Lane then worked several jobs in California, Idaho, and Montana but was haunted by persistent allegations that he was a horse thief.
[1][2] In December 1863, a member of the Innocents gang, George Ives, was subjected to a vigilante trial in Nevada City, Montana.
Lane's aim was to convince Plummer that he should request a civilian trial for George Ives.
He was told that he was arrested because he was "a road agent, thief, and an accessory to numerous robberies and murders on the highway".
"[1] Though some local residents believed that Lane was innocent, the members of the Vigilantes Committee still found him guilty and sentenced him to death by hanging.
Dance agreed: "Willingly, George; most willingly," and, according to biographer Langford, "suiting the action to the word, the judge dropped upon his knees, and, with George and Gallagher kneeling beside him, offered up a fervent petition in behalf of the doomed men.
Lane then took action, and witnesses reported that "without waiting for the box to be removed, he leaped from it, and died with hardly a struggle".
"[5] Sheriff-outlaw Henry Plummer and his deputies, Buck Stinson and Ned Ray, also alleged members of the gang, were already arrested before on the morning of January 10, 1864 and summarily hanged.
For some time the club foot was kept in the courthouse, but later it was moved to the Thompson Hickman Museum in Virginia City.