Beginning in 1864, he led the Musgrove Gang, who stole government livestock throughout Wyoming, Colorado and the surrounding western states and territories.
Musgrave was eventually caught and brought to Denver, Colorado, where he was taken by a group of citizens and hung from the Larimer Street Bridge on November 26, 1868.
A detailed account of Musgrave’s criminal activities, capture, and hanging appeared in a memoir by the City Marshal of Denver, David J.
[9] In the Napa Valley, some time in the early 1860s, Lewis Musgrave had an argument with a man over their respective Civil War loyalties.
According to Leadville Daily Herald, “the Musgrove gang ... was possibly the largest and most desperate lot of men that was ever joined together in the west for unlawful purposes.
The members of the band were to be found in every state and territory—with the exception of three—west of the Mississippi river.”[12] In September 1864, the Musgrove Gang stole fifty head of cattle from Fort Steele.
[15][16] On September 29, 1868, Edward Franklin and one other man from the Musgrove Gang stole mules from Fort Sanders.
[17] On October 25, 1868 near Elk Mountain, Wyoming, a train was attacked by sixteen members of the Musgrove Gang who were disguised as Native Americans.
[1] On October 28, 1868, Lewis Musgrave was arrested near Elk Mountain, Wyoming by a local man named John Cronin.
[1][15][18][19] On October 31, 1868, members of the Musgrove Gang, again disguised as Native Americans, were responsible for a train wreck on the Union Pacific Railroad near Fort Steele, Wyoming.
Securely bound with shackles and handcuffs, Musgrave was escorted by forty soldiers from Fort Steele to Denver, Colorado to await trial at the Arapahoe County Jail.
On November 20, 1868, as Franklin and Duggan made their way to the jail under the cover of night, they took the time to commit three robberies at gunpoint, including holding up a local judge.
[22] Two days later, based on a tip, City Marshal Cook went to Golden, Colorado with the intention of apprehending Franklin and Duggan.
The children he referred to in his note were from his marriage to his first wife, Catherine Fowler Musgrave and lived in Napa Valley.
[32] The hanging was depicted in an engraving by Alexander Phimister Proctor and was included in City Marshal David Cook’s memoirs.
[11] The Emmy award-winning Western TV series, Stories of the Century, featured a fictitious detective who each week captured a different notorious outlaw of the Wild West.
In the final episode, L. H. Musgrove is portrayed by John Archer, in a story loosely based on the actual events of Lewis Musgrave, including his hanging.