HANGING OF LUCKY BILL, JUNE 10, 1858

History of Nevada - Thompson & West - 1881

In the meantime had occurred one of those acts on the part of a large number of the substantial citizens of the country that was, and usually is, the outgrowth of a long continued absence of adequate legal justice. The act referred to was the execution by order of a citizens' self-constituted court, of one of the most prominent citizens of the country, who up to this time, with two or three noticeable exceptions, had been a universal favorite. The unfortunate man's name was William B. Thorrington, but he was called "Lucky Bill," and was a native of Chenango County, New York, from where he removed in 1848 with his parents to Michigan. In 1850 he crossed the plains to California, and in 1853 became a resident of Carson Valley, in western Utah. His education was a moderate one, due to the fact that his excessive animal spirits and vitality would not permit a close application to study when attending school in his boyhood.

In form he was large, weighing 200 pounds, and with broad, ample shoulders, stood six feet and one inch in height; his head, covered with glossy curling hair colored like the raven's wing, was massive, with a high classic forehead, and large gray mirthful eyes, looking out from beneath projecting eyebrows, that indicated strong perceptive faculties. The country had no handsomer or merrier citizen in it than Lucky Bill, a name given to him because of the fortunate result that seemed to attend his every action, he had become comfortably wealthy. It has already been noted that the Reeses turned over a large amount of property to him in January, 1855, including their Eagle Valley Ranch. He had become the successor of Israel Mott in the ownership of the Carson Canon Toll-road, and a possessor of valuable ranch property in the valley.

In character he was both generous and brave, and his sympathies were readily aroused in favor of the unfortunate; or, which in frontier parlance would be termed, "the under dog in a fight," regardless of the causes that had placed the dog in that position.  In addition to his farming and toll-road pursuits, he was a gambler, and a very successful one, his specialty being the "thimble rig game." In 1854 a couple of California bound emigrants stopped at Mormon Station, and had a falling out, and it transpired that they were partners, one of them owning the wagon and cattle that hauled it, while the other, who had a wife, supplied the provisions.  The expense of this provision supply and incidentals along the route had exhausted the husband's finances, and the owner of the train refused to take the bankrupt emigrants any further. Lucky Bill passing, saw the woman weeping disconsolately by the wagon, and his sympathies were at once aroused. Upon inquiry he learned the state of affairs, and told the husband and wife to borrow no further trouble, for he would see that they reached the Sacramento without delay.

That night the owner of the outfit was induced to bet against Lucky Bill in his "thimble rig game," and in the morning he had neither an outfit nor a dollar in money left. The winner gave him back fifteen dollars of the money, bought him a new pair of boots to travel in, told him to "lite out" for California on foot, and never after that to bet against anyone who was playing his own game. To the bankrupt family he gave a cow, spent the loser's money in buying them provisions, etc., and then hired a man to drive the team with them to California.

In 1856 three men put up one night at Lucky Bill's station in Carson Canon, on their way home to the States. One of them was a whitehaired old man, poverty-stricken and discouraged with his failures in California. In the morning his horse was dead, and forced to abandon his hope of reaching his Illinois home, he stood by the roadside with a stony look in the eye and watched the departure of his companions for the country that seemed shut out to him forever. "Cheer up, old man," said Lucky Bill, in his happy, inspiring, whole-souled way, and snapping his fingers over his shoulder in the direction of the fast disappearing horsemen, added, "I'll show you a trick worth eight of that." A few days later the white-haired emigrant set out again on his homeward journey, with a fine roan horse hitched to a two-wheeled vehicle loaded with provisions for the trip that had been given to him by Lucky Bill. Numerous incidents of generosity like these are remembered by the early settlers of Nevada of this strange frontiersman, many of whose impulses were such as noble men. His associations in life, however, had been with individuals that had led him to look upon murder or theft as a smaller crime than would be the betrayal of a person who claimed his protection, though that man might be fleeing from justice after having committed either or both those offenses. This peculiarity of Lucky Bill being known to all, both good and bad citizens, transformed him into an obstruction, sometimes to the execution of justice upon criminals, and this characteristic eventually proved his ruin.  In the spring of 1858, Bill Edwards shot and killed Snelling, in Merced County, California, and fled to Carson Valley for safety. He stopped with Lucky Bill for awhile, and then went up to Honey Lake Valley, where he stopped with W. T. C. Elliott, John N. Gilpin, and others. While in the upper country, in connection with one Mullins, he murdered Harry Gordier, for the purpose of getting possession of the victim's personal effects, including a band of cattle. The body of the murdered man was found tied up in a sack and sunk in Susan River, and an innocent party named Snow was hung for doing it by citizens in the Honey Lake country, upon what was doomed sufficient evidence of his guilt. Suspicion finally began to fall upon Bill Edwards, and he started between two days for Carson Valley where he found Lucky Bill; told of the peril that was upon his trail; claimed to be innocent, and asked to be helped out of the country. Edwards owned a valuable race horse which he wished to dis-pose of, and with the proceeds escape to South America. This friend of the "under-dog in a fight" attempted to perform both these things, to sell the horse and help in the escape. Elliott and Gilpin, assuming the role of detectives, followed the murderer to Carson Valley, and feigning friendship for both Lucky Bill and Edwards, was admitted to their councils, helped in their plans, finally purchased the horse, and then caused the arrest, on the fourteenth of June, by an organization of citizens, of all parties connected directly or indirectly with the affair, except Edwards, who eluded them for a time, but was finally secured in the following manner:

Lucky Bill had a son named Jerome, a small lad, who knew the lurking place of the man they wanted.  The boy was told that if he would secure the arrest of Edwards that his father would be turned loose, and that if he did not, his parent would certainly be hanged. To save his father the son betrayed the murderer into the hands of the citizens, and then found that instead of working his sire's deliverance, he was in danger of being hanged himself.  The trial and conviction took place on the seventeenth.  Everything was conducted with order, and in close imitation of similar cases occurring in regularly constituted courts. W. T. C. Elliott acted as Sheriff, John L. Cary as Judge, and eighteen jurors determined the question of guilt. The evidence under oath was written down by C. N. Noteware, late Secretary of State for Nevada; and the writer of this has read it all. Not a thing appears there implicating Lucky Bill in anything except the attempt to secure the murderer's escape. The absence of any knowledge on the part of the accused of the guilt of Edwards, is a noticeable feature in that testimony; that party, after having acknowledged his own guilt, swore positively that he had assured Lucky Bill that he was innocent, and no one else testified to the contrary, yet the Jury believing that he did know, decided that he was guilty as accessory to the murder after the fact, and condemned him to be hanged. Edwards having acknowledged the killing of Gordier, was also condemned, his sentence being to be hanged at the scene of the murder, in Honey Lake Valley. Of the other accused, two of them were fined $1,000 each, and ordered to leave the country; the balance being discharged.  An unsuccessful attempt was afterwards made to collect that fine; and one of the parties, at least, still lives in Carson Valley. Theodore Winters, Walter Cosser, and Samuel Swager, were appointed a committee to go with Edwards to Honey Lake, and see that he was hanged, which they did, the execution taking place between six and seven p. m., on June 23, 1858.

On the nineteenth of June, at between three and four p. m., Lucky Bill, whose scaffold was building while the trial was going on at the Clear Creek Ranch, on Clear Creek, was placed in a wagon with the fatal noose around his neck, when, the team being started, he was dragged by the tightening rope out from the rear of the vehicle, where, with body swinging back and forth and twisting round and round, he slowly choked to death. His son is now dead, and the widow is wearing out her life in the Stockton Insane Asylum, in California.