Lewis Keseberg Wins One Dollar

In April 1847, rescuers found a Donner Party member named Lewis Keseberg alone at the snowbound camp and brought him out as the last rescued survivor. Members of the fourth relief party later spread shocking and partly exaggerated stories portraying Keseberg as a cannibal, thief, and murderer, making him the party's most vilified member. Keseberg sued one of his rescuers, a man named Edward "Ned" Coffeemeyer, for defamation and won, but the court awarded him just $1.

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