Gangsters: John Gotti

John Joseph Gotti, Jr. (October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an Italian-American mobster who became boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Operating out of the Ozone Park neighborhood of Queens, Gotti became one of the crime family’s biggest earners.

Gotti was one of the most powerful crime bosses of his era, and widely recognized for his outspoken personality and flamboyant style. He became known as the “The Dapper Don” for his expensive clothes and personality in front of TV news cameras.

Gotti was later nicknamed “The Teflon Don” after three high-profile trials in the 1980s resulted in his acquittal – though it was later revealed that the verdicts were the result of jury tampering and juror misconduct.

In the 1996 HBO TV movie “Gotti”, John Gotti was played by Armand Assante.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

That’s how Hollywood saw it.

Here’s what history has to tell us:

Gotti’s Early Life

John Joseph Gotti, Jr. was born in an Italian-American enclave in the Bronx on October 27, 1940.

He was the fifth of the thirteen children of John Joseph Gotti, Sr. and his wife Philomena (referred to as Fannie).

John was one of five brothers who would become “made men” in the Gambino Family; Eugene Gotti was initiated before John, Peter Gotti was initiated under John’s leadership in 1988, and Richard V. Gotti was identified as a Capo by 2002. The fifth, Vincent, was not initiated until 2002.

Gotti grew up in poverty. His father worked irregularly as a day laborer and habitual gambler.

In school Gotti had a history of truancy and bullying other students. He dropped out, while attending Franklin K. Lane High School, at the age of 16.

Gangland Links

Gotti was involved in street gangs associated with New York Mafiosi from the age of 12.

When he was 14, he was attempting to steal a cement mixer from a construction site when it fell, crushing his toes; this injury left him with a permanent limp.

After leaving school, he devoted himself to working with the Mafia-associated Fulton-Rockaway Boys gang, where he met and befriended future Gambino mobsters Angelo Ruggiero and Wilfred “Willie Boy” Johnson.

Marriage

Gotti met his future wife, Victoria DiGiorgio, in 1958.

The couple had their first child, a daughter named Angel, in 1961, and were married on March 6, 1962. They would have four more children: another daughter (Victoria) and three sons (John, Frank and Peter).

Gotti attempted to work legitimately in 1962 as a presser in a coat factory, and as an assistant truck driver. However, by 1966 he had been jailed twice for criminal offenses.

The Gambino Crime Family

Gotti’s criminal career began in earnest when he became an associate of Carmine Fatico, a capo in what became the Gambino family after the murder of Albert Anastasia.

Together with his brother Gene and Ruggiero, Gotti carried out truck hijackings at Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport).

During this time, Gotti befriended fellow mob hijacker and future Bonanno family boss Joseph Massino and was given the nicknames “Black John” and “Crazy Horse.”

It was also around this time that Gotti met Gambino underboss Aniello “Neil” Dellacroce.

Hijacking Arrests

In February 1968, United Airlines employees identified Gotti as the man who had signed for stolen merchandise; the FBI arrested him for the United hijacking soon after.

Two months later, while out on bail, Gotti was arrested a third time for hijacking – this time for stealing a load of cigarettes worth $50,000, on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Later that year, Gotti pleaded guilty to a Northwest Airlines hijacking and was sentenced to three years at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary. Prosecutors dropped the charges for the cigarette hijacking. Gotti also pleaded guilty to the United hijacking, and spent less than three years at Lewisburg.

The Bergin Hunt and Fish Club

Gotti and Ruggiero were paroled in 1972, and returned to their old crew at the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club – still working under caporegime Carmine Fatico.

Gotti was transferred to management of the Bergin outfit’s illegal gambling, where he proved himself to be an effective enforcer.

Fatico was indicted on loansharking charges in 1972. As a condition of his release, he could not associate with known felons.

Although Gotti was not yet a made man in the Mafia (due to the membership books having been closed since 1957), Fatico named Gotti the acting capo of the Bergin Crew soon after Gotti was paroled.

In his new role, he frequently traveled to Dellacroce’s headquarters at the Ravenite Social Club to brief the underboss on the crew’s activities. Dellacroce had already taken a liking to Gotti, and the two became even closer during this time.

Hitman

In 1973 – after Carlo Gambino’s nephew Emanuel Gambino was kidnapped and murdered – John Gotti, Ruggiero, and Ralph Galione were assigned to the hit team targeting the main suspect, Irish-American gangster James McBratney.

The team botched their attempt to abduct McBratney at a Staten Island bar, and Galione shot McBratney dead when his accomplices managed to restrain him.

Identified by eyewitnesses and a police informant at Bergin, Gotti was arrested for the killing in June 1974. With the help of attorney Roy Cohn, he was able to strike a plea bargain, and received a four-year sentence for attempted manslaughter for his part in the hit.

After his death, Gotti was also identified by Joseph Massino as the killer of Vito Borelli, a Gambino associate killed in 1975 for insulting Paul Castellano.

Capo

Gotti was released in July 1977 after two years imprisonment.

He was then initiated into the Gambino family (now under the command of Paul Castellano), and immediately promoted to replace Fatico as Capo of the Bergin crew.

Gotti and his team reported directly to Dellacroce as part of concessions given by Castellano to keep Dellacroce as underboss, and Gotti was regarded as Dellacroce’s protégé.

Under Gotti, the Bergin crew were the biggest earners among Dellacroce’s units.

Besides his cut of his subordinates’ earnings, Gotti ran his own loan sharking operation and held a no-show job as a plumbing supply salesman. Unconfirmed allegations by FBI informants in the Bergin Hunt and Fish Club claimed Gotti also financed drug deals.

Family Affairs

Gotti tried to keep most of his family uninvolved with his activities, except for his son John Angelo Gotti (commonly known as John Gotti Jr.), who by 1982 was a mob associate.

On March 18, 1980, Gotti’s youngest son, 12-year-old Frank, was run over and killed on a family friend’s minibike by John Favara, a neighbor.

While Frank’s death was ruled an accident, Favara subsequently received death threats and, when he visited the Gottis to apologize, was attacked by Victoria Gotti with a baseball bat.

On July 28, 1980, he was abducted and disappeared, presumed murdered.

While the Gottis were on vacation in Florida at the time, John Gotti is still presumed to have ordered the killing.

Indictments

In his last two years as the Bergin Capo, Gotti was indicted on two occasions, with both cases coming to trial after his ascension to Gambino Boss.

In September 1984 Gotti was in an altercation with refrigerator mechanic Romual Piecyk, and was subsequently charged with assault and robbery.

In 1985 he was indicted with Dellacroce and several Bergin crew members in a racketeering case, by Assistant US Attorney Diane Giacalone. The indictment also revealed that Gotti’s friend “Willie Boy” Johnson (one of his co-defendants) had been an FBI informant.

Taking Over

Gotti rapidly became dissatisfied with Paul Castellano’s leadership.

In August 1983, Ruggiero and Gene Gotti were arrested for dealing heroin, based primarily on recordings from a bug in Ruggiero’s house. Castellano – who had banned made men in his family from dealing drugs under threat of death – demanded transcripts of the tapes, and when Ruggiero refused, he threatened to demote Gotti.

In 1984, Castellano was arrested and indicted for association in the crimes of Gambino hitman Roy DeMeo’s crew.

The following year he received a second indictment, for his role in the American Mafia’s Commission.

Facing life imprisonment for either case, Castellano arranged for John Gotti to serve in his absence as acting boss in a triumvirate with Thomas Bilotti, and Thomas Gambino.

Gotti, meanwhile, began conspiring with fellow disgruntled Gambino family members Sammy Gravano, Frank DeCicco, Robert DiBernardo and Joseph Armone (a group collectively dubbed “the Fist”, by themselves) to overthrow Castellano, with Gambino insisting despite the boss’ inaction that Castellano would eventually try to kill him. The conspirators had the support of the bosses-in-waiting of the other families in the Commission case, as well as the complicity of Gambino consigliere Joseph N. Gallo.

After Dellacroce died of cancer on December 2, 1985, Castellano revised his succession plan, appointing Bilotti as underboss to Thomas Gambino as sole acting boss, while making plans to break up Gotti’s crew.

Infuriated by this (and Castellano’s refusal to attend Dellacroce’s wake), Gotti resolved to kill his boss.

DeCicco tipped Gotti off that he would be having a meeting with Castellano and several other Gambino mobsters at Sparks Steak House on December 16, 1985.

The evening of the meeting, when the boss and underboss arrived, they were ambushed and shot dead by assassins under Gotti’s command. Gotti allegedly watched the hit from his car, with Gravano.

Several days after the murder, Gotti was named head of a three-man committee (with Gallo and DeCicco) to temporarily run the family pending the election of a new boss. It was also announced that an internal investigation into Castellano’s murder was well underway.

However, it was an open secret that Gotti was acting boss in all but name, and nearly all of the family’s capos knew he’d been the one behind the hit.

He was formally acclaimed as the new boss of the Gambino family at a meeting of 20 capos held on January 15, 1986. He appointed his co-conspirator DeCicco as the new underboss, while retaining Gallo as consigliere.

A Public Face

At the time of Gotti’s takeover, the Gambino family was regarded as the most powerful American Mafia family, with an annual income of $500 million.

In the book “Underboss”, Gravano estimated that Gotti himself had an annual income of not less than $5 million during his years as boss, and more likely between $10 and $12 million.

To protect himself legally, Gotti banned members of the Gambino family from accepting plea bargains that acknowledged the existence of their organization.

Gotti maintained a genial public image in an attempt to play down press releases that depicted him as a ruthless mobster. He reportedly would offer coffee to FBI agents assigned to tail him.

“The Teflon Don”

Upon the revelation of his attacker’s occupation (and amid reports of intimidation by the Gambinos), the fridge mechanic Romual Piecyk decided not to testify against Gotti, and when the assault trial commenced in March 1986 he testified he was unable to remember who attacked him. The case was promptly dismissed, with the New York Daily News summarizing the proceedings with the headline “I Forgotti!”

On April 13, 1986, underboss Frank DeCicco was killed when his car was bombed following a visit to Castellano loyalist James Failla.

The bombing was allegedly carried out by Lucchese capos Victor Amuso and Anthony Casso, under orders from bosses Anthony Corallo and Vincent Gigante, to avenge Castellano and Bilotti by killing their successors.

Gotti had also planned to visit Failla that day, but canceled, and the bomb was detonated after a soldier who rode with DeCicco was mistaken for the boss.

Following the bombing, Judge Eugene Nickerson, presiding over Gotti’s racketeering trial, rescheduled to avoid a jury tainted by the resulting publicity, while Prosecutor Diane Giacalone had Gotti’s bail revoked due to evidence of intimidation in the Piecyk case.

Jury selection for the racketeering case began again in August 1986, with John Gotti standing trial alongside Gene Gotti, “Willie Boy” Johnson (who, despite being exposed as an informant, refused to turn state’s evidence), Leonard DiMaria, Tony Rampino, Nicholas Corozzo and John Carneglia.

At this point, the Gambinos were able to compromise the case when George Pape (a friend of Westies boss Bosko Radonjich) was called to serve on the jury. Through Radonjich, Pape contacted Gravano and agreed to sell his vote on the jury for $60,000.

Pape’s actions meant that Gotti entered the courtroom knowing that he was at least assured of a hung jury.

In the trial’s opening statements on September 25, Gotti’s defense attorney Bruce Cutler denied the existence of the Gambino Crime Family and framed the government’s entire effort as a personal vendetta. His main defense strategy during the prosecution was to attack the credibility of Giacalone’s witnesses by discussing the crimes they had committed before agreeing to testify.

According to mob writers Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain, despite Cutler’s defense and critiques about the prosecution’s performance, when the jury’s deliberations began, a majority were in favor of convicting Gotti. Pape, however, held out for acquittal until the rest of the jury began to fear that their own safety would be compromised.

On March 13, 1987, they acquitted Gotti and his codefendants of all charges.

Five years later Pape was convicted of obstruction of justice for his part in the fix.

In the face of previous Mafia convictions – particularly the success of the Commission trial – Gotti’s acquittal was a major upset that further added to his reputation.

The American media dubbed him “The Teflon Don”, in reference to the failure of any charges to “stick.”

Cleaning House

While Gotti himself escaped conviction, his associates were not so lucky.

The other two men in the Gambino administration (underboss Armone and consigliere Gallo) had been indicted on racketeering charges in 1986, and were both convicted in December 1987. The heroin trial of Gotti’s former Bergin crewmembers Ruggiero and Gene Gotti also commenced in June of that year.

Prior to their convictions, Gotti allowed Gallo to retire and promoted Sammy Gravano in his place, while slating Frank Locascio to serve as acting underboss in the event of Armone’s imprisonment.

The Gambinos also worked to compromise the heroin trial’s jury, resulting in two mistrials.

When the terminally ill Ruggiero was released in 1989, Gotti refused to contact him, blaming him for the Gambino’s misfortunes. According to Gravano, Gotti also considered murdering Ruggiero and when he finally died “I literally had to drag him to the funeral.”

Beginning in January 1988, Gotti, against Gravano’s advice, required his capos to meet with him at the Ravenite Social Club once a week. This move allowed FBI surveillance to record and identify much of the Gambino hierarchy. The FBI also bugged the Ravenite, but failed to produce incriminating recordings of high quality.

1988 also saw Gotti, Gigante and the new Lucchese boss Victor Amuso attending the first Commission meeting since the Commission trial.

