Chinese Miners Lynched “New York Charley” for the Murder of G. W. Mardis

In September 1880, a Chinese man known as “New York Charley” was accused of murdering G. W. Mardis in Elko County, Nevada. The Morning Appeal reported that his six-toed footprint matched the track left at the scene, that he confessed, and that he was then “lynched by his countrymen.” The Reno Gazette-Journal said he was brought back from Mountain City to the scene of the crime, and then lynched by a "party of his countrymen." The case stands out because the lynching was carried out by fellow Chinese miners rather than by a white mob. By 1880, the climate of “the Chinese must go!” was growing, and even Chinese immigrants could adopt lynching as a form of communal law enforcement.