CAPTURE AND EXECUTION OF JAKE SILVIE alias JACOB SEACHRIEST, A ROAD
AGENT AND MURDERER OF TWELVE YEARS STANDING, AND THE SLAYER OF TWELVE
MEN.
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”
GOD’S LAW.
The crimes and punishment of many a daring desperado, have been
chronicled in these pages; but among them all, none was more worthy
of death than the blood-stained miscreant whose well deserved fate is
recorded in this chapter. According to his own confession--made, when
all hope was gone, and death was inevitable, and when nothing was to
be gained by such a statement, but the disburdening of a conscience
oppressed by the weight of guilt--Jacob Seachriest was a native of
Pennsylvania, and had been a thief, Road Agent and murderer for twelve
years; during which time he had murdered, single-handed or in company
with others, twelve individuals.
In a former chapter of this history--the one detailing the arrest and
execution of Jem Kelly at Snake River--it will be remembered that the
body of a man, shot through the back of the head, was found in a creek
by a patrol of the Vigilantes, and buried in a willow coffin. The full
particulars of the tragedy we are unable to furnish to our readers; but
Seachriest confessed that he and his comrades cast lots to determine
who should commit the bloody deed, it being repugnant, even to their
notions of manhood, to crawl up behind an unarmed man, sitting quietly
on the bank of a creek, and to kill him for the sake of what he might
chance to possess, without exchanging a word. The “hazard of the die”
pointed out Seachriest as the assassin; and with his pistol ready
cocked, he stole upon his victim and killed him instantly, by sending
a ball through his brain. A stone was fastened to the body, and it was
sunk in a hole formed by an eddy, in the stream, the thieves having
first appropriated every article of value about his person.
The captain was much moved by the sad spectacle, though well accustomed
to the sight of murdered victims, having served through the war against
the border ruffians, in “Bleeding Kansas,” and having gone through
a chequered career of adventure, including five years life by the
camp-fire. He said, with much emotion, “Boys, something tells me I’ll
be at the hanging of this man’s murderer, within twelve months of this
day;” and so it fell out, though most unexpectedly.
Shortly after the execution of John Keene for the murder of Slater,
information was sent to the Committee, that a man named Jake Silvie
had been arrested at Diamond City--a flourishing new mining camp
in Confederate Gulch, one of the largest and richest of the placer
diggings of Montana. The town is about fifteen miles beyond the
Missouri, and about forty miles East of Helena. The charges against
the culprit were robbery, obtaining goods under false pretenses, and
various other crimes of a kindred sort. It was also intimated that he
was a man of general bad character, and that he had confessed enough to
warrant the Committee in holding him for further examination, though
the proof of his commission of the principal offense of which he was
accused was not greater, at the time, than would amount to a strong
presumption of guilt.
The messenger brought with him copies of the confession made by
the prisoner, under oath, before the proper person to receive an
obligation. The substance of his story was that he was an honest,
hard-working miner; that he had just come into the country, by the way
of Salt Lake City; that on reaching Virginia City, and while under the
influence of liquor, he had fallen into bad company, and was initiated
into an organized band of robbers. He gave the names of about a dozen
of the members of the gang, and minutely described the signs of
recognition, etc. It was evident, from his account that the ceremonies
attending the entry into this villainous fraternity were simple and
forcible, although not legal. The candidate was placed in the center
of a circle formed of desperadoes; one or two revolvers at full cock
were presented at his head, and he was then informed that his taking
the obligation was to be a purely voluntary act on his part; for that
he was at perfect liberty to refuse to do so; ONLY, in that case, that
his brains would be blown out without any further ceremony. Though not
a man of any education, Silvie could not afford to lose his brains,
having only one set, and he therefore consented to proceed, and swore
through a long formula, of which, he said he recollected very little,
distinctly, except a pledge of secrecy and of fidelity to the band.
