A Rope for a Rat

Two bodies swung from the cottonwood branches in the frigid wind on the night of January 4, 1864. One had a sign pinned to the back of his coat: “Red! Road Agent and Messenger.” Even his executioners admitted the small, red-headed man had come to a hard end. But Erastus “Red” Yeager was a major figure in the 19 hangings carried out by the Montana vigilantes over the following month through February 3. He had fingered members of the Plummer outlaw gang. Or had he? Born in Indiana in