Plummer scarcely resembled the model sheriffs of movie and television westerns. Coolly calculating, he used his position as sheriff of Bannack during Montana Territory’s first gold rush to organize a band of road agents who systematically robbed and murdered miners in remote areas. The highwaymen became so brazen that the miners felt compelled to band together and wage a vigorous lynch-law campaign to restore order. In 1864 these vigilantes caught up with Plummer and delivered their own brand of justice.