Legends of the Old West - OUTLAWS Ep. 7 | Henry Plummer: “Montana Vigilantes”

Episode Date: March 9, 2022

Henry Plummer becomes the sheriff of Bannack, Montana, but many believe he also runs a gang of killers and thieves. Before long, powerful men organize and authorize crews of vigilantes who systematically hang their enemies. Henry Plummer, the sheriff of Bannack, is first on the hit list, and his story ends in mystery. Was he an upstanding sheriff or the leader of a gang of road agents, or both? Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join To advertise on this podcast, please email [e-mail] For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please visit AirwaveMedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin’s World, Once Upon A Crime, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1863, Henry Plummer was somewhere between 28 and 33 years old. No one knows his exact date of birth, but he was a relatively young man. By that time, he'd been a well-intentioned lawman in Nevada City, California. He might not have been universally respected, but he meant well. His career ended with a murder conviction when he killed a man who had been hurting his wife. Henry may have been doing something noble by protecting the woman from an abusive husband, or he might have been doing something noble and having an affair with her. He managed to avoid a lengthy sentence at San Quentin due to his poor health,

but then he went on to kill two more men. He escaped from jail to avoid another prosecution. He became a fugitive, and then he was an accessory to the murder of a man in Idaho. After building himself up from nothing, Henry had taken a spectacular fall, and things only seemed to be getting worse, until he fell in love and married a beautiful young woman who inspired him to turn his life around. He returned to the business of enforcing the law as opposed to breaking it. He was on the rise again. Or maybe he was just more clever after spending time on the run with shady characters. Maybe his apparent change of heart wasn't genuine. Maybe it merely served as

a cover for a far more nefarious agenda. Many people believed, and still do today, that when Henry Plummer put on a badge for the second time, he wasn't just a sheriff. He was a sheriff and the leader of a gang of outlaws. The supposed Plummer Gang was a band of highwaymen, a collection of cutthroats and thieves who killed travelers, robbed stagecoaches, and pirated shipments of gold. They were road agents who terrorized Montana. They were real, but was Henry Plummer really the all-powerful man behind the curtain? We'll see. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch.

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community we've built here, selling our beanies, sweatshirts, and mugs to fans of our shows without taking up too much time from all the other work we do to bring you even more great content. And it's not just us. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. Shopify is also the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. $1 per month trial period at Shopify.com slash Realm, all lowercase. Go to Shopify.com slash R-E-A-L-M now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Realm. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the stories of two outlaws, John Wesley Harden and Henry Plummer. This is Episode 7, Henry Plummer, Montana Vigilantes. Bannock was relatively peaceful for a mining town. In 1863, Bannock was technically in Idaho Territory.

Montana Territory was still a year away from creation. And the peaceful times in the earliest days were attributed to the irony that everyone was so heavily armed. A confrontation could turn deadly fast, so turning the other cheek was usually the safer alternative. Bannock's first murder on record was in January of 1863. The motive was believed to be robbery, and the victim was a man named George Evans. He went out to round up some cattle and never came home. After two days, a search party went out to look for him. All they found was a bundle of blood-soaked clothes hidden in a badger hole.

The clothes were later identified as belonging to George Evans. Whether a body was eventually recovered or not is unknown, but George Evans was never seen again alive, so the circumstantial evidence that he was murdered was pretty strong. Even more circumstantial evidence put Jack Cleveland near the spot where the bloody clothes were discovered on the day Evans disappeared. Locals noted that Cleveland was known to be broke, but then suddenly he was flush with cash. Jack Cleveland was assumed to have been the murderer, but there was no way to prove it. Not surprisingly, it didn't help Jack's popularity around town.

