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<\/a>Last week I was researching the history of Pulga,<\/strong> a small town in Northern California,\u00a0for some copy I’m writing for their website.\u00a0\u00a0As it happens, this town is very close to Willows<\/strong>, where our dad’s family settled in 1829.\u00a0 Our dad was born and raised there and the land is still owned and ranched by members of our extended family.\u00a0 When I wrote our family history six years ago I discovered that we had something of a colorful past<\/strong> – our great-great grandmother, Julia Billiou, was murdered while sitting at her dining table.\u00a0 That’s not something you\u00a0find on Ancestry every day.<\/p>\nWhen I was writing our history I was lucky enough to connect with a third cousin<\/strong> (I think twice removed but I can never keep that stuff straight) who had a treasure trove of information about Julia and her husband, Joseph Billiou, including copies of the newspaper accounts of her murder.\u00a0 The local papers in Oroville and Chico reported\u00a0that the Billiou’s 16 year-old Chinese cook, Hong Di<\/strong>,\u00a0burst out of the kitchen on the night of April 7, 1887 and in a drunken rage<\/strong>, shot the ranch foreman, William Weaver,\u00a0in the shoulder.\u00a0 He then shot Julia as she rose from the table, striking her directly in the heart and killing her instantly.\u00a0 Our great-grandmother, Annie, was shot at three times<\/strong>, but by that point Hong’s aim was a bit off and he missed her each time.\u00a0 Hong ran from the ranch, hiding in the brushes near the local creek for three days until he was caught and brought to trial.\u00a0 The jury found him\u00a0guilty, but instead of the normal death sentence <\/strong>for a murder, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n It would be a vast understatement to say that the verdict did not go down well<\/strong> with the local townspeople.\u00a0 Before the judge and jury\u00a0had even left the courtroom there was shouting from the gallery calling for Hong’s lynching.\u00a0 The mayor\u00a0called out the posse to guard the jail that night but a raucous band of 200 vigilantes stormed the facility<\/strong>.\u00a0 They found the cell in the basement where Hong was detained and demanded a full confession.\u00a0 This confession is what was reported in the local papers – that\u00a0he’d imbibed in too much whiskey and that\u00a0he didn’t mean to kill Julia<\/strong> as she had been kind to him.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the vigilantes dragged him down the street to the train turnstile and hung him.\u00a0 According to the papers, there was great celebration that night over the “justice” that was carried out.\u00a0 None of the vigilantes were ever arrested for their actions.<\/p>\n Joseph Billiou – jerk or jilted?<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Fast forward to last week when I was doing research on Pulga.\u00a0 I decided as long as I was studying the local area I’d Google Julia’s murder to see if there was anything I’d missed.\u00a0 It turned out to be a lesson in “be careful what you wish for”<\/strong> because there was<\/em>\u00a0new information and it did not reflect well her.\u00a0 A recently published\u00a0book about lynching in California\u00a0has a full page devoted to Julia’s murder and Hong’s hanging.\u00a0The author wrote that both the\u00a0San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> and the Sacramento Bee <\/em>published the FULL account of Hong’s confession while the\u00a0local papers chose not to run the full story because it “impinged on the good character of one of the town’s most beloved citizens”.\u00a0 To say the least.\u00a0It turns out that a couple of months prior to the murder, while Mr. Billiou was in San Francisco on business, Hong stumbled upon Julia and Mr. Weaver in a “compromising position”<\/strong> up in the hay loft when Joseph was out of town.\u00a0 Mr. Weaver threatened Hong with death if he told Mr. Billiou about the affair when he returned\u00a0to the ranch.\u00a0 Hong’s full confession also stated that his real target was Weaver<\/strong> and that he had great affection for Julia because she taught him to read and write English.\u00a0 So in that spring of 1887 I think\u00a0it’s safe to say that\u00a0tensions were running a little high in the household.\u00a0 Julia was cheating on her husband, the ranch foreman was fooling around with the boss’s wife, and the cook was scared of being killed at any moment.<\/p>\n These new revelations\u00a0have\u00a0me taking a second look at Julia.\u00a0 Her track record for fidelity wasn’t so great to begin with.\u00a0 Shortly after she arrived in Willows from Ireland<\/strong> she was engaged\u00a0to Joseph’s brother, Michael.\u00a0 When\u00a0Joseph arrived in California to join Michael, Julia broke off the engagement and married Joseph.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That had to make for an awkward Thanksgiving.\u00a0 Then at age 50 – which was like 100 in 1887<\/strong> – she has a fling with the ranch foreman.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe Joseph was a real jerk and she could only find true love with Mr. Weaver.\u00a0\u00a0She took her secrets to the grave, not even leaving a photograph of herself behind, so she’ll forever remain an enigma.<\/p>\n All I know is that I will never again look at all those prim and proper women<\/strong> in my family tree in the same way.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson Last week I was researching the history of Pulga, a small town in Northern California,\u00a0for some copy I’m writing for their website.\u00a0\u00a0As it happens, this town is very close to Willows, where our dad’s family settled … read more![](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/joseph-billiou-198x300.jpg\")
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