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Outlaw John Wesley Hardin was born in Bonham, Texas in 1853.  He became one of the most famous gunmen in the history of the Wild West.

He is reputed to have killed 30 to 40 men including a man that he shot for snoring. His family was prominent with members in the fight for Texas independence, and a Judge William Hardin, served as a congressman in the Texas legislator. John Wesley Hardin was the son of a Methodist minister, who got into trouble early in his life, by stabbing another boy when he was 11 years old. In 1868, at age 15, he killed a former slave, and then ambushed and killed three soldiers that had tried to arrest him.

In 1869. he quarreled and killed a man who threatened him in a card game, later he shot a circus man, and in the same month killed a man trying to rob him. In 1871, he shot two more men in a card game, and an Indian “just for practice”. In Abilene, he killed Juan Bideno who had killed one of his friends. Later that year, he walked up to two black policemen who were looking for him and killed one and wounded the other. In Trinity City, Texas, Hardin got into a fight where he was wounded (the other man was killed) and while he was recuperating a couple of policemen crept up and fired into the room he was in, wounded him but were driven off by Hardin’s gunfire.

He killed more men in 1873, and in 1874 (on his 21st birthday) where he had a quarrel and then a shoot-out with deputy sheriff Charles Webb, who wounded Hardin before he was killed and that led to a $4000 “Dead or Alive” reward being put on him. Taking the name “J.H. Swain Jr.”, he spent three quiet years in Florida as a businessman with his wife and daughter until 1877 when he was returning from Alabama on the train and the Texas Rangers caught up to him.

Hardin recognized the Rangers and tried to draw, but his pistol got caught in his suspenders, his young friend fired and missed, and was shot dead, and Hardin pistol-whipped to unconsciousness. He was taken back to Texas and placed in the penitentiary, where Hardin studied law and was released in 1894. He moved first to Gonzales, then El Paso, Texas and continued to have trouble with John Selman, a peace officer, and threats passed back and forth, leading up to the older Selman walking up behind Hardin while he was shooting dice, and shot him in the back of the head. Hardin never got off a shot, and so ended the life and career of perhaps the most feared gunfighter the old west has ever known.

Lawman Pat Garrett was born Patrick Floyd Garrett in Alabama in 1850.  He is most famous for the killing of “Billy-the-Kid”. 

He came out west in 1869 and was a Buffalo Hunter, Cowboy, and even a Hog rancher. He married in 1880 and had eight children one of which was blind and would become the associate of the famous Helen Keller. Pat Garrett knew “Billy-the-Kid” in his early days in New Mexico, and “The Kid” was a major player in the Lincoln County War. In 1880 Garrett was elected Sheriff and had to arrest “Billy” and his gang.

A trap was set and most of the gang got away, but later surrendered at Stinking Springs, and Garrett put “Billy” in jail. However, “The KId” killed two guards and escaped and Pat Garrett had to chase him again. He went to a Pete Maxwell’s and while waiting in the dark, “Billy-the-Kid” came into the room and Pat Garrett shot him through the heart, and he died immediately. Garrett went into ranching and held some law enforcement jobs.

In February 1908, Pat Garrett was out with a couple of friends, and had dismounted the buggy to relieve himself, and was shot through the back of the head. Wayne Brazel was involved in a feud with Garrett and claimed later that he killed Garrett in self defense.

Lawman Wyatt Earp was born Wyatt Berry Strapp Earp in Monmouth, Illinois in 1848.  He was, perhaps, the west’s most celebrated lawman even though only six of his 80 years were spent in that capacity.

He stood over six feet tall and was blond and blue-eyed. An impeccable dresser, he was known to never have left his house without coat and tie.

His first law-related job was in Lamar, Missouri in 1870 when he was appointed constable. But he left town in 1871 after his first wife, Urilla Sutherland, died of typhoid fever.

He traveled to Kansas, Texas and New Mexico where he earned his living as a gambler, teamster, buffalo hunter, a section hand on the Union Pacific Railroad and, of course, lawman.

He served as a policeman in Wichita, Kansas in 1875 and then in 1878 he became assistant city marshal in Dodge City, where he met Bat Masterson and John “Doc” Holliday. He also met his second wife there, Cecelia “Mattie” Blaylock.

This is how Bat Masterson described Wyatt: “one of the few men I personally knew in the West in the early days whom I regarded as absolutely destitute of physical fear … a quiet unassuming man, not given to brag or bluster, but at all times and under all circumstances, a loyal friend and an equally dangerous enemy.”

