Prosecuted by railroad barons; cleared by a jury
The embers still glowed from the ruins of Hotel Del Monte when the railroad dicks were summoned to hunt down the culprit who torched the fancy new resort. It didn’t take long to implicate, accuse and prosecute a former manager of the resort in what was to become the most sensational criminal trial in Monterey County in 1887. The mousy defendant who prosecutors railroaded through the legal system was an overwrought 38-year-old who favored a bowler.
Read the full story here.