According to the early chronicler Thomas Dimsdale, the gang attempted to steal gold while it was being transported; they killed many travelers who resisted.

The gang allegedly killed over one hundred people (only eight deaths have been confirmed by documented sources) and stole a significant amount of gold while it was being transported the seventy-mile distance between Virginia City and Bannack.

Shortly before one man was hanged, he told the assembled crowd that Plummer was the ringleader behind the recent crime spree.

[3] Between December 1863 and February 1864 the vigilante committee executed Plummer and twenty-two alleged members of his gang, including George Lane.

At one point the vigilantes assembled a force of over 500 men and sealed off Virginia City in order to catch gang members.

Mather and Boswell are among scholars who deny that any gang conducted the relatively few documented robberies in the area, saying they were more likely the work of a small number of independent (or at most loosely organized) outlaws.