He and his wife traveled to Tombstone, Arizona in December of 1879. It was a mining boomtown back then and he was eventually joined by his brothers Virgil, Morgan, James and Warren. His brother Virgil was appointed town marshal in 1880 while Wyatt worked at the Oriental Saloon on the faro concession and sometimes for Wells Fargo as a stagecoach guard. He also filled in occasionally as Virgil’s deputy.

One factor that precipitated the famed hatred between the Earps and the Clantons, (eventually leading to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral) was Wyatt’s involvement with a San Francisco actress named Josephine Sarah Marcus, who arrived in Tombstone to perform Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore”. Marcus had been the girlfriend of a pro-Clanton sheriff of Cochise County, by the name of John Harris “Johnny Behan. She and Wyatt remained close and when Wyatt’s wife died, he and Josie were married.

The shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone occurred on October 26, 1881 between the Earps, the Clantons (Newman or “Old Man Clanton” and his sons Ike, Phin and Billy) and the McLaury brothers (Tom and Frank) who were known cattle rustlers. It resulted in the deaths of the McLaury’s and Billy Clanton and the woundings of Virgil and Morgan Earp. Morgan was killed on March 28, 1882 while playing billiards in a Tombstone saloon.

Wyatt and Josie traveled throughout the west on gambling and mining ventures and from 1906 until 1929, they traveled from their Los Angeles home to mining claims in the Mojave Desert and Arizona. While in Los Angeles, Earp became friends with movie actors William S. Hart and Tom Mix (a fellow lawman who had, in fact, been a marshal in Colorado and Oklahoma.

Wyatt Earp died on January 13, 1929. Books prevailed about his life. In 1931 there was a pro-Earp book written by Stuart Lake called “Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal. Then came a number of anti-Earp books in which he was portrayed as a paid killer, claim jumper and card sharp, among other distasteful credits.

You had to have a score card in the Old West, as lawmen turned outlaw and outlaws turned lawmen. Grat, Bob and Emmett Dalton – leaders of the infamous Dalton Gang – all wore badges before turning to the dark side. Grat was a U.S. marshal, Bob served as chief of police for the Osage Indians and Emmett was a deputy to both brothers at one time.

They reigned from 1890-1892, specializing in train and bank robberies. They were related to Jesse James, though they acted later and independently of the James Gang.

Background:
The Dalton family came from Jackson County, Missouri. Lewis Dalton was a saloon keeper in Kansas City, Kansas, when he married Adeline Younger, the aunt of Cole and Jim Younger. By 1882, the family lived in northeast Oklahoma and by 1886 they had moved to Coffeyville in southeast Kansas. When the Oklahoma Territory opened for settlement in 1889, the family claimed homestead land near Kingfisher. Thirteen of the couple’s 15 children survived to maturity.

Lawmen:
One son, Frank Dalton, was a deputy U.S Marshal, killed in the line of duty in 1887.  He had been tracking a horse thief in the Oklahoma Territory. When he located the suspect on November 27, 1887, he confronted him and a shootout erupted, resulting in Frank being killed.   Perhaps hoping to avenge their brother’s death, the three younger Dalton boys—Gratton “Grat” Dalton (b. 1861), Bob Dalton (b. 1869), and Emmett Dalton (b. 1871)—became lawmen.

Outlaws:
But in 1890, the boys turned to the dark side.  Bob, the wildest one, killed a man for the first time when he was 19. He was a deputy U.S. Marshal at the time and claimed the killing was in the line of duty but some suspected that the victim had tried to take away Bob’s girlfriend.  In March 1890, Bob was charged with introducing liquor into the Indian Territory.  He jumped bail and did not appear at trial. In September 1890, Grat was arrested for stealing horses, a capital offense but the charges were dropped or else he was released.  After being discredited as lawmen, the Daltons soon formed their first gang.

Bob recruited George “Bitter Creek” Newcomb, Bill McElhanie, and Blackfaced Charley Bryant to ride with him and his brother Emmett. Bryant received his nickname because of a gunpowder burn on one cheek. Grat was visiting his brother Bill in California when the gang was formed, but joined it later, as did Bill Doolin, Dick Broadwell, and Bill Powers. Their first robbery target was a gambling house in Silver City, New Mexico.

In February 1891, after Bob Dalton had joined his brothers in California, a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train was held up. The Daltons were accused of the robbery, based on little evidence. Bob escaped and Bill was acquitted, but Grat was arrested, convicted, and given a 20-year prison sentence.  According to one account, even though Grat was handcuffed to one deputy and accompanied by another while being transferred by train, he managed to escape by diving head first out of the train window.  He landed in the San Joaquin River, disappeared under water, and was carried downstream by the current.  Grat must have taken the key to the handcuffs from the first deputy’s pocket as he slept and then timed his escape to take place when he knew the train would be on a bridge. If he had landed on the ground, he would most certainly have been killed. Grat found his brothers, and they made their way back to Oklahoma Territory.