In 1986, future Lucchese underboss Anthony Casso had been injured in an unauthorized hit by Gambino capo Mickey Paradiso. The following year, the FBI warned Gotti they had recorded Genovese consigliere Louis Manna discussing another hit on John and Gene Gotti.

To avoid a war, the leaders of the three families met, denied knowledge of their violence against one another, and agreed to “communicate better.” The bosses also agreed to allow Colombo acting boss Victor Orena to join the Commission.

Gotti was able to take control of the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family in 1988. The DeCavalcantes remained in the Gambino’s sphere of influence until John Gotti’s imprisonment.

Gotti’s son John Gotti Jr. was initiated into the Gambino family on Christmas Eve 1988. According to fellow mobster Michael DiLeonardo (initiated in the same night), Gravano held the ceremony to keep Gotti from being accused of nepotism.

John Jr. was promptly promoted to capo.

Arrest

On December 11, 1990, FBI agents and New York City detectives raided the Ravenite Social Club, arresting Gotti, Gravano and Frank Locascio.

Gotti was charged, in this new racketeering case, with five murders (Castellano and Bilotti, Robert DiBernardo, Liborio Milito and Louis Dibono) conspiracy to murder Gaetano “Corky” Vastola, loansharking, illegal gambling, obstruction of justice, bribery and tax evasion.

Based on tapes from FBI bugs played at pretrial hearings, the Gambino “administration” was denied bail, and attorneys Bruce Cutler and Gerald Shargel were both disqualified from defending Gotti after determining they had worked as “in-house counsel” for the Gambino organization. Gotti subsequently hired Albert Krieger, a Miami attorney who had worked with Joseph Bonanno, to replace Cutler.

The tapes also created a rift between Gotti and Gravano, revealing the Gambino boss describing his newly-appointed underboss as too greedy, and attempting to frame Gravano as the main force behind the murders of DiBernardo, Milito and Dibono.

Gravano opted to turn state’s evidence, formally agreeing to testify on November 13, 1991.

Trial

Gotti and Locascio were tried in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York before United States District Judge I. Leo Glasser.

Jury selection began in January 1992, with the empanelled jury being kept anonymous and – for the first time in a Brooklyn Federal case – fully sequestered during the trial, due to Gotti’s reputation for jury tampering.

The trial commenced with the prosecution’s opening statements on February 12.

Prosecutors Andrew Maloney and John Gleeson began their case by playing tapes of Gotti discussing Gambino family business, including murders he approved, and confirming the animosity between Gotti and Castellano to establish the former’s motive to kill his boss.

After calling an eyewitness who identified Gotti associate John Carneglia as one of the men who shot Bilotti, they then brought Gravano to testify on March 2.

On the stand Gravano confirmed Gotti’s place in the structure of the Gambino family, described in detail the conspiracy to assassinate Castellano, and gave a full description of the hit and its aftermath. Krieger, and Locasio’s attorney Anthony Cardinale, proved unable to shake Gravano during cross-examination.

After additional testimony and tapes, the government rested its case on March 24.

Conviction

Five of Krieger and Cardinale’s intended six witnesses were ruled irrelevant or extraneous, leaving only Gotti’s tax attorney Murray Appleman to testify on his behalf.

The defense also attempted unsuccessfully to have a mistrial declared, based on Maloney’s closing remarks. Gotti himself became increasingly hostile during the trial, and at one point Glasser threatened to remove him from the courtroom.

On April 2, 1992, after only 14 hours of deliberation, the jury found Gotti guilty on all charges of the indictment (Locasio was found guilty on all but one).

James Fox, director of the New York City FBI, announced at a press conference, “The Teflon is gone. The don is covered with Velcro, and all the charges stuck.”

On June 23, 1992, Glasser sentenced both defendants to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and a $250,000 fine.

Incarceration and Death

Gotti was incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois. He spent the majority of his sentence in effective solitary confinement, only allowed out of his cell for one hour a day. His final appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1994.

Despite his imprisonment, and pressure from the Commission to stand down, Gotti is believed to have held on to his position as Gambino boss, with his brother Peter and his son John A. Gotti Jr. relaying orders on his behalf.

By 1998 (when he was indicted for racketeering), John Gotti Jr. was believed to be the acting boss of the family.

John Jr.’s indictment brought further stress to John Gotti’s marriage. Victoria DiGiorgio Gotti, up to that point unaware of her son’s involvement in the mob, blamed her husband for ruining her son’s life, and threatened to leave him unless he allowed John Jr. to leave the mob.

Against his father’s wishes, John Jr. pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years and five months imprisonment in 1999. He maintains he has since left the Gambino family.

Peter Gotti subsequently became acting boss, and is believed to have formally succeeded his brother as boss shortly before John Gotti’s death.

In 1998 Gotti was diagnosed with throat cancer and sent to the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, for surgery.

While the tumor was removed, the cancer was discovered to have returned two years later and Gotti was transferred back to Springfield, where he spent the rest of his life.

Gotti’s condition rapidly declined, and he died on June 10, 2002, at the age of 61.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced that Gotti’s family would not be permitted to have a Requiem Mass, but allowed it after the burial.

Gotti’s funeral was held in a non-religious facility. After the service, an estimated 300 onlookers followed the procession (which passed Gotti’s Bergin Hunt and Fish Club) to the gravesite.

John Gotti’s body was interred in a crypt next to his son Frank Gotti.

Gotti’s brother Peter was unable to attend, owing to his incarceration.

The other New York crime families sent no representatives to the funeral.

What goes around comes around.

I’ll be around soon, for our next story.

Till then.

Peace.

Gangsters: Johnny Stompanato

John “Johnny” Stompanato (October 10, 1925 – April 4, 1958), also known as “Handsome Harry”, “Johnny Stomp”, “John Steele”, and “Oscar”, was a former United States Marine who became a bodyguard and enforcer for gangster Mickey Cohen.

In 1958 he entered Hollywood Babylon when, after a tumultuous relationship with actress Lana Turner, he was stabbed and killed by Turner’s daughter, Cheryl Crane.

In the 2013 film “Gangster Squad”, Stompanato is played by James Carpinello.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

That’s how Hollywood saw it.

Here’s what history has to tell us:

His Early Years

John Stompanato, Jr. was born into an Italian-American family in Woodstock, Illinois.

His father, John Sr., owned a barber shop. His mother, Carmela, was a seamstress. Both parents were born in Italy, but were married in Brooklyn. The family moved to Woodstock in 1916.

Johnny was the youngest of four children, and grew up with two older sisters, Grace and Teresa, and elder brother, Carmine.

Six days after John’s birth, his mother died of peritonitis.

Johnny’s father soon remarried, to a woman named Verena Freitag.

Wartime Service

In 1940 – after Stompanato’s freshman year at Woodstock High School – his father sent him to Kemper Military School for boys in Boonville, Missouri, from which he graduated at the age of 17.

In 1943, Stompanato joined the U.S. Marines, serving with the 1st Service Battalion, 1st Marine Division.

He saw action in the South Pacific theater, in Peleliu and Okinawa, and then served in China with the Marines.

Stompanato left the Corps in March 1946, having been discharged in China.

First Marriage

It was in China, while stationed in Tianjin, that Stompanato met his first wife, Sarah Utish; a Turkish girl living in China. Stompanato converted to Islam, in order to marry her.

The two married in May 1946, and moved to Woodstock, where they had their first son, John III.

The newlywed Stompanato worked as a bread salesman for a few months, before leaving for Hollywood, California.

Los Angeles

Stompanato owned and managed “The Myrtlewood Gift Shop” in Westwood, Los Angeles. He sold inexpensive pieces of crude pottery and wood carvings as fine art.

The few shoppers who entered the store were either served by a part-time clerk, or ignored altogether.

Stompanato meanwhile, was more gainfully employed.

One source of revenue came from the mobster Meyer Harris “Mickey” Cohen, for whom Stompanato acted as bodyguard, and chief enforcer.

Another was using his good looks and charm to ingratiate himself with a string of high-profile women.

It is alleged that Stompanato ran a sexual extortion ring as well as a jewelry store. He was one of the most popular playboys in Hollywood.

Singer Frank Sinatra once visited Cohen at his home, and begged him to tell Stompanato to stop dating Sinatra’s friend and ex-wife, actress Ava Gardner.

Lana Turner

When he began dating the actress Lana Turner, Stompanato wore a heavy gold-link bracelet on his wrist with “Lanita” inscribed inside.

Turner’s daughter Cheryl Crane described Stompanato in her autobiography, “Detour: A Hollywood Story” (1988):

“ … B-picture good looks… thick set … powerfully built and soft spoken … and talked in short sentences to cover a poor grasp of grammar and spoke in a deep baritone voice. With friends, he seldom smiled or laughed out loud, but seemed always coiled, holding himself in … had watchful hooded eyes that took in more than he wanted anyone to notice …. His wardrobe on a daily basis consisted of roomy, draped slacks, a silver buckled skinny leather belt and lizard shoes. ”

On one occasion, the jealous Stompanato stormed onto a movie set in the UK and pointed a gun at actor Sean Connery, Turner’s costar in “Another Time, Another Place” – only to have Connery take the gun from him, and force him from the movie set.

Stompanato was deported for this offense, as unlicensed handguns are illegal in the United Kingdom.

A Scurrilous Death

On April 4, 1958, Stompanato was stabbed to death at Lana Turner’s Beverly Hills, California home.

Turner’s then teenage daughter Cheryl Crane claimed Stompanato had been attacking her mother, and that she had stabbed Stompanato while defending her. The courts agreed, ruling the death to be justifiable homicide.

After the ruling, Stompanato’s family sued Turner for $7 million. The case was eventually settled out of court for unknown terms.

There were rumors after Stompanato’s death that at least one L.A. mobster held Sean Connery responsible; the actor allegedly went into hiding, for a short time afterward.

Stompanato is interred at Oakland Cemetery, in Woodstock, McHenry County, Illinois. He is buried between his mother, Carmela (1890–1925), to the north, and his father John (1890–1952) and step mother Verena (1901–1967) to the south. His brother, Carmine (1912–1961) is buried across a small road, to the west of Johnny.

And here’s where we leave this scene.

I hope you’ll be here, for our next story.

Till then.

Peace.

Gangsters: Ma Barker

Kate “Ma” Barker (born Arizona Donnie Clark; October 8, 1873 – January 16, 1935) was the mother of several criminals who ran the Barker gang from the “public enemy era” – when the exploits of gangs of criminals in the U.S. Midwest gripped the American people, and the press.

In the 1996 Mark L. Lester film “Public Enemies”, Theresa Russell played Ma Barker.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

Hollywood glamorized the story, that way.

History tells us this:

Family Life

Arizona Donnie Clark (nicknamed Arrie) was born on October 8, 1873 in Ash Grove, Missouri, in the Ozark Mountains near Springfield. From an early age she was familiar with crime – particularly as one of her greatest thrills was seeing the outlaw Jesse James as he rode past her. She was devastated when he was shot and killed in 1882.

Kate, as she was also known then – never a beauty and leaning towards the plump side – married farm laborer George Barker.

George and Arizona had five boys named Herman, Lloyd, Arthur, Fred and Willmer.

The family lived in an impoverished tar-paper shack in Missouri, and from an early age the Barker boys began to cultivate their criminal careers, becoming known to the local police. Ma would often use her acting skills by playing the distraught mother in order to get her sons out of jail.

The bond between mother and sons was extremely strong – and no doubt Ma wore the trousers in the family, and was the greatest influence on her boys.

Some accounts claim that George Barker was an alcoholic.

It appears from the 1910 to 1930 censuses and the Tulsa City Directories from 1916 to 1928 that he was regularly employed. From 1916 to 1919, he worked for the Crystal Springs Water Co.

In the 1920s, he was variously employed as a farmer, watchman, station engineer, and clerk.

George is last listed with Arrie in the 1928 Tulsa city directory. Whether he was thrown out by Arrie (as some claim), or left on his own accord when life with her and the family became intolerable, is not known – but it is clear that he did not desert his family when the boys were young.

George and Arrie’s son Herman committed suicide on August 29, 1927, in Wichita, Kansas. He shot himself after a shootout with police that lasted hours.

In 1928, Lloyd was incarcerated in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, Arthur “Doc” Barker was in the Oklahoma State Prison, and Fred was in the Kansas State Prison.

Miriam Allen deFord, in her 1970 biography titled “The Real Ma Barker”, wrote, “This was the period when George Barker gave up completely and quietly removed himself from the scene.”

Bloody Mama?

Though her children were undoubtedly murderers, and their Barker-Karpis Gang committed a spree of robberies, kidnappings, and other crimes between 1931 and 1935, the popular image of Kate as the gang’s leader and its criminal mastermind has been found to be fictitious.

Ma Barker certainly knew of the gang’s activities, and even helped them before and after they committed their crimes.

This would make her an accomplice – but there is no evidence that she was ever an active participant in any of the crimes themselves, or involved in planning them. Her role was in taking care of gang members, who often sent her to the movies while they committed crimes.

However, she did battle the FBI to the death with a Tommy gun on January 16, 1935.

Alvin Karpis, the gang’s second most notorious member, later said that:

“ The most ridiculous story in the annals of crime is that Ma Barker was the mastermind behind the Karpis-Barker gang. . . . She wasn’t a leader of criminals or even a criminal herself. There is not one police photograph of her or set of fingerprints taken while she was alive . . . she knew we were criminals but her participation in our careers was limited to one function: when we traveled together, we moved as a mother and her sons. What could look more innocent? ”

This view of Ma Barker is corroborated by notorious bank robber Harvey Bailey, who knew the Barkers well. He observed in his autobiography that Ma Barker “couldn’t plan breakfast”, let alone a criminal enterprise.

