P a g e 5 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r itive this was the Henry Plummer from Portage City. It was later discovered that William was correct… Vigilante Justice The Vigilantes of Virginia City and Bannack swiftly put an end to the lawlessness by taking the law into their own hands. After over 100 people had been robbed and murdered during the last year, Nathanial P. Langford and a host of other Freemasons, secretly formed what was known as “The Vigilance Committee” in Virginia City. On December 22, 1863, these Freemasons took a formal oath, and began “cleaning up” the town. (It is not known if William Dalton was a member of the Vigilance Committee, as he was indeed a Freemason by this time.) In just the first two months following taking this oath, the Vigilance Committee hanged 24 men. Soon after William Dalton spoke with Plummer on the main street of Virginia City in the late fall of 1863, where Plummer denied knowing William and denied ever living in Wisconsin, it was discovered that Henry Plummer was not the “good sheriff” everyone thought he was. Several days before the January 13, 1864 hanging of Frank Parish, Boone Helm, Jack Gallagher, Haze Lyons and George Lane (Clubfoot George) on the main street of Virginia City in an unfinished, open-beamed building, the Montana Vigilantes hit “pay dirt”. While sitting in a jail cell, Clubfoot George ratted out his accomplices with the hope of avoiding being hanged. Clubfoot George's accomplices then ratted out Henry Plummer as the secret leader of “The Innocents”. Plummer and his deputies were quickly arrested and hanged on January 10, 1864 in Bannack, on the gallows that Henry Plummer himself ordered to be built prior to being caught. (By the way, of all the road agents who were hanged in Virginia City and Bannack, it was reported that Plummer was the only man who cried and begged for his life.) It was also learned that Plummer was wanted for the murder of his business partner John Vedder in California years earlier and was hiding from his past in the Territory of Montana. Following these January hangings, the rest This wagon and blacksmith shop was where the Vigilantes would hold their secret meetings in 1863 and 1864 on the main street of Virginia City. This building still stands today. This is the building where Frank Parish, Boone Helm, Jack Gallagher, Haze Lyons and George Lane (Clubfoot George) were hanged on January 13, 1864. This building, known as "The Hangman's Building", still stands on the main street of Virginia City, and the rope marks on the support beam from which they were hanged are still visible. of the road agents who didn’t die at the end of a rope, fled the area, never to be seen or heard from again.
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