The story of the Isthmian Guard starts with a former Texas Ranger named Randolph Runnels in the year 1850. He was contacted by a group of merchants that operated out of Panama and they had a job for him to do. These merchants specialized in transporting gold miners coming to and from the east coast to the west coast of the United States (there had not been a railroad or canal built at this time). The cities and trails that these merchants traveled were littered with violent and organized thieves. These merchants needed a man like Randolph Runnels to take care of the situation because the government of the time refused to do so. Randolph organized a group of men, started a local business, and gathered intelligence. After identifying a number of the main perpetrators and receiving instruction from the US Consulate to act immediately, the Isthmian Guard rounded up a number of the perps and hung them from the city walls at night. The citizens and merchants happily woke up the next morning to the violent gang members hanging from the wall. Randolph and the Isthmian Guard were involved with protecting the area until about 1856. Randolph became known as “El Verdugo” (The Hangman) by the locals.

     We gathered the specifics of this story from the site below and you can learn more about the historical Isthmian Guard here:
http://www.bruceruiz.net/PanamaHistory/isthmus_guard.htm