for it? You are not going to stand for it. You are going to clean them up and they can be cleaned up. The man who is robbing the homesteader is robbing the cattleman. The men who are preying on these homesteaders and cattlemen are cowards, and a strong organization, determined, can clean them up.

Newspapers across the state reported on Rankin's speech. An article titled "War on Cattle Thieves to Be Started; When Cowboys Cleaned Up Rustlers," began with extensive quoting from the speech, then recounted its readers with details of Granville Stuart's vigilante campaign in the 1880's. This article itself was printed in almost every newspaper in the State.

The result of these actions was the calling of an organizational meeting in Pienele (in southern Carter County) on November 19th to form the "strong organization" Rankin advocated in his speech. The organizers of the meeting publicly reassured legitimate stockmen of protection. It was the description of this reassurance that recently appeared in the "100 years ago" section of the Powder River Examiner and spawned this article and its predecessor.

Another result of the speech was that Rankin's targets threatened to sue not only the Attorney General, but also the Powder River Examiner for publishing the speech. Interestingly, there appears to be no such threat made to the Ekalaka Eagle, who also extensively quoted the speech in its November 19 issue. Perhaps the Eagle's previously sterile coverage of the rustling crisis played a role in that decision. The Helena Independent-Record covered this legal maneuvering:

Ekalaka, Nov. 24. - There is much interest in the story about stock men of the south part of this county suing Attorney General Rankin for statements he made about men rustling cattle. It is believed that one or more of the men who have a better case than the others will carry the matter into court and make a fuss about it. Many of the local people who in a position to judge look upon the matter as a joke or mistaken judgment. Reports here say that several attorneys have been consulted and would not take up the case.

The Pienele organizational meeting occurred as scheduled with Sheriff Boggs of Carter County, Sheriff Sutter of Powder River County, Billy Richardson and other law enforcement present. Also present were accused rustlers Bill McCracken and Tom McCrory.

The meeting resolved itself into a round table discussion of livestock conditions in southeastern Montana. It seemed the consensus of opinion that to stop the cattle thievery in southeastern Montana, the stockmen must perfect an organization.

It was decided that those attending meeting were not fully representative of the local livestock interests, and so another meeting was suggested.

One party recommended that the meeting be postponed until after the annual election of the Tri-state Stockmen's Association at Bell [sp.] Fourche coming the first of the year. "If you don't organize until then, it will give me a chance to get away with considerable beef," taunted one of the spectators.

Roberts and McCracken's criminal enterprise dried up. By 1925, Roberts was serving 3 to 6 years in Deer Lodge for grand larceny as a result of stealing a horse from R.C. Price of Alzada. Grand larceny would return "Poker" Jim to the state prison again in 1935, this time sentenced to fourteen years, for the theft of a stallion belonging to Oscar Williams of Ekalaka. The threatened lawsuit against Rankin and the Examiner fizzled away. Rankin's efforts had engaged public sentiment in such a successful fashion that law enforcement could be reliably instituted in southeast Montana. In an editorial, The Examiner concluded:

In a campaign of publicity in which the Examiner has occupied the lead among the newspapers, public sentiment has crystallized against the unlawful traffic in horses and cattle in southeastern Montana, for there are fewer animals being stolen now than ever before known. And the amazement is heightened by the knowledge that his result has been achieved without resort to process of law, unless we concede that law really is defined as public sentiment. There have been no arrests and no trouble in inducing the rustlers to "lay off." How long the present conditions will obtain, no one knows but to make it permanent means continued publicity and vigilance on the part of the newspapers, officials, stockmen and the public in general.