Many (including Karpis) have suggested that the myth was encouraged by J. Edgar Hoover and his fledgling Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to justify his agency’s killing of an old lady.

Activities of the Barker Boys, and the Barker-Karpis Gang

1900–1920

In 1910, Herman Barker was arrested for highway robbery in Webb City, Missouri.

On March 5, 1915, Herman Barker was arrested again, for highway robbery in Joplin, Missouri. (Herman and Lloyd Barker were reportedly involved with the Central Park Gang of Tulsa, Oklahoma.)

On July 4, 1918, Arthur “Doc” Barker was involved in an automobile theft in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was arrested, but escaped custody.

1920–1929

In January 1921, Lloyd “Red” Barker was arrested for vagrancy in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On January 15, 1921, Arthur Barker (a.k.a. “Claude Dade”) was involved in an attempted bank robbery in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and subsequently arrested.

On January 30, 1921, Arthur Barker (a.k.a. “Bob Barker”) was received at the Oklahoma State Prison. He was released on June 11, 1921.

Arthur Barker and Volney Davis were involved in the killing of night watchman Thomas J. Sherrill in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on August 16, 1921. (According to some sources, Thomas J. Sherrill. was a night watchman at St. John’s Hospital in Tulsa.)

On January 8, 1922, the Central Park Gang was involved in an attempted burglary in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. A shootout resulted in one burglar dead, while police Captain Homer R. Spaulding died of his wounds on January 19, 1922. One gang member was sentenced to life in prison, while another had his sentence overturned.

Lloyd Barker was received at Leavenworth Prison on January 16, 1922, after his arrest for robbing mail at Baxter Springs, Kansas. He was sentenced to 25 years, and released in 1938.

February 10, 1922 saw Arthur “Doc” Barker received at Oklahoma State Prison, for the murder of Sherrill.

In 1926, Fred Barker robbed a bank in Winfield, Kansas – an offence for which he was arrested. He was admitted to Kansas State Prison on March 12, 1927.

On August 1, 1927, Herman Barker cashed stolen bank bonds at the America National Bank in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Sheriff’s Deputy Arthur Osborn flagged down Barker’s car. Barker picked up a gun from the vehicle’s seat, and shot Osborn – who died as a result.

On August 29, 1927, Herman Barker committed suicide in Wichita, Kansas after being stopped at a police roadblock.

1930–1939

On March 30, 1931, Fred Barker was released from Kansas State Prison after serving time for burglary. Fred met Alvin Karpis, while in prison.

On June 10, 1931, Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis (alias George Heller) were arrested by Tulsa, Oklahoma Police investigating a burglary. Karpis was sentenced to 4 years, but paroled after restitution was made; Fred Barker also avoided a jail sentence.

On November 8, 1931, Fred Barker killed an Arkansas police chief, Manley Jackson.

On December 19, 1931, Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis robbed a store in West Plains, Missouri and were involved in the killing of Howell County, Missouri Sheriff C. Roy Kelly.

Lloyd Barker was received at Leavenworth Prison on January 18, 1932.

The body of A.W. Dunlap was found at Lake Franstead, Minnesota, on April 26, 1932. Dunlap was killed by Fred Barker and Alvin Karpis.

Fred Barker, Karpis and five accomplices robbed the Fort Scott, Kansas Bank, on June 17, 1932.

On July 26, 1932, Fred Barker, Karpis and an augmented gang robbed Cloud County bank at Concordia, Kansas.

Arthur “Doc” Barker was released from prison on September 10, 1932.

On December 16, 1932, Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and a gang robbed Third Northwestern National Bank in Minneapolis, killing policemen Ira Leon Evans and Leo Gorski, and one civilian.

April 4, 1933 saw Fred and Arthur Barker, Alvin Karpis and the gang robbing a bank in Fairbury, Nebraska.

William Hamm of the Hamm’s Brewery family was kidnapped by the Barker-Karpis gang, in June 1933.
Hamm was released June 19, 1933, after a ransom was paid. It is believed by some that the gang turned over half of the Hamm ransom money to the Chicago Mob under Frank Nitti, after Nitti discovered that they were hiding Hamm in suburban Chicago, and demanded half the ransom as “rent”.

On August 30, 1933, the Barker-Karpis Gang robbed a payroll at Stockyards National Bank of South St. Paul, Minnesota – a caper in which one policeman (Leo Pavlak) was coldly executed, and another one disabled for life.

Two bank messengers were held up by five men identified as the Barker-Karpis gang on September 22, 1933. Chicago policeman Miles A Cunningham was killed by the gang, after their car crashed during the getaway.

On January 17, 1934, the gang kidnapped Edward George Bremer, Jr.
Bremer was released on February 7, 1934 after a ransom was paid.

On March 10, 1934, Barker gang member Fred Goetz (also known as “Shotgun George” Ziegler; a participant in the Bremer kidnapping) was killed by fellow gangsters in Cicero, Illinois.

“Doc” Barker and associate Volney Davis get a surprise visit from John Dillinger and Homer Van Meter in April 1934, helping them bury their comrade John “Red” Hamilton, after Hamilton died from gunshot wounds sustained in a shootout in St. Paul, Minnesota.

January 6, 1935 saw Barker gang member William B. Harrison killed by fellow gangsters at Ontarioville, Illinois.

Two days later (January 8, 1935), Arthur “Doc” Barker was arrested in Chicago. Barker gang member Russell Gibson was killed, and his colleague Byron Bolton was captured at another address.

Death Comes Calling

FBI Agents discovered the hideout of Ma Barker and her son, Fred, after Arthur “Doc” Barker was arrested in Chicago on January 8, 1935.

A map found in his possession indicated that the other gang members were in Ocklawaha, Florida.

Ma Barker was discovered by the FBI tracking her letters sent to her other son. She was writing to tell him about a large gator in Lake Weir that everyone had called “Gator Joe”, which led to the name of the local restaurant known as “Gator Joe’s”.

Agents surrounded the house at 13250 East Highway C-25 on the morning of January 16, 1935.

Ordered to surrender, Fred opened fire. Both he and his mother were killed by federal agents after an intense, hours-long gun-battle.

According to the FBI, a Tommy gun was found lying in the hands of Ma Barker.

Their bodies were put on public display, and then stored unclaimed, until October 1, 1935, when relatives had them buried at Williams Timberhill Cemetery in Welch, Oklahoma – next to the body of Herman Barker.

Arthur Barker was killed while trying to escape from Alcatraz Prison on January 13, 1939.

Lloyd Barker was killed by his wife on March 18, 1949. Lloyd by then was manager of Denargo Market in Denver, Colorado. His wife was sent to Colorado State Insane Asylum.

Of the known Barker-Karpis gang and its associates, 18 were arrested, 3 killed by lawmen, and 2 killed by other gangsters.

The Barker deathhouse in Ocklawaha, Florida was listed for sale on August 16, 2012. Offers on the Florida property were being accepted with a suggested minimum of $1 million, furniture included.

Nice work, if you can get it.

I’m out of here.

See you soon, I hope.

Till then.

Peace.

Gangsters: Pretty Boy Floyd

Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd (February 3, 1904 – October 22, 1934) was an American bank robber. He operated in the Midwest and West South Central States, and his criminal exploits gained heavy press coverage in the 1930s.

He is a familiar figure in American popular culture – sometimes viewed as notorious, but at other times seen as a tragic victim of hard times.

Pretty Boy Floyd was played by Channing Tatum, in the 2009 movie, “Public Enemies.”

Video is courtesy of YouTube:

Hollywood saw it, that way.

History has this, to tell us:

Floyd’s Early Life of Crime

Floyd was born in Bartow County, Georgia. He grew up in Oklahoma after moving there with his family from Georgia in 1911, and spent considerable time in nearby Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri.

He was first arrested at age 18, after he stole $3.50 in coins from a local post office.

Three years later he was arrested for a payroll robbery on September 16, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri and was sentenced to five years in prison, of which he served three and a half.

Promises, Promises…

When paroled, Floyd vowed that he would never see the inside of another prison.

Entering into partnerships with more established criminals in the Kansas City underworld, he committed a series of bank robberies over the next several years; it was during this period that he acquired the nickname “Pretty Boy.”

According to one account, when the payroll master targeted in a robbery described the three perpetrators to the police, he referred to Floyd as “a mere boy — a pretty boy with apple cheeks.” Like his contemporary Baby Face Nelson, Floyd hated his nickname.

In 1929, he faced numerous arrests. On March 9, he was arrested in Kansas City on investigation, and again on May 6 for vagrancy and suspicion of highway robbery, but he was released the next day. Two days later, he was arrested in Pueblo, Colorado, charged with vagrancy. He was fined $50.00 and sentenced to 60 days in jail.

Floyd under the alias “Frank Mitchell” was arrested in Akron, Ohio, on March 8, 1930, charged in the investigation of the murder of an Akron police officer who had been killed during a robbery that evening.

The law next caught up with Floyd in Toledo, Ohio, where he was arrested on suspicion on May 20, 1930; he was sentenced on November 24, 1930, to 12–15 years in Ohio State penitentiary for the Sylvania Ohio Bank Robbery, but he escaped.

Floyd was a suspect in the deaths of bootlegging brothers Wally and Boll Ash of Kansas City. They were found dead in a burning car on March 25, 1931. A month later on April 23, members of his gang killed Patrolman R. H. Castner of Bowling Green, Ohio, and on July 22 Floyd killed ATF Agent C. Burke in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1932, former sheriff Erv Kelley of McIntosh County, Oklahoma, tried to arrest Floyd; he was killed on April 7. In November of that year, three members of Floyd’s gang attempted to rob the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Boley, Oklahoma.

Kansas City Massacre?

Floyd and Adam Richetti became the primary suspects in a June 17, 1933, gunfight known as the “Kansas City massacre” that resulted in the deaths of four law enforcement officers.

Though J. Edgar Hoover used the incident as ammunition to further empower the FBI to pursue Floyd, historians are divided as to whether or not he was involved. Another, more likely, suspect, was the hitman Sol Weismann, who resembled Floyd.

Floyd adamantly denied his involvement in this fiasco (apparently a botched attempt to free bank robber Frank Nash, who was in police custody), and as he never bothered to deny many of his other crimes (including the murders of policemen), it seems unlikely that he was a participant in the “massacre” at Kansas City.

The gunfight itself was an attack by Vernon Miller and accomplices on lawmen escorting robber Frank “Jelly” Nash to a car parked at the Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri.

Two Kansas City, Missouri, officers (Detective William Grooms and Patrolman Grant Schroder), the McAlester, Oklahoma Police Chief Otto Reed, and FBI Special Agent Ray Caffrey were killed. Nash was also killed as he was sitting in the car. Two other Kansas City police officers survived by slumping forward in the backseat and feigning death.

As the gunmen inspected the car, another officer responded from the station and fired at them, forcing them to flee. Miller was found dead on November 27, 1933, outside Detroit, Michigan, beaten and strangled.

Floyd and Richetti were alleged to have been Miller’s accomplices.

Factors weighing against them included their apparent presence in Kansas City at the time, eyewitness identifications (which have been contested), Richetti’s fingerprint said to have been recovered from a beer bottle at Miller’s hideout, an underworld account naming Floyd and Richetti as the gunmen, and Hoover’s firm advocacy of their guilt.

Fellow bank robber Alvin Karpis (an acquaintance of Floyd’s) claimed that Floyd confessed involvement to him.

On the other side of the coin, the bandit alleged to have been Floyd was supposed to have been wounded by a gunshot to the shoulder in the attack, and Floyd’s body showed no sign of this injury when examined later.

Shortly after the attack, Kansas City police received a postcard dated June 30, 1933, from Springfield, Missouri, which read:

“Dear Sirs- I- Charles Floyd- want it made known that I did not participate in the massacre of officers at Kansas City. Charles Floyd”.

The police department believed the note to be genuine.

Public Enemy No. 1

On July 23, 1934, following the death of John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd was named Public enemy No. 1.

Having narrowly escaped ambush by FBI agents and other law enforcement agencies several times after the Kansas City Massacre, Floyd had a stroke of bad luck.

On October 18, 1934, he and Richetti left Buffalo, New York, and slid their vehicle into a telephone pole during a heavy fog. No one was injured, but the car was disabled.

Fearing they would be recognized, Floyd and Richetti sent two female companions to retrieve a tow truck; the women would then accompany the tow truck driver into a town and have the vehicle repaired, while the two men waited by the roadside.

After dawn on October 19, motorist Joe Fryman and his son-in-law passed by, observing two men dressed in suits lying by the roadside. Feeling it was suspicious, he informed Wellsville, Ohio, Police Chief John H. Fultz. Three officers, including Fultz, investigated.

When Richetti saw the lawmen, he fled into the woods, pursued by two officers, while Fultz went toward Floyd.

Floyd immediately drew his gun and fired, and he and Fultz engaged one another in a gunfight, during which Fultz was wounded in the foot. After wounding Fultz, Floyd fled into the forest.

The other two officers enlisted the help of local retired police officer Chester K. Smith (a sniper during World War I), and subsequently captured Richetti.

Floyd remained on the run, living on fruit, traveling on foot, and quickly becoming exhausted.

The hunt was on.

The 3 Deaths of Pretty Boy Floyd

At least three accounts exist of the following events: one given by the FBI, one by other people in the area, and one by local law enforcement.

