Vigilantes of Montana - Chapters XXVIII-XXXII



CHAPTER XXVIII
The Trial and Death of John Keene, Alias Bob Black, the Murderer of Harry 
Slater.

"Oh, my offense is rank; it smells to Heaven; It hath the primal, eldest 
curse upon it." -Hamlet.

The stern yet righteous retribution which the Vigilantes had inflicted on 
the murderers and marauders in the southern and western part of the 
Territory had worked its effect, and little need was there of any further 
examples for a long time in the vicinity of Virginia and Bannack; but the 
restless spirit of enterprise which distinguishes the miners of the West 
soon urged the pioneers to new discoveries, creating another center of 
population, and thither, like a heron to her haunt, gathered the miners, 
and, of course, those harpies who live by preying upon them.

Many others who had spent a roving and ill-regulated life, poured into the 
new diggings, which bore the name of bast Chance Gulch, situated on the 
edge of the romantic valley of the Prickly Pear, where now stands the 
flourishing city of Helena, in the county of Edgerton, second in size and 
importance only to Virginia, and rapidly increasing in extent, wealth and 
population. This place, which was then regarded as a new theater of 
operation for the desperadoes, is almost one hundred and twenty-five miles 
N. N. W. from the metropolis of Montana; and no sooner were the diggings 
struck, by a party consisting mainly of Colorado men, than a rush was made 
for the new gulch, and a town arose as by magic. As usual in such cases, 
the first settlers were a motley crowd, and though many good men came with 
them, yet the number of "hard cases" was great, and. was speedily 
increased by refugees from justice, and adventurers not distinguished for 
morality, or for any undue deference for the moral precepts contained in 
the sixth and eight commandments.

Among the desperadoes and refugees who went over there was Harry Slater -a 
professional gambler, and a "rough" of reputation. At Salt Lake he would 
have shot Colonel W. F. Sanders in the back, had he not been restrained; 
and many an outrage had he committed. His sudden flight from Virginia 
alone saved his neck, a mere accident having saved him from summary 
execution, the night before he left for Helena, where he met his death at 
the hands of John Keene, formerly a barkeeper to Samuel Schwab, of the 
Montana Billiard Saloon in Virginia, and originally, as will be seen from 
the biographical sketch appended to this chapter -from the "River," where, 
as "Bob Black," he figured as a first-class murderer and robber, before he 
came to the mining regions, and, quarreling with Slater at Salt Lake City, 
roused again those evil passions, the indulgence of which finally brought 
him to the fatal tree, in Dry Gulch, where the thieves and murderers of 
the northern section of the country have so often expiated their crimes by 
a sudden and shameful death.

Slater arrived first in Helena, and Keene, who had signalized his stay in 
Virginia by attempting to kill or wound Jem McCarty, the bar-keeper at 
Murat's Saloon (better known as the 'Court's') with whom he had a quarrel, 
by throwing large pieces of rock at him through the window, at midnight. 
He however missed his mark; the sleepers escaped and the proprietors 
sustained little more damage than the price of broken windows.

Slater did not know that Keene was in town, and was sitting in the doorway 
of Sam Greer's saloon, with his head down and his eyes shaded by his hat. 
Keene was walking along the street, talking to a friend, when he spied 
Slater within a few feet of him, and without saying a word, or in any way 
attracting the notice of Slater, he drew his pistol and fired two shots. 
The first took effect over the outer angle of the eye, ranging downwards, 
and producing instant death. The murderer put up his pistol and turned 
quickly down an alley, near the scene of the murder. Here he was arrested 
by C. J. D. Curtis, and "X," coming up, proposed to deliver him over to 
Sheriff Wood. This being done, the Sheriff put him, for want of a better 
place, in his own house, and kept him well guarded. As thousands of 
individuals will read this account who have no distinct or accurate notion 
of how a citizen trial in the West is conducted, the account taken by the 
special reporter of the Montana Post, which is minutely exact and reliable 
in all its details, is here presented. The report says that after the 
arrest of Keene and his committal to the custody of the Sheriff, strong 
manifestations of disgust were shown by the crowd, which soon collected in 
front of the temporary prison, and a committee at once formed to give the 
murderer a hasty trial. Sheriff Wood, with what deputies he could gather 
round him in a few moments, sternly and resolutely refused to deliver the 
prisoner into the hands of the Committee, and at the same time made the 
most urgent and earnest appeals to those demanding the culprit; but 
finally, being carried by main force from his post, and overpowered by 
superior numbers, his prisoner was taken from him.

A court-room was soon improvised in an adjacent lumber yard, the prisoner 
marched into, and the trial immediately commenced, Stephen Reynolds 
presiding, and the jury composed of Messrs. Judge Burchett (foreman), S. 
M. Hall, Z. French, A. F. Edwards,---Nichols, S. Kayser, Edward Porter, 
Shears, Major Hutchinson, C. C. Farmer and Ed. House.

No great formality was observed in the commencement of the impromptu 
trial. Dr. Palmer, Charles Greer and Samuel Greer were sworn to testify. 
Dr. Palmer started to give his evidence, when he was interrupted by the 
culprit getting up and making a statement of the whole affair, and 
asserting that he acted in selfdefense, as the deceased was in the act of 
rising with his hand on his pistol, and had threatened to take his life, 
and on a former occasion, in Great Salt Lake City, had put a derringer 
into his mouth.

A Mr. Brobecker then got up and made some very appropriate remarks, 
cautioning the men on the jury not to be too hasty, but to well and truly 
perform their duty; weigh the evidence well, and give a verdict such as 
their conscience would hereafter approve.

Sam Greer then testified to being an eye-witness of the deed. Heard the 
first shot; did not think anybody was hit; told Keene to "hold on," when 
he saw Slater fall over; did not hear any words spoken by either of the 
parties; did not know for certain whether the prisoner was the man who 
shot plater.

Prisoner -I am the gentleman.

Dr. Palmer said that when he made an examination of the deceased he did 
not find a pistol in his scabbard.

Sam Greer -The pistol was put into my hands and placed behind the bar by 
me after the shooting took place.

Charley Greer (sworn) -I have been sick lately, and was too excited to 
make any close observation; was not more than three or four feet from the 
party killed, when the shooting occurred; thought the man was shooting at 
some dogs in the saloon.

Charles French (sworn) -says -Came down street, stopped first door below 
Lyon's Barber shop, at the clothing store of Rarned; saw a man coming up 
the street towards Greer'a saloon; heard some on cry, "Don't shoot, John; 
you'll hurt somebody." Soon after saw the man shoot, thought he was only 
firing off his pistol to scare somebody; but he saw the deceased man fall, 
and the other go down street and turn into an alley. Don't know the man 
that fired the shots.

Q.-Is this the man?

A.-Cannot tell; it is too dark. (A candle was brought.) I think it is the 
same man; I am pretty certain it is.

Dr. Palmer again testified -The deceased was shot over the right eye; 
never spoke, and died in three minutes after being shot.

James Binns (sworn) -Was on the opposite side of the street; heard the 
first shot fired, and saw the second one; heard Greer say, "hold on," and 
saw the man fall over, and the other. man go through the alley.

(Calls by the crowd for James Parker.)

James Parker (sworn) -Keene overtook me today on the summit, coming from 
Blackfoot. We rode together. He inquired of me whether Slater was in town, 
and told me of some difficulty existing between them, originating in Salt 
Lake City; Slater having thrust a derringer into his mouth, and ran him 
out of the city.

Prisoner here got up and said that he had told Parker he hoped he should 
not see Slater, as he did not want any difficulty with him, or some such 
conversation.

