The Montana Vigilantes, 1863–1870: Gold, Guns, and Gallows by Mark C. Dillon (review)

Mark C. Dillon’s analysis of the vigilantes of Bannack, Alder Gulch, and Helena in Montana Territory is the most detailed, insightful, and legally nuanced yet produced. Dillon sets the context for vigilantism in the facts that no formal and effective law enforcement institutions were in place, the creation or wealth in gold was rapid and effusive, and the transportation of wealth, whether gold or cattle, was not secure. Robbery and murder knew no limits, and in the case of Henry Plummer, the sheriff was the mastermind of crime. Plummer used a criminal syndicate of spies who identified travelers transporting wealth, marked target vehicles, used road agents to converge on the target, discovered victims, and robbed them. They went to safe houses and murdered any victims who reported the crimes and gave details on the road agent’s identity. Dillon meticulously details the facts of these robberies. In December 1863 the Vigilance Committee of Alder Gulch formed, with over 1,000 signing the vigilante oath. The hangings followed.

Formal law arrived on December 5, 1864, when Judge Hazekiah Hosmer stepped on Montana soil to wrest law enforcement from the Vigilance Committee. Hosmer convened a grand jury, commended the Vigilance Committee for hanging the guilty, and declared his court and grand jury to be the legitimate legal institutions. He warned the Vigilance Committee members that failure to yield to legitimate law enforcement would result in their indictment. Then the Bannack Statutory of 1865 created a criminal code. Vigilantism declined as a result.

Helena experienced a law enforcement vacuum with the resignation of the first territorial supreme court judge and a four-month hiatus of the second judge. Between June 9 and November 23, 1865, vigilante hangings in Helena mirrored the number at Alder Gulch and Bannack. Hangings reached a peak and then declined until 1870. Helena’s vigilantes worked over a longer period and targeted individual criminals. It was not a syndicate and did not target law enforcement officers.

Judge Lyman Munson arrived in Helena and saw Tack Silvie swinging from the Hanging Tree. Manson convened a grand jury on August 12, 1865, and did not challenge the vigilantes in his address to the grand jury. Fourteen vigilante executions followed in the next eighteen months.

This book is distinctive because of heavy annotation and incisive analysis of the facts, including alternative interpretations of events. Dillon’s apt legal analysis of the 1863 George Ires trial is outstanding. Dillon clearly distinguishes the rules of evidence of 1863 from current Montana law. He concluded that the amount of process that was due defendants in 1863–64 was limited, and far less than expected today. Dillon uses extensive legal citations in footnotes to make his case. He also deploys comparative analysis of procedures and sentences, concluding that they were below the general procedural standards of the day. He clearly states that under most of the circumstances, the vigilantes fell short of affording the basic legal protections to their prisoners.

This book is a model for historians to follow when dealing with 19th-century criminal proceedings. Establishing historical context includes examining the laws in books as well as the law in action.