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Interesting Witnesses That Were At This Trial.

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Some of the people that testified at Gratton's trial were not very upstanding in the community around the San Joaquin Valley but interesting. Note in these clippings a “Mustang Ed” for instance which his full real name was Ed Baldonabro. Notice here that the newspaper states that Ed was a liquor clerk. Ed and his partner a Joaquin were not only supposed liquor clerks but also gamblers and pimping partners as well! This was something that probably had a great bearing on Gratton’s trial and very well why he, Grat, got convicted and his brother, Bill, didn’t. It was said that Ed was a very nice looking man, always nicely dressed and wore a very heavy gold watch & chain with a jewelry quartz charm. Ed Baldonabro died of tuberculosis the date of his death is unknown to me. Tuberculosis was something that was often caught in bordellos in that time period by the girls, customers and pimps as well. Ed witnessed that he seen Gratton in the hotel playing cards on the night that the train was robbed.

There was another tragic “twist” to this particular witness’s story. Joaquin, Ed’s partner, was seen by Littleton, Grat’s brother, in Guthrie, OK later on after this trial was over with. Afterwards he traveled on to St. Louis, MO where he went to either a horse race or several races and won two thousand dollars. This stroke of luck would lead to his ill fate later that day after winning this money he was robbed and murdered.

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