USA > California > Mendocino County > History of Mendocino County, California : comprising its geography, geology, topography, climatography, springs and timber > Part 37
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For the commission of this crime, Eli D. Hooper was arrested and lodged in jail. At the June term of 1860, the Grand Jury found a true bill against him as follows: " The said Eli D. Hooper did on or about the 6th of May. 1860, murder Nancy Elizabeth Aldrich by putting a strip of strong thick cotton cloth, which was about twenty-eight inches long and three inches wide, around her neck, dragging, choking and strangling her to death." What further action was taken in the matter is unknown.
People vs. George W. Strong .- June 13, 1865, Francis Holmes, a rancher residing a short distance north of Cloverdale, in Mendocino county, was missed from home, and his sudden disappearance aroused suspicion that he had met with foul play, and a search was instituted which lasted until July 4th, when John Hawks, assisted by some Indians found the body of Holmes, slightly covered with earth and brush, lying near where he had been at work building a brush-fence, and, as it was generally understood that Strong, who had been working on the ranch by the month all the spring, was engaged with Holmes in this work the day that he disappeared, it was generally surmised that Strong knew all about the murder. The Coroner's jury returned a verdict that he " came to his death by a shot in the head which shot was aimed by Strong." Strong had fled the country on some petty excuse of going to meet Holmes in San Francisco on business, who,
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he reported, was on his way to Canada, but he was arrested in Petaluma by J. H. Knowles, City Marshal, on a warrant issued June 21st, and brought to Ukiah, where he waived an examination and was sent to jail to await the action of the Grand Jury.
The following extract from the Herald of Ukiah, of November 24, 1865, sets forth the facts very concisely as brought out at the trial, hence we append it: " In the records of criminal jurisprudence, we doubt if there can be found a case, in all its details, more singular than that which has been just concluded in our courts. On Monday, the 13th day of June, a quiet, industrious, and middle-aged man, named Francis Holmes, was murdered upon his ranch near Cloverdale, but in this county. Appearances showed that he was shot through the head from behind, and that afterwards his head was inashed with some blunt and heavy weapon. The dead body was then carried a considerable distance to a gulch, and there covered up with stones and brush.
"Upon the ranch of Holmes was employed one person, and only one, named George W. Strong, a young man aged twenty-four years, of honest look and smiling face. He had been hired by Holmes to shear a flock of sheep, and this labor performed he remained on the ranch in a subordinate capacity, and finally negotiated for the purchase of the same. About this time Holmes disappeared, and all inquiry failed to get any tidings of his whereabouts. A surmise that he had been murdered obtaining, active steps were taken by the residents of the neighborhood, and the man Strong was arrested at Peta- luma, while on his way, as he said, to seek for the missing Holmes. He averred that he purchased Holmes' ranch, and exhibited a bill of sale of the same, and made other statements not deemed plausible, in view especially of facts and remarks inconsistent with each other. He was conveyed to the county prison at Ukiah; the usual preliminaries were had, an inquest, a preliminary examination, and an indictment by the Grand Jury. During all this interval the prisoner deported himself with smiling indifference, occupying much of his time in singing and writing wretched rhymes. To everybody he averred that he was innocent, and expressed his firm faith in his acquittal even by the Grand Jury.
"Holmes, of whose murder there can be no doubt, was possessed of many sheep, horses and cattle, and no small amount of money. Strong, who was known to have no money previously, became ' flush ' after Holmes' death. Holmes, so far as was known, had no enemies, nor could any one in the region round about, Strong alone excepted, have had a motive in producing his death.
" The case was called on Monday, November 13th, before his honor J. B. Southard, Judge of the Seventh Judicial District. The whole of Tuesday was occupied in forming a jury, which was finally made up of D. Clayton, R. Anderson, J. E. Carlson, Abner Coates, Wm. Cole, Benjamin Mast, L. W.
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Branstetter, R. M. Marsh, E. M. Mallory, Thos. Potter, Wm. Irwin and E. Ward. District Attorney T. B. Bond and Judge R. McGarvey conducted the prosecution, and Wm. Neeley Johnson and L. D. Latimer appeared for the defense. The trial elicited great interest, and the court-room was densely packed all the time, many ladies appearing on the last day. The testimony throughout was entirely circumstantial. Twenty witnesses were examined for the prosecution, consuming Wednesday and Thursday and till Friday noon, when the prosecution rested.
