The meanest ghost in Napa, California

[Eldorado]

Some years before his public execution, William Roe convinced a friend to write a letter informing his family that he was dead.

According to that letter, Roe had been killed in a vague, accidental sort of way in the Black Hills.

This was tragic for his family but exceedingly convenient for the career criminal, who was actually on the West Coast committing a series of misdeeds.

Wanted by police, he decided faking his death in South Dakota was the best course of action for everyone.

Now nothing but a memory to his family, William Roe’s real, corporeal self began blazing a bloody trail across California.

Full story at the Houston Chronicle: Link

"The Murderer of Mrs. Greenwood Pays the Penalty for His Crime."

Old time news report from the Sacramento Daily Union, 16 January 1897 : Link