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Book Review, © Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
This book is the biography of Henry Plummer, Sheriff of Bannack, Idaho Territory, in what is now Montana. The book is very interesting, although the writing style took some getting used to (run-on sentences).
Henry Plummer (originally "Plumer") was hanged, with two of his deputies, on 10 Jan. 1864, by vigilantes. He was accused to being the leader of an outlaw gang, on flimsy evidence, and was hanged without a trial. And he is now considered, by many people, to have been guilty, mainly because he was hanged. It was a dangerous time, when life was cheap. Although soft-spoken, Plummer was a dangerous man, having killed several men, in self-defense. He had been in prison, for killing a man, in self-defense. The jury decided that Plummer had been committing adultery with the man's wife. There were rumors that Plummer was a bad man. The vigilantes feared him, perhaps with good reason. But, they never bothered to prove his guilt.
And, it would seem that the vigilantes made a huge profit from hanging Plummer, as they probably got his gold mines. His wife didn't get them.
See my review, Vigilante Victims - by R.E.Mather and F.E.Boswell and Montana's Righteous Hangmen - by Lew L. Callaway.
To order this book, click Amazon.com (goes directly to this book). Amazon.com says that it is out-of-print, even though it is copyright 1998.