The occasion soon came.  May 14th, 1856, between 4 and 5 o’clock, afternoon, James P. Casey shot James King of William on Montgomery street, at the corner of Washington, He fired only one shot.  King was facing Casey as he fired; he immediately staggered and fell.  A crowd gathered in a very few moments.  Casey was taken into custody and Sheriff Scannell hastened him to the county jail in a hack.  The excited crowd followed and clamored for his life; they wanted to hang him at once.  Then followed the organization of the Vigilance Committee, mainly directed by members of the Committee of ’51.  An Executive Committee of forty-one members composed the head and governing branch; a military and patrol department was organized, duly officered.  The rank and file in a few days numbered between 5,000 and 6,000 men, armed, drilled and disciplined.  The second floor of the Truitt brick block, southeast corner of Front and Sacramento street, embracing half a dozen stores below, was made the Committee headquarters.  All around in front of the block, nearly to the middle of the street, gunny bags filled with sand were piled five feet high, and two pieces of artillery were mounted at the ends, for offensive and defensive purposes.  The name of “Fort Gunny Bags” was given to it.  Guards were constantly on duty inside the fort and at the two narrow passageways to the doors on the lower floor, from which the stairs led up to the rooms occupied by the Committee.  At the doors, at the foot of the stairs, midway on the steps, at the top of each flight, before every door to every room, and in the passages which led to the different rooms, guards were stationed, with muskets loaded and bayonets fixed.  Fort Gunny Bags was as a garrison in time of active war.  A very large triangle was hung from the roof of the block occupied by the Committee to sound the signal-call to duty of every member, at any time of day or night; also a bell contributed from Monumental Fire Engine Company, whose leader was George Heossafros, (ex-Chief of the Fire Department).  The Executive Committee Court hall and rooms, the rooms of the officers, the rooms for the guards, and the small, close, crimped cells for the prisoners, were all upon the second floor — the upper floor of the block.  The entire place was thoroughly guarded.

Casey shot King Wednesday afternoon, May 14th.  After the organization of the Vigilance Committee, a number of prominent citizens who were opposed to every movement of that kind and believed in due obedience to the law and in submission to the constituted authorities under every circumstances, likewise organized under the title of the Law and Order Association.  Impulse was given to the movement by an unlooked-for incident.  The Daily Herald had been for four years annually voted by the guild of auctioneers the auction advertisements, which filled one whole page of the paper.  John Nugent was owner and editor.  He had approved and upheld the Vigilance Committee of 1851 in the Herald.