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Until Julia Bulette arrived in Virginia City, the scarlet ladies were confined to C Street and a few cheap "cribs" in which to ply their trade. A gay woman with considerable wit and charm, she crossed the Sierras from California and became a spokeswoman for the women forced to work in these shacks. With no other accommodations available, she took her place in one of the cribs but not for long. Soon she used her popularity with the affluent, masculine upper crust to prevail upon them to build twin rows of cabins on D Street, have the old cribs torn down and new ones built. The white washed cottages became the home of the more expensive strumpets, the cheaper women worked in the cribs below, farther down were the Chinese and at the bottom of the slope, the Indian mahalies.
It was rumored she imported the fairest of "frails" from San Francisco and Sacramento to work in her Virginia City establishment, known locally at "Julia's Castle." But her disciples claimed she was never a madam, operating merely as a champion for all working women.
Her roots appeared to be in New Orleans of French origin. Some said she was an escapee from the Barbary Coast; others disputed that she served her apprenticeship in that den of iniquity. It is known she had been one of the girls in a house of prostitution in Angel's Camp, California, made famous by Mark Twain's "The Jumping Frogs of Calavaras County."
Julia's cottage was surrounded by potted roses and geraniums, which made the more respectable women wonder how she could afford them at $ 10 a pot, but there was little she could not afford. Wells Fargo regularly delivered packages from San Francisco's most expensive furriers and Shreve and Company, if leading diamond merchants. One of her admirers presented her with a gift of prancing white horses and a gleaming phaeton. She was even given semiofficial status when she was elected a member of the Virginia City Engine Company Number One, the greatest social honor the town could bestow, a fact which enraged the virtuous females of the social set. Despite their disapproval, Julia marched in all of the company parades and responded to every alarm, often leaving the customer of the moment alone in her genial bed. One of these emergencies was caused by hot water cascading through the main shaft of the Mascot Mine, which was promptly dubbed the "Julia Mine" as in "too hot to handle."
Julia died in her bed, where she was discovered by her maid, obviously murdered for her jewels and furs. Although the "good" women of Virginia City objected, their husbands and fathers, thousands of them, marched in her funeral procession. The Virginia City Engine Company Number One decided it was only fit that they bury her, despite the outcry. "The members put on their light blue greatcoats, with pearl buttons like desert lilies and huge manly flap on their pockets, dusted off their tasseled silver bugles and marched behind the casket from church to cemetery."
Condemned as "an evil woman-a whore" by the righteous ladies of the upper crust, her murderers were nevertheless hunted with great zest by the men. The posse cornered and killed two of them, bringing the third back for trial after his dying partner fingered him as her strangler. While the men prepared the murder charges against the drifter named Jean Marie a Millian, their wives plied him with fried chicken, pies and other assorted homemade delicacies, regarding him as a savior against women such as the dead "Queen of Sporting Row." THE HANGING
By nine o'clock this morning the streets of Virginia were lively and bustling with people gathered to witness the execution.. .The principal point of attraction was on B street in front of the Court House, and towards noon the crowd had increased to an immense size. At 111/2 o'clock the carriage for the prisoner drove up to the door of the Sherriff's office, and soon afterward the Sheriffs posse of specials, numbering twenty-four men, armed with Henry rifles marched out and surrounded the carriage. At 12 o'clock, the prisoner stepped into the carriage, and the procession started for the gallows. The carriage containing the prisoner and-attendant Catholic Priests, was followed by a carriage containing the two officiating physicians and the reporters of the various newspapers of Virginia and Gold Hill. This carriage was followed by a wagon containing the coffin and undertaker. An immense number of people followed on foot, on horseback, and in carriages, and a moving throng crowded the sidewalks.
MURDERER HANGED
The gallows was situated in a sloping ravine about a mile north of Virginia, just below the Geiger Grade, and near the Jewish burial ground. Arrived at the scaffold, the prisoner ascended with a light tripping step, and now John Milleian stood boldly forth and took a last look upon whom were once his fellow citizens, who were now assembled to see him take his final leap in the dark. A pleasanter Spring day was seldom seen and on the sides of the encircling amphitheater of hills were between four and five thousand people, among whom were noticed many woman and children. On the platform of the scaffold were the Sheriff, Deputy, Jailer, and the two priests. Deputy Sheriff Leconey read the warrant for the execution, after which Milleian stepped forward and read his farewell address to the people, but claiming not be be able to speak good English, he read it as it was written in French. He was smoothly shaven, and looked somewhat pale from imprisonment, but showed no sign of nervous weakening, and read in a loud, firm, unwavering voice, occupying about ten minutes time. He said that in this trial and conviction, great injustice had been done him. Chief of Police Edwards had perjured himself on the witness stand, and abandoned women had been brought in to swear his life away. Not understanding English well, he had not been able to fully comprehend the accusations, therefore could not refute them. He had been guilty of some bad deeds during his lifetime, but of this murder he was innocent. What he was reading was the only thing in the way of a confession he had to make; anything else purporting to be confession of his, he declared to be spurious and untrue. He spoke well of his treatment by the Sheriff and other officers while in prison, and expressed his forgiveness of everybody. The only words he addressed in English, were these: "Mr. Hall and family, I'm much obliged to you for your services, and to the ladies that visited me in my prison." He knelt upon the trap, and after a short prayer wth Father Manogue, he arose, shook hands with the officers, embraced the priests, and then stood firmly on the fatal trap while the noose was adjusted about his neck. So cool a man under such circumstances we never saw. Just as the black cap was drawn down over his head, the spring was touched, the trap dropped, and John Milleian dangled in the air. He fell about 6 feet. After about two minutes suspension a strong shudder pervaded his frame, otherwise he hung pretty quiet. At the expiration of 13 minutes all pulsation ceased to be apparent to the physician. . . Gold Hill News
Julia Bullette, a famous Virginia City prostitute, is supposedly buried in this nearby graveyard.
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