Between May 1891 and July 1892, the Dalton brothers robbed four trains in the Indian Territory. On May 9, 1891, the men held up a Santa Fe train at Wharton (now Perry). Passing Orlando, they stole eight or nine horses. A posse chased them, but the gang escaped.

Four months later the Dalton gang robbed a train of $10,000 at Lillietta, Indian Territory. In June 1892, they stopped another Santa Fe train, this time at Red Rock. Blackfaced Charley Bryant and Dick Broadwell held the engineer and fireman in the locomotive. Bob and Emmett Dalton and Bill Powers walked through the passenger cars, robbing the passengers. Bill Doolin and Grat Dalton took on the express car. They threw the safe out of the train, gaining just a few hundred dollars and some watches and jewelry for their efforts. The gang scattered after the Red Rock robbery, but soon Blackfaced Charley was caught and killed in an escape attempt.

The gang struck again in July at Adair, Oklahoma, near the Arkansas border. They went directly to the train station and took what they could find in the express and baggage rooms then calmly waited for the train to arrive. When the train came in at 9:45 p.m., they backed a wagon up to the express car and unloaded all the contents. There were armed guards on the train, but for some reason they were at the back of the train.  In the gun fight that ensued, 200 shots were fired. The guards fired at the bandits through the car windows and from behind the train.  None of the Dalton gang was hit. Three guards were wounded, and a town doctor was killed by a stray bullet. The robbers dropped out of sight.

Not content with just robbing trains, Bob Dalton wanted to make sure his name would long be remembered. He bragged that he could “beat anything Jesse James ever did—rob two banks at once, in broad daylight.” And on October 5, 1892, the Dalton gang attempted to do just that when they set out to rob the C.M. Condon & Company’s Bank and the First National Bank in Coffeyville, Kansas. They disguised themselves by wearing fake beards but they were still recognized by one of the townspeople.

While the gang was busy trying to hold up the banks, the people armed themselves and prepared for a gun battle. When the gang exited the banks, a shootout began. Three townspeople got shot and town Marshal Charles Connelly was killed when he ran into the street after hearing gunfire. Grat Dalton, Bob Dalton, Dick Broadwell and Bill Powers were killed. Emmett Dalton received 23 gunshot wounds and survived. He was given a life sentence in the Kansas penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas, serving just 14 years before being pardoned. He moved to California and became a real estate agent, author and actor, and died in 1937 at age 66.

Bill Doolin, “Bitter Creek” Newcomb, and Charlie Pierce were the only members left of the Dalton Gang, although none was present at the Coffeyville shootout. It was suggested later that there had been a sixth man holding horses in an alleyway and that he had escaped.  That man was believed to have been Bill Doolin but it was never  confirmed.

Robert Leroy Parker was a train robber and outlaw who went by the name of “Butch Cassidy”. He was born in 1866 after his parents settled in Mormon country in Utah. As a teenager he fell under the influence of a cowboy rustler named Mike Cassidy who taught him how to shoot, ride and rope and other necessary horse thieving tricks.After traveling with Cassidy to Telluride, Colorado, “Butch’ fell in with the bank robbing duo of Tom McCarty and Matt Warner.

He took part in an aborted train robbery in 1887 but robbed banks in Denver and Telluride.At first, he used the alias of George Cassidy but after working at a butcher shop in Rock Springs, Wyoming, he became known as Butch Cassidy which stayed with him for the rest of his life.Butch switched from honest labor (mine employee, butcher, cowboy) to outlaw activities, and became part of an outlaw stronghold of brown’s Hole, a rugged mountain camp at the Green River, bordering Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.

It was there that he met Harry Longabaugh – better known as “The Sundance Kid” – and other members of the camp who eventually formed ‘ The Wild Bunch” gang.Butch was sentenced to two years in the Wyoming State Prison in 1892 for cattle rustling. After his release, he went back to Brown’s Hole, collected some men and began a five year run of robbing banks and trains. They hid out in places like “Hole-in-the-Wall” and “Robber’s Roost”, deep canyons of northern Wyoming and southeastern Utah.

On at least one occasion, his gang used too much dynamite and blew a train’s baggage car to bits.In September 1901, Butch and two others robbed the First National Bank in Winnemucca, Nevada making off with $32,000. They sought refuge in Forth Worth, Texas and while there, Butch, and Sundance, along with some other gang members posed in fancy suits and derby hats and had their picture taken. Brazenly, Butch sent the picture to the Winnemnucca bank, thanking its owners for the fine duds. Pinkerton Detectives used the photo to close in on the gang.In late 1901, Butch, Sundance and Sundance’s mistress, Etta Place, sailed to South America, where it is believed they operated a ranch in Argentina before resorting to bank and train robbery. They ended up in Bolivia in 1908 and legend has it that the men were killed by Bolivian soldiers in either 1909 or 1911 after robbing a mine payroll.

