Cyrus Skinner

Cyrus Skinner (ca. 1829 – January 25, 1864) was an Old West outlaw and brother to criminal George Skinner. Skinner was called a "roadster, fence, and spy" for Henry Plummer.

Early life Cyrus Skinner, born about 1829 in Ohio Cornelius homesteaded land in Ohio under the Land Act of 1820, beginning with 160 acres on September 12, 1821. In 1850, Skinner and his brother George were in Texas, both having assumed the surname Williamson, before they went to California.

California Skinner and his brother were criminals from the time that they came to California. Skinner used the aliases Cyrus J. Peter and Cyrus Williamson and was convicted under his name and both aliases. Convicted of larceny, they were both imprisoned in state prisons, and both had records for escaping.

Convicted of larceny and burglary, Skinner spent two years in San Quentin State Prisons from August 18, 1851, and the department of corrections released him exactly two years later. On June 13, 1854, Skinner returned to San Quentin as Cyrus Peters. He escaped after serving about four months of a three-year sentence for grand larceny. Ten years were added to his sentence for escaping.

Skinner received a 14-year sentence to be served at Angel Island penitentiary, but he escaped after a few weeks stay, just before he before the mule train robbery of the summer of 1856.

Mule train robbery Skinner and his brother George were involved in the 1856 theft of $80,000 of gold bullion along with Big Dolph Newton, Bill Carter, Richard H. Barter (Rattlesnake Dick), Romera (or Romero) Carter, and an unidentified Mexican. The theft was unsuccessful when Cyrus and Barter missed the rendezvous because they were captured with the stolen mules. George buried half the money. The other half was turned over to the law by Carter, but George, having been killed in the capture, never revealed the location of the other $40,000 in gold, which presumably remains hidden in the Trinities.

Barter and Cyrus were arrested for stealing mules and jailed in Auburn. The men escaped and separated. Barter made it to San Francisco. Cyrus was found near Auburn after a few days and ended up at the Angel Island penitentiary with a four-year sentence. He went to San Quentin on May 29, 1856. Henry Plummer, who Skinner helped get elected in the city election, was imprisoned at San Quentin in February 1859.

Skinner escaped San Quentin on May 11, 1860. (The former saloon building is located in the Bannack State Park.) The Bannock people ranged throughout Montana and Idaho. In the winter of 1863, a snowstorm trapped them along the Salmon River. Once the snow melted in the spring, the tribe headed for their hunting grounds in a valley in Montana. They stopped at Marysville, to trade furs, hunt, and ask for biscuits.

Seeing a nearby encampment of Winnemuck, a chief, and other Bannock people, the inebriated Skinner and his similarly drunk customers decided to kill the camp's men, women, and children.