America 1881: They Call Me Legend

From a judicial point of view, the case in Shepherd Dog Town should be handled by the nearest Billings County judge.

However, according to the wishes of the mayor, he simply called all the residents in the town to hold a public trial meeting to vote.

That's what most frontier towns do anyway.

However, some townspeople disagree with the mayor's view.

At their insistence, the mayor had to go to the county to report the case.

Three days later, Chen Jianqiu and Roosevelt saw the judge appearing on the road alone on a horse at the entrance of the town.

Roosevelt and Chen Jianqiu went up to meet him.

"Mr. Howard, you have worked hard all the way."

Roosevelt was acquainted with the judge and exchanged greetings.

Judge Howard got off his horse and took off the black top hat on his head.

He looked to be in his 40s and was wearing a black smock with wide sleeves.

However, Chen Jianqiu noticed that the blouse was dirty, full of wrinkles and mud spots, and one piece was missing at the edge.

The judge scratched his messy-looking hair and looked tired.

"Mr. Roosevelt, I thought you went back. There is really nothing to stay in this ghostly place." He sucked his nose.

Roosevelt smiled awkwardly, he glanced at the end of the road again, and asked with some doubts:
"Did you come alone? Where's the mayor? Didn't you come back with you?"

"died."

"When passing through the rugged camping, he said he was going to the river to get some fish to eat, but he didn't come back, and I didn't find the body."

The judge had a normal expression and a calm tone, as if he was talking about something ordinary.

He turned around and took off a hat from behind the horse's buttocks, and handed it to Roosevelt:

"I don't know what was attacked. I only found his hat by the river."

Chen Jianqiu finally understood why the mayor was unwilling to go to the county to report the situation.

The judge hung the mayor's hat on the road sign at the entrance of the town.

It is said to be a road sign, but it is actually a wooden sign with barely readable writing on a broken wooden stick.

One horizontal and one vertical, it can barely be regarded as a cross, and it can be regarded as an explanation to Jesus.

The three of them took a few steps back, took off their hats, and lowered their heads towards the road sign.

"Silence!"

The death of the mayor did not cause much disturbance in the town.

The previous mayor fell into the river and drowned while riding a horse at night the year before last.

The last mayor of the town froze to death holding a street sign at the entrance of the town after drinking too much the year before last.

Yes, that's the wooden street sign with the mayor's hat on it now.

What should the townspeople do, they are more concerned about what crimes the pair of dogs and men were convicted of.

Judge Howard gave full play to the fairness of the laws of the western United States and the transparency of the judiciary.

The members of the jury included residents of the entire town, and the judge said that he would fully respect the opinions of the jury.

This made Chen Jianqiu very emotional.

He went to mourn the hat at Xiazhenkou again.

Yes, the mayor basically died for nothing.

The temporary court was arranged in the circus camp.

Open air and spacious.

The head of the one-armed group lent the platform that had not yet been dismantled to the town.

Except for Judge Howard, who had a place to sit, everyone else stood.

However, this did not affect the enthusiasm of the townspeople at all.

In the end, there were only four people standing in the dock, Pink, Catherine, and two other accomplices.

Everyone else was killed in the pitched battle at the circus camp.

Judge Howard read out the crimes of several of them, and then asked the vigilante Asuka and Sean to lift up the evidence-the box.

"Also! Hurry up, don't waste time!" The judge waved at them.

"Let me go, please let me go."

A man's voice and a sheep's cry came from the periphery of the jury.

Everyone gave way.

The bald head drove the dozens of sheep into the center of the camp.

But the former Pinkerton detective clearly has little experience with sheep.

After the sheep entered the inner circle, they began to scurry around.

People standing in the inner circle dodged one after another, retreated, and those who couldn't dodge were hit by sheep a few times.

The bald head started to chase the sheep running around in a hurry, and the sheep chased people.

The scene got a little comical and chaotic.

This seriously challenges the seriousness of the courtroom.

"Can't you find someone more professional?"

No matter how good-tempered Judge Howard was, he couldn't help it, and he waved his arms desperately at the townspeople.

