Book Review: The Murders at Convict Lake by George William III

Book Review: The Murders at Convict Lake by George William III, illustrated by Dave Comstock, TBR Trust, Carson City, Nevada, 1984.

I came upon this story when we visited Convict Lake in the mammoth lakes area of Western California.  This story starts in Nevada.  The State Prison was at Carson City, the state capitol.  On Sunday evening, September 17, 1871, there was a mass break out at the prison.  Frank Clifford was one of the planners.  There was only one guard on duty, in light of it being Sunday.  This guard, while returning the men to their cells after dinner, was struck from behind by a make-shift weapon.  From there, the prisoners managed to dig into a crawl space in the ceiling, and travel to another guard’s room.  That guard awoke startled, and was able to escape and warn the prison staff.  However the prisoners were able to getting into a storm room and steal some weapons.  Frank Denver, the warden and Lieutenant Governor confronted them, and shot Clifford in the stomach with a derringer.  He went to retrieve a larger weapon he too was struck in the head by a metal object.  He was shot with his own gun.  Bob Dedman, a lifer, but personal staff of the warden took up a chair and beat the prisoners back.  He too was knocked senseless and also left for dead.  Both these men would recover.  The prisoners now gained access to the armory, and armed themselves with rifles and shot guns and pistols along with ample ammunition.  Ed Goyette, a prisoner, saved Dedmon’s six-year-old daughter who wondered into the midst of the shooting.  F.M. Isaacs, a guard in the court yard fired a six-shooter at this prisoners until he himself was hit in the leg.  John Newhouse, a guard shot E.B. Parsons of the Verdi train robbery.  He himself was shot in the back of the head but survived.  Another guard, Perasich, also fired and hit three prisoners before being shot in the hip.  Matt Pixley, owner of the hotel that was adjacent to the prison attempted to fire as well but was shot dead by Charlie Jones.  Goyette also helped wounded staff make it to safety.  Twenty-nine would escape, heading in different directions.  This story follows the train of six convicts who headed south to Mono County in California.  This included Jones who was in prison for murder, John Burke for manslaughter, Tilton Cockerill a Verdi train robber, Bedford Roberts, the youngest at 19 in jail for stage robbery,  Moses Black for larceny and Leander Morton in jail for mail robbery.  He was considered very dangerous.  Several different posses followed them along their way at different times, through the desserts of western Nevada and then into California and past Mono Lake.  Along the way the committed several crimes, the most heinous being the murder of a Pony Express rider Billy Poor by Jones and Morton.  This turned the locals against them and urged the local posses to continue after them.  September 23 the posse finally overtook them.  Half the criminals were gone, Jones, Burke and Cockerill, looking for berries.  However Robert Morrison of the posse spotted the group by the Monte Diablo Creek (now Convict Creek).  A gun battle ensued, which did not go well for Morrison and he was killed by Black.  Roberts, the young criminal was wounded in this exchange.  Another member of the posse was also killed, Mono Jim, a Native American who was holding horses.  Jim thought the convicts were posse members and a gun battle ensued when he realized his error.  He was killed by Morton.  The lake here is now called Convict Lake and the highest peak behind the lake Morrison Peak. 

The convicts continued their journey south, hoping to cross the Sierra Nevada range.  In the attempt they soon lost a couple more horses (they had collected several from the posse) and were eventually captured.  They were taken to Bishop, and tried to blame the murder of Morrison on Roberts.  However he was also captured where the other two had left him for dead.  The men were being taken back to Carson by wagon, when a vigilante group intervened.  This group took possession of the prisoners, and held a quick trial.  The two older, Black and Morton were hung from a make shift gallows with a poll set upon the chimney of a house on one side, and a tripod on the other.  Roberts was returned to Carson as the vote was tied in his case for hanging or no. 

19 of the escaped prisoners were tried for murder.  Jones was not captured and either died in the desert or escaped.  Two had already been hung.  Eight were unaccounted for.  The convicts were found not guilty of murder, as the murder were blamed on Jones and Morton.  Later, the original conviction of Roberts would be overturned on appeal.

