Governor Frank Gooding turned the third floor of Idanha into a fortress for the prosecution during the 1907 trial. Death threats forced Gooding to relocate his executive office and move his family to the hotel. Visitors had to get past William “Four Gun Jack” West, Gooding’s bodyguard. Captain William S. Swain of the Theil Detective Agency and his rival James McParland both used the red-brick hotel for meetings with prosecutors. McParland, code-named “the owl,” nested two doors from the Gooding family suite in Room 35. McParland’s personal guard was Charles “the cowboy” Siringo. Formerly a union infiltrator, Siringo was a dead shot with a colt revolver. His carved walking stick concealed a twenty-inch throwing knife.

It seemed at times that the city’s grandest hotel was almost too small for all of Gooding’s gunmen. One experienced gun brought in for extra protection was Bob Meldrum of Colorado, formerly a sheriff. When Meldrum bumped into Siringo at the Idahna’s mahogany bar, both fingered their guns. Sheriff Meldrum had hunted Siringo ten years before while the knife-throwing detective rode undercover with horse thieves.
          “I’ve felt worse about not getting you than any man I’ve ever missed,” said Meldrum.
          “I call it off,” Siringo replied.
          Although detectives routinely met with the press in the Idanha’s smoke-filled lobby, Pinkertons hated photographers. Siringo broke at least three cameras during the trial.     

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