Queho's 'reign of terror' begins
'Quintus Hopper of Nevada' series: Queho, a Southern Paiute Indian, was considered a serial killer. Hunted for decades, he was never caught. The first murder, attributed to him, took place in 1910.
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 at the start of Queho’s reign of terror.
Queho was an enigmatic Southern Paiute, and very little is actually known about him. Below article in the Searchlight Bulletin details the murder of Joe Woodworth, the first of many murders Queho was accused of over the course of the following decades. At the time of the article, no connection with Queho had been made – it was thought only later that he might be responsible for that crime as well. In the following decades, he was hunted time and time again - and never found.
Nobody ever actually saw Queho killing anyone, ever. And no one ever caught Queho. His bones, or supposedly his bones, were found in 1940 in a cave. Below picture shows the men who found a skeleton in a remote cave, thought to be the remains of Queho. Whether those were indeed his remains, or whether the find and items recovered from within the cave were staged, we’ll never know.
In the thirty years before then, more than twenty murders were laid at his feet.
Whenever something was stolen, someone went missing, something was mysterious, Queho was blamed for it. He became the go-to scapegoat for any- and everything that could not be readily explained. Around Eldorado Canyon, Searchlight, Las Vegas and even across the borders in Arizona and California, Queho became known over time as a legendary renegade, even as a downright bogeyman.
Queho is a major character in the novel, his life being mysteriously tied to that of Quintus. Quintus meets Queho as a boy and he knows that Queho was there when Ahvote was killed (find the tale of Ahvote here).
As mentioned, there were murders, and there were prospectors that occasionally went missing in the Southern Nevada region – but not a single one murder can be ascribed to Queho with any certainty. Personally, after all of my research, I believe that he may be responsible for the death of a few, but far from all those more than twenty people.
October 7, 1910
Searchlight Bulletin, Searchlight
J. M. WOODWORTH MURDERED AT McCULLOUGH MOUNTAIN
Aged Man Brutally Slain While Alone in Secluded Wood Camp
Continued Absence Alarms Friends. Victim Found Lying in Cabin with Crushed Skull, With Club Matted with Blood Beside Body. No Clew Left by Murderer. Had Lived in Nevada Many Years.
Alarmed at his long absence, friends of J. M. Woodworth formed a little searching party yesterday and drove over to the old gentleman’s camp in the McCullough Mountains, 18 miles west of here, only to find that he had been foully murdered. He was found in his lonely cabin, lying on his back on the floor with his head in under his bunk. He had been struck two crushing blows, one over the right ear, the other over the left temple, both of which had caved in the skull. Two knuckles of the right hand were also broken, evidently while trying to ward off a blow. The instrument of death, a short, knotted pine club, clotted with blood, lay in the cabin. On the body were found two knives, a bunch of keys and a watch which had stopped at 3 o’clock.
Mr. Woodworth came to Searchlight about five years ago and engaged in the wood business. His yard was here, but he hauled the wood in from the mountains, a trip usually taking from two to three days. He left here on his last trip on Thursday, September 29, and it was Mayor Emerson, an old friend, who first became alarmed when a week passed and the old gentleman was still absent. There was no thought of foul play, but owing to his advanced years – he would have been 79 years of age the 8th of November – friends worried for fear of sickness or an accident.
Yesterday morning Messrs. Emerson, C. D. Jones and J. C. Walter decided to drive over to the camp. Reaching the canyon they found the wagon all loaded, with the harness hanging on the wood. Following up the canyon and over a divide, a distance of about a mile and a half, they came upon the camp – a tent and a dug-out. The door of the tent was open, and countless flies, swarming in and out, told the searchers from a distance that their worst fears were realized. A rain had fallen recently and there was not a single track to be found about the place.
A hurried drive was at once made to Paden’s Camp, some five miles south, where there were telephone connections, Judge S. C. Whipple of Crescent, together with a coroner’s jury, was summoned, and the entire party drove over to the scene of the murder. Investigation revealed no further facts, and the jury, consisting of J. E. Emerson, Jeff Davies, Chas. M. White, H. M. Benson, J. C. Walter and Jas. Jost, found a verdict to the effect that the deceased had come to his death from blows struck with a blunt instrument in the hands of an unknown person.
The body was brought to Searchlight at a late hour last night and will be buried this afternoon at four o’clock. The Masons, of which the deceased was a member, will have charge of the services, which, owing to the condition of the body, will be limited to a last sad tribute at the grave.
At this time it is impossible to advance any reasonable theory for the crime. Those who visited the scene say that from all appearances the murderer must have lain in wait within the cabin and struck his victim down as he entered the door. If robbery was the motive it is doubtful if the assassin got anything. It seems more probable to suppose that there was a quarrel with some passing stranger – possibly an Indian – over wood or water, and that blows were struck with all too telling effect.
J. M. Woodworth was a native of Ohio, and, as stated, was almost 79 years of age. Starting in with the Hudson Bay Trading Co. when a very young man, he had spent all his long life on the frontier. A typical westerner, he was at the time of his death hale and hearty, stronger and more active than most men of fifty. For upwards of half a century he has lived in Nevada. At one time he was for several terms sheriff of Elko County. His mind was as active as his body. He was a great reader – a self-educated man; he was one of Searchlight’s most honored and respected citizens.
The deceased is known to have a number of nephews and nieces. One niece, Miss Martha J. Staiger, lives at Woodburn, Oregon. Another niece lives in Los Angeles, and a nephew at Portland, Oregon.