Wight remained in jail in Denver several months after his partner in crime had been sent to Cañon City, awaiting his trial. While in the Arapahoe jail he made a desperate effort to escape, taking a prominent part in the Griswold emeute, the story of which affair will be found succeeding this chapter. His trial took place at Golden, the prisoner having obtained a change of venue, and resulted in a sentence of seven years at hard labor in the penitentiary. He is still at Cañon City. He might now be a free man, had not his propensity to escape from prison prolonged his term of incarceration. After remaining for two years in the state penitentiary he contrived to get away, and, evading all pursuit, was not overtaken for four years, when he was spotted and captured away down in Maine. He was returned to Colorado and, as stated above, is now serving out the sentence which might have been completed ere this but for his desire to escape.
Even to the present time his old tendency to intrigue has not failed to assert itself. Since his imprisonment began he has made numerous efforts to secure his release and that of Witherill as well. It has been but a short while since Gen. Cook received the following letter, which he is convinced was written by Wight:
Penitentiary, Cañon City,
December 21. 1881.
Hon. David Cook, Denver, Colorado:
Dear General—My attention was lately attracted to an article in a Denver paper, wherein you expressed a knowledge of the fact that George Witherill, who is here serving a life sentence, used to drive a stage in Utah. Three years ago the writer became somewhat acquainted with a man in Kansas City, who related to him the following story, in which the said George Witherill plays a most prominent part, and every word of which I have good and sufficient reasons for believing as true. In the winter of the year 1870 this man, by name Edward Neal, was stock tender for the stage company at Corrinne, Utah. One day a man came to the stable and took an extra team and a Concord wagon for the purpose of going up to meet the coach, which he did some miles above Brigham City. At that moment he was joined by another man, a passenger on the coach, and they two immediately arrested three other men, who were also passengers, taking them from the coach and calling for their baggage. The prisoners did not claim it, and the coach drove on around by Brigham City for the purpose of leaving the mail there, allowing the two detectives (for such the two parties first referred to claimed to be) with their prisoners to reach Corrinne before the coach. The captives were then taken to a lonely cabin and tortured, with the result that they confessed to being road agents on their way to the states, with the proceeds of more than a dozen stage robberies; further, that all the money was on the coach. Meantime the coach, arriving at Corrinne, drove to the express office and unloaded everything except a rough box, an old trunk and a gunny sack, all of which the driver of the coach knew belonged to the three men who had been taken from the coach beyond Brigham City. He then drove to the stable, and while Neal was unhitching the coach team he hitched up the team that the detectives had used, loaded the above articles into the Concord wagon, took a shovel and left the stable, driving out over the old pontoon bridge. This occurred at about 6 p. m. The driver did not return to the stable until about 9 o’clock, having been absent about three hours. Just as he was leaving the stable, however, to go home, one of the detectives came and wanted the baggage belonging to the three men who had been taken from the coach that day, saying that there was more than one hundred thousand in money in the outfit, besides considerable jewelry, and that he would “whack up” with the driver if he would get it. This the driver refused to do, having safely secured and hid the plunder. Snow falling that night obliterated all traces of the wagon track, and the detectives never found the stuff. Being afraid of these men, the driver left Corrinne immediately, believing that the so-called detectives were only sharpers, and would do him bodily harm if he did not divulge the hiding place of the treasure. His opinion of the detectives was probably correct, as they also left Corrinne a day or two afterwards, having made no report at all to the stage company. The driver came to Colorado, and the next Neal heard of him was that he was arrested for murder, tried, found guilty and sentenced to the Cañon City penitentiary for life. The driver’s name was Witherill, and he is the only man living who knows where that money is. Witherill probably went on the ranch in Colorado for the purpose of keeping out of sight. I feel quite confident that this George Witherill here is the man. He, of course, keeps all this a profound secret; but you, general, can surely persuade him to tell you where the stuff is. It can not be buried more than five miles from Corrinne, as Neal said that the horses were cool when he brought them back to the barn. Now, can’t you promise to help him to get out of here, or something of the sort, and persuade him to tell us where to find the treasure? After he has given the necessary information, let him go to the devil, for all I care. Please let none of the officers here know anything about all this, as they would only make a botch of it, I am sure. Whatever you may want to say to me in regard to the matter, publish it as a “personal” in the Denver Tribune, addressed to “No. 5720, C. C.” That paper is accessible to me here, and I shall be sure to see what you say. This goes from here on the quiet, so no one will see it but yourself. I have the honor to be, yours most respectfully,
NO. 5720, C. C.
It is almost unnecessary to state that Gen. Cook paid no attention whatever to this curious epistle. He did not believe the story told, and even if he had, it would not have influenced him to exert himself in behalf of the two scoundrels who murdered as peaceful a citizen as was Mr. Wall. He believed that both Wight and Witherill were where they belonged, and considered that he did his duty in assisting in putting them there. Subsequent events show that they should have been left there for life, as the next chapter will show.