Legendary Outlaws & Bandits of the Wild West

there’s certain things that a man should expect when he chooses the path of an outlaw it ain’t a glamorous life not by a long shot cold lonely camps constantly on the Run constantly looking over your shoulder not ever really being able to trust anyone and always in the back of your mind is that realization there’s no easy way out this life only ends in one of two ways behind bars or at the end of a rope or just shot down like a dog but that’s life on the HUD Trail you accept it you are what you are and it is what
it is is but what nobody ever tells you is what happens after especially if a couple of frontier saw bones get a hold of your body they say if you really want to understand where a person is coming from you need to walk a mile in their shoes but what if those shoes are made from human skin and adorned with nipples yes nipples join me today as we delve into the life and afterlife of Wyoming Outlaw big noos George my name is Josh and this is the wild west extravaganza [Music] George big noos parrot was born in
France not far from the border of Switzerland in the year 1834 parrot his last name was parrot unfortunate yet appropriate as he himself did possess a beak more fitting for the face of a parakeet than an outlaw I should note however that we don’t know for sure what his actual name was or if he was really even from France George’s early life is a bit bit of a mystery and being a criminal and all he would go by several different aliases and even at one point claim Ohio as his place of birth not much of an improvement over France if you ask me
still though most sources do list France as being his homeland and since I like the idea of a cowboy hat wearing Pepe law running around with an Upp French accent that’s what we’re going with like I said the dude’s life is a mystery and as tempting as it was to go down that rabbit hole and try to find out all the juicy detail dets of George’s early life I restrain myself let’s face it when it comes to George parrot it’s not his life that was the most interesting aspect of the man nor was it his big ass nose no
it was what happened to George after his death it’s really intriguing still though his life what little we do know is worth looking at but that said let’s take a glance at George The Outlaw as far as I can tell big noos first pops up on the radar in August of 1878 when he and his colleagues Le the train hold up not too far east of Medicine Bow Wyoming their exact target being a Union Pacific car hauling cash for the company pay roll now this gang in question consisted of George his nose Frank McKenna Sim Jan
that’s s IIM JN Joe Manus John Sandy Wells Tom Reed John Irwin Frank tol and Dutch Charlie buris Sim Jan the one with the coolest name in my opinion was supposedly the boss the brains of the outfit however was evidently nobody these Bandits had the genius idea to wrap a loosen railroad spike with a telegraph wire then hide in the brush the intentions of yanking on The Wire thus dislodging the rails which would then derail the train regrettably for the wouldbe robbers Union Pacific Employees soon came along in a handar
noticed the loose spike and actually got out and repaired it and then just went along their merry way now big noos and his Bunch were watching them the entire time and McKenna even wanted to open up and kill the two dudes George and fellow gang member Frank tol however protested saying that they weren’t there to kill section men I guess the idea was they were just working stiffs doing their jobs and besides there’s no profit in Murder just for murder’s sake the flip side to that is is that dead men tell no Tales which is exactly what the damn
Railroad employees did as soon as they got to the next town soon enough a couple of law enforcement officials came to investigate a deputy sheriff Robert widdowfield and Union Pacific Detective Henry tip Vincent and you have no idea how much I want to call him Henry just the tip Vincent anyway the duo tracked the bandits down to their Hideout at rattlesnake Canyon at the base of Elk Mountain even found their still smoldering Campfire Story Goes the widdowfield plac his hand over the fire commented to his partner that it was
still hot and that they would likely find the Outlaws by Nightfall and as soon as he stood up he was shot dead a single bullet to either his head or his neck Henry just the tip Vincent still mounted spurred his horse and attempted to escape but he was boxed in and just blown out the saddle rising to his knees he did try fire him back but he was just too exposed now gunned dead in a matter of moments just riddled with bullets The Killers took the weapons and anything else of value off the dead law dogs before covering their bodies with brush
and moving on couldn’t even afford them the decency of a shallow grave by the way this double murder was according to multiple sources the first time law enforcement officials were ever killed in the line of duty in Wyoming followingthe Ambush the Union Pacific Railroad put up $11,000 for the apprehension to those responsible a reward that soon doubled to 2,000 bucks or over 50,000 in today’s money if you Google big nose George you’ll see a lot of sources claiming that it was a $10,000 reward that doubled to 20,000 but I’m calling
bull butter on that one Jesse James arguably the Most Wanted Man back in those days had 10,000 on his head and the railroad really hated Jesse I just don’t think there’s any way those stingy tycoons were going to offer up that kind of money for some nobody like big nose George also there are some wanted posters for parrot and assuming they’re real which I’ll admit is a big assumption they too only list the reward is1 or $2,000 either way the stakes were raised and pretty soon some very dangerous men began hunting after big
noos and the boys the gang would remain elusive however splitting up and lighting out for safer pastures a few like George would head up to Montana some would go to Canada While others would hit up the Black Hills which brings us to Frank toll the first of the gang who ended up biting the dust just a month after helping George kill those two deputies Frank himself was shot dead attempting to rob a stage coach outside of Deadwood John Irwin who I only found listed as a member of the gang on One Source was a bit luckier he was with
told during The Botch stage robbery and when arrested confessed to his role in killing widdowfield and Vincent and I say lucky because instead of getting lynched he only got life in prison Sim Jan Frank mckenny Joe Manus Jack Campbell and John Wells all sort of disappeared to history or so it seems although there is some speculation about Sim and Frank which I’ll get to later so now all we’re left with is Big noos George and Dutch Charlie buris and these two bad boys ended up robbing a general store in Montana at gunpoint and thus
provisioned traveling north trading some of their illg Goten whiskey to Native Americans for horses once they arrived at Fort bitten they sold the steeds and kept on moving and Dragon it appears that George and Dutch Charlie just could not keep their damn mouth shut now at some point they split up as well and Charlie got himself arrested either in very late 1878 or early 1879 arrested and put on a train Bound for Rollins wyom ironically it was the very same train that he and the boys had tried to Rob back in August of 78 alas