A couple years later, the Nevada State Legislature voted to appoint a professional warden, to be assigned by the governor.  Dedman did not agree with this, as it was part of the duties of Lieutenant Governor he had won by election.  A battle almost ensued when he was being replaced, but he finally acquiesced and moved to San Francisco.

Bodie State Park: California State Park System

The brochure for Bodie State Park is very interesting.  It provides information for a walking tour, but that information tells some rather significant history.  Of course it doesn’t have all the history as only 5 percent of the original structures remain.  Many are lost due to fire and time.

fire station

The first home indicates the occupants Frank and Donald McDonnell were miners.  However Donald’s wife was also a post mistress.  A later occupant, Alice Dolan was a school teacher.  Her father had been a sheriff who had been killed in a shootout near Mono Lake. 

There is only one church remaining, Methodist Church.  It was built in 1882.  A catholic Church built at the same time was burned in 1928. 

David Victor Cain sold Bodie to the California State Park system in 1962.  His wife was a school teacher.  His father was James S. Cain who was in the lumber business, and for a time had barges and a steamship on Mono Lake to transport wood.  James Cain married Martha Delilah Wells just before coming to Bodie in 1879.  He acquired the Standard Company through court action and was the principal owner in town.  He also

Tom Miller worker for a rail service, Bodie Railway and Lumber Company which ran from a Lumber Mill by Mono Lake to Bodie.  He was a teamster so perhaps it was a horse drawn railway.  Jeffrey pine from Mono Mills was used for mine timbers and to fuel boilers.  Emil Billeb was the last superintendent of the rail company which ran until 1917. 

Harvey Boone ran a large stable complex with a saddle room.  He also ran a general store with partner James W. Wright.

There are two mortuaries remaining in Bodie.  You can still see caskets in one of these. 

The Miners Union Hall was an important building.  In addition to union meets, religious services and social gatherings were held here, including Independence Day and Christmas parties, masquerade parties, and school recitals. 

The I.O.O.F (Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 279) hosted a fraternal order.  The order used the upstairs while down stairs was for a furniture business, and later Bodie Athletic Club.  There was also a Masonic Lodge in town from 1878 to 1918. 

Thomas Treloar was murdered in Bodie in 1881.  Joseph DeRoche, who was romantically involved with Treloar’s wife shot him as he left a dance at the Miners Union Hall.  DeRoche was arrested, but escaped capture after a few hours.  A posse recaptured him two days later and he was brought back to Bodie for trial.  However a vigilante committee (“601”) took him from his jail cell and hung him.  This resulted in a demotion for town Constable John Kirgan.

At one time there was a casino in Bodie owned by Horace F. Swasey.

Eli Johl took up painting.  Her husband was a prominent miner and he was fairly successful, being able to purchase homes and saloons. 

Sam Leon’s Bar had a barbershop attached run by Joe Hayner, the last barber in Bodie. 

The fire house has a bell tower.  It was rebuilt in the 1930s by the California Conservation Corps.  Many fires were battled over the years, the biggest being July 25, 1892 and June 23, 1932.  The 1892 fire consumed 60 buildings and started in a restaurant on Main Street.  Efforts to fight the fire were delayed due to a valve closure.  The 1932 fire was also difficulty to fight as a screen at the reservoir worked poorly and pipes became clogged.  It is said that the 1932 fire destroyed about 90 percent of the town.  There are 100 buildings remaining so this would be a loss of 900 buildings.  This fire was blamed on a toddler who liked to play with fire.  It started at the Sawdust Corner Saloon at the corner of Main Street and Union.  The Occidental and U. S. Motels were destroyed as was most of the center of town.

1931

after fire

today

The Wheaton an Luhrs building was a store built in the 1880s.  It through the years also housed a land office and a hydroelectric company that transmitted electricity from Lundy Canyon.  Josie Pearl worked as a cook here for a boarding house.  She also mined on the side. 

