St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-27
A HELENA HANGING.
The Stirring Story Of the
First Official Hanging In
Montana.
A Desperate Who Looked
Death Squarely In the
Face,
And Calmly Invited the Lynch
ers to Meet Him in
Hades.

The Doom Prevented by a
Strangers Grand Rifle
Shot.
New York Sun.
Indirectly and unconsclously Imade
the moose with which the first official
or what the law of Judge Lynch called
official-hanging was done in Helena.
MOnt.," said a former resident of this
city, who was member of the pioneer
corps that made the preliminary survey
for the proposed route of the Northern
Pacific railway through the Rocky
mountains and foot hills. "It was
in 1869 and Immediately pre-
ceding our advent in Helena, the
rustlers and bad men, gamblers,
miners, trappers and generally disre-
putable cusses to be found in all West
ern towns, held full sway there, with
only muttered thunder of possible re-
sentiment from those who saw the neces-
sity of insisting upon law and order.
Fights and disorder of all kinds were of
constant occurrence, the gambling hells,
hurdy-gurdies and other similar estab-
lishments through the town. until at
last the Regulators had issued orders
to these disturbing elements of society
to leave at once or be summarily cleaned
out.
The climax of the law-abiding citi-
zens' patience was reached about that
time through the holding up of the Fort
Benton stage coach by band OF road
agents. The band was pursued by the
Helena regulators and engaged in
bloody fight, which continued over a
distance Of eight or ten miles. One of
the Regulators was killed during the
fight and several prominent citizens
of Helena and Gallatin were seriously
wounded. Exactly how disastrous
the engagement had been to the road
agents was never known, but one
of them, and notorious one, was cap
tured. This was big Jim Daily, one of
the most desperate characters in the re-
gion, former emplOye on the famous
Russell ranch, known as terror from
South HavitOs to BOSeman, and reSpOn-
sible for much of the lawlessness that
prevailed in the community. He was
Shot through both thighs, and, being
unable to sit his horse, fell into the
hands of the Regulators, although,
wounded as he was, he fought like a
fiend to the last, requiring the united
strength of several men to bind him
with a lariat.
"The captured desperate was brought
back to the town, where he was cinched
with his back to tiag-p0le in front of
the International hotel, the leading
hotel of Helena at that time. Many of
his sympathizers and friends stood
around with ugly and threatening looks
and fingers itching to pull their guns.
but the fear inspired by the Regulators,
and the uncertainty as to how many
they might really numberin their ranks,
kept them from taking any steps toward
release. The Regulators were led by a
well-known judge, man who had stood
high in the East. college graduate and
very wealthy, even for that country and
time. He was man of StalWart pres
ence and of grim, determined DISPOSE
ton that was not to be trif1ed with.
sBefore Daily was tied to the flag pole
his wounds had been bandaged and the
flow of blood checked. Against this he
had made avigOrOuS verbal and physical
protest, and he had not been many min
utes bound to the flag-pOle before he
to release hand. with which
he reached down at the bandageS on
his wounds, and tried to start the blood
afresh, his object being to bleed to death
and cheat the hangman. But the judge
was on the piazza of the hotel and saw
the outlaws attempt. He strobe over
to where the poor devil lay. placed him
in a sitting position against the pole,
and tied him so firmly that he could not
move, paying not the slightest attention
to the murmurs of the angry crowd sur
rounding.
lit was at this moment that our party
OF engineers rode up. We were soon
made acquainted with the situation.
All of the party except myself were
satisfied without detailed explanation,
and, after taking look at the notorious
captive, attended to their horses and
went into the hotel about their bust
ness. was the youngest of the party.
being but little more than boy, and
was full of youthful curiosity. had
habit when talking to any one of knot
ting my lariat into various complicated
knots, the trick of tying which 1
had learned from sailors of the navy, in
whose company I was much thrown
during the war. While l piled the
judge with questions about Jim Daily
and his doings kept manipulating my
lariat in this way, and, as the judge
seemed to be much interested in the
modifying, l probably tied them with
more than my usual skill and facility.
At last l fastened knot that particu-
larly interested the judge.
"'What do you call that" said he, in
terrupting question was asking him.
That's the hangman's noose,' | re-
piled.
s.The Judge seemed more interested
than ever, and nothing would Go but
that should teach him how to make
the knot right there and then. never
for moment thought that the judge
had any particular reason for wanting
to become proficient in tying the hang
mans moose, and set to work to teach
him. After several lessons and trials
he was able to tie the knot to perfec-
ton, and he seemed much elated over
his success. The next morning l
found out why the judge had been
so anxious to learn the tying of the
hangman's moose, for when the doomed
still strong and defiant, was
taken from the flagpOle at O'Clock and
laid in the bottom of wagon to be car
ried to the place of execution-for his
condition would not admit of his riding
a broncho, as was the custom-among
the articles that accompanied the crowd
of regulators and Dally's lowering
friends was the lariat on which was that
moose that l had coached the judge in
Nobody had been hanged yet in
Helena, and the judge had seen at once
the superiority of the scientific moose
over the rough knot that was usually