A Decent, Orderly Lynching

by Allen, Frederick

• ISBN13: 9780806136370
• ISBN10: 0806136375
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr

Summary

"The deadliest campaign of vigilante justice in American history erupted in the gold camps of the Rocky Mountains during the Civil War, when a private army hanged twenty-one troublemakers, including a rogue sheriff. Hailed as great heroes at the time, the Montana vigilantes are still revered as founding fathers who brought order to a lawless land." "Combing through original sources, including eyewitness accounts never before published, journalist and historian Frederick Allen concludes that the vigilantes were justified in their early actions, as they fought violent crime in a remote corner hundreds of miles beyond the reach of government." "But Allen has uncovered evidence that the vigilantes refused to disband after territorial courts were in place. Remaining active for six years, they lynched more than fifty men without trials. Reliance on mob rule in Montana became so ingrained that in 1883, a Helena newspaper editor advocated a return to "decent, orderly lynching" as a legitimate tool for social control. As Allen shows in this definitive account of Montana's "formative morality play," many of the vigilantes' targets were not guilty of any crimes at all."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Frederick Allen is a former political editor and columnist with the Atlanta Constitution and commentator for CNN.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
List of Maps	xiii
Author's Note	xv
Introduction: The Murdered Boy	3	(14)
Maine to California	17	(21)
``A Seducer'' on Trial	38	(19)
Wooing Electa Bryan	57	(20)
The New Sheriff	77	(12)
The Dillingham Killing	89	(20)
``Cut-Throats and Robbers''	109	(13)
The Reluctant Chief Justice	122	(13)
A Rashomon Night	135	(18)
The Southmayd Robbery	153	(15)
The Ives Trial	168	(17)
``Men, Do Your Duty''	185	(13)
The Vigilantes	198	(19)
``Red'' Yeager's List	217	(16)
Five Hanged Side by Side	233	(21)
One Hundred and Two	254	(19)
Slade of the Overland	273	(17)
``The Wounded Man Recovered''	290	(18)
``No More Midnight Executions''	308	(16)
Thomas Francis Meagher	324	(21)
Pax Vigilanticus	345	(16)
Epilogue	361	(4)
Appendix: Targets of the Montana Vigilantes	365	(2)
Note on Sources	367	(4)
Notes	371	(30)
Bibliography	401	(6)
Acknowledgments	407	(4)
Index	411