Hetherington, who was captured by the police, had been turned over to the Committee by whom he was tried, the Committee going into session immediately after the shooting, found him guilty of murder and sentenced him to be hanged.

We were again called out on the 29th and were stationed so as to command the situation.  This time a gallows was erected on Davis street, between Sacramento and Commercial.

Another man, Philander Brace by name, was also to be hanged at the same time, and at about 5:30 in the afternoon of July 29th they were both conveyed in carriages, strongly guarded, to the execution grounds.  Hetherington had previously proclaimed his innocence, claiming that the Doctor had shot first and he had simply shot in self-defense, but his previous record was bad, he having killed a Doctor Baldwin in 1853 and had run a gambling joint on Long Wharf, and eye witnesses claimed that he not only provoked but shot first.

Brace was of a different nature, he was a hardened criminal of a low type.  The charge against him being the killing of Captain J. B. West about a year previous, out in the Mission, and of murdering his accomplice.  He had also confessed to numerous other crimes.

Hanging of Hetherington and Brace.

Thousands of people were on the house-tops and in windows and on every available spot from which a view of the gallows was to be had.  The prisoners mounted the scaffold, being accompanied by three Vigilance Committee officers who acted as executioners and a Rev. Mr. Thomas.  After the noose had been adjusted, Hetherington addressed the crowd, claiming to be innocent, and ready to meet his Maker.  Brace, every once in a while, interrupted him, using terrible and vulgar language.  The caps were adjusted, the ropes cut and the two dropped into eternity.  They were left hanging 40 minutes, after which the bodies were removed by the Committee to their rooms and afterwards turned over to the Coroner.  They were both young men — Hetherington 35, a native of England, had been in California since 1850, while Brace was but 21, a native of Onandaigua County, N. Y.

Ballot Box Stuffing.

The ballot boxes that had been used by Casey and his ilk were of a peculiar construction, having false slides on the sides and bottoms that could be slipped out and thereby letting enough spurious votes drop into the box to insure the election of their man or men.  It was claimed that nearly the entire set of municipal officers then holding office had secured their election through this man.  They were afterwards requested by the Vigilance Committee to resign their offices, but at the first election that was held on November 4th, they were all displaced by men selected by a new party (the People’s party) that was the outcome of the efforts of the Vigilance Committee.

Billy Mulligan.