On receipt of the intelligence, a captain, with a squad of four or
five men, was immediately dispatched to Diamond City, with orders to
bring the prisoner to Helena as soon as possible. The party lost but
little time in the performance of their duty, and on the following day
the chief of the Committee rode out, as previously agreed upon, in
company with X (a letter of the alphabet having singular terrors for
evil doers in Montana, being calculated to awaken the idea of crime
committed and punishment to follow, more than all the rest of the
alphabet, even if the enumeration were followed by the repetition of
the ten commandments,) and meeting the guard in charge of the prisoner,
they accompanied them into town. Silvie was confined in the same cabin
in which John Keene past his last night on earth. A strong guard was
detailed for the purpose of watching the prisoner, and the Committee
being summoned, the case was investigated with all due deliberation;
but the Committee were not entirely satisfied that the evidence,
though complete, was all of such a reliable character as to justify a
conviction; and, therefore, they preferred to adjourn their inquiry,
for the production of further testimony. This was accordingly done, and
the prisoner was removed to an obscure cabin, in a more remote part of
the town, where the members of the Committee would have an opportunity
of free access to him and might learn from his own lips what sort of a
man they had to deal with.
They were not long in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion on
this point. He at first adhered to and repeated his old story and
confession; but gaining a little confidence, and thinking there was
not much danger to be apprehended from the action of the Committee, he
at length denied every word of his former statement, made under oath;
said it was all false; that he knew of no such organization as he had
told of, and declared that he had been compelled to tell this for his
own safety. After being cross questioned pretty thoroughly, he told
the truth, stating that he had given a correct statement in the first
place; only, that instead of joining the band in Virginia City, he had
become acquainted with some of the leaders, on the Columbia River, on
the way up from Portland, and that he had accompanied them to Virginia
City, M. T., travelling thither by the way of Snake River. (It was on
this trip that he committed the murder before described.) This was a
fatal admission on the part of the prisoner, as it completed the chain
of evidence that linked him with the desperadoes whose crimes have
given an unenviable notoriety to the neighborhood of that affluent of
the Columbia--the dread of storm-stayed freighters and the grave of so
many victims of marauders--Snake River.
Another meeting of the Executive Committee was called during the
day, and after due deliberation, the verdict was unanimous that he
was a Road Agent, and that he should receive the just reward of
his crimes, in the shape of the penalty attached to the commission
of highway robbery and murder, by the citizens of Montana. After a
long discussion, it was determined that he should be executed on the
murderer’s tree, in Dry Gulch, at an hour after midnight. The prison
guards were doubled, and no person was allowed to hold converse with
the prisoner, except by permission of the officers.
The execution at night was determined upon for many sufficient reasons.
A few of them are here stated: It had been abundantly demonstrated that
but for the murder of Slater having occurred in open day, and before
the eyes of a crowd of witnesses, Keene would have been rescued; and
the moral effect produced by a public execution, among the hardened
sinners who compose a large part of the audience at such times,
is infinitely less than the terror to the guilty, produced by the
unannounced but inevitable vengeance which may at any moment be visited
upon their own heads. Such a power is dreaded most by those who fear
its exercise.
The desire to die game, so common to desperadoes, frequently robs
death of half its terrors, if not of all of them, as in the case of
Boon Helm, Bunton and others. Confessions are very rarely made at
public executions in the mountains; though scarcely ever withheld at
private ones. There are also many honest and upright men who have a
great objection to be telegraphed over the west as “stranglers,” yet
who would cheerfully sacrifice their lives rather than by word or deed
become accessory to an unjust sentence. The main question is the guilt
of the prisoner. If this is ascertained without doubt, hour and place
are mere matters of policy. Private executions are now fast superseding
public ones, in civilized communities.
There is not now--and there never has been--one upright citizen in
Montana, who has a particle of fear of being hanged by the Vigilance
Committee. Concerning those whose conscience tells them that they are
in danger, it is of little consequence when or where they suffer for
the outrages they have committed. One private execution is a more
dreaded and wholesome warning to malefactors than one hundred public
ones.
