One of the shooters, identified in the affidavit as Antonino Salcedo, immediately turned over a letter written by Stephen Csajaghy, a Denver lawyer, and signed by his client, Jeff Hawn.
“I ask that you get started as quickly as possible,” the letter said, adding that “we will contact you by telephone when we see buffalo on the ranch so as to enhance your chances at a successful capture or hunt.”
No fool, Antonino Salcedo liked the idea of getting free bison meat, but wanted a notarized letter from John Norman granting him and his pals permission for the hunt. It was provided.
On that March 19 morning, though, Salcedo and the others arrived to find at least 16 bison already lying dead, none even remotely dressed out for harvest.
They went on their hunt, anyway.
They would shoot others on the Hawn property, adjacent Bureau of Land Management lands and on neighboring property. By the time investigators sorted it all out, at least seven of the 16 cow bison killed prior to March 19 were about to calve.
According to the affidavit, Jeff Hawn had arrived in Colorado on Continental Airlines from Texas on Feb. 25. Witnesses told deputies they saw Jeff Hawn on his property around that time, carrying a 30.06 rifle. On March 27, deputies conducted a search of Hawn’s home, finding the rifle and boxes of 30.06 shells.
Subsequent testing of the slugs taken from the 16 dead bison made them a match for Jeff Hawn’s rifle, the affidavit states.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/08/johnson-bison-slaying-old-west-feud/