What is 3.7.77?

Answer 1

Today in Montana the name Vigilante graces various schools, stadiums, and businesses, including a theater company in Bozeman. And the vigilantes' numbers, 3-7-77, have become a potent emblem of Law and Order. Most conspicuously, they appear on the shoulder patch and car door insignia of the Montana Highway Patrol, where they are intended to convey a mess age along the lines of "Serve and Protect." Folklore holds that the vigilantes used 3-7-77 as an ultimatum to banish malefactors whose presence was considered a danger to public order. The oldest, most popular interpretation of the numbers is that they represented an exact period of time-three hours, seven minutes, and seventy-seven seconds-that the vigilantes gave their targets to get out of town or face violent retribution. Another common version has the numbers as the dimensions of a grave: three feet by seven feet by seventy-seven inches. In more recent times, scholars have guessed that the numbers might be Masonic, reflecting the preponderance of Freemasons among the leadership of the early vigilantes. To read the entire answer

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