If it be urged that public executions are desirable from the notoriety
that is ensured to the whole circumstances, it may fairly be answered
that the action of Judge, and jury, and counsel is equally desirable,
and, indeed, infinitely preferable, when it is effective and impartial,
to any administration of justice by Vigilance Committees; but, except
in the case of renowned Road Agents and notorious criminals whose names
are a by-word, before their arrest, or where the crime is a revolting
outrage, witnessed by a large number, the feeling of the community in
a new camp is against ANY punishment being given, and the knowledge of
this fact is the desperadoes’ chief reliance for escape from the doom he
has so often dared, and has yet escaped.
When informed of his sentence the prisoner seemed little affected by
it, and evidently did not believe it, but regarded it as a ruse on
the part of the Committee to obtain a confession from him. After the
shades of night had settled down upon the town of Helena, a minister
was invited to take a walk with an officer of the Vigilantes, and
proceeded in his company to the cabin where Silvie was confined, and
was informed of the object in view in requesting his attendance. He at
once communicated the fact to the culprit, who feigned a good deal of
repentance, received baptism at his own request, and appeared to pray
with great fervor. He seemed to think that he was cheating the Almighty
himself, as well as duping the Vigilantes most completely.
At length the hour appointed for the execution arrived, and the matter
was arranged so that the prisoner should not know whither he was going
until he came to the fatal tree. The Committee were all out of sight,
except one man, who led him by the arm to the place of execution,
conversing with him in the German tongue, which seemed still further
to assure him that it was all a solemn farce, and that he should “come
out all right;” but when he found himself standing under the very tree
on which Keene was hanged and beheld the dark mass closing in on all
sides, each man carrying a revolver in his hand, he began to realize
his situation, and begged most piteously for his life, offering to tell
anything and everything, if they would only spare him. Being informed
that that was “played out,” and that he must die, his manner changed,
and he began his confession. He stated that he had been in the business
for twelve years, and repeated the story before related, about his
being engaged in the perpetration of a dozen murders, and the final
atrocity committed by him on Snake River. He stated that it was thought
their victim was returning from the mines, and that he had plenty of
money, which on an examination of him, after his death, proved to be a
mistake.
The long and black catalogue of his crimes was too much for the
patience of the Vigilantes, who, though used to the confessions of
ordinary criminals, were unprepared to hear from a man just baptized,
such a fearful recital of disgusting enormities. They thought that it
was high time that the world should be rid of such a monster, and so
signified to the chief, who seemed to be of the same opinion, and at
once gave the order to “proceed with the execution.” Seeing that his
time was come, Silvie ceased his narrative, and said to the men, “Boys,
don’t let me hang more than two or three days.” He was told that they
were in the habit of burying such fellows as him in Montana. The word
“take hold,” was given, and every man present “tailed on” to the rope
which ran over the “limb of the law.” Not even the chief was exempt,
and the signal being given, he was run up all standing--the only really
merciful way of hanging. A turn or two was taken with the slack of the
rope, round the tree, and the end was belayed to a knot which projects
from the trunk. This being completed, the motionless body was left
suspended until life was supposed to be extinct, the Vigilantes gazing
on it in silence.
Two men were then detailed, and stood, with an interval of about
two feet between them, facing each other. Between these “testers”
marched every man present, in single file, giving the pass-word of the
organization in a low whisper. One man was found in the crowd who had
not learned the particular “articulate sound representing an idea,”
which was so necessary to be known. He was scared very considerably,
when singled out and brought before the chief; but, after a few words
of essential preliminary precaution, he was discharged, breathing more
freely, and smiling like the sun after an April shower, with the drops
of perspiration still on his forehead.
The Committee gradually dispersed, not as usually is the case, with
solemn countenances and thoughtful brows, but firmly and cheerfully;
for each man felt that his strain on the fatal rope was a righteous
duty, and a service performed to the community. Such an incarnate
fiend, they knew, was totally unfit to live, and unworthy of sympathy.
