Hunting the elusive Queho ... and a murder victim that comes back alive and well

'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' series: After supposedly committing several murders, posses unsuccessfully hunted for the elusive renegade. And a murder victim reported that he had not been murdered.

Quintus Hopper of Nevada, published in January 2022, is a historical novel that follows the epic and peculiar life of a frontier newspaper typesetter. As part of my research I made extensive use of newspaper archives and, in this series, I’ll share some of my often surprising findings. Here are history, commentaries and contemporary newspaper articles as they relate to the novel. This time a look the next steps in the hunt for Queho, with another unsuccessful posse - and a supposed victim of the ‘renegade Indian’ that suddenly comes back - alive and well!

In the month after the murder of Joe Woodworth, the killing of Doc Gilbert was laid at Queho’s feet - and quickly the Woodworth murder was also attributed to him. Now Queho was headline material in local papers and beyond and his name would show up in newspapers time and time again over the coming years.

Below are two articles: The first from the Las Vegas Age highlights the second of many posses sent after Queho. After the initial failure to apprehend or kill Queho, local people demand help from the state. And as the Nevada state police had just been formed in faraway Carson City, they came to investigate. The state now offered $500 for Queho’s capture and Sergeant Newgard, assigned by the state police to lead the hunt, assured everyone that they would succeed. The article gives a sense of just how hopeful they were to finally capture the elusive Queho. It didn’t happen (and it never would). Ten days after the big announcement, Sergeant Newgard disappeared and returned quietly to his far distant headquarters at Carson City.

The second article recounts just how casually every disappearance was seen as another one of the murderous Queho’s victims - he had become the perfect scapegoat for any and everything. In late February of 1911, newspapers reported that Queho had killed again. The Mohave County Miner wrote: ‘There is a report current that the Indian Queho has killed a prospector named Peterson or Patterson; at the mouth of the Vegas Wash, and that Frank M. Barnes is also missing.’ The article was entirely vague – and the reports of James Patterson’s demise soon proved to be more than a little flawed, when the man himself stepped into the offices of the Las Vegas Age to announce that he was very much alive!

January 14, 1911

Las Vegas Age, Las Vegas

TRAILING QUEHO

Systematic Search Being Made for Supposed Murderer

Queho, the bad Indian, is in a bad fix. A band of whites and Indians, making up what is probably the most determined band of scouts and trailers remaining in the west today, men who are tireless on the trail, persevering and never failing in carrying out their purposes; who know all the ways of savage cunning, and who are familiar with the country in which he is hiding, are after Mr. Queho.

At the head of the band is Sergt. Newberg, of the state police, who has been authorized to take up the chase. Assisting him are Ike Alcock and J. E. Babcock, both famous as scouts. The whites have with them six Indians of the Piute tribe, all anxious to rid the country of the peril of murderous, crazy Queho.

Bill, on account of his intimate knowledge of the country, is acting as guide. Bill comes from Eldorado Canyon, bringing with him Cap. Mullen, Dennis Kearney and Stub, to assist. Jack and Mayhew, both Vegas Indians, are also members of the party.

Dennis Kearney is no spring chicken. Fifteen years ago, Mouse killed two white men, prospectors from San Bernardino near the mouth of Vegas Wash. Kearney took his trail, following by day and by night, like the fates, finally overtaking and killing Mr. Mouse near the Muddy Valley.

Two years later, Avote killed five whites in the Eldorado district. Kearney and Vegas Jack cornered the murderer on Cottonwood Island in the Colorado river, where he was calmly, gently and systematically killed by a relative, one of Avote’s hands being cut off and brought back to civilization as proof of a good job.

Queho, the object of the present hunt, was born in Eldorado Canyon and lived there an inoffensive red man, until he spent a few months in contact with civilization and bad whiskey last year. The murder of old man Woodbury a few months ago at his camp near Searchlight, and the murder of the watchman at the Gold Bug mill more recently, are laid to Queho. The Indians and prospectors are both fearful of the crazy Indian, believing that he will kill without mercy anyone he may meet. It is very probably that Mr. Queho’s days are numbered considering those who are after him.

March 4, 1911

Las Vegas Age, Las Vegas

NOT KILLED

James Patterson Insists

That He Is Alive in Spite of Queho

Like Mark Twain, James Patterson claims that the report of his death as published in the Searchlight Bulletin of last week and copied by several southern California papers, was greatly exaggerated. In fact Patterson claims not to be dead at all and not even headed that way. The bad Indian, Queho, has one less crime to answer for than was laid to his credit, while Patterson is oiling up the old musket preparatory to going on a hunt for the man that killed him. According to the pitiful story printed, James Patterson, a lonely prospector, was shot in the back by the murderous Indian, without a chance to defend himself, and his mutilated body was discovered in the fastnesses of the desert and identified by those who reported the death.

Mr. Patterson and his partner, D. F. Watson are much incensed that reports such as these without even the remote semblance of truth should be so extensively circulated. Such reports are damaging to the mining interests of the country as they deter miners and capitalists from visiting one of the richest mineral sections of the south-west skirting the Colorado river on both the Arizona and the Nevada sides. They state most empathetically that there is absolutely no danger from Indians, the half crazy Queho not having been seen for many months.