The Old West. American mythology romanticizes and glorifies this relatively brief period in our history. Movies and television have had a large part in building and popularizing Western myths. But even before mass media, Western stories sold books and magazines.
The period we know as the Old West, or the Wild West, began at the end of the Civil War. It was all but over twenty years later. By 1900, it had disappeared almost completely.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, many young men (and they were primarily men) migrated west. Many of them were Confederate veterans who felt at loose ends following the South’s defeat. The war had scarred many of them. Living in areas of wide open spaces and very little civilization or law, many of them turned to crime.
Those crimes have been staples of American fiction ever since. Historians generally consider Owen Wister’s The Virginian as the first true Western novel. It was by no means the last. Hollywood’s nascent film industry found endless material in the stories—true and not so true—of mayhem and derring-do from this period. Some of the participants in those stories who managed to survive found work advising the studios (Wyatt Earp was one).
Several of the hundreds upon hundreds of Western stories from that period make fascinating subjects for true crime buffs. Those are the crimes that fit into this category. Even after more than a century, they still have the power to intrigue and amaze us.
Last week, we saw John Lee, a condemned prisoner who amazingly survived attempts to hang him. This week, we return to the Old West and meet Jack Slade. Slade met an untimely end at the hands of a vigilante gang in 1864.
Jack Slade
Jack Slade (born Joseph Alfred Slade) worked at various times as a wagon master, Pony Express superintendent, and stagecoach divisional superintendent. Most people liked Jack Slade—when he was sober. The problem was that he wasn’t sober that often. In his cups, he’d fire off his guns in bars and make numerous, usually idle threats. It’s important to note that his shenanigans didn’t injure anyone.
Jack Slade
Another problem for Slade was his reputation as a tough guy and gunfighter. This came partly from the time he met Mark Twain in 1861. Twain included an embellished account of Slade in his 1872 book, Roughing It. In it, Twain painted Slade as a vicious killer with up to 27 victims to his credit. In truth, Slade did kill one man named Andrew Ferrin, but he was not the desperado Roughing It made him out to be.
Illustration of Jack Slade meeting Mark Twain, on August 3, 1861, by Benjamin Clinedinst
In 1864, Slade was in the mining town of Virginia City, Montana Territory. His antics irritated the movers and shakers of the town, who were eager to create a more peaceful community.
The Vigilantes
With the nation’s attention on the American Civil War, law enforcement in the territories was a low priority. A year before Jack Slade arrived, a gang of robbers led by Henry Plummer preyed on the citizens of Virginia City. Weary of Plummer’s depredations, many leading citizens formed a semi-secret “vigilance committee” to reassert order. In the first two months of 1864, the vigilantes caught and hanged 24 men, including Plummer. While strictly speaking illegal, the hangings targeted only guilty men.
Henry Plummer (Public Domain)
Slade’s hanging was wholly unjustified. On March 10, 1864, a group of vigilantes arrested Slade, fed up with his drunken rages and threats. Told he was to be hanged, Slade pleaded for his life or at least a chance to say goodbye to his wife. Undeterred by his pleas, the mob hanged Slade before his wife, Maria, arrived.
Vigilantes hang Arthur Compton and Joseph Wilson in Helena, Montana Territory, in 1870 (Public Domain)
Epilogue
Not long after Slade’s hanging, legitimate courts and law enforcement began functioning in Montana Territory. By 1867, vigilantism had mainly died out. In March of that year, miners in one Montana mining district posted a notice in the local newspaper. The announcement promised to hang five vigilantes for every man hanged by vigilantes. That was effectively the end of vigilantism in Montana Territory.
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Last week’s blog covered the case of Gary Triano, a Tucson, Arizona, real estate developer killed by a pipe bomb placed in his Lincoln Continental. This week, we take a short trip geographically but almost a century and a half in time to Tombstone, Arizona Territory. On October 26, 1881, gunfire erupted in the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral. Although he was only one of the men who took part, Wyatt Earp emerged as the fight’s most famous participant.
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp is the stuff of legend, a legend burnished by Stuart Lake’s adulatory (and highly fictitious) 1931 biography, Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal. Books, films, and an eponymous television series built an image of a straight-arrow lawman fighting for justice. The truth is more nuanced. While Earp did serve as a lawman in various capacities, he also gambled and invested money in saloons. One can conclude that money and influence motivated him as much as seeking justice.
