Queho is a name attached to a run of deaths in southern Nevada and along the Colorado River between 1910 and 1919. He was never charged. No warrant for him is on record, no court heard evidence about him, and no inquiry fixed on him as the person responsible for any one of the deaths. The attributions came from newspapers, from posses led by county officers and from the talk of the mining camps. Over time the list grew. Arizona Highways wrote in 1941 that as many as twenty-three deaths had been attributed to him, and later writers have used figures of more than twenty. Counties and a state posted rewards in 1919. His death in hiding was established in 1940.
Each attribution was a claim by the person or paper that made it, never a finding.
The mining towns of El Dorado, Nelson and Searchlight were supplied from Las Vegas, which in the first decade of the twentieth century was a small community. A reservation nearby was home to people of several nations. Queho is generally believed to have been the son of a Paiute father and a Cocopa mother, and neither tribe accepted him; tribal records hold nothing about him, and his affiliation is uncertain.
His birth date, his birthplace and his early years are not on record. What is said about him dates from 1910 and after, when other people began to name him.
The attributions begin in the late autumn of 1910. Wild West says that shortly after Thanksgiving he killed a man named Bismark on the reservation near Las Vegas. Legends of America dates the event to November 1910 and says the first newspaper report named Queho as the main suspect. The Review-Journal says he was thought to have killed a man it calls Bismarck, and adds that no record of the homicide exists.
Unconfirmed accounts add that two other Paiute men died the same day; their names are not on record, and the claim is not established.
A posse was formed in Las Vegas.
Two more deaths of that season are tied to him. The first is J.M. Woodworth, in the Searchlight district. Word came to Nelson and Searchlight that Woodworth had been killed by Queho; who sent it is not on record. The Review-Journal uses the phrase "supposed to have" for the same attribution. KSNV News 3 in 2021, drawing on local historian Christian and the Las Vegas Age of the time, places Woodworth at a mining camp in the McCullough Range and says the paper in December 1910 suggested Queho's involvement.
The second is L.W. Gilbert, called Doc Gilbert, at the Gold Bug mine in Eldorado Canyon (one account places the mine near Jean, another on the Arizona side). A second posse, led by Deputy Sheriff Howe, connected Queho with the death, and the Las Vegas Age first accused him of it in December 1910. The Review-Journal puts Gilbert's death shortly after October 1910.
Both early posses gave up. A later search by the Nevada State Police returned to Las Vegas in February or March 1911 without result, and the hunt was quietly dropped.
In early March 1911, KSNV says, the Searchlight Record reported that a man named James Patterson had been killed by Queho. Patterson then wrote to the Las Vegas Age to say that he was alive and well. The Review-Journal gives the same story with a twist: Patterson turned up unharmed days later, and a different man's death came to light during the search, a death for which Queho was also given the credit. It was a report that outran the facts.
Wild West describes several unexplained deaths along the Colorado River in the eight years after 1911: four adults and several children on the Arizona side, and lone men who died in remote country on the Nevada side. The cause is unknown, and they are not attributed to Queho directly. KSNV says that many unsolved deaths were attributed to him between 1911 and about 1931 without direct evidence. The local historian Christian found no legal records of convictions and said that the accusations were tried in the press and not in court.
The year 1913 carries the next group of attributions, all from the press and the camps.
The Review-Journal and Legends of America both say that local newspapers attributed the death of a man known as Canyon Charlie to Queho. Both also record doubt. The Review-Journal says the killing probably was not Queho's, and Legends of America says others disputed it because Charlie was described as his friend and confidant.
The two sources also place two men at Jenny Springs, on the Arizona side of the river, in the same year, and say that Queho got the blame. The death of a woman, unnamed, was also laid to him.
A reward of up to $2,000, "dead or alive," followed these deaths, promoted by the Searchlight Bulletin; who offered it is not on record. The Review-Journal says rewards grew to $2,000 as what it calls Queho hysteria spread.
The best-documented group of attributions comes from January 1919.
William Hancock and Eather Taylor died in January 1919 in a canyon a few miles west of the Colorado River, upstream from Eldorado Canyon. Undersheriff Frank Wait's posse took Queho to be responsible, and the Review-Journal calls him "the prime suspect."
