Spring 1869 – Crystal Peak (Truckee area), California: Employer Killed a Chinese Worker After Alleged Sexual Assault of a Child

The Appeal-Democrat reported a Crystal Peak incident in which a Chinese worker employed at the Truckee House was accused of sexually assaulting his employer’s six-year-old daughter. The report stated that the employer, Charles Nuce, “shot him and threw him into the stream” (Appeal-Democrat, May 2, 1869). The same article noted that the public reacted to the extralegal homicide with approval: “Public opinion is that Nuce did only his duty” (Appeal-Democrat, May 2, 1869). The Crystal Peak lynching demonstrates how the pretext of sexual allegations was used to sanction quick and deadly extralegal actions against Chinese targets and how white newspapers recorded such incidents of violence as a duty rather than a crime.