article published on 29 December in the San Francisco Chronicle read, "Killed as he fled from his assailant. How French was slain. Shot down on his own land while unarmed. The murderer escaped." On 30 December The Oregonian ran a story that said, "He [Olivier] is a man about 30 years of age, small of stature, and looks little like a criminal." These are the same publications that inaccurately reported French arriving in Harney County from Chicago on or about Christmas day. On 29 December, the San Francisco Chronicle reported "French returned a few days ago from Chicago." This comports with the account in the book, Cattle Country of Peter French where French is lauded as an enterprising, heroic pioneer. It reads, "Peter French returned from a business trip to Chicago on Christmas Day of 1897. In Burns, he had Mart Brenton at the livery stable hook his team onto the buckboard, which was loaded with gifts he had brought for the children of his crew. He then drove directly to the Sod House Ranch. That night there was a Christmas Party, with all the children happy over the holiday and the men and women in a festive mood." It is easy to deduce the sourcing of the tales of Pete French. The San Francisco Chronicle reported incorrectly and the picture painted by the book, Cattle Country of Peter French is as fanciful as it is farcical. But it was not just city folk that engaged in exaggerations about French. A local attorney in Burns, John W. Biggs, enjoyed telling the fabricated story of Pete French having Christmas Dinner with the Biggs' family the day before he was murdered. His daughter, Helen Biggs Rand outs her father in her manuscript, A Few Recollections of Burns catalogued in the Harney County Library. Bias favoring the rich is nothing new. But French returned to Harney County from Chicago, IL by way of Omaha, NE with William Hanley around the middle of December, 1897. In the December 15th, 1897 edition of the local newspaper, the Burns Times-Herald, it states, "Peter French was in town a few days this week on his way home from the east where he had been with beef cattle." French arrived in mid December to work. His men were there to work. They worked on Christmas Day as though it were just a normal work day. And they worked