The San Francisco call., 1898-11-20


 H Committee of San Francisco in A A 1856 they turned their attention
 +o finding Ned McGowan, who it --os believed had been implicated in the crime
 Casey was tried and convicted or the ,o,,rder" " says William T. Coleman, but { Edward McGowan could not De founo' } He disappeared from San Francisco, although every avenue of escape was watched and guarded by vigilantes. A year later, when the excitement haa abated. McGowan came back and stood trial in Sacramento. He was acqult- ted"
 How Ned McGOWan escaped from the vigilantes has never been told.
 Ramon Valencia, who now lives in San Rafael, and who aided Judge" McGowan, as he was usually called, to escape the vigilantes, has kept silent all these years. It was to Valencia that McGowan owed his life.
 Judge McGowan was a very prOmi- nent figure in politics prior to the days of the Vigilance Committee. He was one of the men whose corruption in ad- ministering the government led to the calling out of the Vigilantes, whose summary measures hanged or banished the evil dOers without partialIty and also without delay.
 McGowan saw his associates in power banished and Casey hanged for the murder of James King of William after a trial lasting four hours. Me Gowan, who had been in hiding in San Francisco for a month, began to feel that it might be his turn next and that he would be much safer in some other place.
 
 rich Spaniard, who had married a daughter of the Guerrero family, and was a leader among the Spaniards. The Spaniards were never too kindly dis posed to the "AmericanOs" in the early days when they still held the land. Den nison promised to help McGOwan. He was a young man and ready for any deed of daring. He went to his friend, Ramon Valencia, who was married to DennisOn's sister and was also his first cousin, relations all around" As Va lencia"Was known to be very friendly to the vigilantes Dennison did not tell him who McGoWan was, but merely said: ''He is a friend of mine. He's got to get away tonight. If you will help come along; but don't ask any ques- tions."
 T said all right, MT. Valencia said, in telling theN story, T went to my mother and told her to give
 
 She gave me $500. Dennison brought six horses and we went to the Nighfin- gale Hotel in the Mission Dolores and waited till dark.
 "McGowan who was an Irish Amer lean and very fair, had disguised him. self as negro and was hiding in a. house on Dupont street. Dennison met him at the Mission creek just before you come to the old Mission, and Me Gowan washed off the negro disguise ,nA I1 1~,@1E s..@- quero. Then the three of us rode away about o'clock on the evening of June 30, 1856
 We went by the coast road to Half moon Bay without incident. When we came near Spanishtown we knew that We would have difficulty.
 Everybody knew Dennison and me. go we Ieft McGowan hiding with the three extra horses and rode up to the hoteL It was about noon and there were a lot or men sitting around on the Veranda. Of course we did not know 'Whlch or them were Vigilantes.
 dld not know then that if was Me S1oWan who Was with us, but I knew ne was some one who wasn't any too anHouS 10 meet the vigilantes. Well, JIul asked all the men to have some thing to drink. We all went in and then he said he and hal been to q, fan dango the night before. and that our servant had drunk and danced more than was good for him.
 T treated all around and we ex- plained that we were going to Los An geles to buy horses for the C3overnI,,e,1t
 Y es, and We ought to be on tba % , put in Dennison; we have lost +i21a enough with that vaquero' And tban he swore little and we all had eo,,,aI thing more to drink.
 went out then for 1t was tira for McGowan to be in sight. I saw hin, coming down the road with inc borsas He was making for the back door b,1t swore at him and shouted: NO'
 Hi! Come here, and be quick abo,,t While I stood there a big man had never seen before shifted toward i,ena re,a and whispered quietly: What are vn,1 ltrT going to do with McGowan9 F., ts;c friend, but the rest here ain't ---" He went back in the hotel ouia+,x, and Jim came out swearing at +bn s,,1 posed vaquero because he had been so slow coming up with the horses We didn't waste any time getting awav from that place. All the men urare watching for McGowan, and they wo,,1d A have made quick work of Us had tba1, detected his disguise. but we rode a vIay right under their noses.
 "As soon as we were out of sight ne the hotel I turned to Dennison and said: Jim, I want to know who fhis fellow is. He is pleasant spoken man and I'll stick to him, but I want to know who he is.'