there, intending to kill him without witnesses. He agreed and went to Aurora February 1, 1864, but the gang's intentions were discovered by one of Johnson's friends, who warned him of the danger and advised him to beg off the visit. When Johnson did so, the conspirators, satisfied that their victim had discovered their intentions, decided to kill him that night. They coaxed him down to a saloon, where he spent the night and then started for his lodgings, and was met on Antelope Street by four men and shot dead. Such a senseless murder enraged the town. Daly, James Masterson, and John McDowell were arrested by the authorities and lodged in jail, while Sheriff Francis, with an eager posse, started in pursuit of William Buckley, who had fled. The prisoners were given a preliminary examination before Justice Moore at the old police station, during which an altercation occurred between one of the Daly crowd, named Vance, and a citizen named Watkins, resulting in the shooting of Vance in the groin. Gang member and gunman Pliney Gardner was also captured, along with "Irish Tom" Carberry and others, but, deemed to have played no part in the murder, they were simply banished from the territory. There could be found neither witnesses to testify against the gang members nor court officials to try their case for fear of retribution. Infuriated at this timid response, around 600 men met at Armory Hall and formed a "Citizens Safety Committee" of vigilantes, who took matters into their own hands, marching to the jail and demanding custody of the prisoners. For several days saloons had been required to close their doors at 9:00 p.m., and on the ninth, the day set for the execution, all business was suspended. Five thousand people flocked into town from miles around, the majority of them in sympathy with the proceedings. The town was very quiet, guards patrolled the streets, and everything was still and orderly, and, when Governor Nye telegraphed to Samuel Youngs, one of the County Commissioners, that there must be no violence, Youngs replied: "All quiet and orderly. Four men will be hung in half an hour." At noon the vigilante companies formed about the scaffold under the command of Colonel Palmer, who received his orders from Armory Hall. The four doomed men were escorted to the scaffold, while guards kept the crowd at a distance. The execution