Other versions maintain that both men returned to the United States and lived out their lives separately: Butch was said to have visited his family in Utah in 1925; another version claims he served as a mercenary in the Mexican revolution and later lived in Spokane, Washington under the name of William T. Phillips where he operated a business and died in 1937. Sundance, according to one version, married Etta and lived for years in Mexico and New Mexico and then died in 1957 at the age of 96. The film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” depicted their deaths in Bolivia.

Robert Leroy Parker’s Aliases:
George Parker (Butch’s real name, according to the Pinkertons’ wanted posters)
Butch Cassidy
George Cassidy
Lowe Maxwell
James “Santiago” Maxwell
James Ryan

Harry Longabaugh’s aliases:
The Sundance Kid
Frank Smith
H.A. Brown
Harry A. Place (his mother’s maiden name was Annie Place)
Harry Long

Sheriff Frank M. Canton was most notable for being the judge of Johnson County, Wyoming during the 1890s and he was the key player in the Johnson County War.

He lead cattlemen and gunfighters all over the county to intimidate and drive off small farmers to allow more range for the rich and powerful.

His real name was Joe Horner, born near Richmond, VA in 1849. As a child his family moved to Texas where he became a cowboy, and worked the trails from Northern Texas to Kansas in the late 1860’s.

His life of crime began in 1871 when he started robbing banks and rustling cattle.  In 1877 he was jailed for robbing the bank at Comanche, Texas. He escaped jail and returned to herding cattle. He took a herd up to Nebraska where he officially changed his name to Frank Canton and vowed to give up his outlaw ways.  

And that’s when he got into protecting the wealthy.  He was hired on as a detective for the Wyoming Stock Grower’s Association, a group of powerful cattlemen determined to drive out any small rancher or farmer who settled in Johnson County.  He ran his own ranch near Buffalo, Wyoming and was later elected sheriff of Johnson County.

He married in 1885, and had two daughters; one died in early childhood. He resigned his office as sheriff and went back to his old job with the Wyoming Stock Grower’s Association. At the same time he was made a US deputy marshal. However, he clearly worked for the big cattlemen, and enforced the law as they wished.

Soon after, Canton joined Frank Wolcott’s regulators, a group of more than fifty gunmen hired by the cattlemen to drive the settlers out of the  County.  A violent incident in which two men were killed in early 1892 left a bad taste in his mouth, so he quit the cattlemen and left Wyoming for Oklahoma.

In Oklahoma, Canton served as a deputy marshal for Judge Isaac Parker, and quickly made a name for himself as a lawman that would stand up to any outlaw (1895-1896)

Canton left his family in 1897 and accepted an appointment as U.S. Deputy Marshal in Alaska.  Canton’s adventures became quite well known and he reportedly tamed the entire lawless town of Dawson.  He befriended a writer named Rex Beach who then used Canton as the role model for many of the frontier heroes he portrayed in his novels.

The harsh Alaskan winter of 1898 took a great toll on Canton’s health and so he returned to Oklahoma and once more became a lawman.  In 1907, Canton became the adjutant general of the Oklahoma National Guard and held that position until his death in 1927.

Master outlaw, Black Bart was born in 1829 . He was a California stagecoach robber whose real name was Charles E. Bolles, also known as Charles E. Boles, C.E. Bolton and Charles E. Bowles. Very little is known about him other than his thefts against Wells Fargo from 1875-1883.

It is believed that he was a New Yorker who moved west as a young man. He robbed 28 stagecoaches of their strongboxes in Northern California and Southern Oregon, but never touched a passenger. His trademark clothing was a linen duster and a flour-sack mask. He carried an unloaded shotgun and was also known for leaving the occasional poetry verse behind.

California Gold Rush
In late 1849 Charles Bolles and a cousin took part in the California Gold Rush. They began mining in the North Fork of the American River in California. His brother Robert joined them in 1852, but died in San Francisco. Bolles then returned east and married Mary Elizabeth Johnson in 1854. By 1860, the couple had made their home in Decatur, Illinois. In 1862, however, Bolles decided to go to war.

War Years
With the Civil War in progress, Bolles enlisted with the 116th Illinois Regiment on August 13, 1862. He was a good soldier, rising to the rank of first sergeant within a year and took part in numerous battles and campaigns, including Vicksburg where he was seriously wounded . He was discharged honorably on June 7, 1865 having received commissions as both 2nd Lieutenant and 1st Lieutenant. He then returned home.

