USA > California > Placer County > History of Placer county, California > Part 75
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In February, 1855, Mr. Robert McClure, of Yankee Jim's, went to San Franciseo to meet his father on his return from the Atlantie States, and while the two, and a gentleman named Worden from Iowa Hill, were stopping at Wilson's Exchange, then the leading hotel of that eity, they were attacked by a large gang of roughs headed by Johnson, the brother of the one executed at Iowa Hill the previous Decem- ber, and were terribly beaten. The papers of San Francisco, as well as the governmentof the city were then controlled by the rough element; but in the year following, the law and order people of the metropolis followed the example of the people of lowa Hill and executed a number of politicians and desperadoes, and reformed the government. This was the Vigilance Committee of 1856.
A LAW-MAKER LAW-BREAKING.
April 8, 1856, at Sacramento, in the Orleans Hotel, R. S. Williams, member of the Assembly from Placer County, met Mr. Borland, member of Assembly from El Dorado, and the two engaged in a dispute about some legislative matter, and the dispute resulted in a quarrel. Mr. Borland drew a pistol which Williams caught, and the two struggled into the street, when the pistol exploded and Mr. Borland was shot through the breast. Williams was held in $10,000 bail bonds to await the action of the grand jury, and by that body was discharged.
JAMES FREELAND HANGED.
October 1, 1855, James Freeland, while gambling at Oak Flat with a man called " Greek George," accused the latter of cheating, and a quarrel ensued. During the melee, Freeland picked up a gun standing in the room and killed his antagonist. For this he was tried, condemned, appealed to the Supreme Court where the judgment was affirmed, and on the 6th of June, 1856, was hanged at Auburn. Freeland was a young man, a native of Tennessee; had been a soldier in the Mexican war, and a resident of Placer County since 1850. He claimed to have acted in self-defense, and that the witnesses against him
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HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
were attacking him when he fired the fatal shot. At his execution he maintained a firm and collected manner without a sign of bravado or braggadocio, which elicited the sympathy of the public.
EXECUTION OF JOSEPH BRADLEY.
In 1856, Joseph Bradley killed Jacob Bateman at the latter's cabin near Auburn. Both the parties were negroes. Bradley was arrested, and in July, 1857, was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on the 18th of September following. Upon the day appointed, the execution took place. The gallows was erected about a mile and a quarter above town, near the junetion of the Nevada, Illinoistown, and Yankee Jim's road. A procession was formed at the jail, the escort being the Placer Rifles Military Company, under command of Capt. James Anderson. A coffin was placed in a light wagon and Sheriff King, Under Sheriff Bullock, and Deputy Sheriff Sherman, having Bradley in charge, seated themselves upon it. Mr. Zentmyer, the driver. and a gentleman who conducted the religious ceremonies, occupied the front seat. A body of horsemen and many citizens brought up the rear of the procession. Upon arriving at the place of execution at half-past two o'clock. Captain Ander- son formed his men in a square around the gallows. Sheriff King assisted Bradley from the wagon and walked with him upon the scaffold. followed by his assistant officers. The coffin was placed upon the platform and Bradley, seating himself upon it. listened with composure to the reading of the death warrant by Mr. Bullock. This over, at request, he rose, took off his hat and neck-handkerchief. On being asked if be desired to say anything, he made some remarks; he thanked the officers for their kindness to him while in prison. Having finished speaking, he was placed upon the trap, his hands and feet were tied, a black robe put over his person, the noose adjusted around his neck, and a black eap drawn over his head by the Sheriff. This done, a prayer was offered by the gentleman officiating, and as the solemn Amen announced its conclusion, the Sheriff drew the lever, the trap fell, and the spirit of Joseph Bradley winged its way to the realms of eternity. After remaining until life was extinct, the body was taken down and buried near the foot of the gallows. Bradley conducted himself with firmness throughout the whole scene. Abont 500 persons witnessed the exeention.
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Bradley was born in Maryland, near the District of Columbia: was thirty-nine years of age, and had a wife and three children living in Washington City. He made a short confession in which he acknowl- edged killing Bateman, but that the killing was not premeditated.
MURDER AND LYNCHING IN AUBURN FEBRUARY 18, 1858.
