Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
While in Virginia City this time Slade made threats against
several people, and during his spree did something, I never knew
just what, and a warrant was sworn out and placed in the hands of
a marshal for his arrest. The marshal found him in a gambling
house, and in some way managed to get him into the court-room
before he suspected anything, not reading the warrant to him until
they were in the court-room.
When informed that he was under arrest, Slade did not wait to hear
the warrant read, but jerked it from the hands of the officer,
tore it in two, wadded it up in his hands and threw it on the
floor and stamped on it with his foot. Then he turned and walked
out, and was in no wise backward in telling the officer, as well
as the judge of the court, what his opinion was of such
proceedings.
About the middle of that afternoon the Vigilantes, some twenty in
number, came to where Slade was standing, took him in charge, and
marched him off up the street. I happened to be standing near when
they took him in tow and followed close in the rear while they
were marching him off to the place of execution. I don't think
that he drew three breaths during that time but what he was
pleading for his life.
He told them after he was on the dry goods box that if they would
release him he would leave the United States just as soon as he
could get away. I have seen men die in various ways, but I never
saw a man die as cowardly as this man Slade. When he found they
were determined he begged and plead for them to let him live until
he could see his wife; he said it was for a business affair. They
did not wait for anything, but as soon as they were ready they
kicked the box from under him, thus ending the life of another of
the worst men that ever lived.
The awful life of this man is another story that would be too long
to give here.
It seemed as though as soon as the arrest was made some of Slade's
friends had started to inform his wife, from the fact that just as
they were carrying the body from the gallows to the hotel she was
seen coming across the hill as fast as her horse could carry her.
I was told afterward that had she only got there before the
hanging took place he never would have hanged, for parties that
knew her said that before she would have seen him hanged she would
have shot him herself. I was standing in the hotel where the body
lay when she came in. She stood silently looking at the corpse for
a few minutes, and then turning to the crowd that was standing
around, said: "Will some one tell me who did this?" No one
answering her, she repeated the question, and finally the third
time she repeated the question at the top of her voice. At this I
turned and walked out, and that was the last time I ever saw her.
This was the last hanging we had that winter and spring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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