Wyatt Earp, age 21
The man whose reputation rests on his association with the Old West began his life in prosaic Monmouth, Illinois. About two years after his birth, the Earp family joined a group planning to relocate to San Bernardino, California. However, when Wyatt’s sister, Martha, became ill, the family stopped and settled near Pella, Iowa.
Wyatt’s older brothers joined the Union army during the American Civil War. At the same time, his father recruited local men and drilled them as soldiers. At age 13, Wyatt also tried to join the army, but his father stopped him. Rather than fighting, he tended the family farm with Morgan and Warren, his two younger brothers.
Wyatt Earp Moves West
Wyatt’s first foray west was to join older brother Virgil as a teamster in California in the summer of 1865. After the stint in California, he bounced back and forth between the west and the Midwest. He stopped in places like Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas; Peoria, Illinois; and Deadwood, Dakota Territory. Occasionally he served as town constable or assistant marshal. Other times, he found himself in scrapes with the law.
Wyatt Earp and Bartholomew “Bat” Masterson (standing) in Dodge City, Kansas in 1876
Dodge City made a lasting impact on Wyatt. Not only did he serve as a lawman there, but he met John Henry “Doc” Holliday in Dodge. Wyatt and Doc became lifelong friends after Doc saved Wyatt’s life in a Dodge City saloon fight.
Holliday’s distinguished Georgia family saw bleak times after the Civil War. But Doc managed to attend the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia. Diagnosed with tuberculosis soon after graduating, he moved west. He gradually abandoned dentistry and earned a reputation as a gambler and gunslinger.
Wyatt Earp in Tombstone
By 1879, Dodge City started to settle down, no longer the wild cowtown of earlier days. Wyatt left Dodge in company with his common-law wife, his brother Jim and Jim’s wife, and Doc Holliday and his companion, Big-Nose Kate. The Earps and their women arrived in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, on December 1, 1879. Doc Holliday and Kate stayed behind in Prescott, where the gambling opportunities appeared more promising.
Tombstone, Arizona Territory in 1881 (photographed by C.S. Fly)
Wyatt’s brother, Virgil, became a Pima County deputy sheriff in 1880. He appointed Wyatt as his deputy soon after Wyatt arrived in town. On January 1, 1881, eastern Pima County split into a new entity, Cochise County, with Tombstone as its seat. Wyatt applied to be sheriff of the new county, but so did Johnny Behan. Behan, a wily—some say crooked—political operative, outmaneuvered Wyatt and became sheriff. This inauspicious beginning would have repercussions later.
Wyatt Earp at about age 39
Wyatt Earp and the Cowboys
The Clanton family owned a ranch twelve miles southwest of Tombstone and twenty miles from the Mexican border. The Clantons used the place as a base for their smuggling and rustling operations. The family patriarch, Newman Haynes “Old Man” Clanton, died when a group of Mexicans out to recover stolen cattle ambushed him and his party in August 1881. His sons, Ike, Phineas “Phin,” and Billy Clanton, carried on.
In the climate of the times, the Cowboys resented the growing influence of city residents on politics and law enforcement. Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan sympathized with the ranchers and supported them. The sheriff disliked the Earps and tended to ignore their complaints about the Clantons and their illegal activities.
Joseph Isaac “Ike” Clanton photographed in 1881 by Tombstone photographer C.S. Fly
The Earp faction opposed the Cowboys. Behan may have been country sheriff, but Virgil Earp represented the law in Tombstone as a Deputy U.S. Marshal and City Marshal. The Earps, of course, had strong family ties of their own.
The Earps Confront the Cowboys
The infamous gunfight stemmed from Virgil’s decision to enforce a city ordinance against carrying guns in town. He received reports that the Clantons and their allies, the McLaury brothers, left the livery stable and entered town while armed. The Cowboys’ recent (and repeated) threats against the Earps may have influenced his decision. He appointed Wyatt, Morgan, and Doc Holliday as special policemen to assist him.
The rebuilt OK Corral in 2004. The original corral was destroyed along with much of Tombstone by a catastrophic 1882 fire (Brian W. Schaller)
The OK Corral gunfight didn’t occur in the Corral. It happened near the corner of Fremont and Third Streets. The Earps and Holiday walked west down Fremont Street to where the Cowboys stood near Camillus Fly’s boarding house and photographic studio. Afterward, it proved impossible to ascertain with accuracy where the participants stood. What is known is that the three Earps and Doc Holliday faced six Cowboys: Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, Billy Claiborne, and Wes Fuller.
John Henry “Doc” Holliday gave up dentistry for whiskey, gambling, and gunslinging. He and Wyatt Earp became friends in Dodge City.