The town of Auburn, says the Herall of February 18. 1858, was thrown into a state of excitement by the report that one of its oldest citizens had been
killed. Investigation proved that Mr. James Mur- phy had been killed by a negro, named Aaron Bracey. The men owned adjoining lands, and Mar- phy had recently purchased some of the negro's land. They met near their boundary line, and Bracey struck his victim with a pick-axe, driving the steel into his brain. He (the negro) then came to Anbarn and gave himself np, telling the officers that he had accidentally struck Murphy, and feared he had hurt him bad. The negro was placed in jail and a posse of citizens went to attend to Mur- phy. Ile was found with a fearful hole in the back ot his head, from which the blood and brains were oozing. He lived quite a while, and told the eircum- stances of his murder. In the early part of the evening following the deed, a rumor was current on the streets that an attempt would be made to lynch the murderer. Everything was quiet, how- ever, until, about half past two o'clock the next morning, Constable Boggs informed the Sheriff that a body of men were approaching the jail. As the Sheriff and deputies came out they were seized and held, and the keys demanded; while this was going on a posse bursted the doors in with a sledge hammer, and taking the murderer to the outskirts of the town proceeded to hang him. After Bracey had been taken from the jail, Father Quin, who had come up from Sacramento to see Mr. Mar- phy, interceded for the prisoner, and tried to quell the citizens. There were about sixty-five or seventy concerned in the lynching, though probably fully one hundred witnessed the hanging. The negro was the same one that killed a Chinaman in Auburn, in the spring of 1856. for which erime he was acquit- ted. Murphy died on the 25th, leaving a wife and two children.
Bracey had a wife and family in Camden, New Jersey. He had been in California several years.
ROBBERY AND BATTLE.
The store of Otto Thiele & Co, of Daneville, was entered by robbers, five in number. at a late hour in the night, of March 19, 1859, after the proprietors had retired. They secured the key of the safe, but not being able to open it, they awakened the men. and with threats of death if resistance was offered compelled one of them to open the safe. The rob- bers then obtained about $1,350 in gold dust and amalgam, and 8350 in coin; they then proceeded to feast themselves on whatever the store offered for a good lunch, and each one of the party provided him- self with a new snit of clothes, leaving the old ones in their stead.
The alarm was given next morning, and Sheriff King and Constable Boggs repaired to Daneville, where they discovered the trail of the robbers, which led to a point on Bear River; swimming the river they made their way to the Nevada road beyond Bear River, and took the stage running through Auburn to Nevada, and went as far as Grass Valley.
AM STEVENT RUGGS
S.M.STEVENS DRUG STORE. AUBURN, PLACER CO., CAL
S.M STEVENS, RESIDENCE AUBURN PLACER CO.,CAL.
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THE CRIMINAL RECORD.
The harbor of the thieves was ascertained to be in a cabin some two miles from Grass Valley, and a party consisting of Under Sheriff Van Hagan, Depu- ties Burrell, Jobnson and Lockwood, of Nevada County, and Constable Boggs, of Auburn, proceeded to the cabin for the purpose of effecting a capture. Upon arriving they found the cabin to contain eight desperadoes, who started the fight by firing upon the officers. Shooting on both sides continued until the ammunition of the officers gave out, and they were forced to retire.
Early the next morning they again returned to the cabin, and found one of the robbers had been killed outright, and another wounded in the leg. The bal- ance of the gang had fled. The name of the man killed was Ned Whitney, the murderer of Constable Leary at Columbia, Tuolumne County; Bill Riley was the wounded one. Deputy Sheriff Lockwood was shot through the arm; none of the other officers were injured. The result of this fight was the break- ing up of one of the most successful gangs that ever operated in that locality.
" RATTLESNAKE DICK."
This noted criminal also aspired to the title of " The Pirate of the Placers." His real name was Richard Barter, and he was one of that class of men whose course in life is governed by circumstances- men of natural ability, of extreme selfishness, and vanity, and void of that native sense of honor that distinguishes intuitively between right and wrong. Such persons become prominent as circumstances lead them. Richard Barter, as a youth, was influ- enced by vile characters of both sexes, and became prominent as a degraded criminal.
"Tis education forms the common mind:
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inc'ined."
