John J. Hoover [SEP] convicted of
John J. Hoover
John J. Hoover was a billiard hall owner hanged by vigilantes on April 28, 1880, for the unprovoked murder of a townsman in Fairplay in Park County in central Colorado.
Little is known of Hoover's background though he was a prospector in the California Gold Rush in the early 1850s and was in 1880 one of the older residents of Fairplay.
The crime.
Known for his irascible personality, especially when under the influence of alcohol, Hoover on April 1, 1879, stormed into the
Pearson broke the news in a series of radio broadcasts. It is possible that he was tipped off by a government official who wanted to turn American opinion against the Soviets, possibly even FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, according to historian Amy Knight.
He had a role in the downfall of U.S. Congressman John Parnell Thomas, Chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, in 1948. After revelations in Pearson's column, Thomas was investigated and later convicted of conspiracy to defraud the government for hiring friends who never