All accounts agree that, after obtaining some food at a local pool hall owned by Charles Joy, a friend of Floyd’s, Floyd hitched a ride in an East Liverpool neighborhood on October 22, 1934. He was spotted by the team of lawmen, at which point he broke from the vehicle and fled toward the treeline.

Local retired officer Chester Smith fired first, hitting Floyd in the right arm, and knocking him to the ground.

At this point, the three accounts diverge; the FBI agents later attempted to claim all the credit, denying local law enforcement were even present at the actual shooting.

According to the local police account, Floyd regained his footing and continued to run, at which point the entire team opened fire, knocking him to the ground again. Floyd died shortly thereafter from his wounds.

According to the FBI, four FBI agents, led by Purvis, and four members of the East Liverpool Police Department, led by Chief Hugh McDermott, were searching the area south of Clarkson, Ohio, in two separate cars. They spotted a car move from behind a corn crib, and then move back. Floyd then emerged from the car and drew a .45 caliber pistol, and the FBI agents opened fire. Floyd reportedly said: “I’m done for. You’ve hit me twice.”

However, Chester Smith, the retired East Liverpool Police Captain and sharpshooter, described events differently in a 1979 interview for Time magazine.

Smith (who was credited with shooting Floyd first) stated that he had deliberately wounded, but not killed, Floyd. He then added:

“I knew Purvis couldn’t hit him, so I dropped him with two shots from my .32 Winchester rifle.”

According to Smith’s account, after being wounded, Floyd fell and did not regain his footing. Smith then disarmed Floyd.
At that point, Purvis ran up and ordered: “Back away from that man. I want to talk to him.”

Purvis questioned Floyd briefly, and after receiving curses in reply, ordered agent Herman “Ed” Hollis to “Fire into him.”
Hollis then shot Floyd at point-blank range with a submachine gun, killing him.

The interviewer asked if there was a cover-up by the FBI, and Smith responded: “Sure was, because they didn’t want it to get out that he’d been killed that way.”

FBI agent Winfred E. Hopton disputed Chester Smith’s claim in a letter to the editors of Time Magazine, that appeared in the November 19, 1979, issue, in response to the Time article “Blasting a G-Man Myth.”

In his letter, he stated that he was one of four FBI agents present when Floyd was killed, on a farm several miles from East Liverpool, Ohio.

According to Hopton, members of the East Liverpool police department arrived only after Floyd was mortally wounded.
He also claimed that when the four agents confronted Floyd, Floyd turned to fire on them, and two of the four killed Floyd almost instantly.

Hopton also stated that Herman Hollis (said by Smith to have executed Floyd, on Purvis’ order) was not present.

In any event, Floyd’s body was placed on public display in Sallisaw, Oklahoma.

He was buried in Akins, Oklahoma.

His funeral was attended by between 20,000 and 40,000 people, and remains the largest funeral in Oklahoma history.

That’s what notoriety will do, for you.

And this is the end of this story.

Hope you’ll join me, for the next one.

Till then.

Peace.

The Gunfighters: The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang or the Oklahombres, was a gang of outlaws based in the Indian Territory that terrorized Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Territory during the 1890s – robbing banks and stores, holding up trains, and killing lawmen. They were also known as The Oklahoma Long Riders, from the long dusters they wore.

The group is not to be confused with Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch.

Of all the outlaw gangs produced by the American Old West, none met a more violent end. Of its eleven members, only two would survive into the 20th century.

All eleven would eventually meet with a violent death, in gun battles with lawmen.

A version of the group was portrayed in Sam Peckinpah’s 1969 Western, “The Wild Bunch”, starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

That’s Hollywood.

This is history:

Notable Members

The gang consisted at various times of Bill Doolin, George “Bittercreek” Newcomb (aka “Slaughter Kid”), Charley Pierce, Oliver “Ol” Yantis, William Marion “Bill” Dalton, William “Tulsa Jack” Blake, Dan “Dynamite Dick” Clifton, Roy Daugherty (a.k.a. “Arkansas Tom Jones”), George “Red Buck” Waightman, Richard “Little Dick” West, and William F. “Little Bill” Raidler.

Two teenaged girls known as Little Britches and Cattle Annie also followed the gang, and informed the men about the location of law-enforcement officers whenever they were in pursuit of the criminals.

The Daltons

The Dalton Gang, also known as The Dalton Brothers, was a family of both lawmen and outlaws in the American Old West during 1890–1892. They specialized in bank and train robberies.

They were related to the Younger brothers, who rode with Jesse James, though they acted later, and independently of the James-Younger Gang.

The three Dalton brothers involved in the gang were Gratton “Grat” Dalton (born 1861), Bob Dalton (born 1869), and Emmett Dalton (born 1871).

Origins of the Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch had its origins following the Dalton Gang’s botched train robbery in Adair, Oklahoma Territory, on July 15, 1892, in which two guards and two townspeople (both doctors), were wounded. One of the doctors died the next day.

Bob Dalton told Doolin, Newcomb, and Pierce that he no longer needed them.

Doolin and his friends returned to their hideout in Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory. It was fortunate for them, because on October 5, the Dalton Gang would be wiped out in Coffeyville, Kansas.

Grat and Bob Dalton, Dick Broadwell and Bill Power were killed. Emmett Dalton, however, received 23 gunshot wounds and survived.

There is some speculation that Bill Doolin was in an alleyway, acting as a lookout man.

In any event, he soon put together a new outfit.

Crime Spree

Doolin wasted no time.

On November 1, 1892, his new gang, the Wild Bunch, robbed the Ford County Bank at Spearville, Kansas, getting away with all the cash on hand, and over $1,500 in treasury notes.

From the postcard descriptions sent out, the Stillwater, Oklahoma Territory, city marshal recognized Ol Yantis, the newest member of the gang. Shortly after, Yantis was cornered and killed in a shootout with the marshal’s posse.

On June 11, 1893, the Wild Bunch held up a Santa Fe train west of Cimarron, Kansas, and took $1,000 in silver from the California-New Mexico Express.

A sheriff’s posse from old Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory, caught up with the gang north of Fort Supply. The gang got away, but, in the ensuing gunfight, Doolin received a bullet in his left foot. Doolin was to suffer with the pain for the rest of his life, and it led indirectly to his capture.

Battle of Ingalls

On September 1, 1893, a posse organized by the new U.S. Marshal, Evett Dumas “E.D.” Nix, entered the outlaw town of Ingalls with the intent of capturing the gang.

In what would be remembered as the Battle of Ingalls, three of the fourteen lawmen carrying Deputy U.S. Marshals’ commissions would die, in the ensuing gunfight. Two town citizens would also die; one killed protecting the outlaws.

Of the outlaws, Newcomb was seriously wounded but escaped, and Arkansas Tom Jones, the killer of the three deputies and one citizen, was captured.

Resumption of Duties

After a short break, the gang continued its activities.

On January 3, 1894, Pierce and Waightman held up a store and post office at Clarkson, Oklahoma Territory.

On January 23, the gang robbed the Farmers Citizens Bank at Pawnee, Oklahoma Territory, and March 10, the Wild Bunch robbed the Santa Fe station at Woodward, Oklahoma Territory, of over $6,000.

On March 20, Nix sent a special posse known as the Three Guardsmen a directive to take care of the Wild Bunch. The directive stated in part, “I have selected you to do this work, placing explicit confidence in your abilities to cope with those desperadoes and bring them in – alive if possible – dead if necessary.”

On April 1, 1894, the gang attempted to rob the store of retired US Deputy Marshal W.H. Carr at Sacred Heart, Indian Territory. Carr, shot through the stomach, managed to shoot Newcomb in the shoulder, and the gang fled without getting anything.

On May 10, 1894, the Wild Bunch robbed the bank at Southwest City, Missouri, of $4,000, wounding several townspeople, and killing one.

On May 21, 1894, the jurors in Arkansas Tom’s trial found him only guilty of manslaughter in the killing of the three Deputy US Marshals. Frank Dale, the territorial judge hearing the case, returned to Guthrie, the territorial capitol, and told E.D. Nix, ” … you will instruct your deputies to bring them in dead.”

Elsewhere…

Bill Dalton, meanwhile, had left Doolin to form his own Dalton Gang.

On May 23, 1894, Dalton and his new gang robbed the First National Bank at Longview, Texas. This was the gang’s only job. Various posses would kill three of its members, and send the last one to prison, for life.

One Last Job

On April 3, 1895, the Wild Bunch – without Doolin – held up a Rock Island train at Dover, but were unable to open the safe with the $50,000 army payroll. So they robbed passengers of cash and jewelry.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris Madsen and his posse took a special train to Dover, and picked up the trail at daybreak, surprising the gang around noon.

The marshals killed Blake, and scattered the gang.

This would be the last robbery by the Wild Bunch as a gang, although separately, its members kept up the robberies and killings for which they were known.

Doolin’s Demise – and Others

Bill Doolin’s death was as violent as the rest of his Wild Bunch. As with him, all their deaths were by gunshot.

U.S. Marshal Evett “E.D.” Nix had been appointed in 1893. He made his main priority the toppling of the Doolin Dalton Gang.

Nix appointed one hundred marshals to the task, insisting they hunt down all outlaws, but with a priority on this gang in particular.

Marshal Nix was staunchly supportive of his deputies and in the means they felt were necessary to bring down the gang, and with him as their defender politically, his deputy marshals systematically hunted down the gang members.

Ol Yantis was killed on November 29, 1892 at Orlando, Oklahoma Territory by Ford County, Kansas Sheriff Chalkey Beeson and Deputy US Marshal Tom Hueston.

Arkansas Tom Jones was captured on September 1, 1893, in Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory. He was pardoned in 1910.
On August 16, 1924, he was killed in Joplin, Missouri, by Joplin police detectives.

Bill Dalton was killed on June 8, 1894, near Elk, Indian Territory, by an Anadarko posse.

Tulsa Jack Blake was killed on April 4, 1895, near Ames, Oklahoma Territory, by Deputy U.S. Marshals Will Banks and Isaac Prater.

Bitter Creek Newcomb was killed on May 2, 1895, in Payne County, Oklahoma Territory, by the Dunn Brothers, who were bounty hunters.

Charley Pierce was killed on May 2, 1895, in Payne County, Oklahoma Territory – also by the Dunn brothers.

Little Bill Raidler was shot and captured on September 6, 1895, by Deputy U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman.
He was paroled in 1903 because of complications from wounds received when he was captured, and died in 1904.

Bill Doolin was captured on January 15, 1896, in Eureka Springs, Arkansas by Deputy U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman.
He escaped with Dynamite Dick Clifton but was killed on August 24, 1896, in Lawson, Oklahoma Territory, by a posse under Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas.

Red Buck Waightman was killed on March 4, 1896, near Arapaho, Oklahoma Territory, by a Custer County posse.

Dynamite Dick Clifton was captured in June, 1896, by Deputy U.S. Marshals from Texas.
He escaped with Bill Doolin, and was killed on November 7, 1897, near Checotah, Indian Territory, by Deputy U.S. Marshals under Deputy Marshal Chris Madsen.

Little Dick West was killed on April 8, 1898, in Logan County, Oklahoma Territory, by Deputy U.S. Marshals under Deputy Marshal Chris Madsen.

A violent end, to a violent group.

And the end of this tale.

I hope you’ll be back, for my next story.

Till then.

Peace.

The Gunfighters: Robert Ford

Robert Newton “Bob” Ford (January 31, 1862 – June 8, 1892) was an American outlaw best known for killing his gang leader, Jesse James, in 1882.

In the Oscar-nominated film, “The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford” (2007), Casey Affleck (who bears a striking resemblance to the historical figure) played Robert Ford, opposite Brad Pitt, as Jesse James.

The film is considered as one of the most historically accurate portrayals of Jesse James and Robert Ford, even by James’ descendants, who found both performances more realistic and true to history than the dozens that came before them.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

That was Hollywood’s view.

Here’s the history:

Ford’s Early years

Robert Ford was born in Ray County, Missouri, to James Thomas Ford and his wife, the former Mary Bruin.

As a young man, he became an admirer of Jesse James for his American Civil War record, and for James’s criminal exploits. In 1880, he finally met James.

Ford’s brother Charles is believed to have taken part in the James gang’s Blue Cut train robbery in Jackson County near Glendale, Missouri (now part of Independence), on September 7, 1881.

Joining the James Gang

In November 1881, Jesse James moved his family to St. Joseph, Missouri. He intended to give up crime, but first wanted to stage one last robbery at Blue Cut, Missouri.

The James gang had been greatly reduced in numbers by that time. Some had fled the gang in fear of prosecution, and many of the original members were either dead or in prison after a botched robbery in Northfield, Minnesota. After the train robbery, Frank James decided to retire from crime, settling in Lynchburg, Virginia.

By the spring of 1882, with his gang depleted by arrests, deaths and defections, James thought that he could only trust the Ford brothers.
Charles had been out on raids with James before, but Bob was an eager new recruit.

The Fords resided in St. Joseph with the James family, where Jesse went by the alias of Thomas Howard. The Ford brothers passed themselves off as Bob and Charles Johnson, Howard’s cousins.

Betrayal

Hoping to keep the gang alive, James invited the Fords to take part in the robbery of the Platte City Bank, but the brothers had already decided not to take part, looking instead to collect the $10,000 bounty placed on the James brothers by Governor Thomas T. Crittenden.

In January 1882, Robert Ford and Dick Liddil surrendered to Sheriff James Timberlake at their sister Martha Bolton’s residence in Ray County. They were brought into a meeting with Crittenden for being in the presence of the James’s cousin, Wood Hite, the day Hite was murdered.