The following sketch of this " Pirate of the Placers" is from a publication issued shortly after his death : " Rattlesnake Diek" was the son of an English Colonel, and was born in Quebee, about the year 1833. As far as can be learned, and very little is known of his early history, Dick was a roving, reek- less sort of a boy; not exactly bad, in the common aeeeptation of the term, but decidedly "wild." He was caught in the great maelstrom that whirled around California after the discovery of gold, and came to this State during 1850, in company with an elder brother and an old man supposed to have been a relation of his family. They located at Rattlesnake Bar, a small mining camp in Placer County, on the North Fork of the American River, and it was from this eamp that Dick received the prefix to his name. The brother and the old man soon returned to their home in Canada, leaving Diek to work out a career in California.
This was the turning point in his life. Thrown, as he was, among scenes and men so different from any of his previous associations, he fell into the evil courses that eventually ended in his tragie death.
He mined on the bar until 1853, when whispers derogatory to his good name and character came to be bruited among the miners of the North Fork. These finally culminated in his arrest upon a charge of stealing some clothing from the establishment of a Jew, who kept a little mining camp variety store. He was defended on this charge by Judge B. F. Myres, and pronounced "not guilty" by a jury. It was afterwards ascertained conclusively that he did not commit the crime, and that he was maliciously aceused. During the same year ( 1853) he was again charged with a crime. Ifis accuser was a Mormon, named Crow, who charged him with stealing a mule, and upon this allegation he was convieted and sen- teneed to the State Prison for a term of two years. Circumstances tending to prove his innocence were afterwards discovered, and he was released before the sentence was carried into effect. It was not long after this that Dick was fully exonerated from all blame in this matter also, but the stain attending the conviction and sentence clung to him, for it was a fearful crime in those days to steal a horse, and people did not stop to inquire whether a man was guilty orinnocent after a conviction was once had. This was a terrible ordeal for a sensitive and high-strung young man, and Dick could not pass it. He had left his cell with the firm intention of lead- ing an honest and upright life thereafter, so that no one could again accuse him of wrong-doing.
DICK CHANGES HIS LOCATION.
With this intention he went to Shasta County, but even there his conviction for horse-stealing followed bim, brought to that locality, perhaps, by some wandering Bedouin of the mountains, who had known him at Rattlesnake Bar. Finding that every- body directed the glance of suspicion at him, he took a cursory view of his prospects. Here he was a stranger, almost, in a strange land. and yet he was so well known that go where he would, the shame of this alleged crime followed him like a sleuth-bound, and debarred him from retrieving his fortunes or character, while those men who were living off the State by robbery and larceny inspired the people who sneered at him with the respect which fear only can give; and he resolved that if he could not elevate himself by fair means, he would at least make him- self feared by joining the outlaws that ravaged the State, and would thus also revenge himself upon his enemies. He therefore commenced by stopping a stage-coach on the mountain highway.
" Rattlesnake Dick " was, to use his own expres- sion, "an Ishmaelite." In speaking of the causes which led to his criminal career, Diek long after- wards said: " I left Rattlesnake Bar with the inten- tion of leading a better life, but my conviction hounded me at every turn until I could stand it no longer. I have been driven to it, and hereafter my hand is against everybody. I suppose everybody's hand is against me."
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330
HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
" Rattlesnake Dick " was only about twenty-one years of age when he entered upon his career of crime. He was nearly six feet in height, and weighed about 160 pounds, slight of build, but rather broad- shouldered; not fleshy, but very muscular. He was very handsome, from a woman's point of view, at least; for his features were regular in outline, and his form was almost a paragon of manly beauty. Ilis hair was black, and his neck was long, while his flashing black eye betrayed every passion that ani- mated his mind. In walking, he displayed that supple, springing motion peculiar to the Indian or the white man who has lived for the greater portion of his life upon the border.
THE ROBBER GANG.
As has been stated, he inaugurated his criminal career by robbing a stage in Shasta, after which he committed other robberies on the highway in that county, and wandering southward, existed by sluice robbing and other devices of like nature, until he reached his old haunts on the American River. Here he ranged from Rattlesnake to Folsom, where he bad a rendezvous, and where, in May, 1856, he gath- ered around him his first gang. The principal mem- bers of this gang were, George Skinner, alias Walker, alias Williams; Cyrus Skinner, brother of George, and bearing the same aliases; Adolph Newton, better known as "Big 'Dolph Newton;" Nickamore Romero and Wm. T. Carter. With these men, " Rattlesnake Dick " for a time bade defiance to the law-abiding portion of the community. Stages were robbed, burglaries were perpetrated, and larcenies of every description committed.
