Robbery on the Levee

Grateful to have escaped with his life, Thomas Anderson of Nevada City lost no time in filing a criminal complaint with the local police after he was attacked and robbed on Sacramento city’s river levee the night of February 2, 1855.

The officers who backtracked his movements on that Friday evening weren’t surprised to learn that he and his attackers—two scam-artist thugs named William H. Best and Frank Brayer—had spent time together in several saloons, and two houses of ill-fame. Theirs was a classic con game, choosing as prey a man who was considered “elderly,” well past the strength and mental acuity of his prime years.

As Anderson was leaving the dining room of his hotel, the Mineral House on J Street, the pair accosted him in a friendly fashion, and struck up a conversation. A friendly sort himself, Thomas confided that he was just going out for an after-dinner walk, a habit he firmly believed kept him in good health at sixty. After quickly confirming that he was indeed a stranger in town, Best and Brayer offered to show him the city.

Over the next several hours the conmen took Anderson to several saloons, and two upscale brothels with in-house bartenders, where they jovially insisted, at each establishment, that he should drink up and enjoy himself. The hours passed and the city streets grew ever darker; finally, Thomas was rather in his cups. Wanting to return to his hotel but unacquainted with the city, he accepted his companions’ offer to conduct him back to the Mineral House between Seventh and Eighth Streets.  

Instead, they led him toward a secluded spot at First Street, also called Front Street, at the narrow, northern extension of the Sacramento River levee road. There, as a disoriented Thomas Anderson descended the steps on the levee, Brayer seized him by the throat while William Best lifted his wallet. Drunk or not, Anderson was in better shape than they thought, and swiftly reacted. He pushed the ruffians away, then snatched his watch and cash from other pockets, clutching them firmly in his hands—until Brayer threatened serious violence, and Anderson was forced to hand them over.

With that, the swindlers abandoned their prey . . . but during the fray, Anderson had happened to notice a white, ivory-handled dirk, and a cane, lying on the ground where his assailants had temporarily dropped them to leave their own hands free. Both of these articles were found on the persons of Brayer and Best when they were arrested Monday, February 5. Two days later, on Wednesday, February 7, a court of inquiry was convened. Anderson, in a direct and coherent statement, identified his assailants, as well as the dirk and the cane submitted as evidence.  

He was, of course, the primary witness, but his statement was corroborated by the madam from the Fourth Street brothel, the last place the plaintiff and defendants had visited. She testified that the ivory-handled dirk was similar to the one she had seen in Brayer’s possession while the three men were making merry at her establishment on the night of the robbery. 

Thomas Anderson returned home to Nevada City; the Fourth Street madam continued with her illicit (though flourishing) trade. William Best and Frank Brayer, represented by cunning defense counsel, managed to delay their trial until June, when both were sentenced to the state prison.