James Geero (Hogal) called for (sworn) -(Here the wind extinguished our 
candle, and being in the open air, before we could relight it, we missed 
all the testimony but the last words.-Reporter.) Know nothing about the 
shooting affair.

At this moment a voice in the crowd was heard crying, "John Keene come 
here" -which caused the guards to close around the prisoner.

Mr. Phillips (sworn) -Don't know anything about the affair, but saw Slater 
fall; don't know who fired; know what Jem Geero says to be true. Saw 
Slater sit in this position (here Mr. P. showed the position Slater was in 
when shot); saw Slater sitting in the door; did not see him have a 
revolver.

Prisoner asked to have some witnesses sent for; he said that the original 
cause of his trouble with Slater was his taking Tom Baum and Ed. 
Copeland's part in a conversation about the Vigilance Committee of last 
year. Slater then called him a Vigilante-----, and drove him out of town; 
this was in Salt Lake City. Then he went to Virginia City, and from there 
to Blackfoot. Slater was a dangerous man; he had killed two men in Boise. 
He said he had gone to work at mining in Blackfoot, and came over to 
Helena on that day to see a man -Harlow. "When I first saw Slater today he 
smacked my face with both hands and called a---Irish-----, and said he 
would make me leave town. I went and borrowed a revolver of Walsh." He 
requested them to send for an Irishman called Mike, who works on the 
brickyard, and who heard the last conversation. He wanted Mr. Phillips to 
give a little more testimony.

Mr. P.-I know him to go armed and equipped; saw him draw a weapon on a 
former occasion; saw him make a man jump down twenty pair of stairs.

Motion of the jury to retire. Cries of "aye!" and "no! go on with the 
trial." A voice -"send for Kelly, the man who was talking to Slater at the 
time he was shot." Cries of "Mr. Kelly! Mr. Kelly!" and "Dave St. John." 
Neither of these men could be found.

A motion to increase the number of the guard to forty was carried.

Prisoner again asked to have men sent for his witnesses.

Jack Edwards -I am willing to wait till morning for the continuance of the 
trial, but the guard must be increased; I hear mutterings in the crowd 
about a rescue.

A voice -It can't be done.

Prisoner -I want a fair and just trial.

Preparations were now made for a strong guard, forming a ring round the 
prisoner.

Objections were raised, at this juncture, to whispering beings carried on 
between the culprit and his friends.

A report came in that the Irish brickmaker could not be found at his 
shanty.

A motion to guard the prisoner till morning, to give him time to procure 
witnesses, was lost; but being afterward reconsidered, it was finally 
carried.

Judge N. J. Bond then got up, and in a short and able speech to the jury, 
advised them to hear more testimony before convicting the prisoner. He 
also proposed the hour of eight a. m. next day for the meeting of the 
jury, and the hour of nine a. m. for 'bringing in their verdict. The 
latter proposition was agreed to, and the prisoner taken in charge by the 
guard.

The dense crowd slowly dispersed, talking in a less bloodthirsty strain 
than they had done three or four hours before.

SECOND DAY.

The morning dawned serenely upon a large concourse of people standing 
before the prison and in front of the California Exchange -the place 
selected for a jury room.

The jury met a few minutes past eight a. m. and Mr. Boyden was sent for, 
and the examination of witnesses resumed.

Mr. B. (sworn) -I have known Keene from childhood; know his parents and 
relatives; met Keene yesterday on the street; did not know him at first 
sight, until he spoke to me; told me that he was looking for a gentleman 
in town who had as an act of kindness taken up some claims for him; was 
walking up street with me; then stopped to shake hands with a man named 
Kelly, who was sitting on some logs in the street, when we left him. Keene 
walked faster than I did, and was a few steps ahead. of me; when in front 
of Greer's saloon I saw a man sitting in the door (Greer's); did not see 
Keene draw his revolver, but saw the first shot fired, and heard Keene 
say, "You, you have ruined me in Salt hake City." This was said after the 
shooting. Do not think Slater saw Keene at all. Slater was sitting down; I 
was about five feet from both men; John Keene was about ten feet from 
plater.

Q.-Was Kelly with you at that time?

A. No; Kelly never left the place where he shook hands with Keene.

Q.-Do you know anything about his character?

A.-I have known him for about ten years; he left St. Paul about eighteen 
months ago; know nothing about his course or conduct since that time; he 
was considered a fast young man, but good and kind-hearted; when I 
conversed with him yesterday he spoke about a man that had ruined him in 
Salt Lake City, but he did not mention any names; I did not know anything 
of the particulars of his (prisoner's) former difficulties with Slater; 
never saw Slater and Keene together.

Michael McGregor (sworn) -I saw Keene in the afternoon; he came to me in 
the flat (a point in the lower part of the gulch); shook hands with me, 
and then left for town; did not know of the difficulty between Slater and 
Keene; Keene never spoke to me about it.

D. St. John (sworn) -Don't know anything about the shooting affair; was 
fifteen miles from here when it took place. (The witness here gave 
testimony not bearing directly on the case, which was not admitted.)

This closed the examination. The jury went into secret session.

At ten minutes to ten o'clock, the jury came from their room to the place 
of trial, in the lumber yard, where preparations were made immediately for 
the reception of the prisoner.

At ten o'clock, the culprit made his appearance on the ground, under an 
escort of about fifty well-armed men. A circle was formed by the guard and 
the prisoner placed in the center. His appearance was not that of a man 
likely to die in a few minutes. He looked bravely around the crowd, 
nodding here and there to his acquaintances, and calling to them by name. 
Captain Florman having detailed his guard, gave the word, "All ready." The 
foreman of the jury then opened the sealed verdict: "We, the jury, in the 
case of the people of Montana versus John Keene, find him guilty of murder 
in the first degree." A Voice -"What shall be done?"

Several voices in the crowd -"Hang him! hang him!"

The President here rose and said he wished to hear some expression of the 
public sentiment or motions in the case.

Calls were made for Colonel Johnson. The Colonel addressed the assembly in 
an appropriate speech, which was followed by a few short and pertinent 
remarks from Judge Bond.

On motion of A. J. Edwards, the testimony of Messrs. Royden and Michael 
McGregor was read, and thereupon Judge Lawrence rose and said he was sure 
Keene had all the chance for a fair trial he could have wished, and 
motioned to carry the jury's verdict into execution. Passed.

The prisoner here got up and said, "All I wanted was a fair and just 
trial; I think I have got it, and death is my doom; but I want time to 
settle up my business; I am not trying to get away."

He was granted an hour's time to prepare for his execution. The committee 
fixed the hour of execution at half-past eleven o'clock a. m. Keene 
remarked that he hadn't any money to pay expenses -and was told that it 
should not cost him a cent. The guard now took charge of the doomed man, 
and escorted him to an adjacent house in order that he might arrange his 
affairs.

At eleven a. m. crowds of people could be seen ascending the hill north of 
Helena, and not a small number of ladies were perceptible in the throng. 
The place of execution was chosen with a due regard. to convenience and 
economy -a large pine tree, with stout limbs, standing almost alone, in a 
shallow ravine, was selected for the gallows.

At eleven a. m. the prisoner, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. McLaughlin, 
arrived in a lumber wagon. A dry goods box and two planks, to form the 
trap, were in the same vehicle. The unfortunate victim of his unbridled 
passions sat astride of one of the planks, his countenance exhibiting the 
utmost unconcern, and on his arrival at the tree he said, "My honor 
compelled me to do what I have done." He then bade good-by to some of his 
acquaintances. The wagon having been adjusted so as to bring the hind axle 
under the rope, a plank was laid from the dry goods box to another plank 
set upon end, and the trap was ready.