"At two o'clock P. M. the case was opened by T. B. Bond, District Attorney, in a clear, able, and concise address to the jury. The speeches of Messrs. Johnson and Latimer for the defense were lengthy and able. The evidence, as adduced and fully corroborated by each witness examined, formed one of the most complete chains of circumstantial evidence on record, and the manner in which the case was conducted throughout evinced thorough knowledge and careful preparation on the part of the prosecution. The examination of the witnesses, conducted by Judge McGarvey, was of marked ability. All was done by the Attorneys for the defense that ability in the legal profession could accomplish in behalf of the prisoner at the bar.
" Strong, the prisoner, up to the time of the finding of the true bill against him, showed an exuberance of spirits remarkable, amounting at times to positive frivolity. He appeared to be the most indifferent and happiest man in town. He sang almost continuously, and wrote and read much. Since the Grand Jury sat he has acted less carelessly, and complained, for a time, of ill health; in court, however, he looked robust. His hair on head and face has grown long, and seems to become him. He was in constant con- versation with his lawyers, prompting them to points, and otherwise betoken- ing an interest and information that spoke well for his intellectual capacity, but he was all the time cool and self-possessed to a remarkable degree. But one witness was called for the defense proper, and, so far as we could judge, he rendered no material aid to the accused."
The following is a concise resume of the plea made by Mr. Latimer on behalf of the prisoner at the bar, and will show the able manner in which he was defended.,
"I have been in the practice of the law a goodly number of years, and during that time it has been my duty to try a number of cases of murder, and I have often wished that I could go before a jury and court in a trial of a case of murder with a little less of that feeling of deep responsibility I always feel in such cases. I had hoped that I might overcome it, but now, in this case, standing before them in the trial of a young man for his life -his all-the same feeling I have always felt pervades me more strongly than ever, if possible. I am but an instrument, an humble officer of the court, the representative before them of the defendant, and stand here to do whatever I can in my humble capacity, and with my feeble
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ability for the protection of his interests. Gentlemen of the jury, sitting here, as you do, the sole and exclusive arbiters of his fate - standing, as it were, between this young man and eternity - when you recollect that by this, your verdict, should it be 'guilty,' you adjudge a fellow-mortal to death, how much greater than mine must be your responsibility. This is an extra- ordinary case; extraordinary in the enormity of the offense charged ; extra- ordinary in the seeming mystery that surrounds it; extraordinary in the great popular excitement it has produced; and extraordinary in the seeming extreme desire and determination of some of the witnesses in the case to convict the prisoner.
" The testimony is entirely circumstantial, and consists of many isolated facts that are attempted to be fastened together as a chain of evidence, but many of the links of the chain were wanting; and, therefore, it could not be conclusive. They spoke of the murder of Cain in that vicinity a year ago, and now the murderer of Cain doubtless still lives there, and if Holmes has been murdered, show me the murderer of Cain, and I will show you the murderer of Holmes. Cain was killed in his cabin, shot with a revolver or pistol, and if that be the skull of Holmes (Holmes' skull was lying on the Judge's desk, it having been used as testimony), he was shot; the means of death was the same in both cases. This is a case where the evidence is entirely circumstantial, and the Court will tell the jury that it is to be taken with the utmost caution. The man, whose skull sat there before you on the desk, a little while ago, was found secreted in a canon with those marks of violence upon it; but none but He who reigns omniscient above, knows how those marks of violence came. I do not know - you do not know -for the evidence fell far short of convincing the mind of any rea- sonable man that they came through the agency of Strong.
