Mason Henry Gang
| Founded by | George Gordon Belt, Samuel Mason, John Mason, Tom McCauley |
|---|---|
| Founding location | , San Joaquin County, California |
| Years active | 1864-1865 |
| Territory | Central and Southern California, US |
| Ethnicity | European-American |
| Membership (est.) | 12 |
| Criminal activities | Posed as Confederate Partisan Rangers committed acts of plundering and murder |
The Mason Henry Gang were bandits operating in Central and Southern California in 1864-1865. As the Civil War was in progress, they were able to pose as Confederate Partisan Rangers, and their original mission was to rid the area of (anti-slavery) Republicans. But when it became clear that the Confederate cause was lost, they turned to outlawry, plundering and killing without mercy.
The two leaders were John Mason, an alleged murderer, and Tom McCauley, a California Gold Rush criminal using the alias Jim Henry. The gang may have numbered up to sixteen at its peak. McCauley was shot dead in September 1865 by the local sheriff’s posse, and Mason killed in April 1866 by a miner, Ben Mayfield, whom he had tried to kidnap.
In early 1864, a dedicated southern sympathizer from Tennessee, secessionist Judge George Gordon Belt, a rancher and former alcalde in , used his ranch on the Merced River to organize a group of partisan rangers. They would be led by two southerners John Mason and "Jim Henry" and sent out to recruit more men and pillage the property of Union men in the countryside.
Unfortunately Judge Belt had chosen his men poorly. Both men had unsavory pasts. Mason was a southern-born former stage hostler who had reportedly killed several men. Jim Henry was a criminal whose real name was Tom McCauley. He and his brother had been robbers within the gold camps and together had murdered a man in Tuolumne County in 1856. He had been sent to prison for ten years and his brother was hanged. After his release from prison McCauley had returned to robbery with a gang along the Fresno River. When several of the gang were captured and lynched by vigilantes, Tom McCauley then fled and reinvented himself as Jim Henry.
...
Wikipedia