At four minutes to twelve o'clock, the prisoner's arms were pinioned, and 
he was assisted to mount the wagon. Standing on the frail platform, he 
said, in a loud and distinct voice: "WhatI have done, my honor compelled 
me to do. Slater run me from Salt Lake City to Virginia, and from there to 
this country. He slapped me in the face here yesterday; and I was advised 
by my friends to arm myself. When Slater saw me, he said, 'There is the 
Irish; he has not left town yet.' Then I commenced firing. My honor 
compelled me to do what I have done." Here he called for a drink of water, 
which was procured as speedily as it could be brought to the top of the 
hill. He took a long, deep draught of the water, and the rope was adjusted 
round his neck. A handkerchief being thrown over his face, he raised his 
hand to it and said, "What are you putting that there for? Take it off." 
Stepping to the end of the trap, he said: "What I have done to Slater I 
have done willingly. He punished me severely. Honor compelled me to do 
what I have done. He run me from town to town; I tried to shun him here 
but he saw me -called me a-----, and smacked me in the face. I did not 
want any trouble with him; my honor compelled me to do what I have done. I 
am here, and must die; and if I was to live till tomorrow I would do the 
same thing again. I am ready; jerk the cart as soon as you please."

At seven minutes past twelve the wagon started, the trap fell, and Keene 
was launched into eternity. He fell three and a half feet without breaking 
his neck. A few spasmodic struggles for three or four minutes were all 
that was perceptible of his dying agonies. After hanging half an hour, the 
body was cut down and was taken in charge by his friends.

So ended the first tragedy at Helena. The execution was conducted by Mr. 
J. X. Biedler, and everything went off in a quiet and orderly manner. Many 
familiar faces, known to Virginia men in the trying times of the winter of 
'64 were visible.

The effect, in Helena, of this execution was electrical. The roughs saw 
that the day had gone against them, and trembled for their lives. There 
were in town, at that time, scores of men from every known mining locality 
of the West, and many of them were steeped to the lips in crime. Such a 
decision as that now rendered by a jury of the people boded them no good. 
They saw that the citizens of Montana had determined that outrage should 
be visited with condign punishment, and that prudence dictated an 
immediate stampede from Helena. Walking about the streets, they 
occasionally approached an old comrade, and furtively glancing around, 
they would give expression to their feelings in the chartered form of 
language peculiar to mountaineers who consider that something 
extraordinary, unjust, cruel or hard to bear, is being enacted: "Say, 
Bill, this is rough, ain't it?" To which the terse reply was usually 
vouchsafed, "It is, by thunder; rough." Cayuses began to rise rapidly in 
demand and price. Men went "prospecting" (?) who had never been accused of 
such an act before; and a very considerable improvement in the average 
appearance of the population soon became visible.

A constant stream of miners and others was now pouring into the Territory, 
from the West, and the consequence was that the thinking portion of the 
citizens of Helena began to see that a regular organization of an 
independent Vigilance Committee was necessary to watch over the affairs of 
the young city, and to take steps for both the prevention of crime and for 
the punishment of criminals. There were in the town a considerable number 
of the old Committee; these, with few exceptions, gave the movement their 
sanction, and the new body was speedily and electively organized, an 
executive elected, companies formed, under the leadership of old hands who 
had mostly seen service in the perilous times of '63-64. A sketch of their 
subsequent operations will appear in this work, and also an account of the 
terrible massacre and robbery of the passengers of the Overland coach, in 
the Portneuf canyon, near Snake River, I. T., together with an account of 
the capture and execution of Frank Williams, who drove the stage into the 
ambush.

As it was asserted by Keene that Slater had slapped him in the face, and 
otherwise insulted him in Helena, before the firing of the fatal shot, it 
is proper to state that such was not the case. Slater was entirely 
ignorant of IIeene's presence in town; in fact, the other, it will be 
remembered, had only just previously arrived there, riding with the 
witness who swore he crossed the Divide in his company. It is also an 
entire mistake to suppose that Keene was a man of good character or 
blameless life. The following statement of his previous career of crime, 
in the East, will be read with interest by many who are under the 
impression that the murder of Slater was his first offense. It is taken 
from the Memphis Appeal, of November 24th, 1865, and, of course, was 
written without any intention of being published in this work, or of 
furrnishing any justification of the Vigilance Committee. If such had been 
the intention, it would have been a work of supererogation, for never was 
a case of murder in the first degree more fully proven. The homicide in 
broad daylight, and the evident malice "prepense" were matters of public 
notoriety.

"Of the many strange circumstances born of and nurtured by the past war, a 
parallel to the catalogue of crime herein given has been rarely, if ever, 
met with.

"In this vicinity, near three years ago, the name of 'Bob Black' has, on 
more than one occasion, struck terror to the hearts of a large number of 
countrymen, cotton buyers and sellers, whose business compelled them to 
enter or make their exit from the city by the way of the Hernando Horn 
Lake roads.

"'Bob Black' came to this city about six years ago, bringing with him a 
good character for honesty and industry, and continued to work steadily 
here until the outbreak of the war. At that time he desired to enter the 
gunboat service, and for that purpose left this city for New Orleans; and, 
after remaining there some time, he joined the crew of a Confederate ram, 
the name of which has since slipped our memory. While on his way up from 
New Orleans, he became enraged at some wrong, real or fancied, at the 
hands of the captain of the ram, and being of a very impulsive nature, 
seized a marling-spike, and with a blow felled the captain to the deck. He 
was immediately placed in irons, and upon the arrival of the gunboat at 
Fort Pillow, was handed over to General Villipigue, for safe keeping. A 
court-martial was ordered, and while in progress, the evacuation of Fort 
Pillow became necessary, and the prisoner was transferred to Grenada, 
Mississippi. In the confusion of everything about Grenada at that time, he 
managed to effect his escape, and passing immediately through the 
Confederate lines, reached Memphis a few days after its occupation by the 
Federal authorities. Without any means to provide himself with food or 
clothing, with a mind borne down with trouble and suffering, and bereft of 
every hope from which the slightest consolation might be derived, the once 
honest man was driven to a career of desperation and crime, which, if 
given in its details, would cause the bloodthirsty tales of the yellow-
covered trash to pale for their very puerility and tameness.

"In this condition of mind and body he remained in the city for some time, 
wandering about here and there; until one day, while standing at the 
Worsham House corner, he became involved in a quarrel with one James 
Dolan, a member of the Eighth Missouri Regiment, a large and powerful man, 
while Black was a man of medium height and stature. Words between the 
parties waged furious, and finally Dolan struck Black with a cane which he 
had with him; but quickly warding off the blow, Black wrenched the cane 
from his adversary and dealt him a blow, which so fractured the skull of 
Dolan as to cause death within a short time thereafter. Black effected his 
escape from the city, and with a couple of accomplices, began a system of 
wholesale murder and robbery on the Hernando road. The atrocity and 
boldness of these acts created the greatest excitement in Memphis.

"Several parties were robbed of sums varying from one to as high as ten 
thousand dollars, and, in one instance, a speculator was compelled to 
disgorge to the amount of five thousand dollars in gold. Of course, these 
rascals, of whom Black was the leader, often met with men who would make 
resistance rather than give up their money and. in this way no less than 
three or four fell victims to the fiendish spirit exhibited by these 
scoundrels. It was finally agreed upon by the military commanders of the 
district, on both sides, that means should be taken which would ensure 
their capture. Accordingly a squad of Blythe's battalion of the rebel 
army, were sent in pursuit, and succeeded in capturing, about ten miles 
out of the city, Black and his companion, a fellow young in years, named 
Whelan. They were placed in the guard-house in Hernando, we believe, and 
at a pre-concerted signal attacked the guard, and mounting some horses 
belonging to the soldiers, made off at a rapid rate. The guard immediately 
started in pursuit, and coming upon Whelan, who was some distance behind 
Black, shot and killed him. Black again escaped, and applied himself with 
more vigor than ever to the plundering, stealing and robbing of everybody 
and everything that came within his reach. He would frequently ride into 
this city at night, passing through the lines at will; and, as an instance 
of. his audacity, on one occasion rode down Adams street, and fired 
several shots into the station-house. It was reported that he had 
accumulated large sums of money, and the report proved correct. As his 
business became either too tiresome or too dangerous, he came to the city, 
disguised, and took passage on a boat for the north.