"In civil cases the jury can weigh the evidence and decide in accordance with the preponderance of the testimony, but in criminal cases the jury cannot decide from mere weight of proof. In civil cases a possibility may be adopted as a good ground of Judgment, but in criminal cases a mere balance of possibility is not enough. Circumstantial evidence should be such as to produce the same degree of moral certainty as direct evidence, or the jury must acquit. A great many cases have been tried on circuni- stantial evidence and innocent persons convicted and executed. (The counsel here read to the jury and referred to and commented upon a number of such cases). There is a great danger in this class of cases, and this kind of evidence should be taken with the utmost caution, especially when, as in this case, great popular feeling existed against the accused. This can be observed by the appearance and demeanor of the witnesses, and in other various ways has this feeling been exhibited. In cases of circuinstantial evidence, the fact of an accusation puts everybody on the watch, and a
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thousand minor facts and circumstances are noted, and even fancied, which would not have been but for the mere fact of the accusation.
" The identity of the body has not been established by the proof. Why were not the clothes found on the deceased brought into court? There is usually too much precipitation in these cases when a great crime has been committed, and there is such an intense and universal desire to find and bring to judgment the guilty party. (The counsel here reviewed and critically analyzed the entire testimony at length). It is possible that the body found was not the body of Holmes. Strong told a great many that he was going to buy Holmes out, and then that he had bought him out, made it public, and Holmes stated to several that he had sold out, therefore Strong could not have murdered him to obtain property he already owned and possessed. He could not have murdered him for money, for all the money found on the defendant was accounted for. A guilty man would have secreted the watch and carpet-sack, and not left them hanging up in the house in plain sight. There was nothing to warrant them in saying he was poor and had no money, for the money belt was evidence to the contrary. He may have tried to conceal the fact of his having money because he was living in a remote and dangerous locality, and in the vicinity where Cain was murdered for money a year or so before.
" Ordinarily a guilty man, after knowing that he was suspected, would try to escape, and not go as Strong did, knowingly into the hands of the officers who held the warrant for his arrest. Strong had not started to San Fran- cisco with the intention of escaping, because he loaned one hundred dollars to Mr. McDonald two days before, and his leaving a balance also, of eighty dollars due from Prince & Goldfish, showed his intention to return. It is easy for the witnesses to be mistaken in a word or so when testifying to Strong's declaration, for instance; instead of saying, 'they will never find Holmes' he may have said, 'they will never find Holmes' body,' or 'they will never find the body there.' This Strong believed for Holmes had started to San Francisco on his way to Canada. (The counsel here reca- pitulated a chain of circumstances in the evidence which he claimed showed as strong a case against others as it did against the defendant). I hope the jury will carefully consider the evidence and take into consideration the feeling manifested by the witnesses, their apparent desire for a conviction; the contradictions and inconsistencies in their testimony, and return a verdict that will satisfy your consciences, so that in after life, when thinking calmly over the circumstances of the case, you may have no occasion to regret your actions."
The case was given to the jury between 1 and 2 o'clock Saturday morning, and at 6 o'clock in the morning they returned with a verdict of " Guilty of murder in the first degree." Eleven of them were prepared to render such a verdict without leaving their seats, but one, while believing
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the prisoner guilty, yet thought that somebody else might have done the dleed. His doubts, however, were overcome. At 4 o'clock P. M. Saturday the 18th, Judge Southard passed the following sentence on him :-
" You have been indicted by the Grand Jury of this county for the mur- der of Frank Holmes in the county of Mendocino, on the 13th day of June last. You have had a fair and impartial trial, in which you have been aided by faithful and intelligent counsel. After a patient and careful investigation of your case by a jury of your own selection, they have been constrained and obliged by their consciences and their oaths to pronounce you guilty of a most foul and aggravated murder. Have you any cause to show why the sentence of the law should not be pronounced against you? The emotions with which I enter upon the discharge of the solemn duty which devolves upon the Court, and which I am about to perform, are too painful to be discussed. To pronounce the awful sentence which is to cut a fellow mortal off from society, to deprive him of life and send him to the bar of his Creator, where his destiny inust be fixed for eternity, can but be disagreeable, and painful to the Court. But to sentence to the gallows a young man, just arrived at manhood, with all the anticipations and hopes of life, presses with the greatest weight upon my sympathies and feelings. If, in the discharge of this most painful duty that can devolve upon any Court, I shall, in describing the horrid circumstances of this case, use harsh language to portray the deep depravity it indicates, it is not for the purpose of adding one pang to your heart, which you have been steeling against the affections the righteous hand of the offended God is pressing so kindly upon you ; but it will be for the purpose, if possible, of awakening you to a proper sense of your awful situation, and to prepare you to meet that certain and ignominious death which shortly awaits you. It is in order to soften your heart and produce a reformation in your feelings, that by contrition and repentance you may be enabled to shun a punishment infinitely more dread- ful than any that can be inflicted by human laws-the eternal ruin of your guilty soul.
