James King of William

[3][4] It was said that "He was an eager student, acquired a fair knowledge of Latin and English literature, and learned to speak French, Spanish and some German.

Soon he became a political journalist on Kendall's Expositor, a Democratic-leaning newspaper issued in Georgetown, and on the Washington Daily Globe, where he was also advertising manager.

After arrival on November 10, most of the men deserted him, but with the others he gathered enough gold near Hangtown (now Placerville), to make a "considerable financial success" of the placer mining venture.

[3][5][6][7] Leaving the California gold country, King joined the mercantile house of Hensley, Reading & Company in Sacramento for a short time,[5] but in July 1849 he went back to Washington and arranged for a loan from the financial firm of Corcoran & Riggs; he returned on December 5, 1849, and opened his own bank on Montgomery Street.

[3] At first the bank was successful, with King being regarded as one of the wealthiest men on the West Coast, but his agent in Sonoma County "used large sums of money intended for purchasing gold to invest in the stock of the bankruptcy-bound Tuolumne Hydraulic Association."

"[5] King "used his paper to crusade fanatically against immorality and corruption" and "his reputation of unimpeachable integrity" as well as his "blistering" and "frequently scurrilous" editorials "to turn on unscrupulous characters.

[11] Medical historian John Long Wilson wrote that King "dared to expose scoundrels in both public and private domains; and by relentlessly pursuing a campaign against them, he changed the course of history in the beleaguered city.

"[12] The California historian Rockwell Hunt said that King and James P. Casey, the editor of The Sunday Times and a member of the county Board of Supervisors, carried on a feud in their newspapers, resulting in "much personal enmity".

Stanford University medical historian John Long Wilson opined that: "Assuming that it was not already too late to make a difference, we must conclude that it was Griffin's opinion that sealed the fate of James King of William.

[15] It was said that James King of William "was the man who practically alone started the work of honest residents to the struggle of cleaning out the criminal element in power" in San Francisco at that time.

The citizenry, amounting to thousands of men, gave Casey a hearing, pronounced him guilty, and he was hanged on May 22, 1856, the day of King's funeral, along with at least one other man (Cora).

[14][16] After a church funeral service on May 22, a throng of mourners formed on Stockton Street to accompany King's remains to the Lone Mountain Cemetery.