Call it the Virginia City version of Cain and Abel. Feuding brothers John L. and Samuel Black owned a prominent building at the corner of “C” Street and Taylor in Virginia City’s early days. But there was little about the building’s management they seemed to agree on. Born in Alabama, the brothers had first arrived […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias: Where Everyone Wound Up (Part 4)
Julia Lake’s wasn’t the only life snuffed out by those three bullets fired by an irate wife. (And in case you missed the earlier parts of this story, here’s where you can find Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3!) No, when Julia breathed her last on August 2, 1871, […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias: What Happened Next? (Part 3)
For Nelson Savier, Hamilton, Nevada probably seemed like the perfect place to hide. No doubt he was hoping that the sordid tale of his mistress’s murder wouldn’t follow him to a remote mining town. And best of all, he’d left his murderous wife Julia back in California. But as […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias (Part 2)
When we left off last time, Julia Savier had tracked her philandering husband all the way from Carson City to Stockton. Finding her husband’s mistress ensconced at the Grand Hotel, Julia knocked at the door, pulled the trigger three times, and watched her rival fall. “There,” she declared with satisfaction. […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias, & One Philandering Husband
A Family Affair . . . . Like all good mysteries, this one began with a tiny clue. An old newspaper from August, 1880 happened to mention a man who’d breathed his last at Walley’s Hot Springs. His name, we discovered, was Benjamin F. Seely. But who was Seely? Ah, and that’s where the twisting […]