Monthly Archives: October 2011

A case of robbery and murder

Posted on October 31, 2011 by John Putnam

On June 30, 1855, only a few months after the lynching of Edward Griffiths, four men snuck into the rooms of Thomas C. Brunton of Yorktown in the dead of night. Brunton was known to have $12,000 stored there in … Continue reading →

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The boy from Algerine

Posted on October 30, 2011 by John Putnam

About nine o’clock one morning in 1851 a man rode hard into Sonora and headed directly for the sheriff’s office. There he told a deputy, named Captain Stuart, that there had been a robbery in Algerine Camp, a supposed culprit … Continue reading →

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The murder of Joseph Heslep

Posted on October 27, 2011 by John Putnam

About nine o’clock on the night of January 18,1855 Joseph Heslep, deputy treasurer of Tuolumne County, was found brutally murdered, his body still warm and lying on the floor of his Sonora office. The alarm sounded, a huge crowd gathered, … Continue reading →

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Politicians interfere with justice

Posted on October 26, 2011 by John Putnam

Even though Judge Creaner was on the bench in Sonora, and not disposed to be unduly influenced by fancy talking lawyers, the fact that only one legal execution took place in several years did not induce the community to rely on … Continue reading →

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The law and Judge Creaner’s nose

Posted on October 25, 2011 by John Putnam

It was onto the shoulders of Charles M. Creaner, judge of the fifth judicial district, that the promise of greater efficiency in the courts fell. Elected in March 1850 Creaner’s first court session in Sonora was in July. While he … Continue reading →

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Gold rush lawyers

Posted on October 24, 2011 by John Putnam

The reason the vigilance committee of Sonora did not go further and inflict more punishment on criminals than it did in 1851 was not because of the promise of greater efficiency by the courts, for no person actually made such … Continue reading →

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A Tuolumne County vigilance committee

Posted on October 23, 2011 by John Putnam

In June of 1851, soon after the execution of Jim Hill, with crime rampant in Tuolumne County and little confidence in the regular courts to administer justice, the residents decided it was necessary to form a committee of vigilance similar … Continue reading →

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A plea for mercy

Posted on October 20, 2011 by John Putnam

Soon after the murderers of Captain Shaw were executed, Jim Hill, known to be a man of bad character, entered a store in nearby Campo Seco with a number of his rowdy friends and held a pistol to the head … Continue reading →

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Murder at Dragoon Gulch

Posted on October 19, 2011 by John Putnam

After an extraordinary lull of nearly two weeks without the occurrence of a single felony, one of the most diabolical murders in the short history of Tuolumne County happened at Dragoon Gulch near Shaw’s Flat. Three Mexican miners had bought … Continue reading →

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Failures of justice

Posted on October 18, 2011 by John Putnam

As we have noted, the early laws in the mining country had many loopholes that an accused man with a good attorney could slide through easily. Justice was often hard to come by in the legal courts of the mining … Continue reading →

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