Lynching Montana’s History, Part 1

By John O’Connell, MontanaHistorian.com

A key feature of human existence is that despite the development of religion, philosophy, and psychology our behavior towards our fellow men and women hasn’t seemed to evolve into something more noble or at the very least something better than what I imagine we exhibited when modern humans first walked the earth. It is so remarkable that the Bible mentions the phenomenon in Ecclesiastes 1:9. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”  

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The Vigilantes of Virginia City, Montana: A Tale of Old West Justice

By John O’Connell, MontanaHistorian.com

My wife Kerry and I took a day trip last week to Virginia City to do a little research and relax a bit. After lunch, we went in different directions and I wandered up Wallace Street where I found the Hangman’s Building. This is where the Virginia City Vigilance Committee hanged five men from a large beam in the then unfinished building on January 14, 1864.

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