In the late 1880s, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association put together an assassination squad, led by the infamous lawman Frank Canton (photo). The names of 15 men—the stockmen considered them rustlers, other said they were small ranchers—were on a hit list.
The first man to die was Tom Waggoner, a German born rancher who owned more than 1000 head of horses. There was no evidence that he got them illegally, but the big ranchers believed otherwise.
Three men lynched him on June 4, 1891. Nobody was ever arrested, even though the identities of the killers were known.
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