Gunfight at the OK Corral
Virgil didn’t expect a fight as the two sides faced off. He called to the Cowboys, “Throw up your hands! I want your guns!” When Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton drew and cocked their single-action revolvers, he shouted, “Hold! I don’t want that!”
Virgil Earp was the official representative of the law at the OK Corral
Who fired first is uncertain. Partisan witnesses gave versions favorable to their side, and impartial witnesses didn’t know the participants by sight. The dense smoke from black powder weapons added to the confusion. When the smoke cleared, the McLaurys and Billy Clanton lay dead or dying. Virgil and Morgan suffered slight wounds, and a bullet bruised Doc Holliday’s hip when it struck his holster. Ike Clanton, who did so much to stir up the fight, ran from the battle, as did Billy Claiborne. Wyatt Earp suffered no injuries.
Wyatt Earp and the Aftermath
Sheriff Johnny Behan attempted to arrest Wyatt as he walked to his home, but Wyatt rebuffed him. Ike Clanton later filed murder charges against the Earps and Holliday. Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer held a hearing on the matter and eventually ruled that Virgil Earp acted within his office as the lawman in charge. He criticized Virgil’s decision to deputize Wyatt and Holliday but decided they were within the law.
Ritter and Reams undertakers displayed the bodies of the McLaurys and Billy Clanton in their window. A sign accompanying the display read, “Murdered in the Streets of Tombstone.”
Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton (left to right) in the window of the undertakers. This is the only known photo of 19-year-old Billy.
On December 28, a shotgun blast struck Virgil Earp in the left arm and shoulder, costing him the use of the arm. Ike Clanton’s hat was found near where the shot came from. An assassin ambushed Morgan Earp on Marcy 18, 1882, as he played billiards. Morgan died within minutes. Convinced he wouldn’t get justice, Wyatt hunted down Morgan’s attackers and killed them, using arrest warrants as a fig leaf of legality..
Epilogue
Ike Clanton was indicted for cattle rustling in the summer of 1887 and was killed in a gunfight with lawmen while resisting arrest.
Wyatt Earp continued to live a colorful life. In his later years, he often advised Hollywood cowboy actors and Western film directors. He died in Los Angeles on January 13, 1929, at age 80.
Wyatt and Josephine Earp, in their mining camp near Vidal, California in 1906
Countless books, films, and television shows tell the story of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral gunfight, but only some are accurate. One biography I found to be trustworthy is Casey Tefertiller’s 1999 biography, Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend. A short book purporting to be a blow-by-blow account of the gunfight itself is Countdown to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, written by K.M. Lassiter and published in 2017. The movies and television shows from the 1950s might be enjoyable entertainment, but their picture of Wyatt Earp is quite distorted.
An older Wyatt Earp ca. 1920s
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Last week our case was in Kent, England, where we profiled Michael Stone and the horrific Russel murders. This week, we’re back in the states, traveling to the Old West. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a con man made a name for himself in Denver and Alaska. History knows him as Soapy Smith.
Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith
Soapy Smith
Jefferson Randolph Smith was a native of Coweta County, Georgia, born in November 1860 on the eve of the American Civil War. His grandfather owned a plantation, and his father was a lawyer. But the war ruined the family financially, so they moved to Round Rock, Texas to start over. Smith’s mother died when he was 17 and he left home shortly thereafter. But while in Round Rock, he witnessed the death of infamous outlaw Sam Bass.
Outlaw Sam Bass
From Round Rock he traveled to Fort Worth where he soon established a close-knit gang of shills and con men. They specialized in “short cons” that needed little setup and assistance. Their method was to run the con for a brief time, then move on to avoid repercussions.
Soapy Smith Gets His Nickname
Smith is best known for what the Denver papers called the “prize soap racket.” Smith would set up a display case on a busy corner and pile it with bars of soap. While he warmed up the crowd that gathered, he would wrap money around the bar, then wrap the bar in plain paper. The money would range from $1 all the way up to $100.
Next, Smith would feign mixing the bars with money in with the other bars of soap. He then sold the soap for a dollar a bar (some sources say five dollars). At some point, a shill in the crowd would tear open his bar of soap and loudly proclaim he’d won. This, of course, led to the sale of more soap bars.
About halfway through the stack of soap bars, Smith would announce that the $100 bill remained in the stack. He then auctioned off the remaining bars to the highest bidders. But the only money “won” went to his shills.
