Napa County CA Archives Obituaries.....O'Brien, Patrick January 20, 1864
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Regina Gualco rmgualco@yahoo.com August 3, 2006, 10:24 pm

from History of Napa and Lake Counties (1881)
Murder of PATRICK O'BRIEN.---This foul murder has some elements of horrid
hellishness about it which are not to be exceeded in the annals of crime. An old
and peaceable man was living with his daughter, a young girl of some seventeen
summers, on a small farm in Wild Horse Valley. A young man, not yet thirty years
of age, came into the neighborhood, and seeing the circumstance, at once begins
to plan his fiendish plot. He conceived the idea that if he would kill the
father he could step in and befriend the girl in her affliction, marry her, and
thus secure the property. Accordingly, on the 20th day of January, 1864, he set
about to consummate his hellish design. On that morning the father, little
dreaming that his days were numbered, went to work as usual in his field. The
murderer, J. Gilbert Jenkins by name, went to the house of a neighbor, Mrs.
Sanders, and borrowed a rifle, stating that he wished to kill a deer. In two or
three hours he returned the rifle. This was on Wednesday. Time passed and the
father did not return, and the daughter became alarmed. The neighbors were
aroused and a thorough search was instituted, but without avail. Queries began
to be rife as to the cause of his disappearance. Suddenly Mrs. Sanders
remembered the incident of loaning the gun to Jenkins on the morning of the
disappearance of O'Brien. This face she communicated to the people, and on the
strength of it Jenkins was arrested. But he understood the loops of the law too
well to remain long in custody, and was released on habeas corpus, there being
nothing to prove his guilt or connection with the affair except the incidental
borrowing of the rifle.

And so matters continued until the Tuesday following the disappearance of the
murdered man, when the search for him was rewarded in finding his grave, which
was located about three hundred yards from his house. It was about two feet
deep, and was covered with leaves, so that it eluded discovery until that time.
Jenkins was again arrested. It appeared that when shot, O'Brien was in a
stooping position, and the ball entered near the back bone, between the fifth
and sixth ribs, ranged upward, passing through the left lung and windpipe, and
lodged in the butt of the jaw. The Coroner's jury returned the following
verdict: "The deceased was about forty-six years old, and came to his death by a
gunshot wound; and that said killing was the act of J. Gilbert Jenkins."

February 6, 1864, Jenkins was arraigned for the commission of the deed. The
following named gentlemen composed the jury: Wells Kilburn, M. N. Haile, P.
Hunt, H. T. Barker, B. F. E. Kellogg, Wm. Edgington, Edward Evey, E. A. Mount,
A. J. Stark, F. Westorn, B. H. Gordon and J. D. White. When the matter was
submitted to them they retired, and in just fifteen minutes brought in a verdict
of murder in the first degree. The judge passed sentence upon him, setting March
18th following as the day of execution. The prisoner took the matter very coolly
indeed, proving how hardened a wretch he was by saying, "I wish it was
to-morrow; I don't want to wait so d----d long." The day of execution came, and
found him cool and collected; and he ascended the gallows with a firm tread,
meeting his fate with a nonchalance that any Indian might well envy. At seven
minutes past three o'clock P.M. the trap was sprung, and his soul, which,
according to his own confession, was steeped in the blood of eight victims, was
launched into the presence of the Great Judge of the Universe. "And he went to
his own place." His confession states that, beside imbruing his hands in the
blood of eight men, he had committed innumerable robberies in almost half of the
States of the Union. He was a native of North Carolina, and was only twenty-nine
years of age at the time of his execution.

Additional Comments:
Source: [Lyman L. Palmer], History of Napa and Lake Counties, California (San
Francisco: Slocum, Bowen & Co., 1881), pages 147-148.

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