The sheriff said to him:
“Tom, did you rob this man?”
“Oh, yes,” he replied, “and here is the money,” at the same time throwing the purse upon the table.
When asked why he did it he replied,
“Well, it was such a good chance that I really couldn’t help it.”
The murder and robbery of Capt. Harmon of Smith’s Flat, a mining camp a few miles above Placerville, is worth mentioning, for there is one very mysterious circumstance in connection with this man which is difficult of explanation.
The captain had been a seafaring man for many years, and, having become tired of the sea, he came up to this mining camp in the spring of ’57 and opened a small store. It was noticed by many, in fact it was well known among all who had made his acquaintance, that he was almost daily in the habit of seating himself in the back part of his store and holding a conversation, as he very earnestly maintained, with his wife who had been dead about seventeen years, and with a daughter also who had been dead but a few years.
It was useless to argue or to reason with him in relation to the matter, for he maintained most positively that such was really the case, and they often conversed upon their family affairs and of events which had occurred in early life. It was the general opinion among all that the captain was of course insane upon that subject, and for this reason but little was ever said about it. Spiritualism, at this early day, at least in this part of the country, had not yet been invented, although at the East it was being developed gradually, having at this date progressed as far as table-tipping and other similar phenomena. For this reason, when the captain maintained that he was conversing with the spirits of his wife and daughter, it could not be accepted.
If I am not mistaken, I think that he had been in the camp about eighteen months, when, one day, he made known to a number of his customers that he had been informed the day before by his wife that he was soon to leave all earthly affairs and live with his family in the other world. He said that his wife did not inform him just when he should die, or by what means, and she had refused to enlighten him any further, only insisting that he would soon be with them. The news seemed to make him feel rather down-hearted; not, as he said, from a knowledge of the fact of his going, but the means which would be used to take his life. He had no enemies that he knew of, and was, furthermore, in very good health. The boys tried to laugh him out of the thought of such a thing, but it was of no use. He received the news from his wife upon a Sunday, and on the morning of the Thursday following he was found upon his bed dead, having been killed with an axe by a Mexican. The safe was broken open and robbed also. The axe was soon found in a shaft, and the Mexican who owned it was arrested, tried and executed.
Another instance in which two courageous and bright specimens of young America took a very active part, occurred in Eldorado County, some time during the year ’63.