Henry Plummer
Henry Plummer (1832–1864) served as sherrif of Bannack, Montana from May 24, 1863 until January 10, 1864, when he was hanged by a lynch mob. Some believe him to have been the head of a gang that was responsible for nearly a hundred deaths; he was hanged along with twenty-two others for their presumed crimes.
He was born William Henry Handy Plumer the last of six children in Addison, Maine to a family that had settled in Maine in 1764, when it was still a part of the Massachusetts Bay colony (he changed the spelling of his surname after moving West). His father died while Henry was in his teens. In 1852, age 19, he headed west to the gold fields of California. He did well mining: within two years he owned a mine, a ranch and a bakery in Nevada City, and in 1856 he was elected sheriff and city manager.
Then, on September 26, 1857, Plummer shot and killed John Vedder; he had been having an affair with Vedder's wife. In the resulting trial, Plumer was sentenced to ten years in San Quentin. However, he convinced the prison authorities that he was suffering from tuberculosis and in August, 1859, he was released on health grounds. However, in 1861 Plummer was involved in a fight with William Riley, who had escaped from San Quentin, and killed him in self-defence. Fearing that his prison record would prevent a fair trial, Plummer headed to Washington Territory.
Editing in progress
The last man hanged may have done nothing more than express an opinion that several of those previously hanged had been innocent.