RUGGLES BROTHERS
Charles and John. Robbed the Weaverville stage in 1892 of approximately $5000 in coin and currency and killed the messenger/guard Amos "Buck" Montgomery. A posse quickly formed and captured Charles. John was captured six weeks later in Woodland. The brothers were held in the Redding jail. John stated he hid all the gold except the coin in Middle Creek with a floating device that came within a foot of the top of the water; the gold has apparently never been recovered. An express pouch was later found near Lower Springs with all the letters intact, but the money was missing. While in jail, the handsome brothers were fed and pampered by local ladies who brought flower bouquets, cakes, fruits, and even offers of marriage, which supposedly prompted their speedy hanging by local jealous males. A lynch mob forcibly took them from the jail and hung them beside a Redding blacksmith shop at the northwest corner of
Shasta Street and the railroad tracks. And left them there for three days!

Passengers on passing trains easily saw their hanging bodies from the train windows as they passed by. Their memory is preserved in a hanging photograph on postcards and posters sold by the Shasta Historical Society. A historical marker has been placed at the site of their stage robbery on the old Middle Creek Road.

SOURCE: The Dictionary of Early Shasta County History - by Dottie Smith - copyright 1999

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