Jack Powers: Race Against Time
2. A Good Deed Punished
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2. A Good Deed Punished
From “Remembering Jack Powers” by Bill Horace in the Los Angeles Star, 1876.
Jack's underworld was at its peak when, in May of 1856, that most astonishing event occurred, still recalled as if it happened yesterday by everyone in California who lived through it. The murder of James King of William, founder of the Daily Evening Bulletin, by the politician James P. Casey, in front of the Montgomery Block amidst a giant crowd of San Franciscans, triggered the revival of that great Vigilance Committee that had been hibernating since the heady days of crime and arson half a decade earlier. The Committee seized control of San Francisco from all its legal officers, and with a force of many thousand volunteers and the support of the majority of citizens, compelled the governor of California to allow it at least temporary sway.
Casey was believed to have been aided in his crime by Ned McGowan, called "Ubiquitous" because his presence was felt everywhere in San Francisco life. Judge McGowan was perhaps the closest confidant of David Broderick, who besides his nearly absolute command of City politics, was close to finally becoming U.S. Senator from California, the goal of his existence. The Vigilance Committee, despising Broderick and determined to destroy him, was anxious to arrest and hang McGowan. Even the elected City prosecutor leveled murder charges on the pretense that he still had power to enforce the laws. But Ned managed to escape from San Francisco after weeks of desperate concealment, and he rode down along the coast of California in disguise, guided by some trusted friends, in hopes of reaching Mexico whence he might sail to the Atlantic States.
McGowan's flight and disappearance were the subject of the most intense discussion in The City, with purported sightings of the fugitive in every paper. The excitement spread to all of California. Everybody sought to find old Ned and send him back to San Francisco to win the thanks of the Committee and the cash reward it promised. Jack Powers was among the very few who knew where Ned McGowan was, for he had entered Jack's wide territory and was identified in spite of his disguise. Jack's people tracked the Judge's progress and Powers waited for the fugitive to get to Santa Barbara before deciding what to do. He’d met McGowan once or twice in San Francisco, but his motive in protecting Ned was loyalty to David Broderick, for whom he would do anything.
When McGowan finally arrived in Santa Barbara, hoping simply to pass through, he was recognized by someone who had lived in San Francisco. A cry was raised and Ned fled down the street on foot, hopelessly attempting to escape. But at that moment Jack appeared on his black mare, dismounted quickly, grabbed McGowan, and ducking in a friendly home, rolled the Judge up in a filthy carpet.
From that moment, Jack pretended to be leading in the hunt, diverting the ferocious mob from Ned's location. Then he fanned a story that the fugitive was hiding in some tules, and when Ned did not emerge at their command, the crowd set fire to the rushes. Late that night,Jack came back to pull McGowan from the carpet, and personally prevented the searching of the premises, insisting that the criminal could not possibly be present. In short, Jack took the greatest risks to save McGowan. Although Powers was a force to be respected, even feared, the fury of the mob was uncontrollable. Had it discovered Jack was hiding and protecting Ned, it would have overcome and likely killed him.
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Jack snuck Judge McGowan out to a new hiding place against the darkness of the night and left him there alone, promising to move him elsewhere before daylight. But Ned became alarmed when three Californios allied with Jack entered his refuge unexpectedly. He didn't understand Jack's situation or his relationship with men like these who seemed so dangerous and frankly hostile to Americans. He feared especially they might discover how much gold was on his person, which he’d need to get back East. So Ned ducked out the moment that they left and hid up in the bone dry hills, deprived of food and water, with Jack not knowing where he was and unable, although trying very hard, to find him. The Judge was desperate, and began to think of whom he knew that lived in Santa Barbara, men he'd met in San Francisco in the course of politics or business. He hit on two important individuals, a Californian don who served in the Assembly and a fellow Irishman, a physician and a rancher named Den.
After weeks of hiding in the hills by day and slipping down to ranches nightly to steal miserable food, McGowan managed to send off a note that reached the Californio. That gentleman discovered Ned, and ultimately managed to get him to the home of Dr. Den, where no one would expect to find him and none would dare to enter uninvited. The Judge was thrilled to find himself protected, but shocked to hear Den speak of Jack, who'd been Ned's savior, as a notorious criminal and murderer, the leader of a Sonoreño bandit gang composed of former Murrieta men. Den was obviously driven by great enmity toward Powers, but McGowan's brush with Jack's retainers made him wonder if the Doctor's stories might be true. And the longer Ned remained near Santa Barbara, the more he was exposed to talk of Powers as the lord of a great underworld infesting the whole region with impunity, and unnumbered robberies and murders to his name.
After six months in Santa Barbara, in early '57, McGowan's situation had much changed because the state of California had. The Vigilance Committee had relinquished its illegal power and replaced it with a legal one. A Reform Party formed of Vigilance Committee members won almost every San Francisco office in the Fall elections. This meant Ned no longer had to fear a patently unlawful inquisition, but he still faced those same murder charges that the prosecutor brought in San Francisco. Then, more recently, David Broderick was made a U.S. Senator by the legislature meeting up in Sacramento. Not many months before, it was conceivable that the Vigilance Committee, at the apex of its strength, might murder Broderick. So his election to such high office at the capital satisfied McGowan that he'd be safe and welcome there, even if he dare not visit San Francisco. The Judge left Santa Barbara, made his way to Sacramento, where he was very warmly greeted, and the legislature passed a bill to move his murder trial to Napa where there was no hostility to him.
McGowan was acquitted quickly, but he was broke and had no place in San Francisco anymore. Mostly from financial pressure, but also driven by his anger, he wrote a narrative about his flight and travels that sold rapidly. Everybody read it, including all his enemies in San Francisco. But there was one part of his tale that had been difficult to write. He could hardly fail to tell about his rescue by Jack Powers, the most exciting incident in the entire story. But he owed too much to Dr. Den to praise Jack unreservedly. So he conceded Jack was said to be a criminal in Santa Barbara, but if he was, his nobleness in saving Ned at risk of his own life should weigh against his crimes.
The San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, now run by the brother of the editor whose murder launched the Vigilance Committee, was enraged at the acquittal of McGowan. The paper read in Ned's confession of Jack's help that he'd availed of the protection of a murderer, the white chieftain of a band of greaser bandits. And so McGowan's grudging reference to Jack's ugly reputation became a hammer that the paper used to pound the Judge, as one murderer protected by another. Everyone in San Francisco began to hear that Jack, a man so long beloved in The City, was not only a foul criminal but, far worse, a renegade and traitor to his nation and his race. That this had been reluctantly revealed by someone who had owed his life to Jack could only make the charges more believable.