All That Glitters… A miner sought an easy way to get rich.

John Stoefel had come to Colorado to get gold—any way he could. On April 7, 1859, just outside Denver, Stoefel shot and killed his brother-in-law, who had gold dust when John didn’t. The killer was immediately taken into custody and tried by a people’s court (probably illegally). They found him guilty of murder and strung him up from a nearby tree. An estimated 1000 people watched, which was about the entire population of the town. It was the first execution in Denver.