CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF JOHN KEENE alias BOB BLACK, THE MURDERER OF HARRY SLATER.
“Oh, my offense is rank; it smells to Heaven;
It hath the primal, eldest curse upon it.”—Hamlet.
The stern, yet righteous, retribution which the Vigilantes had inflicted on the murderers and marauders in the southern and western part of the Territory, had worked its effect, and little need was there of any further examples, for a long time in the vicinity of Virginia and Bannack; but the restless spirit of enterprise which distinguishes the miners of the West, soon urged the pioneers to new discoveries, creating another centre of population, and thither, like a heron to her haunt, gathered the miners, and, of course, those harpies who live by preying upon them.
Many others who had spent a roving and ill regulated life, poured into the new diggings, which bore the name of Last Chance Gulch, situated on the edge of the romantic valley of the Prickly Pear, where now stands the flourishing city of Helena, in the county of Edgerton, second in size and importance only to Virginia, and rapidly increasing in extent, wealth and population. This place, which was then regarded as a new theatre of operation for the desperadoes, is almost one hundred and twenty-five miles N. N. W. from the metropolis of Montana; and no sooner were the diggings struck, by a party consisting mainly, of Colorado men, than a rush was made for the new gulch, and a town arose as if by magic. As usual in such cases, the first settlers were a motley crowd, and though many good men came with them, yet the number of “hard cases” was great, and was speedily increased by refugees from justice, and adventurers not distinguished for morality, or for any undue deference for the moral precepts contained in the sixth and eighth commandments.
Among the desperadoes and refugees who went over there was Harry Slater—a professional gambler and a “rough” of reputation. At Salt Lake, he would have shot Colonel W. F. Sanders, in the back, had he not been restrained; and many an outrage had he committed. His sudden flight from Virginia alone saved his neck, a mere accident having saved him from summary execution, the night before he left for Helena, where he met his death at the hands of John Keene formerly a bar-keeper to Samuel Schwab, of the Montana Billiard Saloon, in Virginia, and originally, as will be seen from the biographical sketch appended to this chapter—from the “River,” where, as “Bob Black” he figured as a first-class murderer and robber, before he came to the mining regions, and quarrelling with Slater at Salt Lake City, roused again those evil passions, the indulgence of which finally brought him to the fatal tree, in Dry Gulch, where the thieves and murderers of the northern section of the country have so often expiated their crimes by a sudden and shameful death.
Slater arrived first in Helena, and Keene, who had signalized his stay in Virginia by attempting to kill or wound Jem McCarty, the bar-keeper at Murat’s Saloon, (better known as the “Court’s,”) with whom he had a quarrel, by throwing large pieces of rock at him, through the window, at midnight. He, however, missed his mark; the sleepers escaped, and the proprietors sustained little more damage than the price of broken windows.
Slater did not know that Keene was in town, and was sitting in the door-way of Sam Greer’s saloon, with his head down, and his eyes shaded by his hat. Keene was walking along the street talking to a friend, when he spied Slater within a few feet of him, and without saying a word, or in any way attracting the notice of Slater, he drew his pistol and fired two shots, the first took effect over the outer angle of the eye, ranging downwards and producing instant death. The murderer put up his pistol and turned quickly down an alley, near the scene of the murder. Here he was arrested by C. J. D. Curtis, and “X” coming up, proposed to deliver him over to Sheriff Wood. This being done, the Sheriff put him, for want of a better place, in his own house, and kept him well guarded. As thousands of individuals will read this account who have no distinct or accurate notion of how a citizen trial, in the West, is conducted, the account taken by the special reporter of the Montana Post, which is minutely exact and reliable in all its details, is here presented. The report says that after the arrest of Keene and his committal to the custody of the Sheriff, strong manifestations of disgust were shown by the crowd, which soon collected in front of the temporary prison, and a committee at once formed to give the murderer a hasty trial. Sheriff Wood with what deputies he could gather around him in a few moments, sternly and resolutely refused to deliver the prisoner into the hands of the Committee, and at the same time made the most urgent and earnest appeals to those demanding the culprit; but finally, being carried by main force from his post, and overpowered by superior numbers, his prisoner was taken from him.
A court-room was soon improvised in an adjacent lumber yard, the prisoner marched into it, and the trial immediately commenced, Stephen Reynolds presiding, and the Jury composed of Messrs. Judge Burchett (Foreman,) S. M. Hall, Z. French, A. F. Edwards, —— Nichols, S. Kayser, Edward Porter, —— Shears, Major Hutchinson, C. C. Farmer and Ed. House.
No great formality was observed in the commencement of the impromptu trial. Dr. Palmer, Charles Greer and Samuel Greer were sworn to testify. Dr. Palmer started to give his evidence, when he was interrupted by the culprit, getting up and making a statement of the whole affair, and asserting that he acted in self-defense, as the deceased was in the act of rising with his hand on his pistol, and had threatened to take his life, and on a former occasion, in Great Salt Lake City, had put a Derringer into his mouth.
A Mr. Brobrecker then got up and made some very appropriate remarks, cautioning the men on the jury not to be too hasty, but to well and truly perform their duty; weigh the evidence well, and give a verdict such as their conscience would hereafter approve.