Start of the Criminal Years
But, the farming life held little appeal to Bolles and he yearned for adventure. By 1867, he was prospecting again in Idaho and Montana. Little is known of him during this time, but in an August 1871 letter to his wife he mentioned an incident with employees of Wells, Fargo & Company and vowed to pay them back. He then stopped writing, and after a time his wife assumed he was dead.

He re-emerged in official documents in July 1875, when he robbed his first stagecoach in Calaveras County. What made the crime unusual was the politeness and good manners of the outlaw who demanded simply that the stage driver, “Please throw down the box.”

Like many of his contemporaries, Bolles read the popular “dime novel” – serial adventure stories which appeared in local newspapers. In the early 1870s, the Sacramento Union ran a serial called “The Case of Summerfield” in which the villain dressed in black, had long unruly black hair, a large black beard and wild grey eyes. The villain fearsomely robbed Wells Fargo stagecoaches. The character’s name was Black Bart, and it apparently appealed to Bolles who decided to adopt this individual’s identity.

Now, as Black Bart, Bolles robbed numerous Wells Fargo stagecoaches across northern California between 1875 and 1883, including a number of robberies along the historic Siskiyou Trail between California and Oregon. He eventually left poems at the sites of his crimes as his signature. He was quite successful and made off with thousands of dollars a year.

During his last robbery in 1883, Bolles was shot and forced to flee the scene. mark. It was the same site as his first robbery on Funk Hill, just southeast of the present town of Copperopolis.

As the stage approached the summit, Black Bart had stepped out from behind a rock with his shotgun. He made stage driver Reason McConnell unhitch the team and return with them over the crest again to the west side of the hill. Bart then tried to remove the strongbox from the stage. Wells Fargo had bolted the strongbox to the floor inside of the stage (which had no passengers that day). It took Bart some time to remove the box.

McConnell informed Jimmy Rolleri, a young passenger who had previously disembarked in order to hunt along the creek that a holdup was in progress. Rolleri came up to where McConnel and the horses were standing. He saw Bolles backing out of the stage with the box. McConnell took the Rolleri’s rifle and fired at Bolles, but missed. Then Rolleri took back his rifle and fired one or two shots. Bolles stumbled, dropped the items he had taken from the box and fled, probbly only suffering a minor wound. He left behind several personal items, including a pair of eyeglasses, food, and a handkerchief with a laundry mark.

It was Wells Fargo Detective James B. Hume who found the items at the scene. The handkerchief bore the laundry mark -” F.X.O.7″.

Wells Fargo detectives James Hume and Henry Nicholson Morse contacted every laundry in San Francisco, seeking the one that used that mark. They finally traced the mark to Ferguson & Bigg’s California Laundry on Bush Street where they were able to identify the handkerchief as belonging to Bolles, who lived in a modest boarding house.

Bolles had described himself as a “mining engineer” who made frequent business trips which coincided with the Wells Fargo robberies. He denied being Black Bart, but eventually admitted that he had indeed robbed several Wells Fargo stages, confessing to only those crimes committed before 1879. It is widely believed that Bolles mistakenly thought that the statute of limitations had expired on these robberies. During the booking, he gave his name as T. Z. Spalding but when police examined his possessions they found a Bible, a gift from his wife, which had been inscribed with his real name. The police report went on to say that Black Bart was “a person of great endurance. Exhibited genuine wit under most trying circumstances, and was extremely proper and polite in behavior. Eschews profanity.”

Wells Fargo pressed charges only on the final robbery. Bolles was convicted and sentenced to six years in San Quentin Prison, but his stay was shortened to four years for good behavior. By January 1888, upon his release, Bolles’ health had clearly deteriorated. He had visibly aged, his eyesight was failing and he had gone deaf in one ear. When reporters asked if he was going to rob anymore stagecoaches, Bolles replied “No gentlemen, “I’m through with crime.” And when asked if he would write more poetry. He laughed, “Now didn’t you hear me say that I am through with crime?”

Black Bart disappeared without a trace shortly after his release from prison. His San Francisco boarding house room was found vacated in February 1888 and the outlaw was never seen again.

Billy the Kid was born Henry McCarty in 1859 in New York City. He moved west with his widowed mother, ending up in New Mexico in 1873. When his mother remarried, he took his stepfather’s name of Antrim, then later adopted the alias of William H. Bonney. He was usually known as just Billy the Kid.

His life of crime began in Silver City, New Mexico when he was 15. He then fled to Arizona after a brush with the law over a petty theft. He shot and killed “Windy” Cahill in a saloon fight on August 17, 1877 and he ran off again, now back to New Mexico.

