Ninety people braved a cold, snowy night on Jan 3, 2014 at the
Spearfish Area Historical Society program to hear Paul Higbee tell the tale of
the Miles City to Spearfish stage coach robbery on a similarly cold, snowy
night in Feb 17, 1894.
The stage coach was an open buckboard with no passengers and it
was carrying U.S. Mail holding cash. The stage was coming from Miles City
headed to Spearfish at about 11pm on a Saturday night and was about where BHSU
campus is now when they turned a corner and two gunmen stepped out. It was dark
with no moonlight. Ernest Flynn was the driver. The gunmen had
pistols. One was tall and the other short. The tall man told Ernest
that he didn’t want to hurt him. He said he just wanted the mail, then
asked for Ernest’s money, his watch and his tobacco. Ernest gave all up
to the robber and then asked for his tobacco back and got it back.
After reporting the robbery, the authorities went to the site but the snow had
covered all tracks.
The Post Office assigned the case to employee M.C. Fostness from
Des Moines who arrived a few days later. The first suspects were two
strangers in town, one tall and the other short. But, they had a good
alibi as they had just gotten employment in Deadwood. The second suspect was
a businessman from Sundance who had broken into a barn and pawned a
watch. It turns out the watch was not the
stolen watch, so he was cleared. The third suspect was driver, Ernest
Flynn, himself. M.C. Fosnes set up an elaborate “dummy envelope” planted
on the appropriate delivery line. Ernest did not take the bait and
was cleared also.
Finally, a year and a half later, a jail talker spilled the truth
about what had happened and the robbers were convicted within 30 days.
Tom Pitts was the talker and happy to talk. Ulysses Pitts was his
cousin. Ulysses, his wife, Sally, and her son had moved to a rented farm
near Beulah. They took in a border whose name was George
Hayes. George fell in romantically with Sally. It was a small farm.
They had no money so Sally set up the idea to rob the stage and tried to
get Ulysses and George take up her cause. The first night failed as Ulysses
and George came back saying it was too cold. Sally was mad and three
nights later, the robbery occurred.
The trial took place in Sioux Falls against Ulysses and
George. Sally was not charged. Ulysses got five years, spent one
year in the penitentiary and then got out on a pardon by President
McKinley. George spent eight of his life sentence in the pen. Sally and
her son were not seen again.
