John D. Lee was eventually convicted for his participation in a of California immigrants (see: Mountain Meadows massacre) that left 140 people dead. Before this, John and Emma Lee were followed by federal marshals for about twenty years. At one time John Lee was tried but was freed after a hung jury. In 1868, George Hicks, a columnist from Harmony, Utah, wrote in a local newspaper that the Lees had to leave town in ten days or John would be hanged.