Читать книгу Vigilante Days and Ways. The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho онлайн

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“Hoping these facts may be of service to you, allow me to subscribe myself,

Your obt. servant,

“John W. Powell.”

We have good reason for believing that before Helm fled from Salt Lake City he murdered, in cold blood, two citizens, at the instigation of some of the leading Mormons, who, after the deed was done, concealed him, and finally aided in his escape from arrest. Certain it is that after leaving there he travelled through southern Utah, and by a long circuit reached San Francisco, whence he returned by water to the Dalles in Oregon.

Here he engaged in fresh villainies. Several murders which were committed along the route leading from the Columbia River to the gold mines were laid to his charge. At one time, in Washington Territory, he stole a herd of horses which he sold at Vancouver’s Island. In this course of varied and hardened crime he passed his time till the Spring of 1862,—with his usual good fortune escaping detection or arrest. In June of that year he made his appearance in Florence, where he soon found, among the roughs, congenial associates.