This is a very condensed version of a tale of intrigue that really happened over 125 years ago. It's facinating all the twists and turns that one man's determination to see justice done, took him on:
In 1865, Idaho, three killers dangled from the gallows because the friend of a murdered man saw it - the gruesome axe slaying - happen in a dream. Hill Beachy, saw his friend, Lloyd Magruder, struck with an ax and the killer put his foot on Magruder’s body to wrench the axe out. He saw the killer’s face.
Magruder was a merchant who had just made a fortune selling his wares to the gold miners at Alder Gulch. He headed home in the company of some young miners and four men he had employed. Unbeknownst to him, those men were escaped convicts.
Six nights later, near the Bitter Root Mountains, Chris Lowry snuck up behind Magruder standing guard over his grazing herd and did him in with an axe. The miners were similarly dispatched. Bodies wrapped in blankets, the herd and other evidence were sent over the edge of a canyon. A hundred miles from anyone, the bandits made off with the gold and seven horses. It began to snow. They thought it was the perfect crime.
Leaving their horses at a nearby ranch, the gang checked in the Luna Hotel. Hill Beachy was at the desk and he recognized the killer from his dream. Patiently searching for proof he discovered the horses and Marauder’s saddle. Many adventures later he caught up with the guilty men to San Francisco where they were waiting to have the stolen gold dust minted into coins. Back in Lewiston, he tricked one of them into confessing by vigilante theatrics. The bodies were recovered and revealed that Magruder had been killed by an axe just like Hill Beachy saw in his dream, even to the bloody footprint on his thigh as the axe was pulled from his body.
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