The Missing Thumb Killer: And Other Quirky Tales from the Early Days of Law and Enforcement in Oregon

When wagon trains began to spill into the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1840s no one knew what was to come without any form of government. It didn’t take long for things to take shape and for law enforcement to begin its work. See how outlaws were dealt with and how justice was handed out on the final frontier. Oregon never had the gangs of outlaws that roamed in the wild open spaces. The early Sheriffs had to deal with colorful individuals in a time of vigilante justice where a crime might happen in the morning, the trial in the afternoon and a hanging by nightfall.