Since that time, and until recently, nothing has been heard from him. It 
seems that after leaving Memphis he went to St. Paul, Minnesota, and 
embarked in the staging and saloon business, under his proper name, John 
Keene. His restless spirit could not stand the monotony of such a dull 
business (to him) and, organizing a band of some twenty men, he started 
for the Territories."



CHAPTER XXIX
Capture and Execution of Jake Silvie, Alias Jacob Seachriest, a Road Agent 
and Murderer, of Twelve Years' Standing, and. the Slayer of Twelve Men.

"Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." -God's Law.

The crimes and punishment of many a daring desperado have been chronicled 
in these pages; but among them all, none was more worthy of death than the 
blood-stained miscreant whose well-deserved fate is recorded in this 
chapter. According to his own confession -made when all hope was gone, and 
death was inevitable, and when nothing was to be gained by such a 
statement, but the disburdening of a conscience oppressed by the weight of 
guilt -Jacob Seachriest was a native of Pennsylvania, and had been a 
thief, road agent, and murderer for twelve years; during which time he had 
murdered, single-handed or in company with others, twelve individuals.

In a former chapter of this history -the one detailing the arrest and 
execution of Jem Kelly at Snake River -it will be remembered that the body 
of a man, shot through the back of the head, was found in a creek by a 
patrol of the Vigilantes, and buried in a willow coffin. The full 
particulars of the tragedy we are unable to furnish to our readers; but 
Seachriest confessed that he and his comrades cast lots to determine who 
should commit the bloody deed, it being repugnant, even to their notions 
of manhood, to crawl up behind an unarmed man, sitting quietly on the bank 
of a creek, and to kill him for the sake of what he might chance to 
possess, without exchanging a word. The "hazard. of the die" pointed out 
Seachriest as the assassin; and with his pistol ready cocked, he stole 
upon his victim and killed him instantly, by sending a ball through his 
brain. A stone was fastened to the body, and it was sunk in a hole formed 
by an eddy in the stream, the thieves having first appropriated every 
article of value about his person.

The captain was much moved by the sad spectacle, though well accustomed to 
the sight of murdered victims, having served through the war against the 
border ruffians in "Bleeding Kansas," and having gone through a checkered 
career of adventure, including five years' life by the camp-fire. He said, 
with much emotion, "Boys, something tells me I'll be at the hanging of 
this man's murderer, within twelve months of this day," and so it fell 
out; though most unexpectedly.

Shortly after the execution of John Keene for the murder of Slater, 
information was sent to the Committee, that a man named Jack Silvie had 
been arrested at Diamond City -a flourishing new mining camp in 
Confederate Gulch, one of the largest and richest of the placer diggings 
in Montana. The town is about fifteen miles beyond the Missouri, and about 
forty miles east of helena.

The charges against the culprit were robbery, obtaining goods under false 
pretenses, and various other crimes of a kindred sort.

It was also intimated that he was a man of general bad character, and that 
he had confessed enough to warrant the Committee in holding him for 
further examination, though the proof of his commission of the principal 
offense of which he was accused was not greater, at the time, than would 
amount to a strong presumption of guilt.

The messenger brought with him copies of the confession made by the 
prisoner, under oath, before the proper person to receive an obligation. 
The substance of his story was that he was an honest, hard-working miner; 
that he had just come into the country, by way of Salt Lake City; that on 
reaching Virginia City, and while under the influence of liquor, he had 
fallen into bad company, and was initiated into an organized band of 
robbers. He gave the names of about a dozen of the members of the gang, 
and minutely described the signs of recognition, etc. It was evident from 
his account that the ceremonies attending the entry into this villainous 
fraternity were simple and forcible, although not legal. The candidate was 
placed in the center of a circle formed of desperadoes; one or two 
revolvers at full cock were presented at his head, and he was then 
informed that his taking the obligation was to be a purely voluntary act 
on his part; for that he was at perfect liberty to refuse to do so; only, 
in that case, that his brains would be blown out without any further 
ceremony. Though not a man of any education, Silvie could not afford to 
lose his brains, having only one set, and he therefore consented to 
proceed and swore through a long formula, of which he said he recollected 
very little distinctly, except a pledge of secrecy and of fidelity to the 
band.

On receipt of the intelligence, a captain, with a squad of four or five 
men, was immediately despatched to Diamond City, with orders to bring the 
prisoner to Helena as soon as possible. The party lost but little time in 
the performance of their duty, and on the following day the chief of the 
Committee rode out, as previously agreed upon, in company with X (a letter 
of the alphabet having singular terrors for evil-doers in Montana, being 
calculated to awaken the idea of crime committed and punishment to follow, 
more than all the rest of the alphabet, even if the enumeration were 
followed by the repetition of the Ten Commandments) and meeting the guard 
in charge of the prisoner, they accompanied them into town. Silvie was 
confined in the same cabin in which John Keene passed his last night on 
earth. A strong guard was detailed for the purpose of watching the 
prisoner, and the Committee being summoned, the case was investigated with 
all due deliberation; but the Committee was not entirely satisfied that 
the evidence, though complete, was all of such a reliable character as to 
justify a conviction; and therefore, they preferred to adjourn their 
inquiry, for the production of further testimony. This was accordingly 
done, and the prisoner was removed to an obscure cabin, in a more remote 
part of the town, where the members of the Committee would have an 
opportunity of free access to him, and might learn from his own lips what 
sort of a man they had to deal with.

They were not long in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion on this point. 
He at first adhered to and repeated his old story and confession; but 
gaining a little confidence, and thinking there was not much danger to be 
apprehended from the action of the Committee, he at length denied every 
word of his former statement, made under oath; said it was all false; that 
he knew of no such organization as he had told of, and declared that he 
had been compelled to do this for his own safety. After being cross-
questioned pretty thorough, he told the truth, stating that he had given a 
correct statement in the first place; only, instead of joining the band in 
Virginia City, he had become acquainted with some of the leaders, on the 
Columbia River, on the way up from Portland, and that he had accompanied 
them to Virginia City, M.

T., traveling thither by way of Snake River. (It was on this trip that he 
committed the murder before described.) This was the fatal admission on 
the part of the prisoner, as it completed the chain of evidence that 
linked him with the desperadoes whose crimes have given an unenviable 
notoriety to the neighborhood of that affluent of the Columbia -the dread 
of storm-stayed freighters and the grave of so many victims of marauders -
Snake River.

Another meeting of the Executive Committee was called during the day, and 
after due deliberation, the verdict was unanimous, that he was a road 
agent, and that he should receive the just reward of his crimes, in the 
shape of the penalty attached to the commission of highway robbery and 
murder, by the citizens of Montana. After a long discussion, it was 
determined that he should be executed on the murderer's tree, in Dry 
Gulch, at an hour after midnight. The prison guards were doubled, and no 
person was allowed to hold converse with the prisoner, except by 
permission of the officers.

