Sometimes things happen that cause the people to have to take the law into their own hands, when the law has failed them.
Over 50 years ago, in a nearby county, a man molested 2 little sisters. He was caught, and being a member of an influential family, turned loose. He did it again, only this time the family of the girls did not call the law. Instead, the father and grandfather of the girls went to the man's house, and put him in their car. They took him out in the country, beat the chit out of him, and told him that if the sun rose on him the next morning in that county, they would kill him. The man left, and a few months later, he decided to come back at Christmas and visit his family. The father and grandfather of the girls found out he was back, and went looking for him. The child molester left wearing his pajamas, and had to stop in nearby Clarksville TN and call home for the rest of his clothes to be brought to him. He ended up in Florida, and died there.
It was probably vigilante justice to some degree, but it worked.
Re: Vigilante justice..... I grew up in Arizona ......decades ago....before it got californicated. I was twenty years old before I figured out that most folks considered that vigilantes and vigilante justice was “wrong.” I just thought that that is what a community had to do when the law could not or would not provide justice and/or safety. Even the mines I worked at in Arizona had their own form of vigilante action. Same with the unions. Kept order.... not always right, but there was order and there was a form of accountability.
Communities, be they unions, miners, farmers, small town folks etc....seem to “require justice and require order.” If the authorities cannot or will not provide, it seems the members of that community or tribe or social group will figure out how to get it.
May still be that way in small towns, remote places and in “the hills.”