ROBBERY OF WELLS FARGO & CO.'S EXPRESS.
The crowning act of the gang, and the one that ultimately resulted in its final dissolution, was the robbery of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s gold train from Yreka. Dick and his men had previously ascertained that the bullion, amounting to 880,000, would be packed on mules, guarded by twenty men, and driven by way of Trinity Mountain, and it was at this place they resolved to attack the train. Trinity Mountain is in many places lonely and desolate in the extreme, being a spur of the basaltic formations that line the Sierra on its western slope, and a better position for the attack could not have been found. Their plan of attack was to the effect that George Skinner, Newton, Romera, Carter, and a Mexican should lie in wait for the train on the mountain. attack it, if necessary, and secure the plunder, while Diek and Cy Skinner made a raid into Placer County for the purpose of securing a band of mules upon which to pack the gold, as the express company's mules were branded. and would betray the robbers if they attempted to drive them off.
George Skinner and his companions were very successful in carrying out their portion of the pro- gramme. They waited until the train, in charge of George Barstow, came abreast of them in a lonely
highway over the mountains, when they sprang suddenly among the convoy, and, with weapons drawn and cocked, commanded them to stop. The action was so sudden, and the demeanor of the robbers so fierce, that the men with the train could not resist. The consequence was that they were all tied to neighboring trees and the train unloaded. They had waited several days for Dick and Cyrus Skinner to return with the mules, but they never came, and the robbers who had dared so much, resolved to get off, with a portion of the metal at least, that night; for they knew that something must have happened to the mule-raiding party. They carried away with them about 840,000 worth of the gold, and buried the remainder in the mountain where it probably lies to-day, there being no record of its ever having been removed. Before leaving the spot, however, a quarrel arose among them as to the division of the plunder, and the Mexican was killed. They carried the gold to their rendezvous at Folsom, and there discovered that Dick and Cyrus Skinner had been arrested for stealing the mules, and were at that moment lodged in Auburn Jail. In the meantime, the party of twenty men tied up on Trinity Mountain managed to cut loose, and hurry- ing into the lower country, gave information of the robbery to the authorities. A fearful hue and cry was immediately raised against the daring robbers, and Jack Barkley, then Wells & Fargo's detective in that section of the country, started in pursuit of the highwaymen with a posse of five citizens. The opposing parties met at night near Folsom, and the firing commenced on both sides. Almost at the first shot four of the posse deserted, leaving Barkley and another man to fight it out the best way they could. For a few moments the affray was very hot, Barkley shooting away from two revolvers, and his companion firing at every opportunity. George Skinner was killed, and Romera and Newton wounded-Romera being captured in the American River, which he attempted to cross by swimming, wounded as he was. Romera, Newton and Carter were tried for the rob- bery, and sent to the penitentiary for ten years each, dating from July 9, 1856; but Carter was afterward pardoned for certain information which he gave the detectives in regard to the stolen property, and which led to the ultimate recovery of the 840,000 concealed in the " den " at Folsom.
RECORD OF GEORGE SKINNER.
The prison record of George Skinner may be appropriate at this point. He was sent to the pene- tentiary the first time in August, 1851, from El Dorado County, for some crime committed in that county, and served a term of two years. He was the twentieth man incarcerated in the State Prison of this State. June 13, 1854, he was convicted of grand larceny in Ynba County, and sent to the State Prison for three years, but escaped October 24, 1854, and was killed in 1836, as stated.
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THE CRIMINAL RECORD.
The first that is heard of his brother Cyrus was in Placer County, in 1856, he being convicted of grand larceny, and on May 26th of that year was sent to the State Prison, on five commitments, for a term of fourteen years. Ile escaped shortly after, and it was while enjoying this furlough that he met " Rat- tlesnake Dick," and was arrested with that individual for mule-stealing. They both escaped from the jail at Auburn, where they were confined, and, separat- ing, Skinner was recaptured and sent to the pene- tentiary. He remained there until 1860, when he again escaped and left the State, emigrating to Mon- tana, where he met his just deserts, being hanged by a vigilance committee.