Neither courage, generosity, truth nor manhood, pleaded for mercy,
in his case, he lived a sordid and red-handed robber, and he died
unpitied, the death of a dog.
Very little action was necessary on the part of the Vigilance
Committee, to prevent any combination of the enemies of law and order
from exerting a prejudicial influence on the peace and good order of
the capital; in fact, the organization gradually ceased to exercise its
functions, and, though in existence, its name, more than its active
exertions, sufficed to preserve tranquility. When Chief Justice Hosmer
arrived in the Territory, and organized the Territorial and County
Courts, he thought it his duty to refer to the Vigilantes, in his
charge to the Grand Jury, and invited them to sustain the authorities
as citizens. The old guardians of the peace of the Territory were
greatly rejoiced at being released from their onerous and responsible
duties, and most cheerfully and heartily complied with the request of
the Judiciary.
For some months no action of any kind was taken by them; but, in the
summer of 1865, news reached them of the burning and sacking of Idaho
City, and they were reliably informed that an attempt would be made
to burn Virginia, also, by desperadoes from the West. That this was
true was soon demonstrated by ocular proof; for two attempts were
made though happily discovered and rendered abortive, to set fire to
the city. In both cases, the parties employed laid combustibles in
such a manner that, but for the Vigilance and promptitude of some old
Vigilantes, a most destructive conflagration must have occurred in
the most crowded part of the town. In one case the heap of chips and
whittled wood a foot in diameter had burnt so far only as to leave a
ring of the outer ends of the pile visible. In the other attempt a
collection of old rags were placed against the wall of an outbuilding
attached to the Wisconsin House, situated within the angle formed by
the junction of Idaho and Jackson streets. Had this latter attempt
succeeded, it is impossible to conjecture the amount of damage that
must have been inflicted upon the town, for frame buildings fifty feet
high were in close proximity, and had they once caught fire, the flames
might have destroyed at least half of the business houses on Wallace,
Idaho and Jackson streets.
At this time, too, it was a matter of every day remark that Virginia
was full of lawless characters, and many of them thinking that the
Vigilantes were officially defunct, did not hesitate to threaten the
lives of prominent citizens, always including in their accusations,
that they were strangling ----. This state of things could not be
permitted to last; and, as the authorities admitted that they were
unable to meet the emergency, the Vigilantes reorganized at once, with
the consent and approbation of almost every good and order-loving
citizen in the Territory.
The effect of this movement was marvellous; the roughs disappeared
rapidly from the town; but a most fearful tragedy, enacted in Portneuf
Canyon, Idaho, on the 13th of July roused the citizens almost to
frenzy. The Overland coach from Virginia to Salt Lake City, was
driven into an ambuscade by Frank Williams, and though the passengers
were prepared for Road Agents, and fired simultaneously with their
assailants, who were under cover and stationary, yet four of them, viz:
A. S. Parker, A. J. McCausland, David Dinan and W. L. Mers were shot
dead; L. F. Carpenter was slightly hurt in three places, and Charles
Parks was apparently mortally wounded. The driver was untouched, and
James Brown, a passenger, jumped into the bushes and got off, unhurt.
Carpenter avoided death by feigning to be in the last extremity, when a
villain came to shoot him a second time. The gang of murderers, of whom
eight were present at the attack, secured a booty of $65,000 in gold,
and escaped undetected.
A party of Vigilantes started in pursuit, but effected nothing at
the time; and it was not till after several months patient work of a
special detective from Montana, that guilt was brought home to the
driver, who was executed by the Denver Committee, on Cherry Creek.
Eventually, it is probable that all of them will be captured, and meet
their just doom.
