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Such fascinating history. My research: placed in 2019 as the old one was vandalized
Bill Keys and Worth Bagley were neighbors around the area of the Wall Street mill in the early 20th century. Keys and his family lived on their Desert Queen Ranch, while Bagley and his ninth wife lived in a homestead in a rock alcove.
Keys, the owner of at least 30 mining claims over his lifetime, built a road leading to one of those claims on land Bagley later bought. The two men became bitter enemies over their rights to the land. Keys believed the road belonged to him and was determined to use it. Bagley put up a sign: “Keys. This is my last warning stay off of my property.”
On May 11, 1943, Keys, then 64 years old, was driving back to his ranch when he spotted the sign. He got out for a closer look and saw Worth Bagley coming toward him, a pistol in his hand. According to his son Willis, Keys ran back to his 1927 Dodge and grabbed his rifle. Bagley fired and missed, then turned to run away. Keys was a better shot; he sighted with his rifle and shot Bagley dead.
Keys called it self-defense in an ambush and turned himself into authorities in Twentynine Palms later that day, but the law called it manslaughter. Keys was convicted seven weeks later and sent to San Quentin on a 10-year sentence.
His wife, Frances, wrote to one of her husband’s old friends, Erle Stanley Gardner. A lawyer and the author of the Perry Mason mystery novels, Gardner profiled the case in a magazine column he wrote called “The Court of Last Resort,” about men who may have been convicted wrongfully.
The column caught the public imagination and a panel of volunteer experts reexamined the evidence and said Keys was wrongly convicted.
With Gardner’s help, Keys received a full pardon after 5½ years in prison. He returned to his family at the Desert Queen Ranch at age 69, carving in stone the marker of where his old enemy bit the dust.
Keys was granted a full pardon in 1956 and died in 1969. He is buried on the ranch, beneath a headstone he carved himself.
https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/news/jos ... marker.htm
Bill Keys and Worth Bagley were neighbors around the area of the Wall Street mill in the early 20th century. Keys and his family lived on their Desert Queen Ranch, while Bagley and his ninth wife lived in a homestead in a rock alcove.
Keys, the owner of at least 30 mining claims over his lifetime, built a road leading to one of those claims on land Bagley later bought. The two men became bitter enemies over their rights to the land. Keys believed the road belonged to him and was determined to use it. Bagley put up a sign: “Keys. This is my last warning stay off of my property.”
On May 11, 1943, Keys, then 64 years old, was driving back to his ranch when he spotted the sign. He got out for a closer look and saw Worth Bagley coming toward him, a pistol in his hand. According to his son Willis, Keys ran back to his 1927 Dodge and grabbed his rifle. Bagley fired and missed, then turned to run away. Keys was a better shot; he sighted with his rifle and shot Bagley dead.
Keys called it self-defense in an ambush and turned himself into authorities in Twentynine Palms later that day, but the law called it manslaughter. Keys was convicted seven weeks later and sent to San Quentin on a 10-year sentence.
His wife, Frances, wrote to one of her husband’s old friends, Erle Stanley Gardner. A lawyer and the author of the Perry Mason mystery novels, Gardner profiled the case in a magazine column he wrote called “The Court of Last Resort,” about men who may have been convicted wrongfully.
The column caught the public imagination and a panel of volunteer experts reexamined the evidence and said Keys was wrongly convicted.
With Gardner’s help, Keys received a full pardon after 5½ years in prison. He returned to his family at the Desert Queen Ranch at age 69, carving in stone the marker of where his old enemy bit the dust.
Keys was granted a full pardon in 1956 and died in 1969. He is buried on the ranch, beneath a headstone he carved himself.
https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/news/jos ... marker.htm