last
words. Casey availed himself of the privilege and spoke a few minutes in
clear loud voice, in somewhat excited manner, denying his guilt of
murder and vindicating his action. Cora stood all the while as
motionless as a statue. Not a tremor or quiver was perceptible. The
white cap covered his head and face to below the chin. At the conclusion
of Casey's brief speech, the cap was drawn over his face, and as the
hangman pulled it down he whispered in his ear something that made the
doomed man start as if to break the bands which held his arms. In an
instant the signal was given, the traps sprung, by the two men on the
roof cutting the ropes which upheld them, and Casey and Cora were
launched for the death to quickly come. Casey struggled for a few
moments; Cora showed no sign of pain or life. After death the bodies
were cut down, and shortly afterward were delivered to friends who had
provided for their burial. The hangman of Casey was Sterling Hopkins, a
notorious character, with whom Casey once had a difficulty. He had
begged the Committee to officiate in the event of Casey's condemnation
to death by the rope, and the whispered words he hissed in Casey's ear,
as he subsequently boasted, were of exultation over his opportunity of
revenge, and of brutish import respecting the powerless victim, Casey
had been foreman of Crescent Engine Company, No. 10, located on Pacific
street, below Front. Cora's remains were given quiet interment. The
Sunday following the execution Casey was buried. A very large procession
followed his remains to the Mission Dolores Cemetery, in which a
monument was in due time erected to his memory. Upon it is inscribed the
manner of his death.

Governor Johnson had at first played into the hands of the Committee. He
had come down from Sacramento to San Francisco, in the middle of May,
and virtually caused the surrender of the county jail to the Vigilantes,
for the capture of Casey and Cora. At the instance of the leading men of
the Law and Order organization, he subsequently changed his course, and
endeavored to undo that which he had done. It was too late. The
Committee had already become the master of the situation. It was the
supreme power in San Francisco, and it had erected such harmony of
spirit with it in Sacramento, Marysville, Stockton, San Jose and other
interior cities and towns, that it was the paramount local authority and
formidable generally throughout the State. General Wool was a