The saga of Richard and Margaret Thompson was one of many tales featured on Thursday’s St. Patrick’s Cemetery Tour at the Susanville Cemetery, which was established in 1860.  This couple were among the very early settlers arriving in 1858. On April 6, 1866, their only daughter Sarah married Thomas Mulroney, and they were not happy, they being protestant and Mulroney a catholic. On March 12, 1867 in a drunken domestic dispute over the daughter’s marriage, Richard attacked his 65 year-old wife with a hatchet and killed her. This is only the beginning of this tale. Thompson was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to hang at San Quentin. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court which upheld the verdict and he was sentenced to hang on December 12, 1868. However, two months earlier a number of Honey Lakers petitioned the California Governor to commute his sentence to second degree murder, which the penalty would be life in prison. The Governor agreed. End of story, not so fast. In 1872, Thomas Mulroney asked the Governor to pardon his father-in-law citing while the murder was done in a crazy fit of intoxication and that it was inexcusable, Thompson’s age and failing health, and as a model prisoner, should spend his remaining final days with his only daughter. Again, the Governor agreed and in 1874 Thompson was pardoned. He returned to the Honey Lake Valley to make his home with the Mulroneys. His health greatly improved he lived for another 21 years! His great-great-granddaughter, is Patty Gomez, who still resides on the original Mulroney ranch.

If you want to attend the next event, the Inspiration Point Tour, this is a good time to subscribe now, so you will not miss on this and other forthcoming excursions.

Finally, thank you Lassen Ale Works for your hospitality at the end of the tour.