A few days after Evans' body was found, Jack went into the Goodrich Hotel, a place where Henry Plummer was known to socialize. According to a variety of reports, a drunken belligerent Cleveland began to harass a man named Jeff Perkins about some money Perkins allegedly owed him. Perkins denied it, and Plummer stepped in and finally convinced Cleveland that he was mistaken. Cleveland became belligerent again and made threats against Henry until Henry had had enough. He allegedly stood up, drew his pistol, and said to his former traveling companion, you son of a bitch, I'm tired of this. He fired once into the ceiling and again into Cleveland's stomach. Cleveland doubled over and fell to his knees. And then as the story goes, he said to

Plummer, you won't shoot me while I'm down, will you? Plummer replied, no, get up. Cleveland struggled to his feet and Plummer shot him once in the head and once in the chest. He then holstered his gun, left Jack Cleveland on the floor, somehow still alive, and walked through the snow to his cabin. Bannock's de facto sheriff at the time was a man named Jack Crawford, who was also the town butcher. Crawford arrived at the saloon and hauled Jack Cleveland back to the butcher shop to try to help him survive. And this is where, once again, the story gets murky. Some say Crawford needed blankets to try to keep his shooting victim warm, so he decided the best place to find them would be the cabin of the man who had done the shooting,

Henry Plummer. It would also give him the opportunity to question Henry about the events at the saloon. According to Crawford's version of the story, when he arrived at the cabin, he found Henry in what he described as an agitated state. Henry demanded to know if Cleveland had made any accusations against him that could create problems for Henry. If he had, Henry threatened to go back and finish the job. Henry was apparently unaware that most folks in town already knew about his past and his problems with the law. But now he had a lot to lose. He was planning to marry Electa Bryan and bring her back to Bannock. He was hoping to start a new life with a clean slate, and he didn't want the likes of Jack Cleveland or anybody else messing that up.

After hearing Henry's murderous rant, Jack Crawford nervously read between the lines. He felt like he might be in danger. Henry seemed ready to kill Cleveland to stop him from revealing secrets. So what would Henry do to Jack Crawford, the man who'd heard the secrets? Crawford was now afraid for his life, and he decided to solve his Henry Plummer problem, one that probably only existed in his head, in the most cowardly way imaginable. cowardly way imaginable. Jack Cleveland died from his gunshot wounds. But because he was mostly hated in town, and because he was the number one suspect in the murder of George Evans, nobody really cared if Henry was held responsible for Cleveland's death, so he wasn't. But Sheriff Jack Crawford still had

concerns for his own safety. He was convinced that given the opportunity, Henry Plummer would take him out next. Knowing he was no match for Henry in a gunfight, he went a different route. According to an eyewitness, Crawford hid in a doorway and waited for Henry to walk down the street. When Henry's back was turned, Crawford raised his rifle and fired. The bullet hit Henry in the right arm and shattered the bones. Henry spun toward Crawford and dared him to finish the job. But Crawford turned on his heels and ran. And not just from the scene of the shooting, he fled Bannock altogether. The bullet wound was severe,

and the doctor who worked on Henry said his arm would have to be amputated. Henry wouldn't allow it. When the doctor said that if he didn't agree to the amputation, he was putting his life at risk, Henry still refused. The doctor did his best to surgically remove as many bone fragments as possible, but he couldn't promise that Henry would be able to

use the arm, or survive if infection set in. For days, Henry's arms swelled and his fever got dangerously high. It looked like Henry's time might be up, but then his fever broke and Henry lived to tell the tale. The incident with Jack Cleveland cemented Henry's reputation as someone not to be toyed with, and the courage he showed in refusing to allow his arm to be amputated earned respect. So when Bannock decided it was time to elect a sheriff, someone who knew more about the law than Sirloin Stakes, Henry was encouraged to toss his hat in the ring. And despite his past as a convicted murderer, a San Quentin inmate, and a fugitive from the law, he did just that. When election day rolled around, Henry won by a considerable margin. rolled around, Henry won by a considerable margin. The people of Bannock clearly wanted a sheriff who was not afraid to stand up to men like Jack Cleveland. Two days after winning the election,

Henry returned to Fort Benton to marry Electa and bring her to Bannock. Her aunt and uncle soon followed. Henry Plummer's future was finally looking bright again, but there were still doubters. Some people speculated, and still do today, that it was all an elaborate and well-disguised trick. They thought maybe Henry was pretending to enforce the law, when in fact he was regularly and egregiously breaking it. The persistent rumor was that Sheriff Plummer was an Old West version of Jekyll and Hyde. And Henry didn't do himself any favors after becoming sheriff. He made decisions that puzzled folks in Bannock. When it came time to hire deputies, Henry didn't pick the cream of the crop. There were four in total. D.H. Dillingham, Buck Stenson, Jack Gallagher, and Ned Ray.

