Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Syd Whittle
Taken: November 28, 2005
Caption: Bill Marshall and Juan Verdugo
Additional Description: December 13, 1851 HANGED Bill Marshall was an American man married to the daughter of a local Indian Chieftain. He was a renegade sailor from Providence, Rhode Island, who deserted from a whaling ship at San Diego in 1844. He had taken up habitation with the Indians. He took an active part in the Garra Indian Uprising in 1851. Bill Marshall and the Indian, Juan Verduga, were caught and brought back to San Diego to be promptly tried by court martial. Marshall was found guilty and thus sentenced to hang, as was Juan Verdugo. The Indian acknowledged his guilt, but Marshall insisted he was innocent. At two o’clock in the afternoon, a scaffold was erected near the old Catholic Cemetery, (El Campo Santo), on the Thomas Whaley property. The men were put on a wagon and the ropes adjusted about their necks. The wagon moved on, leaving the two to dangle to death.
Submitted: September 22, 2008, by Syd Whittle of Mesa, Arizona.
Database Locator Identification Number: p36389
File Size: 1.313 Megabytes

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