History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

628
PROGRESS OF EVENTS.
justice decided against him. 67 Soon afterward other
property belonging to Robinson was destroyed at
midnight by a gang of twenty or thirty men, some of
them in disguise, Alexander Burt, of the police force,
with several others as accomplices, being accused,
though not identified. By the advice of his counsel,
Robinson gave notice that he intended to hold the
city responsible for damages. Two days later he was
aroused near midnight to attend a patient, and when
a short distance from his dwelling was struck on the
head with a sharp instrument, and then shot through
the brain. The murder was committed at a corner of
Main Street in bright moonlight, the doctor's cries
were heard by his neighbors, and seven persons were
seen running away from the spot, but no arrests were
made, 68 the verdict of the coroner's jury being that
the deceased had died by the hands of parties unknown.
69 By the gentiles the doctor's assassination
was attributed to his contest with the city authorities,
though in fact the murder may have been neither
ordered nor premeditated. If it were so, it would
seem improbable that seven persons should have been
intrusted with the secret, and that such time and
place should have been selected.
Other murders and outrages were ascribed to the
Mormons about this date, some of gentiles and some
of their own apostate countrymen. 70 So great was
6T During the trial Robinson's counsel raised the point that the city, on
account of the non-performance of certain acts, had no legal existence. Deseret
News, Nov. 14, 1866.
68 Parties were indicted for the murder by the grand jury, in 1871, but
there was no evidence against them except that they had been seen in the
neighborhood. Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, 617-18.
69 Descret News, Nov. 14, 1866; Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints, 616-
20, 735-41, where are copies of the speeches of counsel. In commenting on
the case, the Deseret News remarks that the investigation was conducted without
the least effort to discover the assassins, unless it could be shown that
they were Mormons. For other accounts, see Beadle's Life in Utah, 208-9;
Richardson's Beyond the Mississippi, 363; Rusling's Across America, 1S3-9;
Virginia and Helena Post, Oct. 30, 1866; Boist City Statesman, Nov. 3, 1S66;
Austin, Reese River Reveille; Oct. 29, 1S66; Virginia City Post, Nov. 3, 1SG6.
A large reward was subscribed for the arrest of the murderers, at the head
of the list being the name of Brigham Young for $500.
70 Among the latter, Beadle mentions the cases of three apostates named
Potter, Wilson, and Walker—the first a brother of those murdered atSpring-