The Vigilantes of Montana, part 8

The Hanging of Joseph A. Slade

Joseph A. Slade, had been a manager with the Overland Stage Line. For much of the time he enjoyed a fine career with them because he was honest and a good manager.

He had an enemy, one Jules Reni, a dishonest Overland Stage employee, and the enmity between the two men escalated to shooting. Reni shot Slade five times, but Slade survived to come after Reni, whom he killed. Then Slade reportedly cut off Reni's ears and carried them in his vest pocket.

Slade, unfortunately, was also a binge drinker, a veritable Jekyl and Hyde as people might later say.

When he drank, he turned violent. When he was sober, he was a model citizen -- upright, honest, and a loving husband to his long-suffering wife, Maria.

In Virginia City, he followed the same pattern, being sober and drunkenly violent by turns. His sober self made friends that his drunken self tried sorely.

On March 8, 1864, Slade was on another bender. Arrested by the Sheriff, he was taken before the judge of the people's court, Alexander Davis, who had been one of George Ives's defense attorneys. Slade threatened Judge Davis at gunpoint, swore that no one could arrest him. Judge Davis managed to defuse the situation and send Slade on his way with the advice to "go home."

Slade did not go home, although several more times his friends begged him to do so, and during the course of his bender he insulted and threatened several people until even his friends in the Vigilance Committee lost patience. Not only was Slade a definite threat to public safety, but his contempt for the law court endangered their effort to establish law and order.

On March 10, 1864, the Vigilantes hanged Joseph Slade.

His wife arrived soon after his body was taken down. She had it placed into a lead-lined coffin filled with whiskey (according to one report) and when the mountain passes cleared, she left Montana for Salt Lake City, where she had the remains buried.

Naturally, not everyone agreed with this action by the Vigilantes, for Slade had committed no capital crime. To many people, it underscored the immediate need to build a jail, because Slade could have been held there until he was sober.

Further readings in Montana History