During the 1830’s the Mississippi River towns were plagued by gamblers, who sometimes branched out into robbery and murder, often in an organized and systematic fashion. The gambling dens and saloons were a constant irritation to the increasing numbers of respectable people who were moving to the towns. In 1835, five gamblers were murdered by a vigilante mob in Vicksburg, and an anti-gambling crusade swept the Mississippi Valley. By legal or illegal means the faro dealers and their kind were banished from New Orleans, Clinton, Natchez, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Chicago.
This account of the Vicksburg murders, “prepared by a witness of the acts detailed,” was printed in the Vicksburg Register, July 9, and reprinted in the Mobile Commercial Register, July 10, 1835.
For years past, professional gamblers, destitute of all sense of moral obligations … have made Vicksburg their place of rendezvous—and, in the very bosom of our society, boldly plotted their vile and lawless machinations.…
Our streets everywhere resounded with the echoes of their drunken and obscene mirth, and no citizen was secure from their villainy. Frequently in armed bodies, they have disturbed the good order of public assemblages, insulted our citizens, and defied our civil authorities. Thus had they continued to grow bolder in their wickedness, and more formidable in their numbers, until Saturday, the fourth of July, instant, when our citizens had assembled together with a corps of Vicksburg volunteers, at the barbecue to celebrate the day by the usual festivities. After dinner, and during the delivery of the toasts, one of the officers attempted to enforce order and silence at the table, when one of these gamblers, whose name is Cakler, who had impudently thrust himself into the company, insulted the officer, and struck one of the citizens. Indignation immediately rose high, and it was only by the interference of the commandant that he was saved from instantaneous punishment. He was, however, permitted to retire, and the company dispersed.
The military corps proceeded to the public square of the city, and information was received that Cakler was coming up armed, and resolved to kill one of the volunteers who had been most active in expelling him from the table. Knowing his desperate character—two of the corps instantly stepped forward and arrested him. A loaded pistol, a large knife and a dagger were found on his person, all of which he had procured since he had separated from the company. To liberate him would have been to devote several of the most respectable members of the company to his vengeance, and to proceed against him at law would have been mere mockery, inasmuch as, not having had the opportunity of consumating his design, no adequate punishment could have been inflicted on him. Consequently it was determined to take him into the woods and Lynch him—which is a mode of punishment provided for such as become obnoxious in a manner which the law cannot reach. He was immediately carried out under a guard, attended by a crowd of respectable citizens—tied to a tree, punished with stripes—tarred and feathered; and ordered to leave the city in forty-eight hours.…
Having thus aggravated the whole band of these desperados, and feeling no security against their vengeance, the citizens met at night in the court house, in a large number, and there passed the following resolutions:
Resolved, That a notice be given to all professional gamblers, that the citizens of Vicksburg are resolved to exclude them from this place and its vicinity; and that twenty-four hours notice be given them to leave the place.…
On Sunday morning, one of these notices was posted at the corners of each square of the city. During that day (the 5th instant) a majority of the gang, terrified by the threats of the citizens, dispersed in different directions, without making any opposition. It was sincerely hoped that the remainder would follow their example, and thus prevent a bloody termination of the strife which had commenced. On the morning of the 6th, the military corps, followed by a file of several hundred citizens, marched to each suspected house, and, sending in an examining committee, dragged out every faro table and other gambling apparatus that could be found. At length they approached a house which was occupied by one of the most profligate of the gang, whose name was North, and in which it was understood that a garrison of armed men had been stationed. All hoped that these wretches would be intimidated by the superior numbers of their assailants, and surrender themselves at discretion, rather than attempt a desperate defense. The house being surrounded, the back door was first opened, when four or five shots were fired from the interior, one of which instantly killed Dr. Hugh S. Bodley, a citizen universally loved and respected. The interior was so dark that the villains could not be seen; but several of the citizens, guided by the flash of their guns, returned their fire. A yell from one of the party announced that one of these shots had been effectual; and by this time a crowd of citizens, their indignation overcoming all other feelings, burst open every door of the building, and dragged into the light those who had not been wounded.
North, the ringleader, who had contrived this desperate plot, could not be found in the building, but was apprehended by a citizen, while attempting, in company with another, to make his escape at a place not far distant. Himself, with the rest of the prisoners, were then conducted in silence to the scaffold. One of them, not having been in the building before it was attacked, nor appearing to be concerned with the rest, except that he was the brother of one of them, was liberated. The remaining number of five, among whom was the individual who had been shot, but who still lived, were immediately executed in presence of the assembled multitude. All sympathy for the wretches was completely merged in the detestation and horror of their crime. The whole procession then returned to the city, collected all the faro tables into a pile and burnt them.…
[The] bodies were cut down on the morning after execution, and buried in a ditch.