Daly Gang

The Daly Gang was a notorious, though now unknown, bandit gang who operated in Aurora, Nevada and its neighboring parts. The gang was named after its leader John Daly but was masterminded by a boss only known as “Three-Fingered” Jack McDowell. The gang terrorized Aurora and was infamous for their armed robberies and shootouts. They were also known for their violent treatment of their victims and anyone who resisted their robbery. The gang is now considered by historians as one of the most underrated and violent gangs in the Old West.

For 25 years the gang committed their crimes with little to no interference from the law. To make matters worse for the people of Aurora, many members of the gang, including John Daly, became City Marshalls in the Fall of 1863. A year later, the local newspaper Esmeralda Star is quoted with saying "No sooner had the Marshal been sworn in than the worst villains that ever infested a civilized community were appointed policemen, and with but few exceptions they were composed of as hard a set if criminals ever went unhung." Any witnesses of their crimes were threatened and scared away.

But in February 1, 1864, their murder of a man named William R. Johnson gained national attention which finally infuriated many of the settlers in the city. Johnson had previously killed a Daly Gang member named Jim Sears when the latter tried to steal his horse. The Daly Gang retaliated by capturing Johnson, and afterwards either shot him or slit his throat. Some accounts say that the gang also set his body on fire. After the murder of Johnson, many got fed up of the Daly Gang, and they formed a vigilante group of over 600 men. They captured many members of the gang including Daly and McDowell in their hideout in the Aurora Saloon. They were then locked up in a makeshift prison, and after their drumhead trials, were subsequently hanged outside Armory Hall.

This action angered Governor James W. Nye so much that two days later he headed for Aurora with a Provost Marshal Van Bokkelen and United States Marshal Wasson and was going to call out the troops from Fort Churchill to put down the vigilantes. After the Marshal looked into the facts, no action was taken against the "Citizen Safety Committee."

John Daly was the gang's leader and namesake. Arriving in Aurora, Nevada from California in the early 1860s as a hired gun, Daly soon hooked up with "Three-Fingered Jack" McDowell and the two ran an unsavory saloon and operated the Daly Gang which terrorized the Nevada gold fields between Aurora and Carson City. Using scare tactics known as "criminal vigilantism," they lynched anyone who resisted. The Pond Mining Company hired the gang as hired guns in their feud against the Real Del Monte Mining Company over claims to Last Chance Hill. Both companies hired gunmen to intimidate the other side and to keep witnesses from testifying against their companies in court. Within three years some twenty-seven citizens became casualties of the violence.

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