DICK AND A NEW GANG.
After his escape from Auburn Jail, Dick found his gang completely broken up, and finding that he could not hope to cope single-handed with the Sheriff's of that section, he went to San Francisco, where he met a number of desperadoes, among whom were George Taylor, Aleek Wright, Billy Dickson, and Jim Driscoll, who afterwards formed the leading spirits of his gang.
While in that eity Dick ran a course which, if not exactly criminal, was decidedly loose, and he was arrested several times on suspicion, and finally " shown up " with a number of others in the Plaza- it being the custom of those days to introduce the thieves and other dangerous characters to the limited police force, that at that time guarded the city. About this time the Vigilance Committee arose, like a veritable giant of the people, and spreading terror among the evil-doers by their prompt and efficient measures, drove Dick and his new-found allies out of the city back to the placers. They ranged out of Rattlesnake Bar, along the various roads that inter- seet that portion of the State, and committed innumerable depredations without fear of punish- ment, for the country literally swarmed with des- peradoes from every clime beneath the sun, and the promoters of law and order were for the time being defied. A continual war was raging between the highwaymen and the Sheriff's, and desperate fights frequently occurred on nearly every road in the State.
DICK'S HATRED OF JOHN C. BOGGS.
Probably the man most feared by these characters, was John C. Boggs, then Deputy Sheriff of Placer County. Boggs seemed to bear a charmed life, for he fought these men wherever he found them, and always escaped without injury, although others were shot down beside him; and as a general thing he made a capture whenever he attempted one. It is strange, by the way, that Mr. Boggs was not elected Sheriff of the county in those days, for he did his duty in every instance, and accomplished more for the county in ridding it of desperate characters than any Sheriff that was elected, and he ran for the office often, but was invariably defeated. (Mr.
Boggs is the present Sheriff of Placer County, being elected in September, 1879.) Politics, even at that carly date in the history of this State, was pretty mnuch the same as it is at the present time, and partisan feeling overbalanced every consideration of efficiency for the office. Rattlesnake Dick was particularly opposed to Boggs; not for any " business transactions " that had occurred between them on the road, but because, as Dick asserted, the Deputy Sheriff had sworn falsely against him in some case for which Dick was tried. It is more than likely, however, that the deadly enmity which Dick bore towards Boggs was occasioned by the latter's per- sistent pursuit of the young robber, and his frequent frustrations of Dick's plans.
It would be impossible to give a full and complete account of the numberless encounters between Boggs and Dick, but there are two that cannot be omitted, and will serve to show the character of the mnen. On one occasion, in the latter part of 1857, Boggs learned that Dick and George Taylor were on the stage from Nevada City, bonnd for Folsom; so one morning he rode out of Folsom and waited for his men, carrying with him a compliment of handcuffs, a warrant, and a derringer. He met the stage as it was coming down Harmon Hill, and commanded the driver to stop, which he did. Stage drivers were in the habit of stopping frequently at the behest of strangers, even in those days. Dick and Taylor were on the top of the stage, in company with A. W. Bee, afterwards Washington correspondent of a San Francisco journal. Boggs invited the two men he was after to alight, but they immediately denied their identity, and commenced parleying with the Deputy Sheriff in regard to the matter. Taylor at last demanded Boggs' anthority and asked to see his warrant. The officer was for a moment thrown off his guard, and commenced fumbling in his pockets for the document asked for. He did not produce it, however. The two highwaymen taking advantage of the Deputy Sheriff's obedience to their request, opened fire on him with their revolvers, which was promptly returned by Boggs with his derringer, but the single shot which he fired had no other effect than to increase the trepidation of Mr. Bee, who probably has a most vivid recollection of California life to this day. Diek and Taylor of course escaped, it being the height of folly for Boggs, unarmed as he was, to follow them after they had left the stage and struck over the hill. It is said that his coun- tenance presented a most woeful appearance on his return to Folsom, with his wristless handcuffs, his unserved warrant, and his empty derringer. lle received the highest credit, however, for his coura- geous attempt, but his friends could not help " smil- ing" heartily at his abortive effort to capture two such desperate men as Rattlesnake Dick and George Taylor, with the single weapon he carried on the occasion.
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