After a respectable career as Philadelphia lawyer and erstwhile state politician in Pennsylvania, which ended in a scandal from which he was later absolved, McGowan moved to California and became a judge of the Barbary Court, an Associate of the Court of Sessions, and other juridical positions. But California being the way it was in those days his associates there were gamblers, thugs and worse. McGowan and his friends became involved with the Law and Order Party and he ran afoul of the powerful and even more dangerous Vigilance Committee.