All of them were men with terrible reputations for being trigger-happy, violent, and untrustworthy. So the townspeople naturally asked, why would a sheriff who was sworn to uphold the law hire such a motley crew of men who were known for consistently breaking it? For those who already suspected the sheriff of being a questionable character, Henry's move was like throwing kerosene on a fire that was already burning. And then the robbery started. For payroll masters, miners, merchants, and wealthy passengers traveling by stagecoach, many carrying large sums of cash, gold, and other valuables, the threat of robbery by armed and dangerous highwaymen was

very real. Stagecoach robberies were commonplace throughout the West, but in the areas around Bannock and Virginia City, another mining town 80 miles east, the spring and summer of 1863 were relatively quiet. Although an exact number of holdups would be impossible to know, only two stagecoach robberies were reported. But it wasn't long after the robberies that rumors began to circulate that the gang of highwaymen who held up those two stagecoaches were Sheriff Plummer's deputies. highwaymen who held up those two stagecoaches were Sheriff Plummer's deputies. And worse than that, many believed they were acting on orders from Sheriff Plummer himself. The rumors were wholly unsubstantiated, but that didn't stop them from spreading.

Although there are many today who still believe Henry Plummer was a gang leader with a badge, most historians are skeptical because of a lack of solid evidence. To date, none has been offered. But if Henry Plummer was not a criminal mastermind, how did the rumors get started? Well, he was an easy target. His less-than-Sterling reputation was no secret. target. His less-than-Sterling reputation was no secret. Folks in Bannock may not have known all the sordid details, but they knew about his murder conviction and that he spent time in San Quentin. They voted for him anyway, so as far as they were concerned, he had served his debt to society. But Henry probably didn't know that a power struggle was unfolding in Idaho Territory. It was a huge area, one that would eventually be divided into three territories. There was enormous wealth at stake, and the men who controlled the territories controlled the wealth. To gain control, men like Henry Plummer had to go.

plumber had to go. Henry was an oddball. He was a staunch Democrat, which was typically the party of the Confederacy. This was 1863, the middle of the Civil War, but Henry was also a supporter of the Union. He was a rare and strange hybrid. Many of the wealthy and powerful decision-makers in the territory were Republicans, and they wanted the Sheriff's office to go to one of their own. They began a concerted effort to remove Henry. Spreading rumors was only the beginning, but it was effective. Henry apparently did his best to ignore the rumors, but there wasn't much he could do to stop them. In the meantime, he went about his business upholding the law.

That summer of 1863, a man named Peter Horan murdered his mining partner and was later arrested by the sheriff. Horan was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. Sheriff Plummer had a gallows built and he presided over the execution, which was an eerie foreshadowing of what was to come. As the rumors continued to swirl, Henry's new wife, Electa, grew tired of spending so much time alone while her husband was out, hopefully keeping the peace and not committing robberies.

And she was possibly tired of hearing the rumors that her husband was a brazen criminal. She decided to pack it up and head east to stay with relatives in Iowa. But before she left, she confided in a friend that Henry planned to join her soon. That only created more speculation that the sheriff was untrustworthy. As far as his enemies were concerned, it was all the more reason to get rid of him, and the faster the better. After Electa left Bannock, Henry sold their cabin to her aunt and uncle, but remained with them as a boarder. He also sold the stock he owned in a local gold claim. It did seem as though he might be planning to leave town, and if the rumors were true that

he ran a gang of highwaymen, he would be leaving with a pile of stolen cash and gold. But if he was going to leave, he was slow about it, and that would cost him dearly. President Abraham Lincoln appointed a former Ohio congressman named Sidney Edgerton, a Republican, to the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Idaho Territory. In June of 1863, the Edgerton family began its journey to Lewiston, the capital of Idaho Territory. But it took far longer than expected, and weather forced them to spend the winter in Bannock. Chief Justice Edgerton bought a cabin in the area, and it may or may not be a coincidence, but that's when the real craziness started.