The Bon Ron Lodging House became a school after the original school burned down.  Its highest enrollment was 1879 with 615 students.  It closed in 1942.

Bodie had a baseball team in the early 1900s and Dan McMillan, who had only one arm, was the manager. 

Boarding housings were common to house single men who worked in the mines. 

Canadian Roderick McInnis was a miner but known for his wrestling talents. 

Several people served the community as doctor, among them Dr. John A Street.  Doctors were kept busy with accident victims, smallpox, choler and pneumonia. 

The Standard Mill was the most successful of the 30 mining companies in Bodie.  They extracted $18 million in gold over 38 years.  Gold was extracted by different techniques over the years including crushing with heavy iron bars,  Mercury and later cyanide were also used int the extraction process.   The Standard Mine area is also known as Bunker Hill and Bullion Mine.  The original Mill was destroyed by fire in 1898 and rebuilt in 1899.  Electricity was brought to the mill in 1893 from a hydroelectric plant 13 miles away.  This was one of the first long distance transmissions of electricity.  Theodore Hoover, brother of Herbert Hoover was mine superintendent for a time.

It is bragged that main street Bodie as a full mile of one- and two-story buildings at one time, before the fires.  It has residents from many different parts of the world, including Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico.  There was a large African American community and a large Chinese community.  1880 census shows 253 Chinese residents (Chinese population may have been greater).  Only two buildings remain of the significant Chinatown.  The Chinatown included Taoist Temple and opium dens.  The Chinese were not allowed to join the Miner’s Union which limited their economic possibilities.  They mostly made money by operating laundries and selling vegetables and firewood.  There were also 35 native Paiutes in the 1880 census.  There life was disrupted by the mines, however some worked in the mines.  The hunter-gatherer lifestyle was impacted. 

The Bodie Bank was never robbed.  However a night time burglary yielded $2,000 cash and some bullion.  Only the vault remained after the 1932 fire. 

Bodie had its red-light district known as Bonanza Street, Maiden Lane or Virgin Alley.  This was mostly a row of one-room cribs where ladies lived and worked. 

Attorney Patrick Reddy served as the miner’s lawyer.  He had only one arm.  He maintained offices in both San Francisco and Bodie. 

Winters could be cold in Bodie with temperatures 30 or 40 below zero and severe winds.  Lots of wood was needed to heat the poorly insulated homes.  The winter of 1878-79 was especially severe with some new arrivals who were not prepared dying from exposure. 

Infrequent mining accidents resulted in loss of life and injury.  Dan McDonal was injured in an explosion.  Michael J. Cody died in a mining accident near Bridgeport. 

Ice was cut from local ponds and stored at the Tom Miller’s Ice House where it was available during the summer.  Sawdust was used to insulate the ice.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, by Rose Houk

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, by Rose Houk, Western national park Association, 2004.

Gunnison Canyon does not have a significant amount of human history.  However it has millions of years of geologic history.  There is at least one place to hike down to the canyon floor.  The hike is only a mile long, and drops 1800 feet.  Going down reportedly is hard, but it is not the problem.

The canyon has been carved over millions of years, at the rate of about an inch every century.  Before being controlled by dams, the spring runoff was significant and could push large boulders along.  This run off, over time has shaped the narrow canyon.  The narrowest point at the base is but 40 feet, “The Narrows.”  The Gunnison accounts for the depth, while the lack of side streams account for the narrowness of the canyon.  The narrowness is also the result of the steep grade of the river.  It descends 2100 feet over the course of the canyon, forty-three feet per mile. 

The black rocks of the canyon are basement rocks (meaning very old), estimated to be 1/7 billion years old.  Normally old rocks are beneath the surface.  Fault line action forced the layers of gneiss and schist to the surface.  They are interlaced with granite-like rock, pegmatite, which makes the lines on the rock.  Painted Wall is the highest cliff in all of Colorado, and would dwarf the Empire State Building.