Word of Erath County’s vigilante executions reached Austin and during the winter of 1872 Governor E.J. Davis sent Reconstruction State Police to place the area under martial law. The incident brought to the governor’s attention was the hanging of four men, one of whom survived by holding the rope in his teeth. Chief of State Police, Frank L. Britton arrived with a list of thirty-five Erath residents and arrested several. The Grand Jury in Fort Worth was too fearful of retaliation and the vigilantes were released. Attorney Thomas Nugent, who defended the vigilantes, was driving his wagon back to Stephenville when one of the gang rode along side him and roped his dog and pulled him off of the ground to demonstrate how the victims had been raised and lowered before they died. Nugent asked that he not kill his dog but the torture continued. Afterwards the mob, as they were called, became more dangerous, targeting a wider range of victims, killing some and demanding that others leave the county.

James Pylant. Sins of the Pioneers: Crimes and Scandals in a Small Texas Town, 2019; Lena Lewis. “Erath County: A Compilation.” Stephenville, Texas, 1938. Unpublished Manuscript in Tarleton University Library.