"Hey, bald head, I told you you can't."

The girl with twintails squeezed in from behind the crowd.

She got a border collie from nowhere, ran with it, and drove the stray sheep back into the flock.

Chen Jianqiu stood with his hips crossed and watched.

This girl was probably a professional shepherdess before she became a detective.

As for the trial process, it is even more sloppy.

For this case, Judge Howard did not give other sentencing options.

Guilty, or not guilty.

Guilty, hanged.

Not guilty, released.

"If you agree to be guilty, please speak up." The judge raised his head and looked at the surrounding townspeople, that is, the jury.

There seemed to be a frying pan among the townspeople, the supporters shouted as hard as they could, and they waved anything they could.

"Kill them! Avenge those innocent people!"

"Hang that slut!"

"Kill these foreigners!"

"Hmm." Judge Howard nodded, and pressed his hand down, indicating that he had felt the turbulent public opinion.

"Then, those who are in favor of innocence, please speak up."

It's a little quiet below, only some women whispering:
"Those men deserve to die, let's see if that woman deserves to die."

"At best, she can be regarded as a non-reporter, not even an accomplice."

Compared with the voices just now, the voices of these discussions are almost negligible.

"Hmm." The judge sorted out the things in his hands, and then stood up from the chair.

"Obviously, judging from the loudness of the voices, the majority support the guilty."

He straightened his clothes and cleared his throat:

"I announce that Pink and Catherine will be hanged! Execute tomorrow morning!"

The next morning.

Several criminals were escorted out of the cells of the public security station and went to the place where they were tried yesterday.

There a gallows was improvised out of wood.

The materials, of course, were kindly provided by the circus.

It had rained heavily the night before, and the potholes on the road turned into ponds, which became extremely muddy and dirty.

The townspeople ran out of their homes early in the morning and lined up on both sides of the road, watching the prisoners being taken to the execution ground.

Compared with yesterday, they were much quieter, and after the prisoner passed by, they followed suit one after another.

Four death row prisoners climbed a wooden ladder to the platform.

There are four nooses hanging from the gallows, and directly below each noose is a trap, which is controlled by a wooden lever next to it.

The bald head stood aside, gearing up, with a little excitement in his eyes.

Today he is wearing a gray hat he found somewhere.

If he was humiliated in front of everyone yesterday because he was not professional enough, then today he has finally entered his professional category.

Baldhead was a professional executioner before joining Pinkerton Detective Agency.

Even the construction of the gallows was carried out under his guidance.

Chen Jianqiu couldn't help sighing a little, where did this circus detective agency find these talents, and they could do everything.

Pink and the other two were expressionless, making it impossible to guess what they were thinking right now.

Catherine's face was pale, trembling, and she was muttering something in her mouth.

"Headgear, throw the hood over!" The bald man rubbed his hands and shouted at Sean under the table.

The Negro threw on some black linen hoods.

The bald head picked up the hoods one by one, put them on the death row prisoners, and put the noose around their necks.

When it was Catherine's turn, the woman suddenly collapsed on the table,

The bald head lifted her up.

"Hey, you'd better stand up straight, or you won't have to move the mechanism, and you'll be finished first."

As he spoke, he put the woman's head in the noose.

At the entrance of the village, Chen Jianqiu and Roosevelt stood where they were monitoring the circus.

"It's finally over." Chen Jianqiu said, looking in the direction of the gallows.

no answer.

He turned his head to find that Roosevelt had turned around.

"What's wrong?" Chen Jianqiu asked.

"Catherine shouldn't have died, she was just being used." Roosevelt leaned on the railing of the stable with both hands, and sighed.

"Yes, but, this is the West."

Chen Jianqiu picked up a cigarette.

"Execution!"

The bald head walked to the side of the joystick, holding the handle.

Suddenly, a voice came from under Pink's black hood.

He seems to have said something.

The bald head didn't stop what he was doing.

He pulled the joystick.

The traps under the feet of several condemned prisoners opened with a "crash".

The four people were suspended in the air without any sound, and soon turned into four corpses.

No one heard what Pink said before he died, and no one cared.