Smith didn’t always get away with the racket. One time, a policeman named John Holland arrested him on a bunko charge. When he went to write Smith’s name in the police logbook, he forgot his first name and wrote “Soapy” instead. The sobriquet stuck and Jeff Smith became Soapy Smith.
Soapy Smith Hits Colorado
Smith arrived in Denver in 1879. By 1882, he had a grip on vice in that Colorado city. His influence at city hall grew until, by 1887, he was reputed to be involved in most of the city’s criminal activities. Soapy opened the Tivoli Club, a combination saloon and gambling house, in 1888. Smith’s younger brother, Bascomb, joined the gang and operated a cigar store. It was a front for the dishonest poker games that went on in the back room.
Soapy Smith’s Tivoli Club (at left) at 17th and Market in Denver, Colorado ca. 1890
Soapy operated in and around the Denver area for several years. In 1892, he moved his operation to the mining boomtown of Creede, Colorado. In Creede, he established the Orleans Club, another saloon and gambling house. At some point, he acquired a mummified body named “McGinty” that he exhibited as a “prehistoric” human. This was untrue. Twenty-first century tests showed the body had been embalmed using arsenic-based embalming fluid. But that didn’t stop Smith from charging people ten cents to look at the “prehistoric” relic. While they waited in line, the ultimate con man fleeced his customers with shell games and crooked card games.
Main Street, Creede, Colorado ca. 1892
Creede’s boom went bust quickly. Smith left town and returned to Denver, taking McGinty with him. His timing was excellent. A huge fire destroyed most of Creede’s business district, including the Orleans Club, on June 5, 1892.
The Klondike Gold Rush
Gold was discovered in the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada on August 16, 1896. When word reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, it started the Klondike Gold Rush. This seemed like an excellent opportunity to the seasoned con man, so Soapy Smith went to Alaska.
Soapy Smith in his bar in Skagway, Alaska Territory
Much like he had in Denver and Creede, Smith soon established an empire in Skagway, Alaska. His base of operations there was a saloon he called Jeff Smith’s Parlor he opened in March 1898. One of the tactics his gang used was to befriend newcomers and steer them to dishonest businesses or crooked gambling halls.
The Soap Gang hangs out in front of Jeff Smith’s Parlor in Skagway on July 4, 1898. Four days later, Soapy Smith was dead (University of Washington Library)
But Skagway wasn’t as compliant as Denver or Creede had been. A vigilance committee called the “Committee of 101” threatened to expel Smith and his gang. In response, Smith created his own “law and order society” to counteract the vigilantes.
Soapy Smith Meets His End
On July 7, 1898, a miner named John Douglas Stewart returned to Skagway with a sack of gold worth $2,700. Gang members roped Stewart into a game of three-card monte. When Stewart refused to pay his losses, the gang members grabbed his sack of gold and ran.
The Committee of 101 got involved. They insisted Smith return the gold, but he refused, saying Stewart had lost it “fairly.”
Frank H. Reid shot Soapy Smith dead, but died himself 12 days after the gun battle
On the evening of July 8, the Committee of 101 organized a meeting on the Juneau Wharf. Smith, with a Winchester rifle slung over his shoulder, started arguing with a man named Frank H. Reid. Reid was one of the guards blocking Smith’s way to the wharf. Unexpectedly, a gunfight broke out. Soapy Smith fell dead, shot through the heart. Frank Reid suffered severe wounds as well.
Jefferson “Soapy” Smith’s grave in Gold Rush Cemetery, Skagway, Alaska. The age on the marker is incorrect; Smith was 37 when he died (Wikipedia/Notyourbroom)
Epilogue
Most of Smith’s gang fled Skagway after his death. Frank Reid died twelve days after the shootout from a bullet in his leg and groin. He was buried in Skagway Cemetery. Jefferson “Soapy” Smith lies nearby in Gold Rush Cemetery.
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Last week we saw serial killer Donald Gaskins have his budding career cut short. This week’s case is that of Tom Horn, one of the authentic “hired guns” of the American west. Horn rose to fame (or infamy) as a hitman during the fading days of the Old West.
Tom Horn—Scout, Rancher, Detective
Thomas Horn, Jr. was born on his family’s farm in Scotland County, Missouri in the northeastern corner of the state. The fifth of eventually 12 children, young Tom was a lonely child who often suffered abuse from his father. At 16, he traveled to the Southwest where the U.S. Army hired him as a scout and packer. His performance as a scout earned him praise and promotion. By 1885, he was chief of scouts at Fort Bowie in Arizona Territory. While with the Army, he witnessed Apache leader Geronimo’s final surrender to Gen. Nelson Miles on September 4, 1886.
