Search the site  Internet Convict Lake Resort
The convicts had little to eat for some days, and awoke very early that fateful Saturday morning. Jones decided to leave for Bishop to see if he could arrange help from friends. Two others went toward Monte Diablo Lake, what is now Convict Lake, telling the others they were going to look for food. Their true motive was to escape the other four convicts.

With Jones gone and the two others climbing out of the area, the posse rode up Monte Diablo Creek towards the eastern end of the deep cut where Convict Lake now lies. Two convicts were asleep on the south side of the creek. Another was coming back down a hill after his morning constituional. Although warned by the sheriff to be quiet, someone yelled "there they are" and a fight was on. In the first exchange of gunfire, a young convict named Bedford Roberts was shot in both his shoulder and foot. He crawled off into the undergrowth.

The other two convicts, Morton and Moses Black fired back at the posse with Henry repeating rifles, driving the posse back into the woods. Morrison, had dismounted and crept towards the two convicts. All of a sudden, he had a clear shot at Black. He pulled the trigger. The pistol cap exploded, but the gun didn't fire.  Black turned and shot Morrison in the side.  Then he walked up to Morrison and shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Morton and Black then took some pistols and horses left behind by the fleeing posse and headed up the canyon.

Soon they came upon the Indian Deputy Guide Mono Jim. He mistook them for posse members and called out to them. It was a fatal mistake! They chased him down and Morton shot him through the eye, killing him straight away. Morton and Black left the badly wounded Roberts and fled up and over mountain south towards Bishop. Jones and the other two Convicts escaped the shootout. Jones, the leader who, by killing Billy Poor, brought the local posse's hornet's nest onto them, disappeared. What finally happened to him is interesting.     Read on . . .