Year: 1873

California papers give the following par.
ticulars of the recent lynching of notori.
Gus desperate who had for years been a
terror to the community in which he re-
sided, and who had aided on several oCca.
sions in the execution by mob-law of men
suspected of crime:


Several days ago at Salinas City, in
Monterey .CounE, In this State, one Tar
pey, an IrishmaA, assaulted Mrs. Nichol-
son, very respectable married woman, in
her own house, and murdered her in q
most horrible manner by cutting her
throat. He was arrested and taken to Jail
at Monterey, where he has been awaiting
a preliminary trial. The indignation of
the citizens of Salinas, and of the settlers
of Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties,
against the scoundrel soon became un-
controllable as the news of the brutal out
rage was nolsed abroad. Yesterday TIE
popular wrath came TO climax by the
quiet gathering of several hundred deter
mined, armed men from the surrounding
country, at Monterey, who went to the
Jail, seized and tied the sheriff and then
proceeded to force an entrance into the
building.


While the outer iron door was being
battered In. the mother of Tarpey, very
old woman, together with his wife and
little daughter, mingled in the crowd, beg
ging for mercy for the unfortunate wretch
but without avail. Almost before the first
blow of the sledge-hammer was struck on
the door of the cell, Tarpey began to plead
for his life. In one breath he begged, in
the next denounced his assailants as cow
ardly murderers, in the next asserted his
innocence of intentional murder, and In
the next called on God for mercy For a
few moments he acted like a mailman I,
but finally after the door was broken in
he got calmer, and tried to reason with the
men who sought his life as retribution
for his great crime. But little time was
wasted in the cell The men did not tell
Tarpey then that they meant to hang him,
but said they intended taking him to Sail
mas City, and the crowd were only pres
snt to prevent his being mobbed on the
way.


But something in the cold, determined
faces of the men told him that this was
mere subterfuge. He knew what was up
knew that Sheriff Wasson was not there
and knew that if what they said was true,
the jail and his cell would not have been
forced open to secure his person. He
knew that his hour had come, and here
solved to make an effort for his life. He
pleaded and argued and denounced, but
nothing he said availed him in the
slightest. The men simply seized him
quietly and led him, protesting and
begging, to the door of the Jail, where a
two seat spring wagon had been drawn
up. Almost the first persons the unfor-
tunate mans eyes fell upon were his wife,
his mother and his child The two
women rushed forward and clasped him
in their arms and hung upon his neck, at
the same time begging and entreating the
crowd to have mercy. Tarpey Joined his
entreaties with theirs, and finally the
scene became so agonizing that the men
had TO cut it short. Tarpey was then told
that he must get into the wagon. Two or
three men approached, and amid his ap-
peals for mercy and prayers, they bound
him hand and foot and lifted him into the
wagon. The leave-taking with his wife
and mother followed, and was piteous to
behold. The women clung to him and
prayed for his soul. His little child cried
and screamed, while Tarpey seemed so
overcome that he was speechless. Finally
they were torn apart and the wagon was
driven rapidly off towards Salinas.


The crowd, three or four hundred
strong, followed close up in buggies and
on horseback. A body of twenty or more
men on horseback rode beside the wagon,
and to these, as the wagon went along,
Tarpey never ceased his entreaties for
mercy and his arguments TO show that he
should not be so summarily dealt with.


Three miles from Monterey the process
sion halted, the wagon stopping under a
pine tree, with heavy, wide-spreading
branches The crowd closed up and sur
rounded the spot, while the prisoner was
fnI hot ta 1, ri ho IA
be allowed half an hour to arrange his
business affairs and to make his peace
with God. And then for the first time
Tarpey seemed to realize the awful fact
that he was to die. With this realization
seemed to come certain degree of nerve.
He ceased begging like coward, but
stood up on the seat of the wagon and be-
gan to entreat in manly way for show
of justice.


He talked steadily for nearly half an
hour-in fact, until he was told that the
time was nearly up. He argued that the
county should have an opportunity to hear
his case and decide. He protested that he
did not kill the woman intentionally, but
that he meant to shoot the man who he be-
lieved had drawn pistol on him. He de
precated lynch law, and said that II
brought everlasting disgrace on a com.
munity that resorted to it. He said he
knew that he had been bad man, and
he had done many wicked things, and now
he was willing to bow to whatever fate the
law might decree, but he did not want 10
be strung up like dog, without even the
semblance of trial, If he must be killed
If there were men who thirsted for his
blood, let them shoot him, but he begged
that his family might be spared the dis
grace of his being hanged like a dog.


Tarpey saw that his pleadings did not
have the slightest effect, and that he was
doomed. He saw several Mexicans, friends