Crittenden allegedly promised Ford a full pardon, if he would also kill Jesse James – who was by then the most wanted criminal in the USA.

Killing Jesse James

On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James went into the living room in preparation for the trip to Platte City.

While reading the daily newspaper, James had just learned of gang member Dick Liddil’s confession for participating in Hite’s murder – and grew increasingly suspicious of the Fords for never reporting this matter to him.

According to Robert Ford, it became clear to him that James had realized they were there to betray him.

However, instead of confronting the Fords, James walked across the living room to lay his revolvers on a sofa. He then turned around and noticed a dusty picture above the mantle, and stood on a chair in order to clean it. Robert Ford then drew his weapon, and shot the unarmed Jesse James in the back of the head.

James’ wife Zerelda Mimms ran into the room and screamed, “You’ve killed him.”

Robert Ford’s immediate response was “I swear to God I didn’t.”

After The Assassination

After the assassination, the Fords wired Crittenden to claim their reward. They surrendered themselves to legal authorities, but were dismayed to find that they were charged with first degree murder.

In one day, the Ford brothers were indicted, pleaded guilty, and were sentenced to death by hanging. But two hours later, Crittenden granted them a full pardon.

Despite the deal that was made with Crittenden, the Ford brothers received only $500 – a fraction of the money they were originally promised.

Ford’s Later Years

For a time, Bob Ford earned money by posing for photographs as “the man who killed Jesse James” in dime museums. He also appeared on stage with his brother Charles, reenacting the murder in a touring stage show – but his performance was not well received. The way he had killed James – while his back was turned and he was unarmed – earned Ford much enmity from the residents of the various towns where they performed.

Charles, terminally ill with tuberculosis and addicted to morphine, committed suicide on May 4, 1884.

Soon afterward, Bob Ford and Dick Liddil relocated to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where they opened a saloon. By early 1885, Bob Ford had become a Las Vegas city policeman.

According to legend, Ford had a shooting contest with Jose Chavez y Chavez, a comrade-in-arms of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War. Ford lost the contest and left town.

On December 26, 1889, Ford survived an assassination attempt in Kansas City, Kansas, when an assailant tried to slit his throat.

Within a few years, Robert Ford had settled in Colorado, where he opened a saloon-gambling house in Walsenberg. When silver was found in Creede, Ford closed his saloon and opened one there.

On the eve of Easter 1892, Ford and gunman Joe Palmer, a member of the Soapy Smith gang, were drinking in the local saloons and proceeded to shoot out windows and street lamps along Creede’s Main Street. With the help of friends and business partners of Smith, they were soon allowed to return.

Ford purchased a plot of land in the city, and on May 29, 1892, opened Ford’s Exchange, said to have been a dance hall. Six days later, the entire business district, including Ford’s Exchange, burned to the ground in a major fire. Ford opened a tent saloon, until he could rebuild.

The Death of Robert Ford

Three days after the fire, on June 8, 1892, Edward Capehart O’Kelley entered Ford’s tent saloon with a shotgun.

According to witnesses, Ford’s back was turned.

O’Kelley said, “Hello, Bob.” As Ford turned to see who it was, O’Kelley fired both barrels, killing Ford instantly.

O’Kelley thus became “the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James.”

O’Kelley’s sentence was commuted because of a medical condition, and he was released on October 3, 1902.

He was subsequently killed on January 13, 1904 while trying to shoot a policeman.

Robert Ford was buried in Creede, but was later exhumed and reburied in Richmond in his native Ray County at Richmond Cemetery.

What goes around comes around.

I hope you’ll be around, for our next installment.

Till then.

Peace.

The Gunfighters: Jesse James

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri, and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang.

Despite popular depictions of James as a kind of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang used their robbery gains for anyone but themselves.

A celebrity even when he was alive, Jesse James became a legendary figure of the Wild West, after his death.

Brad Pitt gave a remarkably nuanced portrayal of the outlaw in “The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford” – the 2007 film that earned critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination, despite its clunky title.

Video is courtesy of YouTube:

That’s how Hollywood saw it.

Here’s what history has to tell us:

Jesse’s Early Life

Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay County, Missouri, near the site of present day Kearney, on September 5, 1847. He had two full siblings: his older brother, Alexander Franklin “Frank”, and a younger sister, Susan Lavenia James.

His father, Robert S. James, was a commercial hemp farmer and Baptist minister in Kentucky, who migrated to Bradford, Missouri, after marriage to Zerelda Mimms, and helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. He was prosperous, acquiring six slaves and more than 100 acres (0.40 km2) of farmland.

Robert James traveled to California during the Gold Rush to minister to those searching for gold, and died there when Jesse was three years old.

After Robert James’ death, his widow Zerelda remarried twice, first to Benjamin Simms and then in 1855 to Dr. Reuben Samuel, who moved into the James home.

Jesse’s mother and Reuben Samuel had four children together: Sarah Louisa, John Thomas, Fannie Quantrell, and Archie Peyton Samuel. Zerelda and Reuben Samuel acquired a total of seven slaves, who served mainly as farmhands in tobacco cultivation in Missouri.

Prelude to War

The approach of the American Civil War overshadowed the James-Samuel household.

Missouri was a border state, sharing characteristics of both North and South, but 75% of the population was from the South or other border states.

Clay County was in a region of Missouri later dubbed “Little Dixie,” as it was a center of migration from the Upper South. The county counted more slaveholders, who held more slaves, than other regions of the state. In Missouri as a whole, slaves accounted for only 10 percent of the population, but in Clay County they constituted 25 percent.

After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Clay County became the scene of great turmoil, as the question of whether slavery would be expanded into the neighboring Kansas Territory came to dominate public life. Numerous people from Missouri migrated to Kansas to try to influence its future.

American Civil War

After a series of campaigns and battles between conventional armies in 1861, guerrilla warfare gripped the state, waged between secessionist “bushwhackers” and Union forces which largely consisted of local militia organizations (“jayhawkers”).

There was an escalating cycle of atrocities, on both sides. Guerrillas murdered civilian Unionists, executed prisoners and scalped the dead. Union forces enforced martial law with raids on homes, arrests of civilians, summary executions, and banishment of Confederate sympathizers from the state.

The James-Samuel family took the Confederate side, at the outset of the war.

Frank James joined a local company recruited for the secessionist Drew Lobbs Army, and fought at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek – though he fell ill and returned home soon afterward.

In 1863, Frank was identified as a member of a guerrilla squad that operated in Clay County. In May of that year, a Union militia company raided the James-Samuel farm, looking for Frank’s group. They tortured Reuben Samuel by briefly hanging him from a tree. According to legend, they lashed young Jesse.

Quantrill’s Raiders

Frank eluded capture and was believed to have joined the guerrilla organization led by William C. Quantrill. It is thought that he took part in the notorious massacre of some 200 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas, a center of abolitionists.

Frank James followed Quantrill to Texas over the winter of 1863–1864. In the spring, he returned in a squad commanded by Fletch Taylor. After they arrived in Clay County, 16-year-old Jesse James joined his brother in Taylor’s group.

In the summer of 1864, Taylor was severely wounded, losing his right arm to a shotgun blast. The James brothers joined the bushwhacker group led by Bloody Bill Anderson.

The Clay County provost marshal reported that both Frank and Jesse James took part in the Centralia Massacre in September, in which guerrillas killed or wounded some 22 unarmed Union troops; the guerrillas scalped and dismembered some of the dead.

The guerrillas ambushed and defeated a pursuing regiment of Major A.V.E. Johnson’s Union troops, killing all who tried to surrender (more than 100). Frank later identified Jesse as a member of the band who fatally shot Major Johnson.

As a result of the James brothers’ activities, the Union military authorities made their family leave Clay County. Though ordered to move South beyond Union lines, they moved across the nearby state border into Nebraska.

After Anderson was killed in an ambush in October, the James brothers separated. Frank followed Quantrill into Kentucky; Jesse went to Texas under the command of Archie Clement, one of Anderson’s lieutenants.

He is known to have returned to Missouri in the spring. Jesse was shot while trying to surrender, when he ran into a Union cavalry patrol near Lexington, Missouri, suffering a life-threatening chest wound.

After the Civil War

At the end of the Civil War, the Republican Reconstruction administration passed a new state constitution that freed Missouri’s slaves. It temporarily excluded former Confederates from voting, serving on juries, becoming corporate officers, or preaching from church pulpits.

The atmosphere was volatile, with widespread clashes between individuals, and between armed gangs of veterans from both sides of the war.

Jesse recovered from his chest wound at his uncle’s boardinghouse in Harlem, Missouri, where he was tended to by his first cousin, Zerelda “Zee” Mimms (named after Jesse’s mother).

Jesse and his cousin began a nine-year courtship, culminating in marriage.

Meanwhile, Jesse’s old commander Archie Clement kept his bushwhacker gang together, and began to harass the Republican authorities.

These men were the likely culprits in the first daylight armed bank robbery in the United States during peacetime – the robbery of the Clay County Savings Association in the town of Liberty, Missouri, on February 13, 1866. This bank was owned by Republican former militia officers who had recently conducted the first Republican Party rally in Clay County’s history. One innocent bystander – a student of William Jewell College (which James’s father had helped to found) – was shot dead on the street during the gang’s escape.

It remains unclear whether Jesse and Frank took part in this caper.

After their later robberies took place and they became legends, there were those who credited them with being the leaders of the Clay County robbery. It has been argued, however, that Jesse was at the time still bedridden with his wound. No concrete evidence has surfaced to connect either brother to the crime, or to rule them out.

Archie Clement continued his career of crime and harassment of the Republican government, to the extent of occupying the town of Lexington, Missouri, on election day in 1866. Shortly afterward, the state militia shot Clement dead – an event James wrote about with bitterness, a decade later.

The survivors of Clement’s gang continued to conduct bank robberies over the next two years.

In 1868, Frank and Jesse James allegedly joined Cole Younger in robbing a bank at Russellville, Kentucky.

Fame and Notoriety

Jesse James did not become famous until December 7, 1869, when he and (most likely) Frank robbed the Daviess County Savings Association in Gallatin, Missouri. The robbery netted little money, but it appears that Jesse shot and killed the cashier, Captain John Sheets, mistakenly believing him to be Samuel P. Cox, the militia officer who had killed “Bloody Bill” Anderson during the Civil War.

James’s self-proclaimed attempt at revenge, and the daring escape he and Frank made through the middle of a posse shortly afterward, put his name in the newspapers for the first time.

The 1869 robbery marked the emergence of Jesse James as the most famous of the former guerrillas and the first time he was publicly labeled an “outlaw.” Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden set a reward for his capture.

This was the beginning of an alliance between James and John Newman Edwards, editor and founder of the Kansas City Times. Edwards (a former Confederate cavalryman) was campaigning to return former secessionists to power in Missouri.

Six months after the Gallatin robbery, Edwards published the first of many letters from Jesse James to the public, asserting his innocence. Over time, the letters gradually became more political in tone, denouncing the Republicans and voicing James’ pride in his Confederate loyalties.

The letters turned Jesse James into a symbol of Confederate defiance of Reconstruction.

The James-Younger Gang

The James brothers joined with Cole Younger and his brothers John, Jim and Bob, as well as Clell Miller and other former Confederates to form what came to be known as the James-Younger Gang.

With Jesse James as the public face of the gang (though with operational leadership likely shared among the group), the gang carried out a string of robberies from Iowa to Texas, and from Kansas to West Virginia. They robbed banks, stagecoaches and a fair in Kansas City, often in front of large crowds – even hamming it up, for the bystanders.

On July 21, 1873, they turned to train robbery, derailing the Rock Island train in Adair, Iowa and stealing approximately $3,000 (about $55,000 in today’s money). For this, they wore Ku Klux Klan masks, deliberately taking on a potent symbol years after the Klan had been suppressed in the South by President Grant’s use of the Force Acts.

The gang’s later train robberies had a lighter touch. In only two train hold-ups did they rob passengers, because James typically limited himself to the express safe in the baggage car. Such techniques reinforced the Robin Hood image that Edwards created in his newspapers, but the James gang never shared any of the robbery money outside their circle.

The Pinkertons

The Adams Express Company turned to the Pinkerton National Detective Agency in 1874 to stop the James-Younger gang. The Chicago-based agency worked primarily against urban professional criminals, as well as providing industrial security, such as strike breaking.

Joseph Whicher, an agent dispatched to infiltrate Zerelda Samuel’s farm was found killed, shortly afterwards.

Two others (Captain Louis J. Lull and John Boyle) were sent after the Youngers. Lull was killed by two of the Youngers in a roadside gunfight on March 17, 1874. Before he died, Lull fatally shot John Younger. A deputy sheriff named Edwin Daniels also died in the skirmish.

Allan Pinkerton, the agency’s founder and leader, took on the case as a personal vendetta. He began to work with former Unionists who lived near the James family farm.

On the night of January 25, 1875, Pinkerton staged a raid on the homestead.

Detectives threw an incendiary device into the house; it exploded, killing James’s young half-brother Archie (named for Archie Clement) and blowing off one of the arms of the James family’s matriarch Zerelda Samuel. Afterward, Pinkerton denied that the raid’s intent was arson, but biographer Ted Yeatman located a letter by Pinkerton in the Library of Congress in which Pinkerton declared his intention to “burn the house down.”

The raid on the family home outraged many, and did more than all of Edwards’s columns to create sympathy for Jesse James.