He soon became embroiled in the Lincoln County War which was a conflict between rival mercantile firms. He signed on with the Tunstall-McSween “Regulators” at the age of 17. In gunfights with Murphy-Dolan forces, he showed himself as a fearless fighter and crack shot.

He and five others participated in the ambush slaying of Sheriff William Brady in Lincoln on April 1, 1878. He went on to rustle cattle from stockmen in the Texas Panhandle between 1879-1880. He was arrested by Sheriff Pat Garrett following a shootout at Stinking Springs in December 1880. Billy was convicted of Sheriff’s Brady’s murder and was sentenced to hang. On April 28, 1881, he overpowered and killed a guard then killed another deputy before escaping.

Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked Billy, who was now 21 years old, to the old Fort Sumner. Then, on July 14, 1881, Garrett confronted Billy in a darkened bedroom of one of the old military houses. He fired twice and killed Billy instantly.

Billy’s reputation grew over the years, sparked by dime novel stories of his exploits. In actuality, he killed four men on his own and participated in the killing of several more. He did some minor cattle rustling. But he never did rob a bank, store or stagecoach. He was generally a well liked young man but it had a deadly temper. His legend as a famous bandit is undeserved.

(c. 1825 – March 16, 1903)

Judge Roy Bean, (a.k.a, The Hanging Judge”) who appointed himself “the law west of the Pecos River,” doled out some pretty weird and severe sentences from his combination barroom/courtroom.

According to legend, the Judge held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande River in a desolate stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert of west Texas. 

He might have been so crabby because he couldn’t move his head, a malady that was borne of his own harsh punishment. When young, and in California, Bean killed a Mexican official during an argument over a young woman. Friends of the official didn’t take kindly to this, so they hauled Bean off and hanged him, leaving him to die. Although seriously injured, he was saved from death by the young woman in dispute.

Later, once he was “judge,” he once fined a dead man in his “courtroom.” After he heard the body had $40 and a six-gun in the clothing, he charged the corpse for carrying a concealed weapon and fined it $40.

Background:
The judge was born in Mason County, Kentucky, about 1825 (some records suggest 1823). At about the age of 15, Roy left home, seeking adventure in the American Old West and to follow his two older brothers, Sam and Joshua. With brother Sam, he traveled by wagon train to what would later become New Mexico, then crossed the Rio Grande and set up a trading post in Chihuahua, Mexico. After killing a local man, Roy fled to California, staying with his other brother Joshua, who became the first mayor of San Diego.

Roy worked as a bartender in his brother’s saloon, “The Headquarters”, and was later appointed by him a lieutenant in the state militia. On February 24, 1852, Roy was arrested after wounding a man named Collins in a duel. He escaped in April 17, and when his mayor brother was killed a few months later by a rival in a romantic triangle, Roy headed back to New Mexico, where Sam had become a sheriff.Roy tended bar in Sam’s saloon for several years and supplemented his income by smuggling guns from Mexico through the Union blockade during the American Civil War.

Marriage

On October 28, 1866, Roy married a Mexican woman, Maria Anastacia Virginia Chavez (c. 1845 – November 26, 1922). They settled in San Antonio, Texas. and had five children. Throughout the 1870s, Roy supported his family by peddling stolen firewood and selling watered-down milk. His notorious business practices eventually earned his San Antonio neighborhood the nickname Beanville.In 1882, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad hired crews to link San Antonio with El Paso.

Fleeing his marriage and illegal businesses, Roy headed to Vinegaroon, an “end of track” tent city, to become a saloonkeeper, serving railroad workers whiskey from a tent.Justice of the PeaceEager to establish some sort of local law enforcement, County commissioners appointed him as the justice of the peace for Pecos County.

Roy packed up and moved north from Vinegaroon to a small tent city on a bluff above the Rio Grande named Langtry (in honor of George Langtry, a railroad boss who had run the Southern Pacific Railroad’s tracks through it). The name also belonged to a beautiful British actress, Lillie Langtry with whom he became enchanted. He then built a saloon he named the Jersey Lily (her nickname) that also served as his home. He hung a tattered picture of her behind the bar. And above the door he posted signs proclaiming “Ice Cold Beer” and “Law West of the Pecos.”   From there, Roy Bean dispensed liquor, justice and tall tales, including that he himself had named the town in honor of the actress.

Bean’s Courtroom

He was elected to office in 1884 and re-elected many times.  His court methods were arbitrary and comical and inspired many outrageous tales. His court paraphernalia included only one revolver, one law book and a pet bear.