The execution at night was determined upon for many sufficient reasons. A 
few of them are here stated: It had been abundantly demonstrated that but 
for the murder of Slater having occurred in open day, and before the eyes 
of a crowd of witnesses, Keene would have been rescued; and the moral 
effect produced by a public execution, among the hardened sinners who 
compose a, large part of the audience at such times, is infinitely less 
than the terror to the guilty, produced by the unannounced but inevitable 
vengeance which may at any moment be visited upon their own heads. Such a 
power is dreaded most by those who fear its exercise.

The desire to die game, so common to desperadoes, frequently robs death of 
half its terrors, if not of all of them, as in the ease of Boone Helm, 
Bunton and others. Confessions are very rarely made at public executions 
in the mountains; though scarcely ever withheld at private ones. There are 
also many honest and upright men who have a great objection to be 
telegraphed over the West as "stranglers," yet who would cheerfully 
sacrifice their lives rather than by word or deed become accessory to an 
unjust sentence. The main question is the guilt of the prisoner. If this 
is ascertained without doubt, hour and place are mere matters of policy. 
Private executions are fast superseding public ones, in civilized 
communities.

There is not now -and there never has been -one upright citizen in 
Montana, who has a particle of fear of being hanged by the Vigilance 
Committee. Concerning those whose conscience tells them that they are in 
danger, it is of little consequence when or where they suffer for the 
outrages they have committed. One private execution is a more dreaded and 
wholesome warning to malefactors than one hundred public ones.

If it be urged that public executions are desirable from the notoriety 
that is ensured to the whole circumstances, it may fairly be answered that 
the action of Judge, and jury, and counsel is equally desirable, and, 
indeed, infinitely preferable, when it is effective and impartial, to any 
administration of justice by Vigilance Committees; but, except in case of 
renowned road agents and notorious criminals whose names are a by-word 
before their arrest, or where the crime is a revolting outrage, witnessed 
by a large number, the feeling of the community in a new camp is against 
any punishment being given, and the knowledge of this' fact is the 
desperado's chief reliance for escape from the doom he has so often dared, 
and has yet escaped.

When informed of his sentence the prisoner seemed little affected by it, 
and evidently did not believe it, but regarded it as a ruse on the part of 
the Committee to obtain a confession from him. After the shades of night 
had settled down upon the town of Helena, a minister was invited to take a 
walk with an officer of the Vigilantes, and proceeded in his company to 
the cabin where Silvie was confined, and was informed of the object in 
view in requesting his attendance. He at once communicated the fact to the 
culprit, who feigned a good deal of repentance, received baptism at his 
own request, and appeared to pray with great fervor. He seemed to think 
that he was cheating the Almighty himself, as well as duping the 
Vigilantes most completely.

At length the hour appointed for the execution arrived, and the matter was 
arranged so that the prisoner should not know whither he was going until 
he came to the fatal tree. The Committee were all out of sight, except one 
man, who led him by the arm to the place of execution, conversing with him 
in the German tongue, which seemed still further to assure him that it was 
all a solemn farce, and that he should "come out all right;" but when he 
found himself standing tinder the very tree on which Keene was hanged, and 
beheld the dark mass closing in on all sides, each man carrying a revolver 
in his hand, he began to realize the situation, and begged most piteously 
for his life, offering to tell anything and everything, if they would only 
spare him. Being informed that that was "played out" and that he must die, 
his manner changed, and he began his confession. He stated that he had 
been in the business for twelve years, and repeated the story before 
related, about his being engaged in the perpetration of a dozen murders, 
and the final atrocity committed by him on Snake River. He stated that it 
was thought their victim was returning from the mines, and that he had 
plenty of money, which, on an examination of him after his death, proved 
to be a mistake.

The long and black catalogue of his crimes was too much for the patience 
of the Vigilantes, who, though used to the confessions of ordinary 
criminals, were unprepared to hear from a man just baptized, such a 
fearful recital of disgusting enormities. They thought that it was high 
time that the world should be rid of such a monster and so signified to 
the chief, who seemed to be of the same opinion, and at once gave the 
order to "proceed with the execution." Seeing that his time was come, 
Silvie ceased his narrative and said to the men, "Boys, don't let me hang 
more than two or three days." He was told that they were in the habit of 
burying such fellows as him in Montana. The word "take hold" was given, 
and every man present "tailed on" to the rope which ran over the "limb of 
the law." Not even the chief was exempt, and the signal being given he was 
run up all standing -the only really merciful way of hanging. A turn or 
two was taken with the slack of the rope round the tree, and the end was 
belayed to a knot which projects from the trunk. This being completed, the 
motionless body was left suspended until life was supposed to be extinct, 
the Vigilantes gazing on it in silence.

The two men were then detailed, and stood, with an interval of about two 
feet between them, facing each other. Between these "testers" marched 
every man present in single file, giving the pass-word of the organization 
in a low whisper. One man was found in the crowd who had not learned the 
particular "articulate sound representing an idea," which was so necessary 
to be known. He was scared very considerably when singled out and brought 
before the chief; but after a few words of essential preliminary 
precaution he was discharged, breathing more freely, and smiling like the 
sun after an April shower, with the drops of perspiration still on his 
forehead.

The Committee gradually dispersed, not as usually is the case, with solemn 
countenances and thoughtful brows, but firmly and cheerfully; for each man 
felt that his strain on the fatal rope was a righteous duty, and a service 
performed to the community. Such an incarnate fiend, they knew, was 
totally unfit to live, and unworthy of sympathy. Neither courage, 
generosity, truth nor manhood, pleaded for mercy in his case. He lived a 
sordid and redhanded robber, and he died unpitied the death of a dog.

Very little action was necessary on the part of the Vigilance Committee to 
prevent any combination of the enemies of law and order from exerting a 
prejudicial influence on the peace and good order of the capital; in fact 
the organization gradually ceased to exercise its functions, and though in 
existence its name more than its active exertions sufficed to preserve 
tranquillity. When Chief Justice Hosmer arrived in the Territory and 
organized the Territorial and County Courts he thought it his duty to 
refer to the Vigilantes in his charge to the Grand Jury, and invited them 
to sustain the authorities as citizens. The old guardians of the peace of 
the Territory were greatly rejoiced at being released from their onerous 
and responsible duties, and most cheerfully and heartily complied with the 
request of the Judiciary.

For some months no action of any kind was taken by them; but in the summer 
of 1865 news reached them of the burning and sacking of Idaho City, and 
they were reliably informed that an attempt would be made to burn Virginia 
also by desperadoes from the West. That this was true was soon 
demonstrated by ocular proof; for two attempts were made, though happily 
discovered and rendered abortive, to set fire to the city. In both cases 
the parties employed laid combustibles in such a manner that but for the 
vigilance and promptitude of some old Vigilantes a most destructive 
conflagration must have occurred in the most crowded part of the town. In 
one case the heap of chips and whittled wood a foot in diameter had burnt 
so far only as to leave a ring of. the outer ends of the pile visible. In 
the other attempt a collection of old rags was placed against the wall of 
an out-building attached to the Wisconsin House, situated within the angle 
formed by the junction of Idaho and Jackson streets. Had this latter 
attempt succeeded it is impossible to conjecture the amount of damage that 
must have been inflicted upon the town, for frame buildings fifty feet 
high were in close proximity, and. had they once caught fire, the flames 
might have destroyed at least half the business houses on Wallace, Idaho 
and Jackson streets.

At this time, too, it was a matter of every-day remark that Virginia was 
full of lawless characters, and many of them thinking that the Vigilantes 
were officially defunct, did not hesitate to threaten the lives of 
prominent citizens, always including in their accusations that they were 
strangling . This state of things could not be permitted to last; and, as 
the authorities admitted that they were unable to meet the emergency, the 
Vigilantes re-organized at once, with the consent and approbation of 
almost every good and order-loving citizen in the Territory.