The last offenders who were executed by the Vigilance Committee of
Virginia City, were two horse thieves and confessed Road Agents, named,
according to their own account John Morgan and John Jackson alias
Jones. They were, however, of the “alias” tribe. The former was caught
in the act of appropriating a horse in one of the city corrals. He
was an old offender, and on his back were the marks of the whipping
he received in Colorado for committing an unnatural crime. He was a
low, vicious ruffian. His comrade was a much more intelligent man,
and acknowledged the justice of his sentence without any hesitation.
Morgan gave the names and signs of the gang they belonged to, of
which Rattlesnake Dick was the leader. Their lifeless bodies were
found hanging from a hay-frame, leaning over the corral fence at the
slaughter house, on the branch, about half a mile from the city. The
printed manifesto of the Vigilantes was affixed to Morgan’s clothes
with the warning words written across it, “Road Agents, beware!”
Outrages against person and property are still perpetrated
occasionally, though much less frequently than is usual in settled
countries; and it is to be hoped that regularly administered law will,
for the future, render a Vigilance Committee unnecessary. The power
behind the Throne of Justice stands ready, in Virginia City, to back
the authorities; but nothing except grave public necessity will evoke
its independent action.
The Vigilance Committee at Helena and at Diamond City, Confederate
Gulch, were occasionally called upon to make examples of irreclaimable,
outlawed vagrants, who having been driven from other localities,
first made their presence known in Montana by robbery or murder; but
as the lives and career of these men were low, obscure and brutal,
the record of their atrocities and punishment would be but a dreary
and uninteresting detail of sordid crime, without even the redeeming
quality of courage or manhood to relieve the narrative.
The only remarkable case was that of James Daniels, who was arrested
for killing a man named Gartley, with a knife, near Helena. The quarrel
arose during a game of cards. The Vigilantes arrested Daniels and
handed him over to the civil authorities, receiving a promise that he
should be fairly tried and dealt with according to law. In view of
alleged extenuating circumstances, the Jury found a verdict of murder
in the second degree, (manslaughter.) For this crime, Daniels was
sentenced to three years incarceration in the Territorial prison, by
the Judge of the United States Court, who reminded the prisoner of the
extreme lightness of the penalty as compared with that usually affixed
to the crime of manslaughter by the States and Territories of the
West. After a few weeks imprisonment, the culprit, who had threatened
the lives of the witnesses for the prosecution, during the trial, was
set at liberty by a reprieve of the Executive, made under a probably
honest, but entirely erroneous constitution of the law, which vests the
pardoning power in the President only. This action was taken on the
petition of thirty-two respectable citizens of Helena. Daniels returned
at once to the scene of his crime, and renewed his threats against the
witnesses, on his way thither. These circumstances coming to the ears
of some of the Vigilantes, he was arrested and hanged, the same night.
The wife of Gartley died of a broken heart when she heard of the murder
of her husband. Previous to the prisoner leaving Virginia for Helena,
Judge L. E. Munson went to the capital expressly for the purpose of
requesting the annulling of the reprieve; but this being refused, he
ordered the rearrest, and the Sheriff having reported the fugitive’s
escape beyond his precinct, the Judge returned to Helena with the order
of the Acting-Marshal in his pocket, authorizing his Deputy to rearrest
Daniels. Before he reached town, Daniels was hanged.
That Daniels morally deserved the punishment he received there can
be no doubt. That, legally speaking, he should have been unmolested,
is equally clear; but when escaped murderers utter threats of murder
against peaceable citizens mountain law is apt to be administered
without much regard to technicalities, and when a man says he is going
to kill any one, in a mining country, it is understood that he means
what he says, and must abide the consequences. Two human beings had
fallen victims to his thirst of blood--the husband and the wife. Three
more were threatened; but the action of the Vigilantes prevented the
commission of the contemplated atrocities. To have waited for the
consummation of his avowed purpose, after what he had done before,
would have been shutting the stable door after the steed was stolen.
The politic and the proper course would have been to arrest him and
hold him for the action of the authorities.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE LEADING ROAD AGENTS OF PLUMMER’S BAND, AND
OTHERS.