Bannock and the neighboring town of Virginia City were primed for trouble. Vigilante justice was becoming more accepted across the land. Vigilante gangs grew in size and strength. They were dangerous and deadly, Si vous faites vos achats tout en travaillant, en mangeant ou même en écoutant ce balado, alors vous connaissez et aimez l'excitation du magasinage. Mais avez-vous ce frisson d'obtenir le meilleur deal? Les membres de Rakuten, eux, oui. Ils magasinent les marques qu'ils aiment et font d'importantes économies, en plus des remises en argent. Et vous pouvez aussi commencer à gagner des remises en argent dans vos magasins préférés, comme Old Navy, Best Buy et Expedia, et même

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in Bannock and Virginia City. They bonded over their dislike for Democrats and a collective agenda to lobby the federal government to split up Idaho territory. And around the same time, the string of violent acts increased. On October 25, 1863, highwaymen robbed a stagecoach on its way from Virginia City to Bannock. A man named Dan McFadden allegedly lost $2,500 in the holdup, but nobody was killed. The finger-pointing began immediately, and Henry Plummer and his

alleged gang became the prime suspects. And what really raised suspicion was the perception by many that Sheriff Plummer did not make much of an effort to find the robbers. It was a bad look, and it got worse. got worse. Not long after the holdup, a 15-year-old boy named Henry Tilden, who had traveled to Bannock with the Edgerton family, rode out in the snow one evening to look for a lost cow. When he returned without the cow, he claimed he had been thrown from his horse after he'd been held up by highwaymen. According to the young man, after the robbers were convinced he had no money, they let him go and he galloped away. And while he hurried home, his horse threw him, and he had the bruises to prove it. When asked if he could identify any of

the robbers, the boy said he could identify only one, Sheriff Plummer. Most historians today agree that Henry Tilden's story was completely fabricated, but at the time, it was a damning accusation. When another stagecoach was robbed a couple weeks later, just before Thanksgiving, one of the passengers said he recognized one of the robbers, but this time it wasn't Sheriff Plummer. The passenger said it was a man named George Ives, who happened to be a wealthy landowner and a Democrat. Ives was nowhere near the location of the robbery, but the rumor spread far and wide that he was one of the bandits. A couple weeks later, in December, a young German ranch hand was sent by his boss to George Ives' ranch to buy a couple mules. The boy never returned.

Days later, a hunter found the boy's body, naked and frozen in the snow near Virginia City. Ives was arrested and charged with murder, but with no evidence to support the charge. That didn't seem to be a problem. The prosecuting attorney was the nephew of the new Chief Justice of Idaho Territory, and the Chief Justice was thought by many to be the man who orchestrated George Ives' arrest. After a speedy trial that was held on two flatbed wagons in the middle of town, Ives was found guilty and sentenced to hang. The execution was carried out immediately by throwing a rope over the beam of a nearby building that was still under construction. Ives pleaded for enough time to write a letter to his mother, but he was denied his final wish.

a letter to his mother, but he was denied his final wish. According to witnesses, George Ives still proclaimed his innocence as the noose dropped around his neck, and he added one more thing before the rope was pulled. He said, Alec Carter killed the Dutchman. The young ranch hand was mistakenly thought to be Dutch instead of German. George Ives was executed on the spot, but the crowd believed his dying declaration. Now that they'd been whipped into a frenzy, they set out to find Alec Carter. Where or how this guy Carter fit into the picture, or even who he was, is still unclear. But the ranch owner who employed the young German also believed George Ives' dying declaration. He put together the same posse that arrested Ives and sent it to find Alec Carter. But not before a group of prominent officials decided it was time to formalize

their decision to create a vigilance committee. Two days before Christmas of 1863, the prosecuting attorney, who was the nephew of the Chief Justice, drew up a document that served to authorize the committee. It read as follows, We, the undersigned, uniting ourselves in a party for the laudable purpose of arresting thieves and murderers

and recovering stolen property, do pledge ourselves upon our sacred honor each to all others and solemnly swear that we will reveal no secrets, violate no laws of right, and never desert each other or our standard of justice. So help us God, as witness our hand and seal this 23rd of December, A.D., 1863. It was the beginning of the purge. History has essentially absolved George Ives of murder. His only crime appears to have been that he could

