Nevada Lore Series: The murder of Julia Bulette, Virginia City’s beloved Madam and Firefighter

Juliette “Julia” Bulette was born in England in 1832 and quickly became the proprietor of the most lavish and prosperous brothel in Virginia City. She was beloved by all, and became an honorary member of the Virginia Engine Company Number 1 fire brigade.

However, her life came to an end when she was murdered by a French jewel thief, baker and drifter John Millain, and the town turned itself inside out to see that justice was done.

In the beginnings of the boom, there was an influx of miners into the area looking to get their hands on the Comstock Lode, but women hadn’t begun to make the move yet. Which made Julia Bulette a highly sought after commodity.

She was described as being tall, beautiful and refined, with a quick-witted and humorous personality.

She lived and worked out of a small rented cottage near the corners of D and Union streets in the entertainment district.

She was wildly popular with the mining men of the city. One described her as being a “caressed Sun Mountain with a gentle touch of splendor.”

She once turned her Palace into a hospital after several hundred men became severely ill from drinking contaminated water, and she nursed them herself. She also raised funds for the Union during the Civil War.

She became an honorary member of the Virginia Engine Number 1 fire brigade and on the 4th of July she was elected as the Queen of the Independence Day Parade, and she road on a fire truck through town wearing a fireman’s hat and carrying a brass fire trumpet filled with roses.

She often donated large sums for new equipment, and would personally help work the water pump during Virginia City’s many, many fires.

During several flu epidemics, which were common due to the over-crowding and tent cities that made up a majority of the town in the early days, she created and doled out soup lines and helped nurse the sick back to health.

On the morning of January 20, 1867, Julia was found murdered in her home.

Her friend and neighbor, Gertrude Holmes, came to visit and bring her breakfast, and walked in to a terrible scene.

Julia had been strangled, struck with a pistol, and bludgeoned with a piece of firewood.

Despite the fact that she was a well-loved madam, she did not own many expensive possessions. Her cottage was decorated tastefully, but she didn’t own lavish jewels or have any money to her name. In fact, at the time of her death, she was in a good amount of debt.

Even still, several of her possessions, including costume jewelry, fancy dresses, and two rolls of silk fabric (she was also an accomplished seamstress, as many women in the City were during those days), were missing.

The members of the city were shocked and horrified by the brutality of the killing, and an immediate search began to find her killer.

The very next day, her funeral was held at the firehouse. Sleet came down in torrents upon the mourners, and yet, the entire town came to pay their respects to their fallen lady of the evening.

Reverend William Martin gave a eulogy that was well-received and deemed to be “most appropriate for the occasion.”

In her obituary published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise (of which Mark Twain wrote for), she was described as “being of a very kind-hearted, liberal, benevolent and charitable disposition. Few of her class had more true friends.”

Her fellow firefighters bought a silver-handled mahogany casket, and the Metropolitan Brass Band led 60 members of the fire department on foot during the procession. Sixteen carriages of mourners accompanied them as well to the Flowery Hill Cemetery.

Though she was a Catholic, and was given a Catholic funeral, she was not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground, and so she was buried on a solitary hill with a simple plank of wood that said “Julia.”

The town covered itself in black, and for the first time since Lincoln was assassinated, all saloons closed up shop out of respect.

There are two accounts of how her murderer, drifter John Millian, was captured.

The first says that several months later, a prostitute by the name of Martha Camp was woken by someone in her room. She then saw John Millian coming towards her with a weapon and screamed, causing him to flee.

However, a few days later, she saw the same man on the street. His given name was Jean Marie Villain, but everyone knew him as John Millian, a French baker and drifter.

He was then arrested and a search of his things uncovered many of Julia’s possessions.

The second account is that a seamstress was looking over two pieces of elegant silk fabric she had purchased a few months before from the baker for a low price, when she heard two men discussing Julia’s murder and the fact that no one had caught the killer.

When she heard them say that two pieces of silk fabric had been stolen, her blood ran cold and she immediately went to the police. They arrested Millian, and searched his belongings, finding many of Julia’s possessions.

Whichever account is true, the ending of the stories remains the same.

Millian confessed to the crime once presented with the evidence of Julia’s belongings, but retracted the statement soon after his trial began.

Millian’s attorney argued that she was killed by two other men, and that the baker was simply asked to store the possessions until they returned. He could not, however, tell them the names of the actual killers and had no witnesses to corroborate his claims.

On April 24, 1868, John Millian was taken to the gallows a mile outside of town. Crowding around the gallows, 4,000 spectators, including Mark Twain himself, gathered to watch his execution, coming in from all of the surrounding towns and territories.

Julia’s final resting place on the side of Flowery Hill has since been lost to time, but her name remains in the minds of the Old West, and the legacy of Virginia City.

— The Nevada Lore Series focuses on the legends of Nevada and the surrounding areas that help build our culture, from ancient Washoe stories, to Old West ghostly visions, to modern day urban legends.

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