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Volume 058-1 - January 2004 (6 pages)
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Page: of 6
NCHS Bulletin January 2004
Capital Punishment
by Daniel Sellery
First Prize Winner, 2003 NCHS Student Speech Contest
A LTHOUGH THIS GREAT NATION HAS MANY CONtemporary issues at hand, one of them is very old,
and very controversial. Many people believe it is necessary
to take the lives of serious criminals, and others believe
that human life shouldn’t be played with. Thousands of
people debate this subject in today’s society, but the history of capital punishment dates back centuries; even in
our own county. Eight times over a twenty-eight-year time
span was the death penalty sentenced in Nevada County.
The first incident came in 1852, the last was in 1880. I’m
here to tell you the story of three of these incidents.
In 1852 law had not yet been well established in Nevada
County. The county was crawling with prospectors who all
had the same interest: gold. The desire for gold drove many
of these people to do crazy things like stealing or killing for
personal gain. Not only was the county crawling with prospectors, but robbers, rapists, murderers, you name it. In a
place so overwhelmed with crime and with such weak law
enforcement drastic measures had to be made to ensure the
safety of the citizens.
One unfortunate man became the example of the life not
to lead. In April of 1852 John Barrett, a man from New
Orleans was caught stealing a pistol from Abbott & Edwards store in downtown Nevada City. He wasn’t prosecuted for theft, but was forced to return the pistol to the
store. After having received the gift of not being charged of
any crime, one would hope that the close call would have
convinced him to clean up his act. Unfortunately, Mr. Barrett wasn’t as intelligent as you or I. He was caught in
Schardin’s store in Newtown (not long after the pistol incident) exchanging $357 worth of goods he’d stolen from a
miner’s cabin.
A council quickly formed and he was convicted of the
charge of theft. His penalty: fifty lashes to be given by five
members selected by the audience. The first man to whip
him was his own lawyer. Along with the lashes he was told
never to return within three miles of the town or he would
be shot on sight. That would be more than enough to scare
me away, but Mr. Barrett was determined to steal more. The
night following the whipping, Barrett was caught in Coyoteville (now a part of Nevada City); he had raided more
cabins and was caught with $50 worth of stolen goods on
him.
Once more he was found guilty of theft. He wasn’t so
lucky as to be whipped this time; he was sentenced to
death. To further prove the lack of law in the area, Barrett
had to be shipped to Marysville overnight because the jail
in Nevada County had not yet been built. The following
morning a gallows was erected along Deer Creek in a spot
4
which has since been known as Gallows Flat. In Barrett’s
final words, he admitted that he wrong to do what he did
and felt that he deserved to die. With the last breath leaving
Barrett’s lungs, law in Nevada County had been established. am
The execution of John Barrett proved to be effective; the
death penalty wasn’t needed again for another five years. In
1857 a man by the name of Alexander McClanahan was
spending a typical Saturday night in Haywood’s store, sitting in his favorite spot. Suddenly, a man with whom he’d
had a long feud busted into the room. Frank V. Moore
walked up to McClanahan and asked him if he was armed,
because he intended to shoot him. Being unarmed, McClanahan went home and grabbed his revolver and returned to
the store. The men pointed their guns at each other and fired.
McClanahan was killed instantly, but Moore had only
been grazed. Attached to this murderous event is a conspiracy. The lights had been knocked out by the concussion of
the gun shots and the store had gone dark. In the dark,
Moore was stabbed in the back.
Now Moore was a bad man. At the time this incident occurred, he was out on bail from rape charges. Needless to
say, his image as a decent human being wasn’t in existence.
He was put to trial despite having been shot and stabbed.
The conspiracy of the whole thing is that nobody knows
who stabbed Moore in the back. At the time, many believe
he stabbed himself to try to create sympathy for himself
during his trial. If that truly was his plan, it was unsuccessful. The jury found him guilty of murder and gave him the
death penalty.
Despite the efforts to keep an eye on Moore before his
execution, Moore’s wife managed to slip him some poison.
Moore’s determination to be above the law found him dead
the morning of execution. His wife was also determined to
meet him in the afterlife, she attempted to take poison a few
days later only to be saved by a physician despite heavy
resistance from Mrs. Moore. However, despite the suicide
of Frank Moore, lawlessness was once again proved to be
the wrong path. The law enforcement of Nevada County
had been tested and law enforcement came through.
The last death sentence given came in 1880. The sentence was given to a Chinese man responsible for the most
brutal murder during that time period. Ah Luck had had a
quarrel with Ah Gow over $8. One wintry day on the
Truckee Bridge, Ah Luck and his friends On Gue and Ah
Sing ended the quarrel in horrid fashion. Luck armed with a
rifle, Gue armed with a knife, and Sing armed with a
hatchet, they shot stabbed and hacked poor Ah Gow to
death. The three murderers fled the scene, but despite the
adverse weather conditions, they were caught in the town of
Boca. Ah Luck was given the death penalty after it was determined that the gunshot caused the death of Ah Gow. oo
Luck’s partners were given life imprisonment and the deathpenalty was never sentenced again in our county.
Nevada County has always felt like a safe place to live