Snapshot Story: Prairie Pirates!
John Campbell served as a captain of a vigilante group of area citizens, called Regulators, that sought to bring law and order to frontier Illinois, due to the widespread lawless actions of The Banditti of the Prairie during the 1830s and 1840s. Such gangs were horse thieves, counterfeiters, stage coach robbers and murderers.
Campbell was murdered by a member of the Driscoll Gang. Campbell's 13 year old son, Martin, fired at the Driscolls with a shotgun, but the weapon failed to go off. John died in his wife’s arms.
John Driscoll and one of his sons, William, were put on trial by a jury of 111 Regulators for the death of Campbell. Both were charged and executed by firing squad on June 29, 1941. The Regulators divided themselves into two separate squads. A line of 56 executioners shot John Driscoll. William was gunned down by a line of 55 Regulators.
This lynching event brought some sense of peace and justice to Ogle county, but that didn’t spell the end to vigilante groups and Prairie Bandits in the region.
White Rock Cemetery
White Rock Township
Ogle County, Illinois
John Campbell (1797 - 1841)
Assassinated by Prairie Bandits