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Collection: Directories and Documents > Pamphlets
Juanita - The only woman lynched in the Gold Rush days (PH 20-9)(1967) (36 pages)
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Page: of 36
get her to go inside their house. By now people were
beginning to gather to watch the affair, although few
understood what was going on since Josefa and Cannon
were speaking Spanish. José and several bystanders
later recalled that Cannon at this point referred to Josefa as a whore. José finally managed to lead her into
the house, but she turned and called out to Cannon,
“This is no place to call me bad names. Come into my
house and call me that.”
Cannon would have been using good sense if he
now walked away. Perhaps he didn’t want the gathering
group of people to think some Mexican had gotten the
better of him, or maybe he was genuinely trying to
pacify Josefa and calm her down. Still speaking in Spanish, he followed the woman to the door. Josefa was referred to by all of the witnesses as in a terrible rage.
As Cannon stood at the door, she snatched a knife from
a table and plunged it into his chest. Lawson had followed
him to the door and as he came up to his friend, Cannon staggered into his arms, saying, “See, the woman
has stabbed me!”
At first it was hard to grasp just what had happened.
Although the tragedy had occurred in broad daylight
with several witnesses, it was so unexpected that it
took everyone by surprise. A comic street happening
had suddenly become murder and it was several minutes before the cries of excited people began carrying
the news up and down the street.
Lawson and several friends carried Cannon into
the adjacent house of Doctor Hunter, where he died in
a few moments. Some say that Josefa and José took
advantage of the confusion to flee to Craycroft’s saloon,
where they attempted to hide. Whatever the circumstance, they were soon apprehended and held by a group
of enraged miners. ®
Knots of excited men on street corners soon developed into an ugly mob, and those who weren’t still
drunk undoubtedly had had little sleep and were nursing
bad hangovers. The Pacific Star correspondent noted
that, “On arising in the morning about seven o’clock, I
was startled by a mad cry from the populace without
and...on descending to the street I found the entire town
11