" According to the testimony given on the trial there is no room to doubt the certainty of your guilt or the aggravated circumstances attending the perpetration of the bloody deed. The man you murdered was your com- panion, under whose roof you had been received and sheltered; you had wormed yourself into his confidence; he believed your stories of your position in society ; your father's wealth; and he, ignorant and unsuspecting, sup- posed, from your youth and apparent sincerity, that you were seeking a home in the rugged mountains for the benefit of your health, and that you, assisted by your father's generosity, would pay him a large compensation for his home and property. You caused it, on every occasion, to be made known that you had or were about to purchase the place, such was the con- fidence of deceased in you, that he let you into the apparent possession of his
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property, and allowed you to commence making improvements upon what he thought you were to possess from him as your abiding place.
" In an unsuspecting hour you decoyed him to a remote part of his ranch, secluded from the presence of man by almost impassable mountains and gulches, and in one of these, went on with your system of improvements by repairing a brush fence; and while thus engaged, you stole upon him and aimed the deadly pistol, in the use of which you are shown to be so expert, at his head; you shot and murdered your victim; you then, or shortly after, took the body and secreted it some distance from the scene of the assassination; you covered up and hid from sight the blood, and took and destroyed or buried his shoes; and also his hat, through which the fatal bullet had pen- etrated before entering your victim's brain. But your guilt and depravity did not stop here, scarce had you commended his lifeless corpse to its shallow grave before you began to collect and riot upon the spoils of his property. To the crime of murder you added those of theft, fraud and forgery. The punishment of death has been pronounced against the crime of murder, not only by the laws of all civilized nations, but also by that law which was written by the pen of inspiration, under the direction of the unerring wis- dom of the great Jehovah, and as God himself has prescribed the righteous penalty for the offence, there is strong reason to believe that there are com- paratively few murders committed, which are not ultimately discovered, and the wretched perpetrators brought to pay the penalty.
" Wretched and deluded man ! In vain was the foul deed committed in the most impenetrable recesses of the mountains, away from mortal vision ; in vain was the mangled body of your murdered companion committed to the earth, and the lonely grave covered with rubbish; you forgot that the. eye of your God was fixed upon you-the eye of that God who suffers not even a sparrow to fall without his notice ; you forgot that you were in the presence of Him to whom the light of day and the darkness of night are the same. He witnessed all your movements. You forgot that He would send the vulture and the raven to scratch away the rubbish with which you had buried the body and leave it exposed to view, thus exposing you to detec- tion and condemnation.
" His vengeance has at last overtaken you. You are about to take your final leave of this world, and to enter upon the untried retributions of a never-ending eternity. And I tell you not to delude yourself with the vain hope of pardon or escape, which never can be realized. There is but One who can pardon your offenses. There is a Saviour whose blood is suffi- cient to wash from your soul the guilty stain even of this diabolical murder. Fly to him, then, for that mercy which you must not expect from mortals!
" Listen now to the dreadful sentence of the law, and then farewell until we shall meet again on the great day :-
" You, George W .. Strong, are to be taken from hence to the prison from
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which you came, and from thence to the place of execution, and there, on Friday, the 29th day of December, 1865, between the hours of 10 o'clock, A. M. and 3 o'clock, P. M., of that day, you are to be hanged by the neck until dead, and may God, whose creature you are, and whose laws you have broken, have mercy on your soul."
The prisoner heard his doom pronounced with apparent indifference, and when he was removed to his cell, he remarked: " Now, I can sleep, as they cannot worry mne much more; but they have not hung me yet, and never will." At a later hour a motion was made for a new trial on exceptions to the rulings of the Court, but it was denied. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court.
Among the spectators present during the trial was a brother of the mur- dered man, recently arrived from Canada. He identified the skull exhibited in court, as that of his brother, from certain peculiarities of the teeth.