Maude Douglas died on January 21, 1919, in the Techatticup mine area of Eldorado Canyon. Wait's own record of the search that followed, printed on a 1937 newspaper page, does not name Queho, though the pursuers were convinced they were again chasing him, despite reports that he had died some time before. Sheriff Sam Gay ordered the posse.
The search ran from January 21 to February 18, 1919, by Wait's record, or almost two months by another account, and found no one. Queho was also blamed for two further deaths from that time, "though there was no proof."
Wait searched from time to time afterward. With no further deaths attributed to him, interest faded. Arizona Highways wrote in 1941 that his trail was lost in 1919.
In March 1919 Nevada offered $2,000 for Queho's capture, Arizona officials who thought him responsible for unsolved deaths on their side of the river offered $500, and Clark County added $300. Private contributions brought the total to more than $3,000.
No warrant is on record. The rewards are the only formal act on record, and they were notices of a sum for his capture, not a charge.
The totals vary with the writer. Arizona Highways in 1941 said as many as twenty-three had been attributed to him, and Legends of America uses 23. Nevada Magazine in 2016 says he is said to have claimed the lives of more than twenty people. A marker text credited to the Queho Posse Chapter 1919 of E Clampus Vitus, reproduced by the Historic Las Vegas Project, says over twenty. No list on record adds up to those totals.
His death in hiding was established in 1940. The Review-Journal notes that evidence of his activity ran into the early 1930s and that some pursuers had claimed he died years earlier, in 1919. Arizona Highways, in 1941, recounted the matter in an article titled "The Saga of Queho" by William Belknap Jr.
The attributions found their way into print within a few decades. The Review-Journal cites a 1966 account by Ray Chesson, which it describes as questionable, and Harry Reid's 1998 book Searchlight, The Camp that Didn't Fail. The Review-Journal's own 1999 piece says it is impossible to tell whether Queho was a murderer or a scapegoat. In 2021 KSNV News 3 revisited the story, and the historian it spoke to said that whether or not Queho committed the crimes, "no one knows."
Legend and record separate in several places.
Bismark. The Review-Journal says no record of the homicide exists.
Canyon Charlie. The Review-Journal says the death probably was not Queho's. Legends of America says others disputed it because the two were friends.
James Patterson. A death reported in March 1911 did not happen; the man wrote to the paper to say so.
Maude Douglas. The Review-Journal reports that Reid believes Queho was responsible but points out that there is room for doubt, and that her stepson later said her husband was. Legends of America says a four-year-old child in her care reportedly said her husband was responsible, and that no one listened.
Two further deaths blamed on him in 1919. Wild West and Legends of America both say there was no proof tying Queho to them.
The totals. No list is on record that matches the figures of more than twenty or of twenty-three.
The 1911 to 1918 deaths. Their cause is unknown.
Late November 1910: A man named Bismark dies on the Las Vegas reservation; Queho is named as the main suspect; no record of the homicide exists.
1910: J.M. Woodworth dies in the Searchlight district; L.W. "Doc" Gilbert dies at the Gold Bug mine, Eldorado Canyon; both deaths are attributed to Queho. The Las Vegas Age accuses Queho in December 1910.
Early 1911: A State Police search returns to Las Vegas without result.
Early March 1911: A report of James Patterson's death attributed to Queho is shown false when Patterson writes to the Las Vegas Age.
1913: Canyon Charlie, two men at Jenny Springs (Arizona side) and a woman are attributed to Queho; a reward of up to $2,000 is reported.
January 1919: William Hancock and Eather Taylor die west of the Colorado River; Undersheriff Wait's posse names Queho as the suspect.
January 21, 1919: Maude Douglas dies in the Techatticup mine area, Eldorado Canyon; Wait's record of the search runs to February 18.
March 1919: Rewards of $2,000 (Nevada), $500 (Arizona) and $300 (Clark County) are posted, with private gifts bringing the total above $3,000.
1940: His death in hiding is established.
September 1941: Arizona Highways publishes "The Saga of Queho."
1966: Ray Chesson's account appears.
1998: Harry Reid's Searchlight, The Camp that Didn't Fail is published.
February 7, 1999: The Las Vegas Review-Journal publishes its article on Queho.
2006: Wild West publishes Allen P. Bristow's profile.
August 25, 2021: KSNV News 3 airs its report.