At the age of 22, George Witherell was convicted of murdering a man in Douglas County. According to records, he shot him then cut him into pieces before stealing his belongings. Because the jury had doubts whether he was guilty or not, Witherell was sentenced to life instead of death by hanging.
The 23rd inmate in the Territorial Prison, Witherell managed to escape within two years. He hid in the hills for 20 days before he was recaptured. At that point, he was severely punished and held in solitary confinement. But he never gave up and continued to make attempts to escape, only to suffer the consequences.
All in all, Witherell was accused of six fiendish murders, which the first happened in 1871 when he and Eugene Wright killed sheepherder L.K. Wall to gain possession of 3,000 sheep at his ranch in Elbert County. The two men planned the murder while tending the sheep for Wall, according to newspapers.com. The men clubbed Wall with a rifle. It was said Wall begged for his life, but the men killed him anyway, then covered his body with stones and brush before selling the sheep. When the body was discovered, law enforcement suspected Witherell and Wright then searched for them. Witherell and Wright were arrested in Nebraska after fighting with the officers at which Wright was wounded. The men were brought back to Denver and sentenced to life in prison. Wright managed to escape after five years. Witherell was released because of a law, which gave prisoners with life sentences liberty after they served 16 years of exemplary behavior.
However, Witherell did not learn anything while in prison. As soon as he was released, he met Charles McCain, a family man living in Beaver Creek and hired him to haul ore from a mine to Denver. As McCain slept in his bedroll on the first night out, Witherell shot McCain and dragged him, heels first a half mile into a neighboring mountain canyon then covered him with brush and stones. He took the horses and wagon to Denver, where he sold them. When family members reported McCain's disappearance, Witherell was arrested and kept in jail.
When McCain's brother found his body, Fremont County Sheriff Morgan Griffith traveled to Denver to bring Witherell back to Fremont County. Along the way, he heard rumors that Witherell would never survive the trip back to Cañon City. So the sheriff delayed the trip for two months. When he made the trip, Griffith thought he had arrived undetected, but was proven wrong when a group of vigilantes arrived within an hour, demanding Witherell be turned over to them. At that point, Griffith pulled a gun, threatening to shoot the first man to enter the jail.
Around 4 a.m., the vigilantes returned with more men, knocked on the door. When the sheriff opened it, the vigilantes bound the sheriff and took him to a nearby guard house. When the vigilantes started hitting the bars, the sheriff's 15-year-old son started yelling at them. The vigilantes handed him the keys and made him open the cell. While vigilantes stormed the jail, Witherell grabbed a leg of his cell bed to use as a club, fighting with all his might But he had to give up the fight when he was shot in the shoulder. The men threw a rope around his neck and dragged Witherell to a telegraph pole near the prison, where they lynched him around 5 a.m. as about 500 individuals gathered to watch the events.
After the hanging, no one was ever convicted of lynching Witherell. On the contrary, a local pharmacist took George's brain out, measured it then pickled it before placing it in a bathtub above a saloon. The pharmacist charged admission to see it. In conjunction, another man cut George's lip off to display the handlebar mustache, according to “You're Invited to A Sunday Drive” booklet. The men also placed Witherell's suspenders, some of the rope, his mustache comb, four spent revolver cartridges and a photo of the lynching at Palace Drugstore. No one knows what happened to the rest of his remains.
The vigilantes taking action happened not only in Witherell's case, it also happened in other escapes along the way. According to the booklet, many hangings took place, some documented while others were not. A favorite places to hang the escapees were either near the Territorial Prison or from the beams of the Fourth Street Bridge.
Information provided by “You're Invited to A Sunday Drive” and newspapers.com.