“Dear mother I am about to make my exit to another country I take this opportunity to write you a few lines. Probably you may never hear from me again. If not, I hope we may meet where parting is no prodigal career in this country. I’ve always recollected your fond admonitions, and if I had lived up to them, I would have not been in the present position; but dear mother, though my faith has been a cruel one, yet I have no one to blame but myself”, These were the words of Tom Bell prior to his death.

Born Thomas J. Hodges in Rome, Tennessee, he saw action in the Mexican–American War as a surgeon. Following the war he traveled to California during the California Gold Rush, but was unsuccessful as a prospector, later drifting around California as a gambler and as a doctor at times for several years. The outlaw "Doc Hodges" was arrested for stealing eleven mules. When he was arrested in 1855, wanting to confuse the peace officers, he gave the name Tom Bell, a small-time cattle rustler. In 1855 he was serving time in Angel Island Prison for robbery when he met Bill Gristy and successfully escaped several weeks later. He escaped with the help of his profession as a doctor by faking a severe illness that fooled the prison doctor, which allowed him to escape. With Gristy, Bell formed an outlaw gang of five men that grew to fifty with Bell planning and sending out teams robbing stages for several months from their hideout in the foothills near Auburn.

On August 12, 1856, after their spy spotted the Camptonville-Maryville stage carrying $100,000 (~$2.55 million in 2024) worth of gold bullion, the gang unsuccessfully attempted to rob it. In an exchange of gunfire, a woman passenger was killed and two male passengers were wounded before the gang was driven off by the stagecoach guards. The slain female passenger was a black woman by the name of Mrs. Tilghman, the wife of a popular barber from Maryville.

The robbery and death of the woman passenger angered citizens, and both a sheriff's posse and citizen vigilantes conducted a massive search for the gang. October 4, 1856, an impromptu posse commanded by Judge George Gordon Belt, a Merced River rancher, and his deputies snuck up on bell leveled their guns at him as Judge Belt Sayed “I believe you’re the man we have been looking for” “Very Probably” Bell replied. The posse decided that Bell was unworthy of due process and were to hang him Vigilante style. Prior to his hanging Judge Belt allowed Bell a drink of whiskey and to say his final words. Bell lifted the bottle to the men and stated “I have no bitterness toward anyone of you” with that Bell then read his letter to his mother aloud.

Judge Belt took possession of the letter Bell wrote which was later printed in the San Francisco Alta paper. Readers reacted sympathetically to his letter to his mother, but his second letter prompted controversy. It was to his mistress a Mrs, Elizabeth Hood who harbored the outlaw on number of occasions. He proclaimed his innocence stating “I have been betrayed. I am accused of every robbery that has been committed for the past twelve months, which is entirely false. I have never committed but three robberies. I am to die like a dog.”

From all other accounts during the spring and summer of 1856 rarely a night had passed without a resident of the Gold Country finding themselves staring down Tom Bells revolver while being relieved of their money or livestock.

WHAT SAY THE BRETHERN?