It seemed that James A. Gordon’s luck had run out. Sitting in a jail at Leavenworth, Kan., Gordon was waiting for a hearing before Judge John Pettit for the murder of John Gantz nearly two months before, on July 18, 1860, in Denver City, Kansas Territory.

Gordon initially escaped a vigilante posse by boldly riding through a hail of bullets as he charged through the gates of Fort Lupton, 24 miles northeast of Denver. Gordon later wrote that his escape was unfortunate, for he afterward, he went through “torture a hundred times worse than death.”

Arapaho County Sheriff William Middaugh set out Aug. 9, 1860, tenaciously tracking Gordon into eastern Kansas where he executed a flawless arrest at Humboldt, Kansas Territory, on Aug. 17. Middaugh had traveled an amazing 700 miles in eight days to affect Gordon’s capture.

At Leavenworth, Judge Pettit ordered Gordon held over for a hearing in his court in a month’s time. Middaugh was directed to gather witnesses at Denver and bring them to Pettit’s court in Leavenworth. The quickest mode of travel was by stage on the Pikes Peak Express.

At Denver, John Gantz’s murder had set the vigilantes in motion. The Missouri Democrat reported that six or seven men had been found swinging from limbs in the Denver area. Gantz’s death not only stirred emotions of the front range. He lived at Leavenworth before going to the gold fields and was well-liked, especially in the German community.

Tensions were near the breaking point when Sheriff Middaugh returned with several witnesses on Sept. 17, the very day that the hearing was to convene. Crowds of excited men waited outside the courthouse.

Convincing evidence was laid before Judge Pettit, but the judge questioned his jurisdiction in the matter. Upon reviewing territorial law pertaining to judicial districts, Pettit found that the Territorial Legislature had failed to establish definite boundaries for counties in the new gold field district, therefore, he had no jurisdiction over the case, and furthermore stated that no judicial district actually existed on the front range. With no legal court to authoritatively try Gordon, the prisoner was released.

The news spread over Leavenworth “like wildfire.” Leavenworth Mayor McDowell deputized a posse of approximately 50 dependable men to escort Gordon through the angry crowd as they made their way to the county jail.

Gordon was a free man, but jail was the only safe place for him. The Leavenworth Times described “a scene of wildest excitement.” Surrounded by his stalwart posse, Mayor McDowell led Gordon out of the courtroom and into the hall. “...the seething, tossing crowd tossed to and fro, pressing against the officers and striving to get at the prisoner.”

Into the street they battled amid screams of “hang him, hang him!” All the while, brave, stern officers closed around Gordon with “a firm wall of protection” until the jail was finally reached.

“Men armed with muskets and revolvers and knives gathered thick and fast, and as the shades of night came on, large bonfires were built up all around the jail.”

Mayor McDowell qui- eted the crowd with a pledge to turn Gordon over to Sheriff Middaugh, but when Gordon was handed over to Middaugh, the crowd rushed upon Gordon, throwing a rope over his neck. An officer cut it loose. The conflict was described as “desperate to the last degree.”

Sheriff Middaugh was among the officers injured in defending Gordon’s life. Every stitch of clothing was torn from Gordon’s body. He begged to be shot, for he did not want to be hung. Mercifully, the posse was able to get back to the safety of the jail. By 4 a.m all was quiet on the streets.

A few days later with an escort of posse men, Sherrif Middaugh boarded the stage with his prisoner bound for Denver City. A short distance from Leavenworth, a Deputy U. S. Marshal stopped the stage with an arrest warrant for the theft of a mule weeks before. Gordon was taken to Fort Leavenworth and housed in the guard house.

Middaugh wrangled with authorities until the charge could not be proven and Gordon was once again turned over to Sheriff Middaugh.

But Middaugh faced one last snag.

The posse men were not allowed to continue on a technicality and the sheriff was forced to escort his prisoner alone on the six-day journey stage ride to Denver City.

The afternoon of Sept. 29, 1860, one day after their arrival at Denver City, Gordon’s trial was convened. Pleading for mercy, Gordon tried to explain that the influence of alcohol had led him to the point of insanity.

There would be no leniency. The “people’s court” sentenced him to hang on Oct. 8, 1860.

Several thousand people gathered along Cherry Creek to witness Gordon’s execution at the end of a rope. Addressing the crowd, Gordon thanked those who had tried to save his life and asked if some friend would shoot him.

Resigned to his fate, James A. Gordon turned to Sheriff Middaugh and asked him to fix the rope “so that it would break his neck quick.” He then stepped onto the drop, the cap was pulled over his head and with hands restrained, “the drop fell and launched him into eternity” on The Way West.