The effect of this movement was marvelous; the roughs disappeared rapidly 
from the town; but a most fearful tragedy, enacted in Portneuf Canyon, 
Idaho, on the 13th of July, roused the citizens almost to frenzy. The 
Overland coach from Virginia to Salt Lake City was driven into an 
ambuscade by Frank Williams, and though the passengers were prepared for 
road agents, and fired simultaneously with their assailants, who were 
under cover and stationary, yet four of them, viz., A. S. Parker, A. J. 
McCausland, David Dinan and W. h. Mers were shot dead; h. F. Carpenter was 
slightly hurt in three places, and Charles Parks was apparently mortally 
wounded. The driver was untouched, and James Brown, a passenger, jumped 
into the bushes and got off unhurt.

Carpenter avoided death by feigning to be in the last extremity, when a 
villain came to shoot him a second time. The gang of murderers, of whom 
eight were present at the attack, secured a booty of $65,000 in gold, and 
escaped undetected.

A party of Vigilantes started in pursuit, but effected nothing, at the 
time; and it was not till after several months, patient work of a special 
detective from Montana, that guilt was brought home to the driver, who was 
executed by the Denver Committee on Cherry Creek. Eventually, it is 
probable that all of them will be captured, and meet their just doom.

The last offenders who were executed by the Vigilance Committee of 
Virginia City were two horse thieves and confessed road agents, named, 
according to their own account, John Morgan and John Jackson, alias Jones. 
They were, however, of the "alias" tribe. The former was caught in the act 
of appropriating a horse in one of the city corrals. He was an old 
offender, and on his back were the marks of the whipping he received in 
Colorado for committing an unnatural crime. He was a low, vicious ruffian.

His comrade was a much more intelligent man, and acknowledged the justice 
of his sentence without any hesitation. Morgan gave the names and signs of 
the gang they belonged to, of which Rattlesnake Dick was the leader. Their 
lifeless bodies were found hanging from a hay-frame, leaning over the 
corral fence at the slaughter-house, on the branch, about half a mile from 
the city. The printed manifesto of the Vigilantes was affixed to Morgan's 
clothes, with the warning words written across it, "Road Agents, beware!"

Outrages against person and property are still perpetrated occasionally, 
though much less frequently than is usual in settled countries; and it is 
to be hoped that regularly administered law vill, for the future, render a 
Vigilance Committee unnecessary. The power behind the throne of justice 
stands ready in Virginia City to back the authorities; but nothing except 
grave public necessity will evoke its independent action.

The Vigilance Committee at Helena and at Diamond City, Confederate Gulch, 
were occasionally called upon to make examples of irreclaimable, outlawed 
vagrants, who having been driven from other localities, first made their 
presence known in Montana by robbery or murder; but as the lives and 
career of these men were low, obscure and brutal, the record of their 
atrocities and punishment would be but a dreary and uninteresting detail 
of sordid crime, without even the redeeming quality of courage or manhood 
to relieve the narrative.

The only remarkable case was that of James Daniels, who was arrested for 
killing a man named Gartley with a knife near Helena. The quarrel arose 
during a game of cards. The Vigilantes arrested Daniels and handed him 
over to the civil authorities, receiving a promise that he should be 
fairly tried and dealt with according to law. In view of alleged 
extenuating circumstances, the jury found a verdict of murder in the 
second degree (manslaughter). For this crime Daniels was sentenced to 
three years' incarceration in the Territorial prison by the Judge of the 
United States Court, who reminded the prisoner of the extreme lightness of 
the penalty as compared with that usually affixed to the crime of 
manslaughter by the States and Territories of the West. After a few weeks' 
imprisonment the culprit, who had threatened the lives of the witnesses 
for the prosecution during the trial, was set at liberty by a reprieve of 
the Executive, made under a probably honest, but entirely erroneous 
construction of the law, which vests the pardoning power in the President 
only. This action was taken on the petition of thirty-two respectable 
citizens of Helena. Daniels returned at once to the scene of his crime, 
and renewed his threats against the witnesses on his way thither. These 
circumstances coming to the ears of some of the Vigilantes, he was 
arrested and hanged the same night.

The wife of Gartley died of a broken heart when she heard of the murder of 
her husband. Previous to the prisoner leaving Virginia for Helena, Judge 
L. E. Munson went to the capital expressly for the purpose of requesting 
the annulling of the reprieve; but this being refused, he ordered the re-
arrest, and the Sheriff having reported the fugitive's escape beyond his 
precinct, the Judge returned to Helena with the order of the Acting 
Marshal in his pocket, authorizing his Deputy to re-arrest Daniels. Before 
he reached town Daniels was hanged.

That Daniels morally deserved the punishment he received there can be no 
doubt. That legally speaking he should have been unmolested is equally 
clear; but when escaped murderers utter threats of murder against 
peaceable citizens mountain law is apt to be administered without much 
regard to technicalities, and when a man says he is going to kill any one, 
in a mining country, it is understood that he means what he says, and must 
abide the consequences. Two human beings had fallen victims to his thirst 
of. blood -the husband and the wife. Three more were threatened; but the 
action of the Vigilantes prevented the commission of the contemplated 
atrocities. To have waited for the consummation of his avowed purpose, 
after what he had done before, would have been shutting the stable door 
after the steed was stolen. The politic and the proper course would have 
been to arrest him and hold him for the action of the authorities.


Biographical Notices of the Leading Road Agents of Plummer's Band and 
Others.

CHAPTER XXX
Henry Plummer.

The following brief sketches of the career of crime which terminated so 
fatally for the members of the road agent band, are introduced for the 
purpose of showing that they were nearly all veterans in crime before they 
reached Montana; and that their organization in this Territory was merely 
the culminating of a series of high-handed outrages against the laws of 
God and man.

Henry Plummer, the chief of the road agent band, the narrative of whose 
deeds of blood has formed the ground-work of this history, emigrated to 
California in 1852. The most contradictory accounts of his place of birth 
and the scene of his early days are afloat; upwards of twenty different 
versions have been recommended to the author of this work, each claiming 
to be the only true one. The most probable is that he came to the West 
from Wisconsin. Many believe he was from Boston, originally; others 
declare that he was an Englishman by birth, and came to America when quite 
young. Be this as it may, it is certain, according to the testimony of one 
of his partners in business, that in company with EIenry Hyer, he opened 
the "Empire Bakery," in Nevada City, Calif'ornia, in the year 1853.

Plummer was a man of most insinuating address and gentlemanly manners 
under ordinary circumstances, and had the art of ingratiating himself with 
men and even with ladies and women of all conditions. Wherever he dwelt, 
victims and mistresses of this wily seducer were to be found. It was only 
when excited by passion that his savage instincts got the better of him 
and that he appeared -in his true colors -a very demon. In 1856 or 1857, 
he was elected Marshal of the city of Nevada, and had many enthusiastic 
friends. He was re-elected and received the nomination of the Democratic 
party for the Assembly near the close of his term of office; but as he 
raised a great commotion by his boisterous demeanor, caused by his success 
they "threw off on him" and elected another man.

Before the expiration of his official year, he murdered a German named 
Vedder, with whose wife he had an intrigue. He was one day prosecuting his 
illicit amours, when Vedder came home, and on hearing his footsteps, he 
went out and ordered him back. As the unfortunate man continued his 
approach, he shot him dead. For this offense Plummer was arrested and 
tried, first in Nevada, where he was convicted and sentenced to ten years 
in the penitentiary; and second, in Yuba County, on a re-hearing with a 
change of venue. Here the verdict was confirmed. and he was sent to prison.

After several months' confinement his friends petitioned for his release 
on the alleged ground that he was consumptive, and he was discharged with 
a pardon signed by Governor John P. Weller. He then returned to Nevada, 
and joined again with Hyer R Co. in the "Lafayette Bakery."