The Missouri state legislature only narrowly defeated a bill that praised the James and Younger brothers and offered them amnesty. Allowed to vote and hold office again, former Confederates voted to limit reward offers that the governor could make for fugitives. This extended a measure of protection over the James-Younger gang.

The James-Younger Gang’s Downfall

On September 7, 1876, the James-Younger gang attempted a raid on the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota.

The gang’s attempt began at about 2 p.m., but the robbery was bungled because several gang members had been drinking that morning – something Jesse James would never have permitted, had he been present in Northfield. This was the primary reason why Jesse James was never indicted for the Northfield crimes.

Northfield residents had seen the gang members leave a local restaurant near the mill shortly after noon, and they testified in Faribault at the Younger brothers’ trial that they smelled of alcohol, and that gang members were obviously under the influence.

To carry out the robbery, the gang divided into two groups. Three men entered the bank, two guarded the door outside, and three remained near a bridge across an adjacent square.

The robbers inside the bank were thwarted, when acting cashier Joseph Lee Heywood refused to open the safe, falsely claiming that it was secured by a time lock – even as they held a bowie knife to his throat, and cracked his skull with a pistol butt. Assistant cashier Alonzo Enos Bunker was wounded in the shoulder as he fled out the back door of the bank.

Meanwhile, the citizens of Northfield grew suspicious of the men guarding the door, and raised the alarm.

The five bandits outside fired in the air to clear the streets, which drove the townspeople to take cover and fire back from protected positions. Two bandits were shot dead, and the rest were wounded in the barrage.

Inside, the outlaws turned to flee. As they left, one shot the unarmed cashier Heywood in the head. Historians have speculated about the identity of the shooter, but have not reached consensus on his identity.

The gang barely escaped Northfield, leaving two dead companions behind. They killed two innocent victims, Heywood, and Nicholas Gustafson, a Swedish immigrant from the Millersburg community west of Northfield.

A massive manhunt ensued.

The James brothers eventually split from the others, and escaped to Missouri.

The militia soon discovered the Youngers and one other bandit, Charlie Pitts. In a gunfight, Pitts died, and the Youngers were taken prisoner.

Except for Frank and Jesse James, the James-Younger Gang was destroyed.

The Aftermath

Later in 1876, Jesse and Frank James surfaced in the Nashville, Tennessee, area, where they went by the names of Thomas Howard and B. J. Woodson, respectively.

Frank seemed to settle down, but Jesse remained restless. He recruited a new gang in 1879 and returned to crime, holding up a train at Glendale, Missouri (now part of Independence, Missouri), on October 8, 1879.

This robbery was the first of a spree of crimes, including the holdup of the federal paymaster of a canal project in Killen, Alabama, and two more train robberies.

But the new gang did not consist of battle-hardened guerrillas; they soon turned against each other or were captured, while James grew paranoid to the point where he scared away one of his gang, and is believed to have killed another.

With the authorities growing suspicious, the brothers returned to Missouri where they felt safer.

In December 1881, Jesse rented a house at 1318 Lafayette Street, in Saint Joseph, Missouri – not far from where he had been born and raised. Frank, however, decided to move to safer territory, heading east to Virginia.

The Assassination of Jesse James

With his gang nearly annihilated, James trusted only the Ford brothers, Charley and Robert. Although Charley had been out on raids with James, Bob was an eager new recruit.

For protection, James asked the Ford brothers to move in with him and his family.

James had often stayed with their sister Martha Bolton and (according to rumor) he was “smitten” with her.

James did not know that Bob Ford had conducted secret negotiations with Thomas T. Crittenden, the Missouri governor, to bring in the famous outlaw.
Barred by law from offering a sufficiently large reward, Crittenden had turned to the railroad and express corporations to put up a $5,000 bounty for Jesse or Frank.

On April 3, 1882, after eating breakfast, the Fords and James prepared to depart for another robbery. They went in and out of the house to ready the horses.

As it was an unusually hot day, James took off his coat, then removed his firearms, lest he look suspicious.

Noticing a dusty picture on the wall, he stood on a chair to clean it. Bob Ford shot James in the back of the head.

James’ two previous bullet wounds and partially missing middle finger served to positively identify his body.

A Legend, Even in Death

The murder of Jesse James became a national sensation.

The Fords made no attempt to hide their role. Indeed, Robert Ford wired the governor to claim his reward.

Crowds pressed into the little house in St. Joseph to see the dead bandit, even while the Ford brothers surrendered to the authorities – but they were dismayed to find that they were charged with first degree murder. In the course of a single day, the Ford brothers were indicted, pleaded guilty, were sentenced to death by hanging, and two hours later were granted a full pardon by Governor Crittenden.

The governor’s quick pardon suggested that he knew the brothers intended to kill James, rather than capture him. The implication that the chief executive of Missouri conspired to kill a private citizen startled the public, and added to James’ notoriety.

After receiving a small portion of the reward, the Fords fled Missouri.

Rumors of Jesse James’s survival proliferated almost as soon as the newspapers announced his death. Some said that Robert Ford killed someone other than James, in an elaborate plot to allow him to escape justice. These tales have received little credence, then or later.

James’ mother Zerelda Samuel wrote the following epitaph for him: In Loving Memory of my Beloved Son, Murdered by a Traitor and Coward Whose Name is not Worthy to Appear Here.

James’s widow Zerelda Mimms James died alone and in poverty.

Jesse and his cousin Zee had two children who survived to adulthood: Jesse Edward James (b. 1875) and Mary Susan James (later Barr) (b. 1879). Twins Gould and Montgomery James (b. 1878) died in infancy.

Jesse, Jr., became a lawyer who practiced in Kansas City, Missouri, and Los Angeles, California.

That’s your story, for now.

Next time, we’ll look at “the dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard”, as the famous old folk song puts it.

Till then.

Peace.

The Gunfighters: Calamity Jane

Martha Jane Canary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, and professional scout most noted for her claim of being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok, but also for having gained fame fighting Native Americans. She is said to have exhibited kindness and compassion, especially to the sick and needy. This contrast helped to make her a famous figure, in the old frontier.

In both physical resemblance and mannerisms, Ellen Barkin’s portrayal of Jane in the 1995 film, “Wild Bill” was particularly memorable.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

That was reel life, Hollywood-style.

Here’s what history has to tell us, about the lady, herself:

Jane’s Early Life: 1852–1876

Calamity Jane was born May 1, 1852, as Martha Jane Cannary (or Canary) in Princeton, within Mercer County, Missouri. Her parents, Robert W. and Charlotte Cannary, were listed in the 1860 census as living about 7 miles (11 km) further northeast of Princeton in Ravanna.

Martha Jane was the eldest of six children, having two brothers and three sisters.

In 1865, Robert packed his family and moved by wagon train from Missouri to Virginia City, Montana.
Charlotte died along the way in Black Foot, Montana, in 1866 of “washtub pneumonia.”

After arriving in Virginia City in the spring of 1866, Robert took his six children on to Salt Lake City, Utah. They arrived in the summer, and Robert supposedly started farming on 40 acres (16 ha) of land. They were there only a year before he died in 1867.

Martha Jane took over as head of the family, loaded up the wagon once more, and took her siblings to Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory. They arrived in May 1868. From there they traveled on the Union Pacific Railroad to Piedmont, Wyoming.

In Piedmont, Martha Jane worked variously as a dishwasher, a cook, a waitress, a dance-hall girl, a nurse, and an ox team driver.
During this time period, Jane also began her on-and-off employment as a prostitute at the Fort Laramie Three-Mile Hog Ranch.

Finally, in 1874, she found work as a scout at Fort Russell.

From her (ghostwritten) autobiography of 1896, Martha Jane writes of this time:

“In 1865 we emigrated from our homes in Missouri by the overland route to Virginia City, Montana, taking five months to make the journey. While on the way, the greater portion of my time was spent in hunting along with the men and hunters of the party; in fact, I was at all times with the men when there was excitement and adventures to be had. By the time we reached Virginia City, I was considered a remarkable good shot and a fearless rider for a girl of my age.”

Accounts from this period described Martha Jane as being “extremely attractive” and a “pretty, dark-eyed girl.”

Martha Jane received little to no formal education and was illiterate.

Calamity, by Name

Martha Jane was involved in several campaigns in the long-running military conflicts with Native American Indians. Her unconfirmed claim was that:

“It was during this campaign [in 1872–1873] that I was christened Calamity Jane. It was on Goose Creek, Wyoming where the town of Sheridan is now located. Capt. Egan was in command of the Post. We were ordered out to quell an uprising of the Indians, and were out for several days, had numerous skirmishes during which six of the soldiers were killed and several severely wounded. When on returning to the Post we were ambushed about a mile and a half from our destination. When fired upon Capt. Egan was shot. I was riding in advance and on hearing the firing turned in my saddle and saw the Captain reeling in his saddle as though about to fall. I turned my horse and galloped back with all haste to his side and got there in time to catch him as he was falling. I lifted him onto my horse in front of me and succeeded in getting him safely to the Fort. Capt. Egan on recovering, laughingly said: ‘I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains.’ I have borne that name up to the present time.”

It may be that she exaggerated or completely fabricated this story. Even back then, not everyone accepted her version as true.

A popular belief is that she instead acquired the monicker as a result of her warnings to men that to offend her was to “court calamity”.
It also appears possible that Jane was not part of her name until the nickname was coined for her.

She certainly was known by that nickname by 1876, because the arrival of the Hickok wagon train was reported in the Deadwood newspaper, the Black Hills Pioneer, on July 15, 1876, with the headline, “Calamity Jane has arrived!”

One verified story about “Calamity Jane” is that in 1875 her detachment was ordered to the Big Horn River, under General Crook.

Bearing important dispatches, Jane swam the Platte River and traveled 90 miles (145 km) at top speed while wet and cold to deliver them.

After recuperating from the resulting illness for a few weeks, she rode to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and later, in July 1876, joined a wagon train headed north, which is where she first met Wild Bill Hickok, contrary to her later claims.

Jane’s addiction to liquor was evident, even in her younger years. For example, on June 10, 1876, she rented a horse and buggy in Cheyenne for a mile-or-so joy ride to Fort Russell and back, but Calamity was so drunk that she passed right by her destination without noticing it and finally ended up about 90 miles away at Fort Laramie.

Deadwood and Wild Bill Hickok: 1876–1881

Calamity Jane accompanied the Newton-Jenney Party into the Black Hills in 1875, along with California Joe and Valentine McGillycuddy.

Harsh conditions on the trail may have contributed to her characteristic look in photographs of the time: her youthful good looks were gone; her skin was leathery and tanned from sun and wind, she was muscular and often dressed in men’s clothing, and her hair was stringy and seldom washed.

In 1876, Calamity Jane settled in the area of Deadwood, South Dakota, in the Black Hills. There, she became friends with, and was occasionally employed by, Dora DuFran, the Black Hills’ leading madam.

She became friendly with Wild Bill Hickok and Charlie Utter, having traveled with them to Deadwood in Utter’s wagon train.

Jane greatly admired Hickok (much later others alleged to the point of infatuation, and also claimed that she was obsessed with his personality and his life).

After Hickok was killed during a poker game on August 2, 1876, Calamity Jane claimed to have been married to Hickok, and that Hickok was the father of her child (Jean), who she said was born on September 25, 1873, and whom she later put up for adoption by Jim O’Neil and his wife.

No records are known to exist which prove the birth of a child, and the romantic slant to the relationship might have been fabrication.

During the period that the alleged child was born, Jane was working as a scout for the army. And at the time of his death, Hickok was newly married to Agnes Lake Thatcher.

After Wild Bill’s Death

Jane also claimed that following Hickok’s death, she went after Jack McCall, his murderer, with a meat cleaver – having left her guns at her residence in the excitement of the moment. However, she never confronted McCall.

Following McCall’s eventual hanging for the offense, Jane continued living in the Deadwood area for some time, and at one point she helped save several passengers in an overland stagecoach, by diverting a party of Plains Indians who were in pursuit of the stage. The stagecoach driver, John Slaughter, was killed during the pursuit, and Jane took over the reins and drove the stage on to its destination at Deadwood.

In late 1876, Jane nursed the victims of a smallpox epidemic in the Deadwood area.

Her Final Years: 1881–1903

In 1881, Jane bought a ranch west of Miles City, Montana, along the Yellowstone River, where she kept an inn.

After marrying the Texan Clinton Burke, and moving to Boulder, Colorado, she again tried her luck in this business.

In 1887, she had a daughter, Jane, who was given to foster parents.

In 1893, Calamity Jane started to appear in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show as a storyteller. She also participated in the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. At that time, she was depressed and an alcoholic.

By the start of the 20th century, Madame Dora DuFran was still going strong, when Jane returned to the Black Hills in 1903. For the next few months, Jane earned her keep by cooking and doing the laundry for Dora’s brothel girls in Belle Fourche.

In July, she traveled to Terry, South Dakota. While staying in the Calloway Hotel on August 1, 1903, she died at the age of 51 (some sources say 53 or 56).

It was reported that she had been drinking heavily on board a train and became very ill. The train’s conductor carried her off the train and to a cabin, where she died soon after.

In her belongings, a bundle of letters to her daughter was found, which she had never sent.

Calamity Jane was buried at Mount Moriah Cemetery (South Dakota), next to Wild Bill Hickok.

Four of the men who planned her funeral (Albert Malter, Frank Ankeney, Jim Carson, and Anson Higby) later stated that since Wild Bill Hickok had “absolutely no use” for Jane while he was alive, they decided to play a posthumous joke on Wild Bill by giving Calamity an eternal resting place by his side.

