L.H. Musgrove
Encyclopedia
L. H. Musgrove was an outlaw
of the American West who was sprung from jail in Denver, Colorado
, and hanged
by a vigilante
mob. Over a number of years, he had been was charged with several murder
s and the theft of horse
s.
Musgrove was born in Como
in Panola County
in northwestern Mississippi
. He left the American South to join the California Gold Rush
, perhaps in the early 1850s. He killed several men in Wyoming
, Nevada
, and California. He is known to have traveled on the Overland Trail
during the American Civil War
, when in 1863, he was arrested for murder at Fort Halleck
, Wyoming. He was then taken to Denver, where he was freed on a legal technicality. Musgrove then directed a network of horse and cattle
thieves who raided government posts and wagon train
s along the Front Range
of the Rocky Mountains
in Colorado and followed the Cherokee Trail
into Wyoming. Many of the thefts were blamed on Native Americans
, and Musgrove was known on occasion to disguise himself as an Indian to thwart law enforcement officers. Profits were particularly large, compared to wages that rarely exceeded $2 per day at that time. Musgrove established his headquarters in the previously abandoned Bonner Street stagecoach station, a natural rock fortress which provided easy access to northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.
Captured horse thieves in the West were usually quickly hanged from a tree or a telegraph. Musgrove was apprehended, handcuffed, and taken to the Larimer Street prison in Denver. He predicted that he would soon escape, words which ignited the community. A vigilance committee of some fifty citizens encountered no resistance from the prison guards as it removed Musgrove from confinement. Musgrove was stood on a wagon, a noose was placed about his neck, and the driver pushed away the wagon to bring about the execution.
Before the wagon was removed from under Musgrove's feet, he was allowed time to write some letters, and he was permitted to finish his cigarette, which said one source he "did in the most nonchalant manner." Another source says that Musgrove "calmly puffed a cigar to its bitter butt."
In 1955, in the final episode of the syndicated
television series Stories of the Century
, starring and narrated by Jim Davis
, Musgrove is portrayed by the late John Archer
. In the story plot, Musgrove steals a herd of horses from a railroad stockyard to use as collateral
to buy ranch land in Colorado. Jim Davis as fictional railroad detective
Matt Clark tracks the stolen herd, while his co-star Kristine Miller
as Jonesy investigates a murder at the railroad telegraph office. The detectives soon suspect that both matters are related.
Early in his career, the American artist
and sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor
did a drawing of Musgrove's lynching.
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
of the American West who was sprung from jail in Denver, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, and hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
by a vigilante
Vigilante
A vigilante is a private individual who legally or illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker....
mob. Over a number of years, he had been was charged with several murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
s and the theft of horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s.
Musgrove was born in Como
Como, Mississippi
Como is a town in Panola County, Mississippi, United States which borders the Mississippi Delta. The population was 1,310 as of the 2000 census. Wayne Drash, a CNN.com senior producer, described Como as "a hard-hit rural community" in a 2007 article.-History:...
in Panola County
Panola County, Mississippi
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 34,274 people, 12,232 households, and 9,014 families residing in the county. The population density was 50 people per square mile . There were 13,736 housing units at an average density of 20 per square mile...
in northwestern Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. He left the American South to join the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, perhaps in the early 1850s. He killed several men in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, and California. He is known to have traveled on the Overland Trail
Overland Trail
The Overland Trail was a stagecoach and wagon trail in the American West during the 19th century. While portions of the route had been used by explorers and trappers since the 1820s, the Overland Trail was most heavily used in the 1860s as an alternative route to the Oregon, California and Mormon...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, when in 1863, he was arrested for murder at Fort Halleck
Fort Halleck (Wyoming)
Fort Halleck was a military outpost that existed in the 1860s along the Overland Trail and stage route in what is now the U.S state of Wyoming. The fort was established in 1862 to protect emigrant travelers and stages transporting mail between Kansas and Salt Lake City, Utah and named for Major...
, Wyoming. He was then taken to Denver, where he was freed on a legal technicality. Musgrove then directed a network of horse and cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
thieves who raided government posts and wagon train
Wagon train
A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. In the American West, individuals traveling across the plains in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance, as is reflected in numerous films and television programs about the region, such as Audie Murphy's Tumbleweed and Ward Bond...
s along the Front Range
Front Range
The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the north-central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered moving west along the 40th parallel north across...
of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
in Colorado and followed the Cherokee Trail
Cherokee Trail
The Cherokee Trail was a historic overland trail through the present-day U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming that was used from the late 1840s up through the early 1890s. The route was established in 1849 by a wagon train headed to the gold fields in California...
into Wyoming. Many of the thefts were blamed on Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, and Musgrove was known on occasion to disguise himself as an Indian to thwart law enforcement officers. Profits were particularly large, compared to wages that rarely exceeded $2 per day at that time. Musgrove established his headquarters in the previously abandoned Bonner Street stagecoach station, a natural rock fortress which provided easy access to northern Colorado and southern Wyoming.
Captured horse thieves in the West were usually quickly hanged from a tree or a telegraph. Musgrove was apprehended, handcuffed, and taken to the Larimer Street prison in Denver. He predicted that he would soon escape, words which ignited the community. A vigilance committee of some fifty citizens encountered no resistance from the prison guards as it removed Musgrove from confinement. Musgrove was stood on a wagon, a noose was placed about his neck, and the driver pushed away the wagon to bring about the execution.
Before the wagon was removed from under Musgrove's feet, he was allowed time to write some letters, and he was permitted to finish his cigarette, which said one source he "did in the most nonchalant manner." Another source says that Musgrove "calmly puffed a cigar to its bitter butt."
In 1955, in the final episode of the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
television series Stories of the Century
Stories of the Century
Stories of the Century is a Western television series that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between January 23, 1954, and March 11, 1955.-Synopsis:...
, starring and narrated by Jim Davis
Jim Davis (actor)
Jim Davis was an American actor, best known for his role as Jock Ewing in the CBS prime-time soap Dallas, a role which he held up until his death in April 1981.-Biography:...
, Musgrove is portrayed by the late John Archer
John Archer (actor)
John Archer was an American movie and television actor.-Biography:Born Ralph Bowman in Osceola, Nebraska, Archer moved to California at the age of five...
. In the story plot, Musgrove steals a herd of horses from a railroad stockyard to use as collateral
Collateral (finance)
In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan.The collateral serves as protection for a lender against a borrower's default - that is, any borrower failing to pay the principal and interest under the terms of a loan obligation...
to buy ranch land in Colorado. Jim Davis as fictional railroad detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Matt Clark tracks the stolen herd, while his co-star Kristine Miller
Kristine Miller
Kristine Miller is an American actress who appeared in various supporting roles throughout the 1940s to the early 1960s.-Early life:...
as Jonesy investigates a murder at the railroad telegraph office. The detectives soon suspect that both matters are related.
Early in his career, the American artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor
Alexander Phimister Proctor
Alexander Phimister Proctor was an American sculptor with the contemporary reputation as one of the nation's foremost animaliers.-Birth and early years:...
did a drawing of Musgrove's lynching.