The Lookout Lynching.
Coming down to a later date, perhaps no event of its character has
attracted so much comment, and been the subject, of more gross
misrepresentation than the "Lookout Lynching." I have, therefore, been
asked to give a true account of the deplorable affair, the causes
leading up to the same, and the sensational trial of nineteen citizens
accused of participating in the act.
To begin at the beginning: Along in the early 70's the United State
government established a military post at Fort Crook, in Fall River
valley, which was occupied by a company of cavalry under command of one
Capt. Wagner. The post was designed to afford protection to settlers
against depredations by hostile Indians. Soon after the arrival of the
troops the Captain began to cast eyes of favor on a comely young Indian
woman, the wife of a Pit River brave. The Captain had been sent to
civilize the Indians, and was not long in taking the woman under his
protection. The arrangement was agreeable to the woman, who preferred
the favor of the white chief to that of her dusky husband.
Time wore on and the government concluded to abandon the post, and
ordered Capt. Wagner and his company elsewhere. Of course, he could not
take the Indian woman with him, and she must be got rid of. The means
presented itself in the person of a soldier named Calvin Hall, whose
term of enlistment had expired. He proposed to Hall that if he would
take the woman off his hands he, the Captain, would give him a small
portable sawmill which the government had sent to the post to saw lumber
with which to build quarters, etc. The arrangement being agreeable to
Hall, the trade was made and the woman and sawmill passed to a different
ownership.
In the course of time Hall sold the sawmill and settled on a piece of
land not far from the present town of Lookout. Here the two full blood
children of the woman grew to manhood. Another child was born to the
woman, the father being a man named Wilson, with whom she lived during
one of her changes of lovers, for Mary (her Christian name) was a woman
of many loves. The half breed boy was fifteen years old, and probably by
reason of environment was not a model. The two full bloods, Frank and
Jim Hall, the names by which they were known, gradually became looked
upon as desperate characters. Their many misdeeds brought them into
prominence, and frequent arrests followed. But somehow Hall managed to
enable them to escape the vengeance of the law. This only served to make
them bolder in their misdeeds. Cattle were killed and horses mutilated,
merely because the owners had incurred their enmity. The school house in
the neighborhood was broken open, books destroyed and other vandal acts
committed. In fact, they became the terror of the neighborhood, the Hall
home being a place of refuge and shelter, and Hall a protector when
arrests followed their crimes.
This condition of affairs could not exist for long. When the law fails
to protect life and property, I have always observed that men find a way
to protect them. About a year and a half before the finale, a gentleman
living in Lookout visited Alturas and detailed the many misdeeds of
these men to me. One in particular I remember. Dr. Shearer, a wealthy
stock man living some distance this side of Lookout, had employed some
Indians in harvesting his hay crop. Frank Hall had a grievance against
the Indians, and during their absence from their camp went there and cut
their wagons and harness to pieces. The Indians trailed him to within a
short distance of Halls, but were afraid to go further. They complained
to Mr. Shearer, who promptly sent word to Frank Hall that if he ever
came on his ranch he, Shearer, would shoot him. Some time after this Mr.
Shearer found a saddle animal belonging to his wife cut and mutilated in
a most shameful manner. The horse, a beautiful animal and a pet, had his
ears and tail cut off, while deep gashes were cut in his side and hips.
Mr. Shearer could not prove that Frank Hall committed the dastardly act,
but was more than satisfied of his guilt. This and other like acts were
detailed to me, and I wrote an article for my paper detailing the
grievances of the people of that section and ending by predicting that,
unless it was stopped, "juniper trees would bear fruit." My prediction
came true a year and a half later, only that the Pit River bridge and
not the junipers bore the fruit.
Some time during the year of 1900 a man named Yantes came to the
vicinity of Lookout and took up with the Halls. Later he took Mary, the
Indian woman, away from old man Hall, and lived with her on a ranch he
had located. He carried a big gun and posed as a bad man, and of course
found genial companionship in the sons of the Indian woman. The coming
of Yantes seemed to add to the boldness and reckless conduct of Frank
and Jim Hall and the half-breed boy Wilson. Along towards the last of
May, 1901, a burglary was committed in the neighborhood. Of course the
Hall crowd was suspected and a search warrant obtained. At the Hall home
several of the articles were found, as well as on the persons of the
men. The hides and meat of animals recently killed were found at the
Hall and Yantes homes and the brands identified by the owner. This
discovery led to the arrest of the entire gang, including Hall and the
half-breed boy Wilson. They were taken to Lookout and a guard placed
over them.
