SETTLING PANGUITCH
l! Mm
John D. Lee's home in Panguitch where he was captured while visiting his fourth wife, Sarah Caroline Williams Lee. The front log portion of the house is original. The sided back part was added later. (Utah State Historical Society) pen behind the house and checked there. The posse found Lee hiding in the pen and arrested him. W h e n Lee's son's spoke to their father of staging a rescue, Stokes made it clear that any such attempt would bring immediate death to Lee. Lee himself discouraged any acts of violence, remarking that a sufficient period of time h a d elapsed since the massacre that he felt he stood an excellent chance of having an impartial trial.52 Stokes and his men took Lee to Beaver, where he was tried on 23 July 1875. After this trial resulted in a hung jury, Lee was tried a second time in September 1876. This time the jury found him guilty of murder in the first degree. The death sentence he received was carried out in front of a firing squad on 23 March 1877, at the site of the massacre at Mountain Meadows. Many both at the time and since felt that Lee was a scapegoat sacrificed by M o r m o n leaders to end the affair and protect others from prosecution. Lee's family buried him in the Panguitch cemetery. 53
