The Life and Times of Henry Plummer (ePub)

Guilty or innocent?

Historians have devoted much time and effort investigating whether or not Henry Plummer, the sheriff of Bannack, Montana, actually committed the crimes for which he was hanged by vigilantes on a bitter, cold January night in 1864. The question of his innocence has plagued Western historians for fifteen decades. In May of 1993, a posthumous trial was held in Virginia City, Montana, where a Madison County jury consisting of twelve registered voters split the verdict6-6. The judge declared a mistrial and had Sheriff Plummer been alive, she would have told him, You are free to go.

Henrys life tells the tale of a lawless West and epitomizes many a mans experience in these untamed, violent mining towns of the 1800s where shootouts and duals rule and life is sometimes worth only a handful of gold or the dispute over a lady, proper or fallen. Henry, a well-educated and handsome man, delicate and consumptive, soft-spoken and refined, appears dedicated to the law and yet, is also capable of instantly shooting a man dead. Trouble follows him everywhere.

By the time Henry Plummer becomes sheriff in Bannack in 1863, he has killed five men in self-defense and has loved and lost three women. Henrys time spent at the faro tables pans out better than his time spent as a miner or as a lover. The hunger for gold dust brings every manner of men from all corners of the country and beyond to enjoy the easy reaping, and with them come more robberies and murders. Rumors and suspicion become rampant, leaving no one untouched, including Henry Plummer, a man swept along by the tides of his time.