MIKEd

Cornelius "Lame Johnny" Donahue (1850-1878) - A lawman and an outlaw, Donahue attended college in Philadelphia but moved to Texas to become a cowboy. However, because of a physical he didn't fair well and turned to horse thievery. In the 1870s, Donahue left Texas and wound up in Deadwood, South Dakota, where he was hired as a deputy sheriff. Some time later, he was working in the mines and was recognized as the Texas horse thief that he was. He fled Deadwood and returned to his old lifestyle of stealing horses and added stagecoach robbery to his "job" tasks. In one robbery he was said to have taken about $3,500 in currency, $500 in diamonds, hundreds of dollars worth of jewelry, and 700 pounds of gold dust, nuggets and bullion from a special “treasure coach” called the "Monitor" belonging to the Homestake Mine. With a take like that, the law was quickly on his tale and he was soon tracked down by livestock detective, Frank Smith, who arrested him. However, as Smith was returning Donahue to Deadwood, the stagecoach was pulled over by a masked rider who took Johnny from the coach. The officials first assumed that he had been "saved" by one of his outlaw cohorts, but that was not the case. The next day, "Lame Johnny" was found hanging from a tree. When he was buried, his headstone, which is long since missing, read:Pilgrim Pause! You’re standing on The molding clay of Limping John. Tread lightly, stranger, on this sod. For if he moves, you’re robbed, by God