Wild West lives on in rattlesnake murder plot

GOLDEN, Colo. (Reuters) - In a crime that harkens back to Colorado's rowdy frontier past, two men have been accused of plotting to kill a man with rattlesnakes to recover a poker debt, authorities said on Tuesday.

"It's a story out of the Wild West -- there's poker, rattlesnakes and unsavory characters," said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. "The only thing I haven't heard is someone calling another guy a varmint."

According to arrest affidavits, Herbert Paul Beck and Christopher Lee Steelman planned to kill Matthew Sowash, the owner of Amateur Poker Tour, after Beck failed to recover $60,000 that he invested in the company.

The pair allegedly hatched a plot to cobble a box filled with rattlesnakes and somehow get Sowash to step into the box with the venomous snakes.

The plot was not carried out, but authorities uncovered it while investigating Sowash's business, which contracts with bars to conduct poker games. Investigators suspect that the business was illegally charging customers an entry fee.

Steelman was charged on Tuesday with one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, one count of conspiracy to kidnap, and extortion, while Beck was arrested in New Mexico and is awaiting extradition to Colorado.

Clem said all the parties involved have criminal histories.

"You've got a bunch of snakes becoming involved with a bunch of snakes," Clem said.