>From today's (Aug 18, 2006) San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/18/BAG5BKL3I01.DTL&hw=mission&sn=001&sc=1000 --------------------------------- SAN FRANCISCO Recalling the end of the Wild West 150 years ago, the 2nd Committee of Vigilance dissolved itself - Carl Nolte, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, August 18, 2006 A small group of admirers of the past will gather at the Mission Dolores cemetery at about 9 this morning to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the vigilante era in San Francisco. On this day in 1856, thousands of armed men paraded through the streets of San Francisco and then formally dissolved the second Committee of Vigilance. The vigilantes, mostly respectable business leaders and merchants, had taken the law into their own hands for nearly four months in San Francisco, hanging four men, including a city supervisor, and had been mixed up in the death of James "Yankee" Sullivan, one of the most famous bare-knuckle fighters of his day. They had also threatened a number of other San Franciscans and banished hundreds of other tough characters. They ran the city with an iron hand, much to the distress of Mayor James Van Ness and William T. Sherman, a militia officer who later became one of the most famous of Civil War generals. The final chapter of the vigilante era was the end of the wild West in San Francisco. Never again did the citizens of the city take the law into their own hands. "Although the entire idea of vigilante justice may be foreign to us today, it played a historic role in the American experience, especially in the West,'' said David Crosson, executive director of the California Historical Society. "This is a damned important thing,'' said Neil Malloch, a local historian who is organizing today's event, which includes a tour of three San Francisco sites central to the vigilante history. The tour starts at the graveyard at Mission Dolores -- the oldest building in the city -- which is really the end of the story. Here are the graves of Supervisor James Casey and Charles Cora, a gambler. Both men were hanged by the vigilantes. There is also the grave of James Sullivan, a boxer who died while in vigilante custody. "May God forgive my tormentors'' says the inscription on Casey's grave. "Died by the hands of the V.C. May 31, 1856,'' Sullivan's tombstone says. The vigilante era is so long ago, said Andrew Galvan, the curator of Mission Dolores, that most tourists think the "V.C." on Sullivan's tombstone refers to the Viet Cong. "These graves are pilgrim spots on the tourist track of San Francisco,'' Galvan said. The story began in the winter of 1855, when San Francisco was in the middle of a huge crime wave. That year, San Francisco had about 60,000 people -- and a murder rate that was about 10 times the modern rate. Nearly everyone carried guns; the city government was in the hands of a political machine, and thugs ruled the streets. "The city had been taken over by the no-gooders,'' said Gladys Hansen, a former city archivist whose Internet museum of San Francisco has a number of items on the vigilantes. "Something had to be done.'' In 1855, an editor with the curious name of James King of William started the Evening Bulletin, a small but important crusading newspaper. One of his targets was Casey, a supervisor who had been elected by stuffing the ballot box. King wrote that Casey, supposedly an honest citizen, was an ex-con who had served time in New York's infamous Sing Sing Prison. Casey took great offense, and shot King as he was leaving his office on Montgomery Street, near Washington Street. Ten thousand people, it was said, gathered on the streets awaiting word of King's condition. When he died a few days later, members of an earlier vigilante group, under the leadership of William Tell Coleman, a prominent businessman, met and decided to act. There were 3,500 members of the Committee of Vigilance, at first, each man sworn by an oath of fealty, each man given a number. Coleman was No. 1. They were armed and they had a cannon in case it was necessary to knock down the doors of the county jail on Broadway. Casey was held by Sheriff David Scannell, whom the vigilantes suspected of being a political ally. The crowd of vigilantes marched to the jail, and the sheriff turned Casey over to them. Later, the committee also took Charles Cora, a noted gambler who had shot a U.S. marshal for insulting his mistress. There was a short trial; the vigilantes were the judge and jury. Only two days after King died, and just as his funeral procession was getting under way, Casey and Cora were taken out of the vigilante headquarters at Sacramento Street near Davis Street and hanged. The headquarters was called Fort Gunnybags because it was ringed with a wall of sandbags and armed sentries to guard against attack. Sullivan, the boxer, also died in vigilante hands. Some said it was suicide, but the cause is still a mystery. The vigilantes, now 8,000 strong, took control of the city. That was frontier justice, part of the legend of the San Francisco. Books have been written about it. Galvan, the Mission Dolores curator, says that at least nine doctoral dissertations have been written about the vigilance committee. Coleman was hailed as a savior of San Francisco, the citizen leader they called "The Lion of the Vigilantes.'' He was presented with a ceremonial sword by grateful citizens, ran a successful shipping line, and developed borax mines in Death Valley. A mineral -- Colemanite -- is named for him. He became a respected citizen of Marin County and died, full of years and honors at the age of 69 in 1893. In later years, the vigilante movement has come under question from historians. "To my knowledge, the San Francisco experience is unique ... in the legitimacy given to vigilante law," Crosson said. Malloch, the organizer of today's event, goes further. "From today's perspective, the thing was outrageous,'' he said. "They bulldozed political rights.'' Though San Francisco's legal system in 1856 left much to be desired, he said, "They still had law here." The vigilantes had an effect. The crime rate dropped dramatically. The bad men, thoroughly intimidated, left town. "I remember the reign of terror under which we had so long been living,'' wrote William Orville Ayres 30 years later, "And I knew it was ended.'' The vigilante era had another side effect. Until 1856, San Francisco County extended down the Peninsula as far as the Santa Clara County line. But the uproar caused by the vigilante era convinced the more solid citizens of the Peninsula to leave the city to itself, and San Mateo County was created. The city and county of San Francisco got what remained, 49 square miles. After Mission Dolores, the tour will head at about 10 a.m. for the site of Fort Gunnybags, the vigilante headquarters at Sacramento Street near Davis Street, and then at about 11 a.m. to the site of the old County Jail on Broadway near Columbus Avenue. E-mail Carl Nolte at [email protected] Page B - 1 URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/18/BAG5BKL3I01.DTL George --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail Beta.