On this date in 1919, North Dakota finally brought the notorious Guyer gang to justice.
For years, the Guyers had been stealing tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of cattle and horses across Sioux County and the western Slope counties near the Montana border. They hid their thefts by moving the livestock to a remote nine-section ranch near Mobridge, South Dakota, where they pretended to run a legitimate ranching business. Leading the crackdown was Attorney General William Langer, who had made stopping cattle theft a top priority. His brand inspectors played a major role by spotting altered or re-branded cattle and tracing them back to the Guyers.
A key figure in the gang’s downfall was “Moustache Maude” Black, a woman well-known in the rustling world and sometimes called the “Queen of the Cattle Rustlers.” She had once been close to the Guyers, but everything changed when the gang stole thirty of her own cattle. Feeling betrayed, Maude agreed to talk to the authorities. She later said that when she walked into Langer’s office, “hell began poppin’.” She explained the gang’s routine, the men involved, and how the stolen livestock was moved and disguised. In court, she made just as strong an impression, arriving in a cowboy hat, men’s shirt, short skirt, and boots. Calm and confident, she gave quick, sharp answers that helped identify Jack, Ben, and Sam Guyer and expose how their rustling ring operated.
Using Maude’s information, Langer organized a meeting with prosecutors from Stark, Billings, and McKenzie Counties and hired professional cattle-thief trackers from the Montana Cattle Growers Association. After weeks of undercover work in the hills south of Thunderhawk, South Dakota, the Guyer brothers were finally captured.
The following summer, Jack Guyer was sentenced in Fort Yates to three and a half years in prison, and investigators traced stolen cattle as far as the St. Louis stockyards. The case eventually reached the North Dakota Supreme Court, which upheld the conviction a couple of years later.
Dakota Datebook by Elayna Meier
Sources:
- Minot Daily News and Minot Daily Optic Reporter, October 15, 1919
- The Bismarck Tribune, July 26, 1920
- Grand Forks Herald, December 17, 1919
- Nov. 13, 1919, edition of the Mineral Independent of Superior, Montana
- State v. Guyer, 47 N.D. 479, 182 N.W. 693 (N.D. Sup. Ct., Apr. 18, 1921)