Post Script: The McCormick claim

On September 6, 1941, the U.S. Department of Public Welfare granted old age assistance to a Jean Hickok Burkhardt McCormick, who claimed to be the legal offspring of Martha Jane Cannary and James Butler Hickok, after being presented with evidence that Calamity Jane and Wild Bill had married at Benson’s Landing, Montana Territory, on September 25, 1873 – documentation being written in a Bible, and presumably signed by two ministers and numerous witnesses.

McCormick’s claim has been vigorously challenged because of a variety of discrepancies.

Part of her claim consisted of the letters left by the deceased Calamity Jane – but the authenticity of these letters is not accepted by some, largely because there is no non-McCormick document supposedly written by Jane, and there is ample evidence that Jane was functionally illiterate.

A remarkable lady, nonetheless.

And a remarkable life.

That’s all, for this one.

Till next time.

Peace.

The Gunfighters: Wild Bill Hickok

James Butler Hickok (May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876) – better known as “Wild Bill” Hickok – was a folk hero of the American Old West.

His prodigious skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, became the stuff of legend.

My favorite Hollywood depiction of Hickok was the performance given by Jeff Bridges, in Walter Hill’s 1995 film, “Wild Bill”.
Bridges was nominated for an Oscar that year, on the basis of this – so I guess I’m not alone.

Video comes courtesy of YouTube:

That’s Hollywood.

Here’s history:

Bill’s Early Life

James Butler Hickok was born in Homer, Illinois (now Troy Grove, Illinois) on May 27, 1837 of English ancestry. His birthplace is now the Wild Bill Hickok Memorial, a listed historic site under the supervision of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

Hickok was a crack shot from a very young age, and was recognized locally as an outstanding marksman with a pistol.

In 1855, at age 18, Hickok moved to Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory following a fight with Charles Hudson, which resulted in both falling into a canal.

Mistakenly thinking he had killed Hudson, Hickok fled and joined General Jim Lane’s vigilante “Free State Army” (or Jayhawkers – also known as the “Red Legs”). While a Jayhawker, he met 12-year-old William F. Cody (later known as “Buffalo Bill”) who, despite his age, was a scout for the U.S. Army during the Utah War.

Because of his “sweeping nose and protruding upper lip”, Hickok was derisively called “Duck Bill”. He grew a mustache following an incident with David McCanles (see below), and in 1861 began calling himself “Wild Bill”.

Although Hickok’s photographs seem to indicate that he had dark hair, all contemporary descriptions confirm he was, in fact, golden blond (as reddish shades of hair appeared black in early photographic processes).

Hickok used the name William Hickok from 1858 and William Haycock during the Civil War.

Arrested as Haycock in 1865, he began again to use his real name of James Hickok. Most newspapers continued to use the name William Haycock when referring to “Wild Bill” until 1869.

His Early Career

On March 22, 1858, Hickok was elected as one of the first four constables of Monticello Township, Kansas.

In 1859, he joined the Russell, Waddell, & Majors freight company, the parent company of the Pony Express. The following year, he was badly injured by a bear while he was driving a freight team from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, Texas.

According to Hickok’s own account, he found the road blocked by a Cinnamon bear and its two cubs. Dismounting, he approached the bear and fired a shot into its head, but the bullet ricocheted from its skull, infuriating it. The bear attacked, crushing Hickok with its body. Hickok managed to fire another shot, disabling a paw. The bear then grabbed his arm in its mouth, but Hickok was able to grab his knife and slash its throat, killing it.

Badly injured with a crushed chest, shoulder and arm, Hickok was bedridden for four months before being sent to the Rock Creek Station in Nebraska to work as a stable hand while he recovered.

The station was built on land which the company had recently purchased from a local man, David McCanles.

The McCanles Incident

In 1861 Hickok was involved in a deadly shootout with David McCanles at the Rock Creek Station, near Fairbury, Nebraska – an event whose veracity is still the subject of debate.

On December 16, 40-year-old David McCanles; his 12-year-old son, William Monroe McCanles; and two farmhands, James Woods and James Gordon, called at the station’s office to demand payment of the overdue, second installment on their property.

David McCanles was allegedly threatening the station manager, Horace Wellman, when he was shot by either Hickok (who was hiding behind a curtain) or Wellman.

Hickok, Wellman, and an employee, J.W. Brink, were tried for murder, but judged to have acted in self-defense.

McCanles was the first man Hickok was reputed to have killed in a fight.

Civil War Service, and Scouting

When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Hickok signed on as a teamster (an outfitter or packer) for the Union Army in Sedalia, Missouri. By the end of the year, he was a wagon-master, but in September 1862 he was discharged for an undisclosed reason.

There are no known records of his whereabouts for over a year – though at least one source claims that Hickok was operating as a Union spy in Confederate territory during this time.

In late 1863 he was openly employed by the provost marshal of southwest Missouri as a member of the Springfield, Missouri detective police.

Hickok’s duties as a police detective were mostly mundane, and included counting the number of troops in uniform found drinking while on duty, checking hotel liquor licenses, and tracking down individuals in debt to the cash-strapped Union Army.

In 1864, Hickok either resigned or was reassigned, as he was then hired by General John B. Sanborn as a scout (at five dollars a day plus a horse and equipment).

In June 1865, Hickok was mustered out, and afterward spent his time in and around Springfield, gambling.

Hickok–Tutt: The First Gunfight

On July 21, 1865, in the town square of Springfield, Missouri, Hickok met and killed Davis Tutt in a “quick draw duel” – the first one of its kind.

During the gunfight, rather than the face-to-face fast-draw commonly shown in movies, the two men faced each other sideways in the historic dueling stance, drawing and aiming their weapons before firing.

Background to the Duel

Hickok first met former Confederate Army soldier Davis Tutt in early 1865, while both were gambling in Springfield.

Hickok often borrowed money from Tutt and they were originally friends, but they had a falling out over a woman. (It was also rumored that Hickok once had an affair with Tutt’s sister, perhaps fathering a child.)

There was a long-standing dispute over Hickok’s girlfriend, Susannah Moore. Hickok refused to play cards with Tutt, who retaliated by financing other players in an attempt to bankrupt him.

The dispute came to a head when Tutt was coaching an opponent of Hickok’s during a card game. Hickok was on a winning streak, and the frustrated Tutt requested he repay a $40 loan, which Hickok immediately did.

Tutt then demanded another $35 owed from a previous card game. Hickok refused, as he had a “memorandum” proving it to be for $25.

Tutt took Hickok’s watch, which was lying on the table, as collateral for the $35 – at which point Hickok warned him not to wear it or he, Hickok, would shoot him.

The next day, Tutt appeared in the town square wearing the watch prominently, and Hickok tried to negotiate the watch’s return. Tutt stated he would now accept no less than $45, but both agreed they would not fight over it and went for a drink together.

Tutt left the saloon, but returned to the square at 6 p.m., while Hickok arrived on the other side and warned him not to approach him while wearing the watch.

Both men faced each other, and fired almost simultaneously.

Tutt’s shot missed, but Hickok’s did not, piercing Tutt through the heart from about 75 yards away. Tutt called out, “Boys, I’m killed” before he collapsed and died.

Aftermath of the Shootout

Two days later Hickok was arrested for murder (the charge was later reduced to manslaughter). He was released on $2,000 bail and stood trial on August 3, 1865.

At the end of the trial, Judge Sempronius H. Boyd gave the jury two contradictory instructions. He first instructed the jury that a conviction was its only option under the law. He then instructed them that they could apply the unwritten law of the “fair fight” and acquit.

The jury voted for acquittal, a verdict that was not popular at the time.

Several weeks later, Hickok was interviewed by Colonel George W. Nichols, and the interview was published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Using the name “Wild Bill Hitchcock” , the article recounted the “hundreds” of men whom Hickok had personally killed, and other exaggerated exploits. The article was controversial wherever Hickok was known.

Encounters with John Wesley Hardin

On April 15, 1871, Hickok became marshal of Abilene, Kansas, taking over from former marshal Tom “Bear River” Smith, who had been killed on November 2, 1870.

After completing a cattle drive in early 1871, outlaw John Wesley Hardin arrived in Abilene. Hardin was a notorious gunfighter and is known to have killed over 27 men in his lifetime.

It appears that Hardin idolized Hickok, and identified on some level with him.

For Hickok’s part, it is reported that he didn’t even know that “Wesley Clemmons” (Hardin’s alias at the time) was in fact a wanted outlaw, simply advising Hardin to avoid problems while in Abilene. When Hardin was confronted by Hickok and told to hand over his guns, he did.

It is alleged by Hardin that when his cousin, Mannen Clements, was jailed for the killing of two cowhands, Hickok – at Hardin’s request – arranged for his escape.

Hickok’s next encounter with the outlaw, in August of that same year, had quite a different ending.

This time, Hickok was in pursuit of Hardin after he had killed a man in an Abilene Hotel “for snoring too loud”.
Hardin quickly left Kansas never to return, thereby avoiding a possibly fatal confrontation with Hickok.

Shootout with Phil Coe

Hickok and Phil Coe, a saloon owner and acquaintance of Hardin’s, had an ongoing dispute concerning The Bull’s Head Tavern in Abilene.

The tavern had been established by gambler Ben Thompson and his partner, businessman and fellow gambler Coe. The two entrepreneurs had painted a picture of a bull with a large erect penis on the side of their establishment as an advertisement.

Citizens of the town complained to Hickok. When Thompson and Coe refused his request to remove the bull, Hickok altered it himself.

Infuriated, Thompson tried to incite Hardin into action by exclaiming to him, “He’s a damn Yankee. Picks on rebels, especially Texans, to kill.”
Hardin replied, “If Wild Bill needs killin’, why don’t you kill him yourself?”

Wishing to intimidate Hickok, Coe supposedly stated he could “kill a crow on the wing”.

Hickok’s retort is one of the West’s most famous sayings (though possibly apocryphal): “Did the crow have a pistol? Was he shooting back? I will be.”

On October 5, 1871, Hickok was standing off a crowd during a street brawl, during which time Coe fired two shots. Hickok ordered him to be arrested for firing a pistol within the city limits.

Coe explained that he was shooting at a stray dog, but suddenly turned his gun on Hickok, who fired first and killed Coe.

Hickok caught a glimpse of movement of someone running toward him and quickly fired two more shots in reaction, accidentally shooting and killing Abilene Special Deputy Marshal Mike Williams – who was coming to his aid.

This event haunted Hickok for the remainder of his life.

Another Perspective

There is another account of the Coe shootout: Theophilus Little, mayor of Abilene and owner of the town’s lumberyard, recorded his time in Abilene by writing in a notebook that was recently given to the Abilene Historical Society. Writing in 1911, he detailed his admiration of Hickok and included a paragraph on the shooting that differs considerably from the reported account:

“Phil Coe was from Texas, ran the ‘Bull’s Head’, a saloon and gambling den, sold whiskey and men’s souls. As vile a character as I ever met, for some cause Wild Bill incurred Coe’s hatred and he vowed to secure the death of the marshal. Not having the courage to do it himself, he one day filled about 200 cowboys with whiskey intending to get them into trouble with Wild Bill, hoping that they would get to shooting and in the melee shoot the marshal. But Coe “reckoned without his host”. Wild Bill had learned of the scheme and cornered Coe, had his two pistols drawn on Coe. Just as he pulled the trigger one of the policemen rushed around the corner between Coe and the pistols and both balls entered his body, killing him instantly. In an instant, he pulled the triggers again, sending two bullets into Coe’s abdomen (Coe lived a day or two) and whirling with his two guns drawn on the drunken crowd of cowboys, “and now do any of you fellows want the rest of these bullets.” Not a word was uttered.”

Law Enforcement, Acting and Politics

In September 1865, Hickok came in second in the election for city marshal of Springfield.

Leaving Springfield, he was recommended for the position of deputy United States marshal at Fort Riley, Kansas. This was during the Indian wars in which Hickok sometimes served as a scout for General George A. Custer’s 7th Cavalry.

In 1867, Hickok moved to Niagara Falls, where he tried acting in a stage play called The Daring Buffalo Chasers of the Plains. He proved to be a terrible actor, and returned to the West, where he ran for sheriff in Ellsworth County, Kansas, on November 5, 1867. He was defeated by a former soldier, E.W. Kingsbury.

On March 28, 1868, Hickok was in Hays City, Kansas, as a deputy U.S. Marshal, picking up 11 Union deserters charged with stealing government property, who were to be transferred to Topeka for trial. He requested a military escort from Fort Hays, and was assigned William F. Cody, along with a sergeant and five privates.

On September 1, Hickok was in Lincoln County, Kansas, where he was hired as a scout by the 10th Cavalry Regiment, a segregated African American unit.

In July 1869, Hickok was back in Hays and was elected city marshal of Hays and sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas, in a special election held on August 23, 1869.

Regularly scheduled county elections were held on November 2, 1869, and Hickok (Independent) lost to his deputy, Peter Lanihan (Democrat). However, Hickok and Lanihan remained sheriff and deputy, respectively.

Gunfights, in Hays

In his first month as sheriff in Hays, Hickok killed two men in gunfights.

The first was Bill Mulvey, who “got the drop” on Hickok. Hickok looked past him and yelled, “Don’t shoot him in the back; he is drunk,” which was enough of a distraction to allow him to win the duel.