One story has him finding a dead Chinese man with a gun and $40 in his pocket; since he purportedly knew of no law against killing a “Chinaman”, he proceeded to fine the dead man $40 for carrying a concealed weapon. He also knew next to nothing about the law; he reputedly thought habeas corpus was a profanity. It is said that, when performing marriage ceremonies, he always ended the service by saying “And may God have mercy on your soul.”

In legend, Judge Roy Bean is portrayed as a merciless dispenser of justice, often called “The Hangin’ Judge.” But that title arguably goes to Isaac Parker of Fort Smith, Arkansas, who sentenced 160 (156 men and 4 women) to hang between 1875-1896, leading to the executions of 79 men. In his book “Judge Roy Bean Country,” Jack Skiles says that although Bean threatened to hang hundreds, “there’s no evidence to suggest that Judge Roy Bean ever hung anybody.”

 What actually happened was that some US Marshals or Deputy US Marshals, on occasion, and while serving under Judge Parker, believing that certain outlaws had not committed offenses serious enough to justify being taken all the way back to Fort Smith, would instead take their captured suspects to Bean. Since Justice Bean’s court was recognized as a legitimate court for certain cases, this was tolerated, although Judge Parker frowned upon it and preferred all suspects to be brought before him.

One of Bean’s most outrageous rulings occurred when an Irishman was accused of killing a Chinese American worker. Friends of the accused threatened to destroy the Jersey Lily if he were found guilty. Bean browsed through his law book, turning page after page, searching for a legal precedent. Finally, rapping his pistol on the bar, he proclaimed, “Gentlemen, I find the law very explicit on murdering your fellow man, but there’s nothing here about killing a Chinaman. Case dismissed.”

Boxing Bout

In 1896, Bean organized a world championship boxing title bout between Bob Fitzsimmons and Peter Maher on an island in the Rio Grande because boxing matches were illegal in Texas. The resulting sport reports spread his fame throughout the United States.

Death

Judge Roy Bean died in March 16, 1903, peacefully in his bed, after a bout of heavy drinking. Later legend claimed he was shot by a Mexican outlaw in his porch.

He was buried at the Whitehead Museum in Del Rio, Texas. As for Lillie Langtry, he never actually met her – though he claimed otherwise. He did write to her many times and even received letters in reply. He claimed that she had sent him two pistols. Unfortunately, Langtry only visited the town some ten months after his death

Lawman:  Born in Indiana in 1851, Sam Bass later moved to Texas. He was hired as a deputy by a Sheriff W.F. Eagan, but preferred horse racing. In 1876, with two associates, Bass drove some cattle from Texas to Kansas but took off with the money instead of giving it to the cattle owner.

Sam Bass and one of the men named Collins went to the town of Deadwood, where they spent almost all the money on liquor and dance hall girls, and hey even tried to set up their own bar and whorehouse, but drank and gambled away any profits they made. Bass then recruited more gang members and robbed a Union Pacific train getting $60,000.

One of the gang members wounded in a robbery gave the names of the others, and that set the Pinkertons as well as other lawmen on their trail. An informer (Jim Murphy) infiltrated the gang and when they went to rob the bank in Round Rock, Texas, the gang ran into a trap set for them by Texas Rangers. Bass was shot and wounded badly, and unable to ride, was found by the posse, and taken back to town, where he died a few days later on his 27th birthday.

(September 2, 1840 – July 3, 1887)

It was December 21, 1876 and a group of merry makers gathered in the dance hall of Las Animas, Colorado. It was a good time turned ugly when gunfighter Clay Allison turned on, shot and killed Deputy Sheriff Charles Faber.

Faber was called to the hall to approach Allison about the fact he was walking around stomping on the feet of the dancers. Allison was earlier described in a physician’s report discharging him from the Confederate army as “partly maniacal.”

That’s just one colorful tale about Robert Clay Allison, the famed gunfighter, known as “Clay” who was born on September 2, 1840 near Waynesboro, Tennessee.  The truth, however, was quite a bit different and a bit more grisly — read on.

His father was a Presbyterian minister who also worked in the cattle and sheep business and died when Clay was just five. Allison worked on the family farm until the age of 21.

When the American Civil War broke out, he joined the Confederate States Army on October 15, 1861, as a member of the Tennessee Light Artillery division. On January 15, 1862, he received a medical discharge, because of an old head injury that caused mood swings. But, on September 22, 1862, Allison reenlisted as a member of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry and he remained in that unit until the end of the war.

Upon returning home from the war, Allison became a member of the Ku Klux Klan and he was involved in several confrontations before leaving Tennessee for Texas with his family: brothers Monroe and John, sister Mary and her spouse Lewis Coleman.

