On this day, May 24, in 1863, citizens in Montana elected Henry Plummer as their sheriff, not realizing he was a fugitive outlaw who would use his office to rob and kill them.
Seven years earlier, the well-spoken Plummer was elected sheriff in the California gold-mining town of Nevada City, but was convicted the next year of killing an unarmed man. Plummer claimed he had acted in self-defense, but witnesses said he was having an affair with the murdered man’s wife.
Plummer served six months in prison before being pardoned. He became an assistant marshal, but fled east after fatally killing a man in a whorehouse brawl.
He formed a gang called “The Innocents,” and then got elected sheriff of Bannack, Mont. It was the perfect cover. Plummer tipped his henchmen to gold shipments. Scores of people were robbed or murdered. Within six months Montana formed a posse and dismantled Plummer’s gang.
When the vigilantes caught Plummer, he reportedly wept and begged for his life. The citizens quickly hanged him.
