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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1887)
100 THE WEST SHOBE. fying undesirable parties who came to famUy who were WWhanfl,!-. the city, to take their departure again, hands appear at the trial and tes and no overt act was committed. tified that he had done nothing beyond In February, 18CG, Ferd Patterson, the making of an improper proposal to for years one of the most noted despera- the young girl's mother. Richa was ac does on the coast, came down from the quitted of the charge and released from Boise mines. He expressed great con- custody by the committee, and for a tempt for the committee, and publicly time it was generally supposed he had insulted the head of the organization, taken his departure from the country; Thomas Donahue, one of the night po- but on the morning of July :14th, 18G6, lice, had once arrested Patterson in Port- his headless body was found under a land, for the crime of murder, and when tree on the bank of Walla Walla river, the latter saw him here he expressed an the head being still suspended from a intention of killing him. Donahue heard rope secured to a limb of the tree above, of this threat, and decided to do the kill- It then transpired that four of the vigi ing himself. Early in the morning of lantes, being displeased, ; for personal the fifteenth, he entered Boyle's barber reasons, with the acquittal and release shop and shot Patterson, who was sit- of Richa, had taken him from the farm ting in a chair and being shaved. The house where he was employed, and wounded man jumped up and ran into hanged him, the body remaining sus Welch's saloon, whither Donahue fol- pended until it had been severed at the lowed him and dispatched him with two neck. more shots from the revolver. After This was the last act of the commit Donahue's arrest, the excited sports tee, and it was fitting, that, when mem threatened to take him from the jail and bers could so take advantage of their hang him. Because Patterson was on connection with the organization to com their black list, the vigilantes endorsed mit such outrages upon peaceful citi the act of Donahue, and declared their zens with impunity, it should disband as intention of protecting him. The ex- having lived beyond the period of its citenicnt was great, but the committee usefulness. Thereafter the committee was too powerful to be resisted, and four used its power only for the protection of months later they aided the prisoner to its members, and to prevent any official escape. In September he was arrested investigation of its conduct In the in 8an Irancisco, but the vigilantes times of its greatest strength, both polit again came to the rescue, and paid the ical parties had been brought under its exnses of releasing him from the toils complete control, and it dictated the o n c, , election of ty officers, and On the 9th of June m, the commit- the selection of grand juries too blind to tbnllT811 6COtlie80 nnWul act8' 8tm ac tion to the result of their efforts, and an- tained this political ascendency, thepeo- nouncmg that arrangements had been dIa n0ru lU0 modo whereby it wouU be rendered 1 11 &?mZ themselves into more effective' than in UV7l lt f later they made their last midnight aU calldl ' f A man named KM, , , . , d a mm meeting. nonunated an in man BRmca 1Ucn m accused of deoeiuW t;rtw j i i ' i having attempted an outran unon Z il i i ' and BUCCQQded lnelect" person of a little girl, and he was 6ei 7 The dUtrict &d' by them and tried for the o S d meter ended. H. L. Wells.