But it was in New Mexico, that Allison, along with his brothers, developed his reputation as a dangerous man through carousing, hard drinking and shooting out lights with their handguns as they rode down the town’s main streets.

Starting around 1870-1873 around the Western Plains, Allison was involved in numerous altercations often with him using a knife during a fights. He reportedly believed himself to be fast with a gun but changed this attitude after being outdrawn in a friendly competition with a man named Mace Bowman. Bowman and Allison became friends, and Bowman is alleged to have worked with Allison to improve his “quick draw” skills.

January 7, 1874: Clay killed a gunman named Chunk Colbert, who picked up a fight with him after the two reportedly had dinner at Clifton House, an inn located in Colfax County, New Mexico. Colbert had allegedly already killed six men and had quarreled with Allison several years earlier.

Some reports allege that nine years earlier, Allison had killed Colbert’s uncle in a gunfight, but there’s no proof. What did happen here is that at some point during the dinner, Colbert attempted to raise his gun to shoot Allison, but the barrel bumped the table instead. Allison fired a round, hitting Colbert in the head, killing him. Asked later why Allison would accept a dinner invitation from a man who would likely try to kill him, Allison responded: “Because I didn’t want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach”. Over the next few years, Allison’s reputation as a gunman expanded significantly.

October 30, 1875: Allison is alleged to have led a mob to capture Cruz Vega, who was suspected of murdering a Methodist circuit rider. The mob hanged the man from a telegraph pole near Cimarron. On November 1, Vega’s family members, led by Vega’s uncle Francisco Griego, made threats around town about the lynching. They wandered into the Lambert Inn, came across Allison and accused him of involvement in the lynching. An argument ensued, and Griego pulled his gun. Allison responded in kind and shot Griego twice, killing him. On November 10, Allison was charged with murdering Griego, but the charges were later dropped as the shooting was ruled justifiable.

December 1876: Allison and his brother John stopped at a local saloon for drinks in Las Animas, Colorado. The local sheriff, Charles Faber of the Bent County Sheriff’s Department ordered the Allisons to relinquish their guns per a town ordinance making it illegal to possess guns inside town limits.

When the Allisons refused, Faber left, deputized two men, and returned to the saloon. Immediately upon re-enering, someone yelled “Look out!”, and the shooting started. It’s believed that the sheriff and his men fired the first shots. John Allison was shot three times. Clay Allison quickly fired four shots, killing Sheriff Faber. The deputized men fled, with Allison in pursuit, but they escaped. John survived and recovered and both Clay and John were later arrested for manslaughter but the charges were later dismissed. It was this gunfight more than any other that launched Clay Allison to legend as a gunfighter.

Allison, Dodge City & Wyatt Earp

March 1877: Clay Allison moved to Sedalia, Missouri then onward to Hays City, Kansas, where he established himself as a cattle broker. He soon arrived in Dodge City, Kansas, which was a bustling “cattle town” where laws were forcibly upheld. Dodge City’s deputy marshal was the famed lawman Wyatt Earp. Stories given by Earp’s biographer and by Earp himself, stated that Wyatt and friend Bat Masterson confronted Allison and his men in a saloon, and that Allison had backed down. Other reports say that a cattleman named Dick McNulty and Chalk Beeson, the owner of the Long Branch Saloon, intervened and convinced the cowboys to surrender their guns. Earp did not make this claim until after Allison’s death, much like Earp’s false claim that he arrested gunman Ben Thompson, also made after the latter’s death.

Charlie Siringo, who was a cowboy at the time but later became a prominent Pinkerton Detective, gave a written account of the incident, as he had witnessed it, also claiming it was actually McNulty and Beeson who ended the incident, and that Earp did not come into contact with Allison.

1880s & Death

From 1880 to 1883, Clay Allison ranched with his two brothers, John William and Jeremiah Monroe, in what was then Wheeler County, Texas, and present day Hemphill County, Texas. By 1883, he had sold his ranch and moved to Pope’s Wells, near the Pecos River crossing of the Texas-New Mexico line where he purchased another ranch. Clay and wife Dora had two daughters: Patti Dora Allison born August 9, 1885, in Colfax County and Clay Pearl Allison born February 10, 1888, seven months after her father’s death in Pecos, Texas.

July 3, 1887: Allison was hauling a load of supplies by wagon. The load shifted and a sack of grain fell off. When Allison tried to catch it, he fell from the wagon, and the wheel rolled over him. He broke his neck and died quickly. He was buried the next day at Pecos Cemetery in Pecos, Texas, and hundreds attended his funeral.

In a special ceremony held on August 28, 1975, t Clay Allison’s remains were re-interred at Pecos Park, just west of the Pecos Museum.