THE NIGHT THE RUGGLES BROTHERS MET ‘JUDGE LYNCH’
Around 5:15 on Saturday evening, May 14, 1892, Johnny Boyce crested the grade on Middle Creek Road above the Sacramento River in the heart of northern California, en route to Redding. He’d just started downhill when out stepped a figure on the riverbank, wearing a red calico mask and drawing a bead on him with a double-barreled shotgun, both hammers cocked. As a stagecoach driver, Boyce was used to holdups. In fact, he’d been robbed four days earlier by a bandit who looked suspiciously similar to the man before him. But highwaymen generally operated farther from civilization, not within 5 miles of a town the size of Redding. Rather than risk being shot, Boyce reined the four-horse team that was pulling the Redding and Weaverville Stage Line coach to a stop.
“Passenger, throw up your hands!” the masked man ordered lone passenger George Suhr, sitting to the left of Boyce on the driver’s seat.
“Throw down the gold box,” the highwayman told Boyce.
The driver hopped to it, tossing down the smaller of two Wells, Fargo & Co. strongboxes, then hefting the larger, 100-pound box over the side, which bounced off a coach wheel before landing at the robber’s feet. But Wells, Fargo shotgun messenger Amos Buchanan “Buck” Montgomery, watching from inside the coach, had no intention of letting someone ride off with the treasure he’d sworn to protect. Standing over 6 feet tall, tipping the scales at 200 pounds and known as a crack shot, Montgomery had sent several highwaymen to San Quentin State Prison. This one he planned to send to hell.
Raising his scattergun, Montgomery aimed and fired. The blast caught the masked robber in the torso and face, dropping him to his knees. Instinctively, the highwayman triggered his shotgun. Although only one of the barrels fired, buckshot riddled both of Boyce’s thighs, while three slugs struck Suhr just below the knee. At almost
