Anatomy of a Lynching

MSU professor and university archivist Kim Allen Scott presents a study of one of Bozeman's most shameful episodes, the vigilante execution of two prisoners in early 1873. Scott briefly examines the scholarly record on frontier extra-legal action, using salient points from the story itself to illustrate that record, and provides a surprising motivation for the hangings that far removes the action from any of the heroic myths many ascribe to the vigilantes of Alder Gulch in 1863–1864.