Tom Horn braiding rope. The rumor that he braided the rope he was hanged with was false.
Geronimo’s surrender marked the end of the Apache Wars in the Southwest. Horn took the money he had earned as a scout and started a small ranch in Southeastern Arizona Territory. However, one night, thieves attacked the ranch and stole his 100 head of cattle and 26 horses. The theft left Horn bankrupt. It also marked the beginning of his intense hatred for thieves
Following his failed attempt at ranching, Horn wandered about, holding a number of jobs. Most often he worked as a cowboy, where he was expected to use his gun to watch over the stock. In 1889, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency hired him because of his reputation as a tracker and for being cool under pressure.
Tom Horn Becomes a Hired gun
The so-called Johnson County War was essentially a class conflict between the big (and wealthy) cattlemen and small homesteaders. It was fought mostly over land and water rights. Ranchers who raised sheep were especially targeted; sheep supposedly destroyed the common grazing lands. Typically, the cattlemen would accuse a small rancher or farmer of rustling, often falsely. Lynch mobs often dispatched the “rustlers.”
“The Invaders,” gunmen hired by the WSGA to elimnate the alleged rustlers in Johnson County during the Johnson County War (Photo taken at Fort D.A. Russell near Cheyenne, WY in May 1892)
The Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) hired Tom Horn as a “range detective,” a euphemism for hired killer. He also continued to work for Pinkerton’s when the agency was in the service of the WSGA or other cattle interests. Horn earned a reputation as a tough and fearless killer.
Tom Horn Kills Willie Nickell—Or Did He?
The Miller and Nickell families were neighbors near Iron Mountain, Wyoming. Jim Miller raised cattle while Kels Nickell raised sheep. Conflict between the two families was inevitable. On July 18, 1901, Willie Nickell, the 14-year-old son of sheep rancher Kels, was found murdered near the gate of the Nickell homestead. The violence continued. On August 4, someone shot Kels Nickell. The next day, Deputy Sheriff Peter Warlaumont and Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe Lefors arrived in Iron Mountain. They arrested Jim Miller and his sons Victor and Gus for the shooting of Kels Nickell. The trio bonded out the next day.
Kels P. Nickell and Mary Mahoney Nickell, Willie’s parents (WY State Archives)
Months passed. In January 1902, Deputy Marshall Joe Lefors questioned Horn about the Willie Nickell murder while discussing potential employment. Horn, still drunk from a bender the night before, allegedly confessed to killing Willie with his rifle from 300 yards away. The county sheriff arrested him the next day.
Willie Nickell
Horn On Trial
Horn’s trial began in Cheyenne on October 10, 1902. Because of Horn’s notoriety, the trial attracted large crowds and a carnival atmosphere prevailed. Cattle rancher John C. Coble, a long-time friend and employer, funded the defense. However, ninety years later, writer Johan P. Bakker proposed that Horn had become expendable to the WSGA’s members. The trial became a way of silencing him before he could talk too much about their shady activities. Bakker theorizes that although WSGA members forked over $1,000 each for the defense, they made it clear they wanted a minimal effort.
The prosecution case against Horn leaned heavily on his supposed “confession” to Deputy Marshall Lefors. Circumstantial evidence placing him in the general vicinity at the time tended to support the “confession.” The defense called one Otto Plaga, who testified that Horn was 20 miles away at the time of the murder.
Tom Horn in Jail in Wyoming awaiting execution in 1903
The jury got the case on October 23 and returned a guilty verdict the next day. Several days later, Judge Richard H. Scott sentenced Horn to death by hanging. A petition to the Wyoming Supreme Court for a new trial failed.
Epilogue
Tom Horn was hanged on November 20, 1903. People still argue his guilt today. Author Chip Carlson researched the case and wrote Tom Horn: Blood on the Moon. He concluded that while Horn could have killed Willie Nickell, he probably didn’t. Another writer, Dean Fenton Krakel, believes Horn did commit the murder but did not realize he was killing a boy. His book, The Saga of Tom Horn: The Story of a Cattlemen’s War, contends the real target was Kels Nickell, Willie’s father.
Rancher Jim Coble paid for Horn’s coffin and a stone to mark his grave. He was buried in Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado on December 3, 1903.
Tom Horn’s tombstone in Columbia Cemetery, Bolder, CO
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