Three Great Books about the old West

1) Col. Dodge - 33 Years Among our Wild Indians
2) J.P. Dunn - Massacres of the Mountains ( A History of the Indian Wars of the Far West)
3) Rodger McGrath - Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes.

The Hanging of William Buckley and John Daly

Both were members of the "Daly Gang" and were hanged in Aurora California 17 February 1864 for the killing of William Johnson. Vigilantes also hung two other Gang members -Three Finger Jack (aka McDowell) and "Massy" Masterson.

Johnson's hired hand had killed a Daly Gang member called James Sears. To get revenge Daly had someone befriend Johnson, get him drunk, and then steer him to a secluded area where he could be attacked by the 4 men. Daly shot Johnson - after which Buckley cut Johnson's throat.

Outraged at the murder, the citizens formed a "safety committee" & hunted down the 4. Then based on testimony from "Italian Jim" - they were tried, convicted and sentenced to hang.

At the gallows Daly took a drink of brandy, threw silver coins from his pocket into the crowd and said the following:

" I am guilty. I killed Johnson; Buckley and I killed Johnson. Do you understand that. Johnson was a damned old Mormon thief. He was the means of killing my friend (Sears) and I lived to die for him. Had I lived I would have wiped out Johnson's whole family."

William Buckley (from New York) then said his last words:

"Gentlemen, I do not stand up before you to say that I am innocent. Daly and I are guilty. There are two innocent men on this scaffold - Three Finger Jack and Masterson. I deserve to be punished and die a brave man.

I want Dan Toomy to see to getting a coffin for me and that any debts which you may contract on my account I have made arrangements to pay.

Adieu Boys, I wish you all well. All of you boys must come to my wake in John Daly' s cabin tonight. Be sure of this. Goodbye, and God Bless you."

Three Finger Jack (aka McDowell) then spoke:

"Gentlemen, I am as innocent of this as child unborn. You are going to me murder me. I am as innocent as the man in the moon. Is there no show for me? Am I to be murdered? Yes, you are determined to murder me. I don't want my body buried with the balance of them. Where is Jim Lintz?

Lintz and others then went up to the gallows and spoke to him. When they left, 3 Finger Jack pulled a derringer from his pocket, put it to his heart and pulled the trigger. It failed to fire. Three Finger Jack threw it to the ground and exclaimed: "That Son of a Bitch pistol has fooled me."

With that Three Finger Jack stepped back then said: "I'll die like a tiger"

All four men then had their hands tied. Rev Charles Yeager said a final prayer, and then in front of five thousand spectators the four were hanged.

Deaths During the Gold Rush 1849-1854

"These figures show the amount of property that has been destroyed, or the amount of losses that have been sustained in California, by accidents, mishaps and mismanagement, within the last six years. I will, moreover, give a list of lives lost by violent measures during the same period (1849-1854) :

• Murders 4,200
• Suicides 1,400
• Insanity, (produced by disappointment and misfortune)... 1,700
• Wrecked and perished on the way per sailing vessels and steamers 2,200
• Killed by Indians and died of starvation per overland route, 1,600
• Perished in the mines and mountains of the State for want
  of medical attention and food, and by the hands of the
  Indians 5,300
  

Total 16,400" -From California The Land of Gold - Hinton R. Helper (1855)

Lynch Law in the WIld West

FROM THE COWBOY - Phillip Rollins (1922):

"The vigilance committee of years ago was no hot-headed lynching party bound to claim a victim. It was the people acting directly instead of through their formally elected or appointed representatives. It gave due process of law commensurate with frontier conditions, and aimed to support, not to subvert, justice.

Tradition relates that on rare occasions men were lynched because they erroneously had been supposed to have been the perpetrators of a particular crime with which in fact they had had no connection, but tradition adds that each such victim was known to have performed at least one other act which by itself would have warranted the rope. Thus, while there may have occurred an error in judicial process, there had been none in moral result, even though some lowbrowed individual might seem merely to have been "hung on his merits."

The vigilance committee never advertised what it had done, or where or how "the event" had occurred, and ever sacredly guarded death-bed confessions of guilt. No non- attendant at the final scene would, if wise, question upon the subject any man who had been present there. This meant on the part of the committee's members no cowardly screening of themselves from the officers of statutory law. Merely, the West considered lynching, however necessary, to be a nasty job, and did not like to talk about it.

However, despite the ban of secrecy, history by chance has recorded the last words of a few lynched men. Some of these ante-mortem statements were picturesque and rather inducive to goose-flesh.

Boone Helm, about to be hung at Virginia City, Montana, and standing beside the gallows from which writhed the body of one of Boone's gang, made this peroration: '' Kick away, old fellow. I'll be in hell with you in a minute. Every man for his principles. Hurrah for Jeff Davis. Let her rip." At another time, George Shears more plaintively said: "Gentlemen, I am not used to this business, never having been hung before. Shall I jump off or slide off?"