Musgrove Trivia: The Musgrove Gang

The Musgrove Gang

(L.H.) Musgrove...directed a network of horse and cattle thieves who raided government posts and wagon trains along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and followed the Cherokee Trail into Wyoming. Many of the thefts were blamed on Native Americans, and Musgrove was known on occasion to disguise himself as an Indian to thwart law enforcement officers.   

Read more: Wikipedia

MARSHAL DAVID J COOK

David J. Cook (1840/1842 – April 2, 1907) was an American western lawman and City Marshal of Denver, Colorado, responsible for over 3,000 arrests. 

Read more: Wikipedia

One of David Cook's many arrests was the horse thief gang leader, Lee H Musgrove (no direct relation to us),

"...an outlaw who was sprung from jail in Denver, Colorado, and hanged by a vigilante mob on November 23, 1868." 

Read more: Wikipedia

Marshal Cook describes his capture of the Musgrove gang in Chapter 6 of his autobiography "Hands Up; Or Twenty Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains."

LEE (L.H.) MUSGROVE

In his book, Detective Cook describes Musgrove as,

"...as cool a character as it was ever the fortune of a detective or criminal officer to fall in with. ...a man of large stature, of shapely physique, piercing eye and steady nerve...a man of daring, inured to danger, calm at the most critical times..."  Hands Up: page 36

CIVIL WAR TROUBLES

Californian Newspaper
the first article of gold found
March 15, 1848

Born in the early 1830s in Como, Mississippi, Musgrove had little education but was considered sharp and a natural-born leader. By 1849 he had moved to Napa Valley, California, caught up in the gold rush. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, his sympathies were with the South. He,

"...quarreled with a Napa man about the merits of the conflict, which quarrel resulted in his coolly shooting the other party down. He was compelled to leave the place..." Hands Up: page 36

After a stop in Nevada, where he argued with and killed two more men over the war, he moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming. When a man there derided the South, he killed him, too, and headed for Denver, Colorado. 

INDIAN TROUBLES

The war was winding down and Musgrove, based out of Denver, was...

Denver, Colorado, in 1859

"..engaged as an Indian trader about old  Fort Halleck until a half-breed Indian had the temerity, half in sport, one day to call him a liar, when Musgrove calmly pulled his revolver from his pocket, and, taking deliberate aim, planted a bullet squarely in the middle of the Indian's forehead.  This transaction served to put an end to Musgrove's Indian trading, for he was compelled to leave the Indian region on very short notice."  Hands Up: page 37

MUSGROVE GANG

After this, he organized what Cook calls "...one of the most formidable bands of desperadoes known to frontier history." 

The Musgrove Gang consisted of as many as two hundred men.

States and Territories as of July 1868

"Musgrove was a perfect organizer. 

He had his operators in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas and others of the Western States and Territories, and carried on a regular business of stealing and selling stock.  

They would drive off entire droves of horses from one section and sell them in another five hundred miles away, and would steal another drove in the neighborhood of the late sale and drive it for sale back to the place at which they had made the previous raid." Hands Up: page 37                   

Musgrove planted gangs in mountains and plains, each with a leader, and every member had specific tasks. The group struck rural ranches in far-away, desolated areas so they could disappear with a herd into hundreds of miles of back-country before a posse could be raised.

BEGINNING OF THE END 

If Musgrove was "a perfect organizer" for outlaws, Denver's city marshal David Cook was the same for lawmen. He had founded,

Rocky Mountain 
Detective Association
badge

"...Rocky Mountain Detective Association, a freelance, volunteer-only group of Colorado troubleshooters, similar in character to the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Although its offices were in Denver, its cases took him all over the west." 

Read more: Wikipedia

Networking with his contacts through the RMDA, Cook began to put pressure on Musgrove. In 1868, thirty miles outside of the city, Cook arrested four of his gang members; Musgrove left Denver and went into hiding.

His gang began to break down without a central meeting place and regular communication channels. Twenty or more gang members were arrested, killed, or lynched. Even so, some of Musgrove's organizations were still active.

ARREST OF MUSGROVE

"Just a few days before his capture (Musgrove ed.) took shelter in an invulnerable place on the Poudre (River ed.), and sent out a flag of truce to the pursuing officer, telling him that he could come in and pick out any stock that he could recognize; that he could have that and no more.  

US Marshal badge

Mr. Haskell, the then United States Marshal, was in command of the pursuing party. He accepted the conditions laid down, as there was no alternative, and in doing so found the outlaw so barricaded, and his drove of stolen horses and mules so securely arranged, that he made no effort to dislodge him. 

The arrest was finally affected by a bit of detective strategy, and the people throughout the entire Western country rejoiced when it was announced." Hands Up; Chapter VI page 37-38                                                    

ABNER LOOMIS

That Detective strategy involved Abner Loomis of Fort Collins, Colorado, who lived near Musgrove near the Poudre River.

