page_title: Josefa Segovia
section_title: Reputation in Downieville
hierarchical_section_title: Josefa Segovia / Adult life / Reputation in Downieville
caption_attribution_description: English: Plaque on the Craycroft Building in Downieville, California, commemorating the lynching of Josefa Segovia from the adjacent bridge
context_page_description: Josefa Segovia, also known as Juanita or Josefa Loaiza, was a Mexican-American woman who was executed by hanging in Downieville, California on July 5, 1851. She was found guilty of murdering a local miner, Frederick Cannon. She is known to be the first and only woman to be hanged in California.
context_section_description: Josefa was probably not married to José, but she did live with him. Therefore, she received a bad reputation. According to one account, Juanita (read Josefa) was slender and barely five feet (1.5 m) tall. The same account states that Josefa was beautiful, vivacious and intelligent. Some say that she was not at all disliked in the mining camp in Downieville.
  Downie relates the story in the following fashion.  Juanita had accompanied her partner to Downieville from Mexico and both lived in an adobe house.  Downie states, "Whether she was his wife or not makes no difference in this story."  He further describes her figure as "richly developed and in strict proportions."  Only her temper was "not well balanced."  Celebrating the Fourth of July, Cannon and companions were returning from the dram shop at a late hour, with Cannon staggering from the influence of liquor.  Along the way, he stumbled through the door of the adobe hut.  His friends quickly pulled him back outside and they proceeded home.  Mortified the next morning of his embarrassing blunder, he proceeded to the hut to offer an apology in Spanish.  This did not go well with the Mexican couple, and Juanita grew angry.  In a rage, she drew a knife and stabbed Cannon.  Soon a "mob of infuriated men" gathered, ready to invoke the "miner's law" of a "Life for Life".  Only a Mr. Thayer came to her defense, but to no avail as she was quickly tried and found guilty.  A scaffold was erected and the "howling blood-thirsty mob...cried for vengeance" according to Downie.  Downie states Juanita retold the story of the "unfortunate incident", how she had been "provoked" and if done so again would "repeat her act."  She then took the rope, placed the noose around her neck, said "Adiós Señores!" and "leaped from the scaffold into eternity."  Downie concludes by stating "it was one of those blots that stained the early history of California."
caption: Plaque on the Craycroft Building in Downieville commemorating Segovia's hanging
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