Justice for Montana

In the 1860s the leading citizens of Virginia City had formed a semi-secret "vigilance committee" to combat the depredations of a organizations like Henry Plummer's.  Determined to reassert order, this vigilante committee began their work of turning Montana into a law-abiding territory and became known as the Montana Vigilantes.

The Montana Vigilantes had a better interstate/inter-territory operation for criminal punishment than the FBI.  Pledged to secrecy and loyalty, they had their own reign of terror in the region throughout the 1860s.  They would send photographs and descriptions of wanted desperadoes known to other areas such as Colorado.  In Colorado, they would quietly and quickly lynch the criminals without the bother or expense of extraditing them back to Montana.  And, of course, Montana would do the same for them.

The legend goes that if you were known to be in the area, the Montana Vigilantes would pay you a visit at midnight and post a cryptic code on your door: 3-7-77.  You had one of two choices - get out of town before dawn, or hang from the nearest tree.

What did the 3-7-77 mean?  Some historians claim it was the perfect measurements of a grave: 3 feet wide, 7 feet long, 77 inches deep. 


Next time we'll look at a couple members of this so-called law-enforcement group...