The first thing everone has to remember is that those were
the days of the "dime novels" and "penny dreadfuls" which were the forerunners of the "yellow press." Boone had a bad
press agent as most of what was written about him have never
been documented. Read "Vengeance-The Saga of Poor Tom Cover" or "Vigilantes of Montana." He was a bad man but he
lived in bad times. ONE case of admitted cannibalism and a
few bad acts which led to him being hung in Virginia City,
Montana by a bunch of guys wearing sheets hung suspected outlaws. However, the hangees were all confederates and the
hangors were all yankees, hmmmmmmm. In regard to being a
relation of the Southern Calif. Helms, I have never been able to find a link to him. He was not a brother to Wid, Chat, Turner, or Daunt who went west from Missouri and settled in NE San Diego County. Those (my) Helms came to
Missouri via Tennessee while Boone's people came through
Kentucky. If their back trails all started in Maryland, they are related somehow, maybe distant cousins. I have stood on the hill where Boone is buried with the other 4
that were hung that night. No headstone. Simple wood crosses were all they got. I offered the city/county offices in Virginia City to put stones on all those graves
but was turned down as it would have to go through the state
historical society. The ironic thing is that the hill over-
looks the Wells-Fargo office which is kind of fitting for a
bandit's gravesite. Good man, bad man, who really knows but
he was a tough man as were all those guys back then. If he
was a relation of mine, cool, if not that's OK too. I will
always admire a guy who said what he said before he died.
It is kind of fitting that in the story of Tom Cover he van-
ishes somewhere in NE San Diego County in the vicinity of the Helm ranches. Cover was one of the guys wearing sheets
when they hung Boone so being a Vigilante turned out to be
highly overrated. If you know any Montana history you can
find the name Alexander Carter among Plummer's Gang and one
of his great, great nephews is a close friend of mine. He
and I met Plummer's great, great granddaughter in Virginia
City one time and the town enjoyed that. I am one of the
great-grandson's of Harmon Turner Helm.
Merideth "Matt" Helm