Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon

Informationen zum Autor R. GREGORY NOKES is the author of Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory , Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon, and The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California. He traveled the world as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press and the Oregonian. A graduate of Willamette University, he attended Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. His reporting on the 1887 murders of more than thirty Chinese gold miners in Hells Canyon resulted in a formal designation of the site as Chinese Massacre Cove and was the basis for an Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary. Greg and his wife, Candise, live in West Linn, Oregon. Klappentext In 1887! more than thirty Chinese gold miners were massacred on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon! the deepest canyon in North America. Massacred for Gold! the first authoritative account of the unsolved crime! unearths the evidence that points to an improbable gang of rustlers and schoolboys! one only fifteen! as the killers. The crime was discovered weeks after it happened! but no charges were brought for nearly a year! when gang member Frank Vaughan! son of a well-known settler family! confessed and turned state's evidence. Six men and boys! all from northeastern Oregon's remote Wallowa county! were charged but three fled! and the others were found innocent by a jury that a witness admitted had little interest in convicting anyone. A cover-up followed! and the crime was all but forgotten for the next one hundred years! until a county clerk in Wallowa County found hidden records in an unused safe. Massacred for Gold traces the author's long personal journey to expose details of the massacre and its aftermath and to understand how one of the worst of the many crimes committed by whites against Chinese laborers in the American West was for so long lost to history.

Auteur

R. GREGORY NOKES is the author of Breaking Chains: Slavery on Trial in the Oregon Territory, Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon, and The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California. He traveled the world as a reporter and editor for The Associated Press and the Oregonian. A graduate of Willamette University, he attended Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow. His reporting on the 1887 murders of more than thirty Chinese gold miners in Hells Canyon resulted in a formal designation of the site as Chinese Massacre Cove and was the basis for an Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary. Greg and his wife, Candise, live in West Linn, Oregon.

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In 1887, more than thirty Chinese gold miners were massacred on the Oregon side of Hells Canyon, the deepest canyon in North America. Massacred for Gold, the first authoritative account of the unsolved crime, unearths the evidence that points to an improbable gang of rustlers and schoolboys, one only fifteen, as the killers. The crime was discovered weeks after it happened, but no charges were brought for nearly a year, when gang member Frank Vaughan, son of a well-known settler family, confessed and turned stateas evidence. Six men and boys, all from northeastern Oregonas remote Wallowa county, were chargedabut three fled, and the others were found innocent by a jury that a witness admitted had little interest in convicting anyone. A cover-up followed, and the crime was all but forgotten for the next one hundred years, until a county clerk in Wallowa County found hidden records in an unused safe. Massacred for Gold traces the authoras long personal journey to expose details of the massacre and its aftermath and to understand how one of the worst of the many crimes committed by whites against Chinese laborers in the American West was for so long lost to history.