potentially create problems for the men who wanted to take over the new territory after Idaho was split up. According to many, that group was led by, or at least given tacit approval from, Sidney Edgerton. It was a blossoming political machine similar to Tammany Hall in New York and the soon-to-be Santa Fe Ring in New Mexico that would eventually snare a young outlaw called Billy the Kid. In Bannock, the leaders of the new Vigilance Committee wrote a long list of men who were, in their collective opinions, most deserving of being hanged. most deserving of being hanged. The dirty work would be handled by two groups who were hired to do the job, one in Bannock and the other in Virginia City. The men on the hit list ranged in age from 21 years old to 45.

Half of them, for whatever reason, were in the business of raising or boarding horses, and the other half were saloon keepers, bartenders, or lawmen. Historians are quick to point out that all the men on the list were also personal enemies of the vigilante leaders. While the vigilante groups continued their search for the mysterious Alec Carter, they came across a man named Erastus Yeager, who went by Red. The men threatened to hang him if he didn't give up the names of suspected road agents who were responsible for the latest wave of stagecoach robberies. Hoping he wouldn't be harmed, Red supposedly provided the men with a list of names. It's commonly believed that according to the vigilantes, Red's list

exactly matched the list of men whom the vigilantes already wanted to hang. That would be a pretty remarkable coincidence. And if Red thought his cooperation would be rewarded, he was wrong. In hindsight, it didn't matter if he wrote a list or who was on it, the vigilantes killed him. The gang hanged Red and his companion, a man named George Brown, and then they went on to their next victims. On January 10th, 1864, the mob went after Henry Plummer. The vigilantes, somewhere between 50 and 75 strong by now, rode up to the cabin where Henry was living. Mrs. Vale, the aunt of Henry's wife, became hysterical, and Henry did his best to calm her down by telling her it was just a business matter. As soon as he stepped

outside, Henry's wrists were tied and the mob took him to the same gallows he built three months earlier to hang one of his prisoners. The vigilantes also caught two of Henry's deputies, Ned Ray and Buck Stinson. They were allegedly part of Henry Plummer's gang of highwaymen, and both were on the hit list. Ned Ray was hanged first, but according to witnesses, he didn't go quickly. Ned was apparently able to slide a finger between his neck and the rope, which only served to prolong the inevitable. When he dropped, his neck didn't snap, and instead, he strangled to death. Buck Stinson went next, and his death was quick. Finally, it was Henry's turn.

All he asked for was a good drop, a fast and painless death like Stinson. After the noose was tightened around his neck, and Henry looked up at the stars in the night sky one last time, he got the good drop he hoped for and died instantly. The short and controversial life of Henry Plummer was over. But the vigilantes were nowhere near finished. After Henry and his deputies, the Vigilance Committee and its hired executioners hanged another 18 men. And while they rampaged, Congress did as anticipated.

It divided Idaho Territory into three smaller territories. Idaho shrunk to nearly the size of the current state, Montana was created, and the rest went to Dakota Territory. Four years later, in 1868, Wyoming Territory was created out of the portion that had previously been given to Dakota. The story of Henry Plummer and his possible gang of road agents has to be one of the most complicated and mysterious in the West. So much of it is rumor and speculation and presumption, but that's what's kept the legend alive all these years. And finally, Bannock, Montana, the town where Henry Plummer was once the sheriff, is now a classic ghost town of the Old West. It's not easy to get to, but if you want to make the pilgrimage and see the old buildings, then imagine what it must have been like with vigilantes and

road agents prowling the area. It's still there and waiting. Thanks for listening to the stories of John Wesley Harden and Henry Plummer here on Legends of the Old West. Next season, we're tackling the story of another complicated legend, Tom Horn, and his role in the Johnson County War. Stay tuned for more details. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program

don't have to wait week to week. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Michael Byrne. Original music by Rob Valliere.

I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com for more details and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Please visit airwavemedia.com to check out other great podcasts like Ben Franklin's World, Once Upon a Crime, and many more. Thanks for listening.