Outlaws of Northeast California (1880-1900)

A compendium of gangs and their accomplices during the last two decades of the 1800s. These outlaws assisted each other and family members were drawn in to try to stop (or help) in their lives of crime.

Quick Snap Shot

The so-called Hough-Lowry gang

• Outlaw Billy Thompson ~> pulled out of a Lake County Oregon jail and lynched
• Charles Hough, outlaw ~> shot by a sheriff
• Outlaw Jeff Lowry ~> escaped death and lived a long life
  • fascinating stories
    

and other seedy characters:

• Outlaw Abe Jones
• Outlaw George Jones
• Outlaw Bill Howard
• Outlaw Tex Vore
• Virgil Howard

The "Harney Boys"

for Harney OR, were a sort of overlapping gang consisting of

• Abe Jones (and I suppose his brother George)
• Bill Howard (shot dead evading capture)
• Jack Rice, who turned States evidence
• Virgil Howard

Alphabetical List of Criminals

• Hough, Charley suspect, shot by Rachford - CA
• Howard, William "Bill" suspect, shot dead in OR
• Howard, Virgil counterfeiter
• Jones, Abe highwayman, fall guy - 20 years - CA
• Jones, George counterfeiter - caught at Ft.Bidwell hotel & convicted - (unk)- OR
• Lowry, Jefferson Davis alleged criminal - never charged - CA
• Thompson, William "Billy" "Roulette" arrested but hung by mob - OR
• Vore, Orliff "Tex" counterfeiter - 1 year - CA

Law Men

• Rachford, Charles Cristopher "C.C." who, incidentally, also experienced a stay at San Quentin prison

Aggrieved Family & friends

~• some of whom were co-conspirators

• Howard, Cornelius held as an accessory after the fact - watched his son Bill Howard die in his door yard
• Jones, Harriet wailed for clemency on behalf of son Abe outside the San Francisco courthouse
• Jones, William perjured for his brother Abe, was caught, got a year, joined Abe In San Quentin
• Love, William "W.B." assisted William Jones in perjury story

Pertinent Clippings

~• newspapers.com subscription needed to view

• 1888 "Fit to look up a tree" in the Plumas County Bulletin (Greenville, Ca.); 29 Feb 1888, Wed., p. 3
  • refers to Thompson
• 1891 George Jones captured in Bidwell
• 1892 "Abe Jones convicted" in The Record-Union (Sacramento, California); 23 May 1892, Mon., p. 4
• 1894 "He got what he deserved" in the Feather River Bulletin (Quincy, California); 30 Aug 1894, Thu., p. 3
  • refers to Thompson
• 1908 Death of Sheriff Rachford in the Feather River Bulletin (Quincy, California); 27 Jul 1908, Mon., Page 1
  • a retrospective of the Hough/Lowry gang
    

~• note: many more clippings are attached to each of the profiles pegged to this project