Vigilantes: Table of Contents
|
The Vigilantes of Montana:
1864 Revisited
|
Psychotic Viciousness
Where the authors get this characterization of Plummer is not known. Most people, even his enemies such as Sanders and Langford, found him to
be well mannered, intelligent, soft spoken, a whist player,
and not given to drunkenness.
In his term as elected Town Marshall in Nevada City, California, he proved to be a dedicated
law enforcement officer. True, he could be quick on the draw, and when provoked could kill, as was the case in the shooting of Jack Cleveland in
Bannack. There are several accounts of this, but the upshot was that, although Plummer turned himself in for jury trial, he was acquitted, mostly because Cleveland had previously boasted that he was out to
kill Plummer, and secondly because Cleveland was a strong suspect in the
killing and robbery of a young man named George Evans a few days before.
The Cleveland shooting took place in mid-winter, 1863, after which, in a well
documented election, Henry Plummer was chosen Sheriff by a large
majority on May 24, 1863.
In Perilous Passage A Narrative of the Montana Gold Rush 1862-1864, Edwin Purple gives a detailed description of the fracas between Plummer and Cleveland (who he calls Cunningham), and the resultant trial. See pages 134-147.
In Gold Camp Desperadoes, University of Oklahoma Press,
1993, Mather and Boswell give an extended account of the feud between
Plummer and Cleveland. See pages 107-122.
In all accounts, however, Plummer is shown to have acted in self-defense.