The second was a cowboy, Samuel Strawhun, who encountered Hickok and Deputy Sheriff Lanihan at 1 am on September 27 when they had been called to a saloon where Strawhun was causing a disturbance. After Strawhun “made remarks against Hickok”, he died instantly from a bullet through the head as Hickok “tried to restore order”. At Strawhun’s inquest, despite ‘very contradictory’ evidence from witnesses, the jury found the shooting justifiable.

On July 17, 1870, in Hays, Hickok was involved in a gunfight with disorderly soldiers of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. Two troopers, Jeremiah Lonergan and John Kyle (sometimes Kile), attacked Hickok in a saloon. Lonergan pinned Hickok to the ground while Kyle put his gun to Hickok’s ear. Kyle’s gun misfired, which allowed Hickok to reach his own guns. Lonergan was wounded in the knee, while Kyle, shot twice, died the next day.

Scouts of the Plains

In 1873, Buffalo Bill Cody and Texas Jack Omohundro invited Hickok to join them in a new play called Scouts of the Plains.
Hickok and Texas Jack eventually left the show, before Cody formed his Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1882.

Health Complications

In 1876, Hickok was diagnosed by a doctor in Kansas City, Missouri, with glaucoma and ‘ophthalmia’, a condition that was widely rumored at the time by Hickok’s detractors to be the result of various sexually transmitted diseases.

In truth, he seems to have been afflicted with trachoma, a common vision disorder of the time.

His marksmanship and health had apparently been suffering for some time, as he had been arrested on several occasions for vagrancy, despite earning a good income from gambling and displays of showmanship only a few years earlier.

Marriage

On March 5, 1876, Hickok married Agnes Thatcher Lake, a 50-year-old circus proprietor in Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory.

Hickok left his new bride a few months later, joining Charlie Utter’s wagon train to seek his fortune in the gold fields of South Dakota.

Martha Jane Cannary, known popularly as Calamity Jane, claimed in her autobiography that she was married to Hickok and had divorced him so he could be free to marry Agnes Lake, but no records have been found that support Jane’s account.

The two were believed to have met for the first time after Jane was released from the guardhouse in Fort Laramie and joined the wagon train in which Hickok was traveling.

The wagon train arrived in Deadwood in July, 1876.

Shortly before Hickok’s death, he wrote a letter to his new wife, which read in part, “Agnes Darling, if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife – Agnes – and with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore.”

Assassination at Deadwood

It is reported that Hickok had a premonition that Deadwood would be his last camp, and expressed this belief to his friend Charlie Utter (also known as Colorado Charlie) and the others who were traveling with them at the time.

On August 2, 1876, Hickok was playing poker at Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon in Deadwood, in the Black Hills, Dakota Territory.

Hickok usually sat with his back to a wall. The only seat available when he joined the poker game that afternoon was a chair that put his back to a door. Twice he asked another player, Charles Rich, to change seats with him, and on both occasions Rich refused.

A former buffalo hunter named Jack McCall (better known as “Broken Nose Jack”) walked in unnoticed. McCall walked to within a few feet of Hickok, drew a pistol and shouted, “Damn you! Take that!” before firing at Hickok. McCall’s bullet hit Hickok in the back of the head, killing him instantly.

The motive for the killing is unknown. McCall may have been paid for the deed, but more likely McCall became enraged over what he perceived as a condescending offer from Hickok to let him have enough money for breakfast, after he had lost all his money playing poker the previous day.

When shot, Hickok was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all black – a combination now known as a “Dead man’s hand”.
The fifth card’s identity is debated, or had been discarded and its replacement had not yet been dealt.

And that’s all your cards, for this one.

I hope you’ll join me, for our next installment.

Till then.

Peace.

The Gunfighters: Johnny Ringo

John Peters “Johnny” Ringo (May 3, 1850 – July 13, 1882) was an outlaw Cowboy of the American Old West who was affiliated with Ike Clanton and Frank Stilwell in Cochise County, Arizona Territory during 1881-1882.

He was occasionally referred to as “Ringgold” by the newspapers of the day.

He is best remembered for his relations with legendary gunmen Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday – which were never good.

In the 1993 film “Tombstone”, Ringo was played with suitable menace by “Terminator” and “Aliens” star, Michael Biehn.

Video is courtesy of YouTube:

That’s the Hollywood.

Here’s the history:

Ringo’s Early Life

John Peters Ringo was born in Greensfork, Indiana, of partial Dutch ancestry. His family moved to Liberty, Missouri in 1856.

He was a contemporary of Frank and Jesse James (who lived nearby in Kearney, Missouri), and became a cousin of the Younger brothers through marriage when his aunt, Augusta Peters Inskip, married Coleman P. Younger, uncle of the outlaws.

In 1858 the Ringo family moved to Gallatin, Missouri where they rented property from the father of John W. Sheets (who became the first “official” victim of the James-Younger gang when they robbed the Daviess County Savings & Loan Association in 1869).

On July 30, 1864, while the Ringo family was traveling through Wyoming on their way to California, Johnny’s father Martin Ringo stepped out of his wagon holding a shotgun which accidentally discharged. The buckshot round entered the right side of Martin’s face, exiting the top of his head. The 14-year-old Johnny, and the rest of the family, buried Martin on a hillside along the trail.

The Mason County War

By the mid-1870s, Ringo had migrated from San Jose, California to Mason County, Texas. Here he befriended an ex-Texas Ranger named Scott Cooley, who was the adopted son of a local rancher named Tim Williamson.

Trouble started when two American rustlers, Elijah and Pete Backus, were dragged from the Mason jail and lynched by a predominantly German mob.

Full-blown war began on May 13, 1875, when Tim Williamson was arrested by a hostile posse and murdered by a German farmer named Peter Bader.

Cooley and his friends, including Johnny Ringo, conducted a terror campaign against their rivals. Officially called the “Mason County War”, locally it was called the “Hoodoo War”.

Cooley retaliated by killing the local German ex-deputy sheriff, John Worley, shooting him, scalping him, and tossing his body down a well on August 10, 1875.

After Cooley supporter Moses Baird was killed, Ringo committed his first murder on September 25, 1875.

He and a friend named Bill Williams rode up in front of the house of James Cheyney – the man who had led Baird into an ambush.

As Cheyney came out, unarmed, invited them in, and began washing his face on the porch, both Ringo and Williams shot and killed him. The two then rode to the house of Dave Doole, and called him outside, but when he came out with a gun, they fled back into town.

Some time later, Scott Cooley and Johnny Ringo mistook Charley Bader for his brother Pete, and killed him. Both men were jailed in Burnet, Texas by Sheriff A. J. Strickland. Ringo and Cooley were broken out of jail by their friends shortly afterwards, and parted company to evade the law.

By November 1876, the Mason County War had petered out, after costing a dozen or so lives.

Scott Cooley was believed dead, and Johnny Ringo and his friend George Gladden were locked up, once again. One of Ringo’s alleged cellmates was the notorious killer John Wesley Hardin.

Gladden was eventually sentenced to 99 years, but Ringo appears to have been acquitted.

Two years later, Ringo was noted as being a constable in Loyal Valley, Texas. Soon after this, he appeared in Arizona for the first time.

A Bad Reputation – and a Temper

According to Western author Louis L’Amour, Ringo was a surly, bad-tempered man who was worse when he was drinking.

His main claim to infamy was an incident in an Arizona territory saloon in 1879.

In December of that year, a drunk Ringo shot the unarmed Louis Hancock in a Safford, Arizona saloon, when Hancock refused a complimentary drink of whiskey (Ringo was buying), stating he preferred beer. Hancock survived his wound.

Tombstone

Ringo first turned up in Cochise County, Arizona Territory in 1879, together with Joseph Graves Olney (alias “Joe Hill”), a friend from the Mason County War.

Here, too, Ringo had a reputation for having a bad temper. He may have participated in robberies and killings with the Cowboys.

Ringo did not, however, take part in the shootout at the O.K Corral.

On January 17, 1882, Ringo and Doc Holliday traded threats, and seemed to be headed for a gunfight. Both men were arrested by Tombstone’s new chief of police, James Flynn (former chief Virgil Earp having been badly wounded in an ambush a few weeks before), and hauled before a judge for carrying weapons in town. Both were fined.

Judge William H. Stilwell followed up on charges outstanding against Ringo for a robbery in Galeyville, and Ringo was re-arrested and jailed on January 20 for the weekend.

Vendetta

Two months later, Ringo was suspected by the Earps of taking part in the murder of Morgan Earp on March 18, 1882.

After Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp and his posse killed Frank Stilwell in Tucson on March 20, 1882, warrants were issued for their arrest. Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan deputized Ringo and 19 other men – many of them Cowboys and friends of Stilwell. Ringo joined the county posse that pursued but never found Earp’s federal posse.

Pete Spence’s wife, Marietta Duarte, testified that her husband, Frank Stilwell, “Indian Charlie” Cruz, Frederick Bode, and a half-breed named Fries had killed Morgan Earp.

The Earp posse searched for Pete Spence at his wood camp in the South Pass in the Dragoon Mountains, and found Florentino “Indian Charlie” Cruz (whom they presumed to be “Fries”), and killed him.

One of Ringo’s closest friends, “Curly Bill” Brocius, was killed by Wyatt Earp in a gunfight at Iron Springs (later Mescal Springs) about 20 miles (32 km) from Tombstone, two days after the Cruz murder.

Earp told his biographer Stuart Lake that he got Cruz to confess to being the lookout at Morgan’s murder, and that Cruz identified Johnny Ringo, Frank Stilwell, Hank Swilling, and Curly Bill Brocius as Morgan’s killers.

Turkey Creek Canyon

On July 14, 1882, Johnny Ringo was found dead in the crotch of a large tree in West Turkey Creek Valley, near Chiricahua Peak, with a bullet hole in his right temple and an exit wound at the back of his head.

A single shot had been heard by a neighbor late in the evening, the day before. The property owner found Ringo sitting on the low-leaning trunk and fork of a large tree by the river.

Ringo’s revolver had one round expended, and was found hanging by one finger in his hand. His feet were wrapped in pieces of his undershirt. His horse was found two weeks later, Ringo’s boots tied to the saddle of his horse – a common method to keep scorpions out of boots.

After an inquest, the coroner found that death had been caused by a single shot through the head, and Ringo’s death was officially ruled a suicide.

Johnny Ringo is buried close to where his body was found in West Turkey Creek Canyon at the base of the tree in which he was found. The tree fell around 2010.

The grave is located on private land and is accessible through a gate with instructions on how to get to the grave site.

Suicide, or…?

Several people have been suggested as Ringo’s murderer, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Mike O’Rourke, and Buckskin Frank Leslie.

The book, “I Married Wyatt Earp”, supposedly written by Josephine Marcus Earp, reported that Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday returned to Arizona to find and kill Ringo. Edited by Glen Boyer, the book claims that Holliday killed Ringo with a rifle shot from distance, contradicting the coroner’s ruling that Ringo’s death was a suicide.

Holliday was fighting a court case in Colorado at the time of Ringo’s death. Official records of the District Court of Pueblo County, Colorado indicate that both Doc and his attorney appeared in court there on July 11, 14, and 18, 1882, which, if true, would make it impossible for Holliday to have killed Ringo.

Author Karen Holliday Tanner, in “Doc Holliday, A Family Portrait”, speculated that Doc may not have been in Pueblo at the time of the court date, citing a writ of habeas corpus issued for him in court on July 11. She believes that only his attorney may have appeared on his behalf that day, in spite of the wording of a court record that indicated he may have appeared in person.

One theory that supports the coroner’s finding that Ringo committed suicide is that a few weeks before Ringo’s death, a large fire in Tombstone had wiped out most of the downtown area. The silver mines were producing less, and demand for beef was down. Many of Ringo’s friends were gone, while his way of life was quickly becoming a thing of the past. Ringo was depressed after being rejected by his remaining family members in California and the recent deaths of his outlaw friends.

Stoked by a period of binge drinking, Ringo was preparing to camp in an isolated spot, far from the city. He tied his boots to his saddle (a common practice in Arizona to keep scorpions out of them), but the horse got loose from his picket and ran off. Ringo tied pieces of his undershirt to his feet to protect them, and crawled into the fork of a large tree to spend the night.

As evening came on, despondent over the miserable state of his life, Ringo shot himself.

Fred Dodge, a Wells, Fargo & Co. undercover agent, attributed Ringo’s killing to Mike O’Rourke.

A gambler, O’Rourke had been arrested for murdering Henry Schneider in January, 1881. Curly Bill Brocius and John Ringo encouraged talk of a lynching and led other men who pursued the wagon carrying O’Rourke.

O’Rourke got to the outskirts of Tombstone and the Last Chance Saloon just ahead of the mob. He was met there by Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp, and was escorted to jail in Tucson, where he soon escaped.

He held on to a burning rage toward Ringo and Curly Bill, and according to a conversation Dodge had with Frank Leslie, O’Rourke learned in July, 1882 that Ringo and Buckskin Frank Leslie were camping in the Turkey Creek Canyon area. O’Rourke knew that Ringo had been drinking heavily for the last week and made camp in the same area. On July 14, he allegedly found Ringo sleeping off his liquor and killed him, arranging the body to look like a suicide.

The story had enough credibility that many – including Ringo’s close friend, Pony Diehl – believed it to be true. O’Rourke was killed, shortly after being caught cheating at cards.

Another theory suggests that “Buckskin” Frank Leslie killed Ringo.

Leslie allegedly found Ringo drunk and asleep in a tree. Hoping to curry favor with Earp supporters in office, he shot Ringo through the head.

Suicide, or murder?

A sticky end, in either case.

It’s the end of this one, too.

See you next time.

Peace.