After carefully looking over the situation and weighing all the circumstances, it was concluded by the railroad officials that the robbery was committed by four men ; that the leader was a man named McCarthy, who had served as sheriff in 1876 and 1877, and at this time was conducting the Capitol saloon and gambling house. He was a man of considerable political influence and had for his warmest friends the entire tough element which ran the town to suit themselves.

The other suspects were Patsy, one of Mc- Carthy's bartenders, a barber named Flannagan and C. K. Allen, the station agent, ( for some reason the stage driver was not included). McCarthy's influence was so strong that he at first prevented an indictment from being found by the grand jury, but the district attorney made a motion before Judge Gaslin that Thurston be appointed special assistant in order to permit him to go before the grand jury.

"The judge granted the order and Thurston, after great difficulty and in spite of numerous obstacles, put in his way by McCarthy, finally convinced the requisite number of jurors that they would be justified in voting for an indictment.

"When the case came up for trial Thurston appeared as prosecutor. In relating the story of this affair to me, in the summer of 1916, ex- Senator Thurston told some interesting incidents regarding Whispering Smith, who was assisting him in the case. They occupied Superintendent Law's private car and every night Smith asked Thurston to take a walk up the track to a lonely spot and there in a low tone -- hardly above a whisper -- would discuss the events of the day's proceedings.