Cassia County Courthouse

Cassia County Courthouse. Frontier Law in Cassia County. The year was 1885 when Cassia County purchased an unfinished hovel for its first courthouse. Idaho was still a territory - a place where disagreements were at times decided by the business end of a gun. Sparked by disputes between cattle and sheep ranchers over water and grass during the 1890's, this courthouse became the scene of one of the most publicized trails in Idaho Territory. , A notorious gunman, Jackson Lee Davis, who was better known as "Diamondfield Jack" was hired by the Sparks-Harrell cattle company to restrict sheep herders from crossing to the west side of Goose Creek. Due to his reputation and a previous non-fatal shooting Davis was arrested for the murder of two sheepherders, and became a pawn in the battle between cattlemen and sheepherders, Mormons and non-Mormons, and Democrats and Republicans. , The sensational trial brought prominent attorneys from the highest rank. William E. Borah who later became an Idaho Senator served as the main prosecutor. Diamondfield Jack was defended by James Hawley, a prominent criminal lawyer from Boise who later became governor of Idaho, and Kirkland I. Perky, one time law partner of William Jennings Bryan. , Based on circumstantial evidence, Jack Davis was convicted of murder in February of 1896, and sentenced to be hanged. As Diamondfield Jack awaited execution two cattlemen confessed to the murders. After nearly 7 years in prison and several stays of execution, the State Board of Pardons finally exonerated Diamondfield Jack. , Jack David moved to Nevada where he became a successful mine operator in the towns of Tonopah and Goldfield. The once notorious gunman faded into the shadows when in 1949 Diamondfield Jack died after being hit by a taxi in Las Vegas.