The Grand jury was in session at Alturas, and next morning R. E.
Leventon and Isom Eades came to Alturas to secure the indictment of the
men. The proof was positive, and they felt that at last a conviction
could be secured. But unfortunately the Grand jury adjourned that
morning. They then applied to the District Attorney to go to Lookout and
prosecute the criminals. But Mr. Bonner had a case coming up at Lake
City, and the Justice refusing to postpone it, could not go. The matter
was finally arranged by the appointment by Mr. Bonner of C. C. Auble, an
Adin attorney, as a special deputy to prosecute the cases. The
appointment was made out and given to Leventon and Eades, but Mr.
Bonner, a young lawyer and serving his first, term, made the fatal
mistake of instructing Mr. Auble to dismiss the charge of burglary and
rearrest the men for petty larceny.
During all this time the five men, two white men, the half-breed boy and
the two Indians, were held under guard, the bar room of the hotel being
used for the purpose. When it became known that the prisoners were
merely to be prosecuted for the smaller crime, the whole country became
aroused. Both Yantes and the Halls made threats of dire vengeance upon
those instrumental in their arrest. They declared they would get even as
soon as they were free. All knew the Indians and Yantes to be desperate
men, and to turn them loose would be equivalent to applying the torch to
their homes, if not the knife to their throats. Accordingly at the hour
of 1:30 on the morning of May 31st a rush was made by masked men, the
prisoners taken from the guards and all five hung to the railing of the
Pit River bridge.
The news spread like wildfire and created intense excitement throughout
the county and State. The great papers, in two column headlines, told of
the "wiping out of a whole family." "An old man," said they, "his three
sons and his son-in-law," were ruthlessly hung for a petty crime, the
stealing of a few straps of leather. In Modoc county the sentiment of
nine-tenths of the people was that the leaders of the mob should be
punished. Young Banner had made a mistake, due doubtless to youth and
inexperience, but it remained for Superior Judge Harrington to make a
still more serious one.
Judge Harrington wrote to the Attorney-General asking that detectives
and a special prosecutor be sent to investigate and prosecute the case
against the lynchers. He also called the Grand jury together in special
session. But there never was any evidence.
The Grand jury convened on June 10th, and a host of witnesses were in
attendance.
The result of the Grand Jury session was the returning of indictments
against R. E. Leventon, Isom Eades and James Brown. As the case against
Brown appeared to be the best, he was "brought to trial" November 21,
1901. Assistant Attorney-General Post and Deputy Attorney George
Sturtevant were sent from the Attorney-General's office to prosecute the
case. The prisoner was defended by ex-Judge G. F. Harris, E. V. Spencer
and John E. Raker.
Soon after the trial began Judge Post sent for a noted gunfighter named
Danny Miller. And during all those weary three months of the trial he
could be seen trotting around after Post, his mustache turned up, a la
William of Germany, like a rat terrier following a mastiff, to the
infinite amusement of the small boy and utter disgust of sensible men.
Gibson, the noted San Francisco detective, was here, assisted by other
detectives and a dozen or more local head hunters, who were after a
share of the big reward. District Attorney Bonner was pushed aside and
completely ignored. He was not even given an insight into what was going
on. In justice to Mr. Sturtevant I want to say that he had no hand in
the high-handed measures adopted by Post and Harrington. And had he been
in control the result of the Brown trial might have ended differently.
Indeed, so favorably were the people of Modoc impressed with Mr.
Sturtevant that members of both parties--prominent citizens--went to
him and offered him the Superior Judgeship at the coming fall election.
For reasons of his own he declined, and before the end of the Brown
trial left in disgust.
At one stage of the proceedings there was talk of supplying troops from
the National Guard to preserve order. And yet there had at no time been
a breach of the peace or threats made except by the man Miller. On one
occasion Miller drew a revolver in the court room and attempted to shoot
Attorney Raker. At another time he beat a young man named Russell over
the head with a gun for some fancied offense. A brother of young Russell
kept the principal hotel in the town, and both had been open in their
denunciation of the lynchers. I mention these facts to show why it was
that the citizens of the county turned from nine-tenths in favor of
prosecuting the lynchers to the utmost limit, to nine-tenths the other
way.