He soon made a bargain with a man named Thompson, that the latter should 
run for the oBice of City Marshal, and if successful, that he should 
resign in Plummer's favor. The arrangement became public and Thompson was 
defeated.

Shortly after this, Plummer got into a difficulty in a house of ill-fame 
with a man from San Juan, and struck him heavily on the head with his 
pistol. The poor fellow recovered, apparently, but died about a year and a 
half afterward from the effect of the blow according to the testimony of 
the physician.

Plummer went away for a few days, and when the man recovered he returned, 
and walked linked with him through the streets. Plummer went over to 
Washoe and joining a gang of road agents, he was present at the attack on 
Wells & Fargo's bullion express. He leveled his piece at the driver, but 
the barrels fell off the stock, the key being out, and the driver lashing 
his horses into full speed escaped.

He stood his trial for this, and for want of legal proof was acquitted. He 
then returned to Nevada City.

His next "difficulty" occurred in another brothel where he lived with a 
young woman as his mistress, and quarreled with a man named Ryder, who 
kept a prostitute in the same dwelling. This victim he killed with a 
revolver. He was quickly arrested and lodged in the county jail of Nevada. 
It is more than supposed that he bribed his jailer to assist him in 
breaking jail. Hitherto, he had tried force; but in this case fraud 
succeeded. He walked out in open day. The man in charge, who relieved 
another who had gone to his breakfast, declared that he could not stop him 
for he had a loaded pistol in each hand when he escaped.

The next news was that a desperado named Mayfield had killed Sheriff 
Blackburn, whom he had dared to arrest him, by stabbing him to the heart 
with his knife. Of course Mayfield was immediately taken into custody, and 
Plummer, who had lain concealed for some time, assisted him to get out of 
jail, and the two started for Oregon in company. To prevent pursuit, he 
sent word to the California papers that he and his comrade had been hanged 
in Washington Territory, by the citizens, for the murder of two men.

All that he accomplished in Walla Walla was the seduction of a man's wife. 
He joined himself in Idaho to Talbert, alias Cherokee Rob, who was killed 
at Florence, on account of his connection with this seduction. Plummer 
stole a horse and went on the road. In a short time he appeared in 
Lewiston, and after a week's stay he proceeded with a man named Ridgley, 
to Orofino, where he and his party signalized their arrival by the murder 
of the owner of the dancing saloon during a quarrel. The desperado chief 
then started for the Missouri, with the intention of making a trip to the 
States. The remainder of his career has been already narrated, and surely 
it must be admitted that this "perfect gentleman" had labored hard for the 
death on the gallows, which he received at Bannack, on the 10th of 
January, 1864.

As one instance of the many little incidents that so often change a man's 
destiny, it should be related that when Plummer sold out of the United 
States Bakery to Louis Dreifus, he had plenty of money and started for San 
Francisco, intending to return to the East. It is supposed that his 
infatuation for a Mexican courtesan induced him to forego his design and 
return to Nevada City. But, for this trifling interruption, he might never 
have seen Montana, or died a felon's death. The mission of Delilah is 
generally the, same, whether her abode is the vale of Sorek or the Rocky 
Mountains.



CHAPTER XXXI
Boone Helm

This savage and defiant marauder, who died with profanity, blasphemy, 
ribaldry and treason on his lips, came to the West from Missouri in the 
spring of 1850. He separated from his wife, by whom he had one little 
girl, and left his home at Log Branch, Monroe County, having first packed 
up all his clothes for the journey. He went towards Paris, and, on his 
road thither, called on Littlebury Shoot, for the purpose of inducing him 
to go with him, in which he succeeded.

Boone was, at this time, a wild and reckless character, when inflamed by 
liquor, to the immoderate use of which he was much addicted. He sometimes 
broke out on a spree, and would ride his horse up the steps and into the 
Court House. Having arrived at Paris, Boone tried hard to persuade Shoot 
to accompany him to Texas, and it is believed that he obtained some 
promise from him to that effect, given to pacify him, he being drunk at 
the time, for Shoot immediately afterward returned home.

About nine p. m. Boone came from town to Shoot's house and woke him up out 
of bed. The unfortunate man went out in his shirt and drawers to speak 
with him, and as he was mounted, he stepped on to a stile-block, placing 
his hand on his shoulder, conversing with him in a friendly manner for a 
few minutes. Suddenly, and without any warning of his intention, Boone 
drew his knife and stabbed Shoot to the heart. He fell instantly, and died 
before he could be carried into the house. He spoke only once, requesting 
to see his wife. The murderer rode off at full speed. It seems that Boone 
had quarreled with his wife, and was enraged with Shoot for not going with 
him to Texas, and that in revenge for his disappointment he committed the 
murder. Immediate pursuit was made after the assassin.

Mr. William Shoot, the brother of the deceased, was at that time living in 
the town of Hannibal, and immediately on receipt of the news he started in 
pursuit of the criminal. Boone Helm had, however, forty miles start of 
him; but such good speed did the avenger make, that pursuer and pursued 
crossed Grand Prairie together, Shoot arriving at Roachport and Boone Helm 
at Booneville, within the space of a few hours. Telegrams descriptive of 
the fugitive were sent in all directions, and were altered as soon as it 
was discovered that the murderer had changed his clothes. Shoot returned 
to Paris, and being determined that Helm should not escape, he bought two 
horses and hired Joel Moppen and Samuel Querry to follow him, which com 
mission they faithfully executed, coming up with their man in the Indian 
Territory. They employed an Indian and a Deputy Sheriff to take him, which 
they accordingly did. When ordered to surrender, he made an effort to get 
at his knife; but when the Sheriff threatened to shoot him dead if he 
moved, he submitted. He was brought back, and by means of the ingenuity of 
his lawyers, he succeeded in obtaining a postponement of his trial. He 
then applied for a change of venue to a remote county, and at the next 
hearing the State was obliged to seek a postponement, on the ground of the 
absence of material witnesses. He shortly after appeared before a Judge 
newly appointed, and having procured testimony that his trial had been 
three times postponed, he was set free, under the laws of the State.

He came to California and joined himself to the confraternity of iniquity 
that then ruled the country. He either killed or assisted at the killing 
of nearly a dozen men in the brawls so common at that time in the western 
country. In Florence, Idaho Territory, he killed a German called Dutch 
Fred, in the winter of 1S61-62. The victim had given him no provocation 
whatever; it was a mere drunken spree and "shooting scrape."

He also broke jail in Oregon, a squaw with whom he lived furnishing him 
with a file for that purpose. He escaped to Carriboo.

He was brought back; but the main witnesses were away when the trial took 
place, and the civil authorities were suspected of having substantial 
reasons for letting him escape. He was considered a prominent desperado, 
and was never known to follow any trade for a living, except that of road 
agent, in which he was thoroughly versed.

Helm was a man of medium size, and about forty years old; hard-featured, 
and not intelligent looking. It was believed at Florence that a relative, 
known as "Old Tex," furnished money to e]ear him from the meshes of the 
law, and to send him to this country. If ever a desperado was all guilt 
and without a single redeeming feature in his character, Boone Helm was 
the man.

His last words were: "Kick away, old Jack; I'll be in h---l with you in 
ten minutes. Every man for his principles -hurrah for Jeff. Davis! let her 
rip." George Ives.

We have only a few words to add to the account already given of this 
celebrated robber and murderer. He was raised at Ives' Grove, Racine 
County, Wisconsin, and was a member of a highly respectable family. It 
seems that life in the wild West gradually dulled his moral perceptions; 
for he entered, gradually, upon the career of crime which ended at Nevada, 
M. T. His mother for a long time believed the account that he sent to her, 
about his murder by the hands of Indians, and which he wrote himself. It 
is reported that sorrow and death have been busy among his relatives ever 
since.

