Reward for a Murderer. Billy Crapo at Cerra Gordo (1893)
11 September 2022
An announcement in the Sacramento Daily Union of 3 January 1893.
And here’s a reproduction wanted poster seen recently in the American Hotel in Cerro Gordo, California.
This 2017 photo of the poster is from Dave’n’Kathy on their Vagabond Blog. Sadly, a fire destroyed the hotel, Billy Crapo’s cabin next door, and presumably that poster in June 2020.
Illinois-born William Crapo was an 18 year old farmer in Saratoga County, NY at the start of the Civil War and he enlisted as a Private in Company G of the 21st New York Infantry in October 1861. He was wounded in the thigh at Antietam in September 1862, spent 3 months in hospitals, and mustered out with the regiment in May 1863.
He was in California by 1867 and in the business of silver mining at Cerra Gordo soon after. 25 years later he shot two men in town, killing one of them, and disappeared, never heard from again.
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October 26th, 2024 at 5:41 am
They also lost the Ice House in the fire. It was the first Ice House built in Inyo County built circa 1916 thereabouts.
October 26th, 2024 at 5:46 am
One other thing; Robert Desmarais the caretaker and Tip Shields noticed a hole in the floor of the Crapo House. They went around back and found an entrance below the house. Apparently Billy had cut a hole in the floor so when he finished a bottle of whiskey, he’d drop it thru the hole. They found a real cache of old bottles there, but they were all frozen in ice so they had to wait until spring to see what they actually had.