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Posts published by “Malcolm Macdonald”

Mendocino Outlaws: The Manhunt Commences

The Mendocino Outlaws murdered Tom Dollard and William Wright on Wednesday, October 15, 1879. By the weekend Sheriff Jim Moore arrived in Mendocino City with a posse of four other men. Moore had sent a…

Jacob Patterson’s Fort Bragg Fixation

On Friday, April 9th, the City of Fort Bragg received a letter from the Service Employees International Union. SEIU represents nearly two million workers in the United States and Canada, including many employees of governmental…

Mendocino Outlaws Backstory

The saga of John F. Wheeler did not come to an end when Chester Ford deposited him in the county jail at Ukiah. The rest of the Mendocino Outlaws were still at large. Wheeler's connection…

Wheeler’s Early Life and Ford’s Secret

On October 15, 1879, four gunmen ambushed a constable's posse in the woods east of Mendocino. Two civilian members of the posse were killed and a third wounded. Evidence at the killers' camp led to…

Clarence Ford’s Ride with Dr. Wheeler

After Dr. John F. Wheeler had been arrested as the suspected ringleader of four other men who ambushed a constable's posse, killing two civilians, the dentist faced an arraignment. Under a second day of questioning,…

Dr. Wheeler’s Arrest

After the ambush of October 15, 1879, that killed two civilian members of a posse, the four outlaws escaped into the forest east of Mendocino. In town, suspicions spread. About half of the original twenty-one…

Dr. Wheeler and the Mendocino Outlaws

On October 15, 1879, four gunmen, intent on robbing the county sheriff, ambushed a posse of civilians in the woods east of Mendocino. Store owner Tom Dollard was murdered on the spot. Townsman Jim Nichols…

The Mendocino Outlaws

October, 1879 — Four men rode into the woods east of Mendocino. They unsaddled their horses then set up camp in an old hay shed. There they waited for their leader to bring supplies and…

Bigfoot and the Dentist (Part 2)

John Fleming Wheeler served the town of Mendocino as dentist for less than a year and a half in 1878-1879. His name lives on because of his central role in the most notorious crime in…

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