Bill Bunton followed gambling as his regular calling, at Lewiston, Idaho, 
in the winter of 1861-2. In the summer of 1862, he shot a man named Daniel 
Cagwell, without provocation. There was a general fracas at a ball, held 
on Copyeye Creek, near Walla Walla. Bunton was arrested, but made his 
escape from the officer, by jumping on a fast horse and riding off at full 
speed.

The first that was afterward heard of him was that he turned up in this 
country. In person, Bunton was a large, good-looking man, about thirty 
years of age, and rather intelligent. He had been for some years on the 
Pacific coast, where he had lived as a sporting man and saloon keeper. He 
was absolutely fearless, but was still addicted to petty theft, as well as 
to the greater enormities of road agency and murder. His dying request, it 
will be remembered, was for a mountain to jump off, and his last words, as 
he jumped from the board, "Here goes it."

Of Johnny Cooper we have already spoken. A word is necessary concerning 
the history of Aleck Carter, which forms a strong contrast to the others. 
It appears that for several years this eminent member of Plummer's band 
bore an excellent character in the West. He was a native of Ohio, but 
followed the trade of a packer in California and Oregon, maintaining a 
reputation for honor and honesty of the highest kind. Large sums of money 
were frequently entrusted to his care, for which he accounted to the 
entire satisfaction of his employers. He left the "other side" with an 
unstained reputation; but falling into evil company in Montana, he threw 
off all recollections of better days, and was one of the leading spirits 
of the gang of marauders that infested this Territory. It is sad to think 
that such a man should have ended his life as a felon, righteously doomed 
to death on the gallows.

Cyrus Skinner

was a saloon-keeper in Idaho, and always bore a bad character. His 
reputation for dishonesty was well known, and in this country he was a 
bloodthirsty and malignant outlaw, without a redeeming quality. He was the 
main plotter of Magruder's murder.

Bill Hunter.

Probably not one of those who died for their connection with the road 
agent band was more lamented than Hunter. His life was an alternation of 
hard, honest work, and gambling. That he robbed and assisted to murder a 
Mormon, and that he was a member of the gang, there can be no doubt; but 
it is certain that this was generally unknown, and his usual conduct was 
that of a kind-hearted man. He had many friends, and some of them still 
cherish his memory. He confessed his connection with the band, and the 
justness of his sentence just before his death. His escape from Virginia, 
through the pickets placed on the night of the 9th of January, 1864, was 
connived at by some of the Vigilantes, who could not be made to believe 
that he was guilty of the crimes laid to his charge.

Stephen Marshland

was a graduate of a college in the States; and, though a road agent and 
thief, yet he never committed murder, and was averse to shedding blood. He 
was wounded in attacking Forbes' train, and his feet were so far mortified 
by frost when he was captured that the scent attracted the wolves, and the 
body had to be watched all night.

Concerning the rest of the gang nearly all that is known has already been 
related. They were, without exception, old offenders from the Pacific 
Coast. The "bunch" on Ned Ray's foot was caused by a wound from a shot 
fired at him when escaping from the penitentiary at St. Quentin, 
California. This he told himself, at Bannack.

James Daniels.

This criminal, the last executed by the Vigilantes, it should be generally 
understood, murdered a Frenchman in Tuolumne County, California, and 
chased another with a bowie-knife till his strength gave out. In Helena he 
killed Gartley, whose wife died of a broken heart at the news; threatened 
the lives of the witnesses for the prosecution, and had drawn his knife, 
and concealed it in his sleeve, with the intent of stabbing Hugh 0'Neil in 
the back, after the fight between Orem and Marley at the Challenge Saloon. 
He said he "would cut the heart out of the -!" when an acquaintance who 
was watching him caught hold of him and told him he was in the wrong crowd 
to do that. Daniels renewed his threats when liberated, and was hanged; 
not because he was pardoned, but because he was unfit to live in the 
community.



CHAPTER XXXII
Conclusion

"All's well that ends well," says the proverb. Peace, order and prosperity 
are the results of the conduct of the Vigilantes; and, in taking leave of 
the reader, the author would commend to the sound sense of the community 
the propriety of maintaining in readiness for efficient action if needed, 
the only organization able to cope with the rampant lawlessness which will 
always be found in greater or less amount in mining camps.

At the same time let the advice be well understood before it is either 
commented upon or followed, Readiness is one thing; intermeddling is 
another. Only on occasions of grave necessity should the Vigilantes let 
their power be known. bet the civil authority, as it increases in 
strength, gradually arrogate to itself the exclusive punishment of crime. 
This is what is needed, and what every good citizen must desire; but let 
the Vigilantes, with bright arms and renewed ammunition, stand ready to 
back the law; and to bulwark the Territory against all disturbers of its 
peace, when too strong for legal repression, and when it fails or is 
unable to meet the emergency of the hour. Peace and justice we must have, 
and it is what the citizens will have in this community; through the 
courts if possible; but peace and justice are rights, and courts are only 
means to an end, admittedly the very best and most desirable means; and if 
they fail, the people, the republic that created them, can do their work 
for them. Above all things, let the resistless authority of the 
Vigilantes, whose power reaches from end to end of Montana, be never 
exerted except as the result of careful deliberation, scrupulous 
examination of fair evidence, and the cail of imperative Necessity; which, 
as she knows no law, must judge without it, taking Justice for her 
counsellor and guide.

Less than three years ago, this home of well-ordered industry, progress 
and social order, was a den of cut-throats and murderers. Who has affected 
the change? The Vigilantes; and there is nothing on their record for which 
an apology is either necessary or expedient. Look at Montana, that has a 
committee; and turn to Idaho, that has none. Our own peaceful current of 
Territorial lives run smoothly, and more placidly, indeed, than the 
Eastern states today; but in Idaho, one of their own papers lately 
asserted that in one county sixty homicides had been committed, without a 
conviction; and another declares that the cemeteries are full of the 
corpses of veterans in crime and their victims.

Leave us the power of the people as a last resort; and, where governments 
break down, the citizens will save the State. No man need be ashamed of 
his connection with the Virginia Vigi- lantes. Look at their record and 
say if it is not a proud one. It has been marvelous that politics have 
never intruded into the magic circle; yet so it is, has been, and probably 
will be. Men of all ranks, ages, nations, creeds and politics are among 
them; and all moves like a clock, as can be seen on the first alarm. 
Fortified in the right, and acting in good conscience, they are "just, and 
fear not." Their numbers are great; in fact, it is stated that few good 
men are not in their ranks, and the presence of the most respectable 
citizens make their deliberation calm, and the result impartially just.

In presenting this work to the people, the author knows full well that the 
great amount of labor bestowed upon it is no recommendation of its 
excellence to a public that judges of results and not of processes; but 
one thing is sure; so far as extended research and a desire to tell the 
truth can affect the credibility of such a narrative, this history has 
been indited subject to both these regulations, since the pen of the 
writer gave the first chapter to the public.

If it shall serve to amuse a dull hour, or to inform the residents of the 
Eastern states and of other lands of the manners and habits of the 
mountaineers, and of the life of danger and excitement that the miners in 
new countries have to lead before peace and order are settled on an 
enduring foundation -the author is satisfied.

If. in any case his readers are misinformed, it is because he has been 
himself deceived.

As a literary production he will be rejoiced to receive the entire silence 
of critics as his best reward. He knows full well what criticism it 
deserves, and is only anxious to escape unnoticed. And now, throwing down 
his pencil, he heaves a sigh of relief, thankfully murmuring, "Well, it is 
done at last."