IRGINIA CITY, NEVADA, was

a roaring camp in_ 1864.

Tucked up at the 6,000-foot
level on the eastern foothills of the
Sierra Nevada mountains, its fame
had spread over the continent. Since
the first gold discovery a few years
previously its population had rocketed
to 12,000, and there seemed to be no
end to the rich strikes which were
keeping the dance halls, saloons and
gambling houses open 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. As fortunes were
won and lost overnight in the spraw-
ling mountain community, Abe Lin-
coln was finishing out his first term
as President, and the armiés of the
Union were locked in combat in
‘Tennessee.

But on January 13, 1864, something
more important than gold held the
attention of the miners; it was some-
thing of a social nature, and it was
causing nearly the whole population
to head for the centre of town.

There was an air of quiet intensity,
and a sense of drama, as the bearded,
red-shirted miners thronged the
frozen, snow-covered streets. It was a
crisp and sunny, cloud-free morning,
with the tang of the Sierra’s in the
air.

At the centre of town, opposite the
Virginian Hotel, the street was
packed and the wooden balcony of
the hotel was crowded to danger
point. Miners crowded every roof

TWENTY-SECOND EDITION

Boone Helm had not only killed
men—he had eaten them. But the
pioneers had an answer to murder
and robbery tn territories where no
man-made law applied — where the
only law was that of the fist, the

knife and the gun.

By EX-DEPUTY COMMISSIONER CECIL CLARK xk *

top, and every window had its quota
of faces.

There must have been close to six
thousand spectators, and most eyes
were directed at an uncompleted log
building standing on the main corner.
The owner hadn’t yet put on the roof
and a single wooden cross beam con-
nected the tops of the walls.

There was a stirring in the. crowd,
and the buzz of conversation deep-
ened to a more ominous tone.

“Here they come,” shouted an on-
looker, and the word ruffled down the
street like the wind in a wheatfield.
A lane opened in the crowd, and
through it came a procession of 15
men, heading for the half-built store
premises. ‘They walked in five
groups of three; each group had a
man in front, and two behind him.
And the man in front had his hands
tied behind his back.

A Hanging Party

When they reached the roofless
building, the prisoners could see five
noosed ropes hanging from the cross
beam, and underneath each rope was
a three-foot high wooden box. Each
of the pinioned men was assisted on
to the box, and a miner stepped for-
ward from the rear of the building
and adjusted a noose around each of
the five necks. If you had been in
town long you might have known
this miner; his name was Xavier
Biedler. He asked for this particular

job, because his best friend had been
murdered by one of these men.

There was a good deal of neck
craning in the crowd, and a lot of
friendly banter. There was no out-
ward show of either anger or pity
among Virginia City’s residents on
this occasion. ‘They knew these men,
and those about to die knew a good
many of the spectators.

Those standing on the boxes with
ropes around their necks seemed to
be viewed as.so many poker players
who have had a bad run of luck, and
some of their friends are giving them
a mild ribbing.

Take Jack Gallagher on the end
box at the left; he spied a friend on a
roof top and called out, “I’ll be in hell
in a minute, Joe,” and almost cheerily
added “‘and I'll open the door for you
when you get there!”

There was no clergyman present,
for there were no churches in the
community—nor schools for that
matter. There were no police officers
present, for there was no police force,
and if there had been there were no
laws for them to enforce. The only
laws these miners recognized were
the simple and fundamental ones of
common decency—and these five had
failed to observe them.

Vigilante Committee

In fact each of these men had mur-
dered and robbed, not once but re-
peatedly. So desperate had the situa-

Page Seventeen