Abner Loomis

Loomis long knew Musgrove as a horse thief but had struck a deal with him. He'd stay quiet if Musgrove left the local cattle alone. If not, the townsfolk would kill him. Musgrove kept his end of the deal but with Musgrove wanted in all the Western States, Loomis gave him up.

For some reason, Musgrove trusted Loomis. He sent Musgrove into a setup with the United States Marshal Haskell in the Wyoming Territories, where he was arrested.

LURING THE GANG  TO DENVER 

1869, woodcut, Harper's Weekly
Union Pacific Railroad
Sherman Station, Wyoming

After Musgrove's arrest in Wyoming, he was transported to Denver. Marshal Cook hoped to attract other gang members there for a 'jailbreak.' In this, he was too successful. Outlaws began trickling into town.

THE PLOT THICKENS

The Boston Building
Golden's 1st building, built in 1860
Later served as Golden's first prison

Ed Franklin, the most senior partner in Musgrove's gang, was shot dead by Marshal Cook on Sunday, November 22, 1868, in nearby Golden, Colorado. It was presumed he was there to help Musgrove escape. Cook slept in Monday morning after riding back from Golden to Denver all night. When he woke, he found the citizens of his city in an uproar. 

They'd discovered Franklin had been in Denver and visited Musgrove in jail the day before his death, on Saturday, November 21, and that, 

"After this interview, Musgrove made general announcement of the fact that his escape was planned for an early day, on such a perfect scale that it would not be within the power of the authorities to prevent it."  

Read more: Hands Up; page 49

LYNCHING OF MUSGROVE

It was November, and the court's circuit was in January. The people worried they couldn't keep Musgrove locked up until then.

1868 street map of Denver Colorado

"...the town was known to be full of bad characters, and the number was increasing every day. It was generally agreed that something must be done to teach these ruffians that Denver was no place for them.
...
Some one suggested that the proper and salutary thing to do would be to hang Musgrove. The idea was wildfire in a dry prairie."  Hands Up; page 50

It spread so fast and loud that Denver's inns and saloons were empty within thirty minutes. The outlaws left town quickly.

Cook tells us,

"Up to 3 o'clock there had been no organized meeting, not withstanding the talk of lynching had been general, and almost everybody had come to understand that a tragedy of this kind might be expected at any moment.

By 3 the people began to gather on Larimer Street." 

Hands Up; page 50

MARCH TO THE JAILHOUSE

Minutes later, as if by unspoken consent, hundreds of Denver's most excellent citizens began marching towards the County Jail where Musgrove was held.

Larimer Street
Denver, Colorado
circa 1868

"There were no masks worn or disguises adopted. It was broad daylight. The best men in the town were in that procession—lawyers, doctors and probably ministers, business and professional men." Hands Up; page 50

They met no resistance from the jailhouse guards. Though initially, he fought, Musgrove finally agreed to go peacefully if the crowd promised not to shoot him.

DEAD MAN WALKING

Back on Larimer Street, the crowd's pressure pushed him towards the bridge over Cherry Creek.

Larimer Street 1864 flood
The bridge over (in this painting 'under')
Cherry Creek is to the left.

"He walked onward in a sullen and uncommunicative mood, glancing to one side and then the other as if looking for assistance. But none came." Hands Up; page 51

When they got to the bridge Musgrove, resigned to his fate, asked to write some letters. Given pen and paper, he leaned on the bridge's railing and wrote, legibly and with a steady hand, to his brother in Como, Mississippi, and his wife in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Territories. His legs were being tied, and a wagon was prepared for his hanging,

General Cook preserved verbatim copies of the letters

MUSGROVE'S FINAL MINUTES

He sprang into the wagon seat when he finished writing, was driven under the bridge, and the noose was readied for his neck. Told he could make any preparations for the near end, he said, "Go on with your work."

Lynching on LH Musgrove
November 23rd, 1868

Captain Scudder, a well-known and respected citizen, appeared on the bridge and chastised the crowd at length for the illegality of the situation. Musgrove rolled and smoked a cigarette and listened with "...as much composure as a Mexican ranchero sitting in his plaza on a summer evening.'

But Captain Scudder's,

"...talk was not heeded. The crowd began to jeer, and to cry : 'Drive on!' 

Some one hallooed to Musgrove and inquired: 'Where are the rest of your gang?'

'I am sure I don't know,' came the reply, 'unless you are one of them.' 

Those were among the man's last words. His hat was pulled down over his eyes. Musgrove threw his cigarette from his mouth, and feeling the wagon starting, stooped and sprang into the air." (in order to secure a better fall ed.)  Hands Up; page 52

Stories of the Century
L.H. MUSGROVE

Stories of the Century is a 39-episode Western television series starring Jim Davis that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between January 23, 1954, and March 11, 1955. 

Note: Relationships are expressed from the perspective of the grandchildren of Willis Edgar and Carrie (known as) Mae (Merritt) Musgrove. 

*Terms of relationship - grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, etc.  - are generically used to include relatives such as fourth great-grandfathers, great grand uncles, second cousins twice removed, etc.