The result of the appeal to the Supreme Court was the granting of a new trial, which took place in July, 1866. A venire of two hundred jurors was required before the panel could be filled. At length the following named gentlemen were decided upon : Wash. Higgins, George R. Lowell, E. M. Howard, James Hines, J. B. Short, R. D. Handy, D. Flanagan, John Reed, J. W. Williford, Jeff Johnson, C. Endicott and John Felton. Thomas L. Carothers appeared for and ably defended the prisoner, while the people were represented by District Attorney T. B. Bond, and R. McGarvey. No new facts were elicited at this trial, but the points of the testimony brought out at the former one were fully sustained, and in accordance with those facts the jury brought in the following verdict on the 21st of July :-
" We, the jury, find the prisoner, George W. Strong, guilty of murder in the first degree. E. M. HOWARD, Foreman."
Tuesday, July 24th, was set as the day for delivering the sentence and on that day the prisoner was brought for the second and last time before the bar of justice to listen to the sentence of the law, which was that he should be executed by hanging till dead, on Friday, August 31, 1866, between 10 A. M. and 3 P. M. The doomed man began now in earnest to make prepara- tions to die. First of all he wrote a full biographical sketch of his life, in which he made a full confession of his commission of the crime for which the death penalty awaited him. On the day set, and at about 2 P. M., he was led from the window of the jail to the scaffold, and after a brief speech to those present signified his readiness to meet his, fate, and the trap was sprung and he was hurled from time to eternity and for once in Mendocino county the law had taken its course.
People vs. Silas E. Guskill .- The defendant in this case was arrested for the murder of Israel M. Millay, sometime in January, 1865. The following extract from the Herald of January 20, 1865, will give a correct idea of the
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first scene in the tragedy: " A man named I. M. Millay, residing about three miles from Ukiah, on the opposite side of Russian river, was waylaid and shot one day last week. He and another man were riding together on the road near Mr. William's farm when the report of a gun was heard from a thicket of bushes, and immediately Millay felt the ball pierce his arm. Millay is at enmity with several of his neighbors and it is evident that some one of them shot him with the intention of killing him. S. E. Gaskill, who has always been considered one of our best citizens, was arrested on suspicion and brought before Justice Hagans last Wednesday, January 11th, but no evidence could be adduced to implicate him with the transaction and he was discharged." .
Millay was taken home and cared for by friends, and there was every indication that he would recover from his wounds, when about two weeks later he was killed outright. The following description of the second scene in the tragedy is from the Herald of January 27, 1865 :- " Last week we made mention of the shooting of I. M. Millay while riding along the road opposite Ukiah, a few days before. Last Saturday night, while lying in his bed on the floor in his cabin, before the fire, some person fired a double- barreled shot-gun, which appears to have been loaded with buck shot, through a crevice in the wooden chimney, some four or six of the shot taking effect in Millay's breast below the nipple, passing through his heart and lungs. This was about nine o'clock at night. He never spoke after being shot." On the following Monday W. P. Bovay, and on Tuesday Silas E. Gaskill, were arrested for the shooting, both of whom have been in that neighborhood most of the time for the past few years. Thursday evening J. J. Bell was arrested on the same charge. Gaskill was allowed to go on his own recognizance in the sum of $1,000, but he forfeited his bail and fled the country. His wife settled up his matters and went to him doubtless. No farther action was taken in the matter with the others who were arrested.
People vs. Harrison Standley .- On the 25th of March, 1868, Harrison Standley shot and killed John Ketchapaw, near Sanel. Following is the sworn statement of G. W. Higgins, an eye witness :- " On the day of the shooting Standley met J. Ketchapaw and me on the road coming towards Sanel, and when he had come within about six feet of us he drew his pistol and presented it at the head, or in the direction of the head, of John Ketcha- paw, and said to him, 'Johnny, just a word,' and repeated it once or twice, and then fired his pistol. Then Ketchapaw dodged down on his horse and ran by me on the gallop with the defendant following him. They ran a short distance, and two shots were fired, one by each, but I do not know who fired the second shot. In all five shots were fired, two of which were fired by Ketchapaw. Ketchapaw fell from his horse and died very soon."
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