Early in January Detective Gibson went to a young man who was stranded
in Alturas with his wife and offered him a portion of the reward,
amounting to $900, to testify to a certain matter. The young man and his
wife were working, for their board, but he told Gibson that he knew
nothing of the matter and that poor as he was he would not swear to a
falsehood. Gibson went away, but returned a few nights, later and again
tried to get him to testify, saying that the men were guilty and that no
one would ever be the wiser. Slavin (the young man's name) then told
Gibson that if he ever came to his home with such a proposal that he,
Slavin, would shoot him like a dog. All these attempts at bribery soon
became known and filled citizens everywhere with consternation. They
argued that under such methods an innocent man might be sacrificed that
a lot of head hunters could gain a big reward.
On January 4th, 1902, Mary Lorenz, a half breed daughter of old Mary
Hall, swore to a warrant charging, fifteen others with complicity in the
lynching. All were arrested, but not one was found to be armed. They
were placed in jail, and on the 10th indictments were filed charging
each one with five different murders.
The causes leading to these arrests were said to be the confessions of
John Hutton and Claude Morris.
It subsequently developed that Morris was taken to a room, there plied
with whisky by the detectives, aided by Simmons, and at two o'clock in
the morning signed an affidavit that had been prepared for him. After he
regained consciousness he denied the whole thing, but was told that he
would be sent to the penitentiary for perjury if he went back on the
confession he had signed before a notary public. Under the circumstances
the poor, weak boy, kept under guard and away from friends and
relatives, was compelled to stick to the evidence that had been prepared
for him.
As the trial of Brown dragged its "slimy length along," the scenes in
the court room at times beggared description. Harrington, badgered by
the attorneys for the defense, raved like a madman, and generally ended
by sending one or more of the attorneys for Brown to jail. He refused to
permit any evidence to be introduced for the purpose of impeachment.
Disinterested men were brought from Tule Lake to prove that the boy
Hutton was on his way to Lookout from that place when the lynching took
place. Another witness was placed on the stand and testified that he
stood on the ground, back of Leventon's shop and saw certain of the
accused, among them Brown, and heard them plotting. Harrington refused
to permit any evidence to be introduced tending to impeach the witness.
When Harrington would rule against the admission of this evidence,
Harris, Raker or Spencer would argue the point and manage to get the
evidence before the jury and end by going to jail. The attorneys took
turns going to jail, but managed for one to remain outside to conduct
the case. Thus wore away the weary months until the jury brought in a
verdict of "not guilty." In conversation with one of the jurymen that
morning he stated that the character of the witnesses for the
prosecution was enough. They were Indians, half-breeds, and disreputable
characters of every shade and degree.
The morning after the verdict was rendered not one of these creatures
could be found. During the night they had fled and scattered like a
covey of quail. They feared arrest for perjury, of which they were
guilty. All that remained the next morning was General Post and his gun
man, Danny Miller. They took the stage after breakfast and were seen no
more. The prisoners were discharged one and two and three at a time and
quietly returned to their homes.
Thus ended the dreary farce of the prosecution of the Lookout lynchers.
It had cost the county about $40,000 and had accomplished nothing, save
to blacken the character of our citizens and cause the outside world to
look upon us as outlaws and desperadoes.
Conclusion.
The events here recorded were seen with my own eyes, or were received
from the lips of the actors therein. Hundreds of men and boys passed
through equal or greater dangers and privations than I, and are entitled
to equal or greater credit. Reared in the wilderness and on the frontier
of civilization, I was merely the product of environment, and lay claim
to no particular distinction above those who were my companions. And
yet, as I look back over the past, I must be excused for a feeling of
pride in having been a part, however insignificant, in the building here
on the western rim of the continent, of the mighty Empire of the
Pacific.
To have seen proud cities rear their heads from a wilderness--from a
cluster of log huts in a primeval forest--whose everlasting stillness
was alone broken by the yells of savage men, the long howl of the wolf
and the scream of the panther--is something to have lived for.
And yet I question if those who now possess this land of plenty--this
land of "milk and honey" ever give a thought for those who "Conquered
the Wilderness" and made it a fit and safe abode for the millions of
civilized men and women who now enjoy its blessings.