Dutch Charlie would never make it to Rollins when the train stopped to load up on coal in the now ghost town of carbon Wyoming so some 45 50 Mi west of Rollins it was stormed by an angry mob a mob who wasted no time in dragging Charlie from the train and hanging his ass from the nearest Telegraph pole remember old Deputy widdowfield well once his body was recovered he was buried there in Carvin Charlie however wasn’t considered worthy to be buried in the same graveyard as the man that he helped kill so his final rest in place
unmarked lay somewhere outside the boundaries of that Cemetery Legend has it that it was the dead Deputy sister-in-law they kicked the barrel out from under Charlie although a grand jury later found nobody responsible for the lynching imagine that how much you want to bet some of those on the grand jury were some of the same ones in the Lynch Mob George parrot old Gonzo big noos looking ass was still out there though still robbing stage coaches he even got so bold as to rob the damn US Army in broad daylight the actual Target in this
robbery was a businessman named Morris Khan who was traveling from Fort Kio with an escort of 15 Soldier Boys and shitload of green backs somewhere between 4 to $14,000 all of which ended up in the hands of big noos George and whoever was riding with him at this time now this particular score happened just outside of Terry Montana by the way and you know how George B he just could not stop bragging he kept getting drunk and flapping his gums and nostrils in various saloons all throughout Montana didn’t take long for word to trickle on
down to Carbon County Wyoming and soon enough the long arm of the law came calling once again sources differ but it looks like Carbon County Sheriff James Rankin was most likely the guy who finally caught up with George and his nose arrested him without incident and put him on a train Bound for Wyoming and just like his old buddy Dutch Charlie big noos George soon found himself in the hands of a Lynch Mob when the train made a quick stop in carbon the Vigilantes placed a noose around George’s neck and even placed him up on
a whiskey barrel only this time nobody kicked now it seems that George begged and pleaded and gave such a full confession of his role in killing deputies widdowfield and Vincent that the mob just let him go figuring there’s no way that a jury and Rollins would find the man innocent they cut him down and handed him back over to the good Sheriff of course George changed his tune once he arrived in Rollins and plednot guilty and when he was arraigned on September 13th 1880 he likely lied and told his lawyer his real name was George
Francis Warden and that he was born in Dayton Ohio in 1843 now I assume this is is a lie but who really knows you know an article on true West magazine claims that the Outlaw’s real name was George manuse parrot manuse Warden where does the truth lie who knows get it nose big nose all right whatever uh in the end it really doesn’t matter big noos George is just big noos George and that’s what he’ll probably always be remembered as that said the wheels of Justice move slow there in Rollins a jury was sworn in on November 16th of 1880 over a month
after he was arraigned and sure as [ __ ] they did find George guilty sentencing this Joe Camel of the old west to hang on April 2nd 1881 over 4 months after the jury was sworn in guess the good citizens of Rawlings Wyoming didn’t like stringing people up in the wintertime either that or they figured the ground would be too damn Frozen to dig a grave now George didn’t take this sentence lying down 13 days before his scheduled execution he decided to make a break for it using a pocket knife that he was allowed to keep George was somehow able
to slip out of his shackles and hide in wait for the sheriff to make his rounds sure enough when ranking appeared George jumped him bashing the law enforcement officer’s head in with the aforementioned iron shackles and knocking him nearly unconscious good chance big nose would have gotten away with it too had it not been for Sheriff franken’s wife Rosa she heard the Ruckus and came running stick shooter in hand fired a warning shot into the ceiling and held big beak at gunpoint until more help arrived by this point the local
populace had ran slap out of patience when it came to Parrot he had already taken part in the murder of two lawmen and here he had just damn near done for a third they decided they had waited long enough the next morning 30 armed and massed Men entered into the jail and ignoring the sheriff’s urgings that they wait for the legal execution date LED big noos George out to meet his maker he’d hang from a telegraph poll after all just like his old par Dutch Charlie and in front of an audience of around 200 now you’ve heard me describe various
hanging methods on previous episodes a hanging if Done Right causes The Condemned man’s neck to break and a near instant death is the Humane way to do things in my opinion but not everybody was good at tying a noose and not every Lynch Mob cared too awful much about doing things the humane way suffice it to say that George’s execution was just as sloppy as his criminal career now there’s a few versions of what exactly happened and it’s hard to piece them all together but I’ll try it seems that the first attempt was a failure either due
to the rope breaking or just being too long and sagging enough for George to touch the ground with his feet the drop wasn’t very far by the way as they had him standing on a barrel of kerosene on the second attempt things didn’t go too smoothly either they gave up on the barrel and found a 12ft tall ladder to force George up on evidently he got his hands loose and tried climbing from the ladder on top of the telegraph Pole or some damn thing and finally he just beg for the mob to either shoot him or at least let him jump off on his own accord
so that his neck would break look George knew he was a dead man best case scenario at this point was a quick death but that didn’t work out either as the incensed mob seemed to want George to suffer they slowly pulled the ladder out from under him and George slowly strangled to death I can’t say for sure how long it took him to die but I do know that some sources claimed that they left the body of big noos George dangling from that noose for at least an hour hell at one point they lowered him down and a doctor refused to declare him
dead so they just yanked him back up whatever the exact details at the end end of the day of March 22nd 1881 big noos George was dead and you would think that’s where I’d go ahead and wrap things up right well not so with big George parrot his death is only the beginning of this strange tale had what I just shared about big nose been the entirety of his story likely none of us would even have heard the man’s name he was just a run-of-the-mill road agent at best right just like his cohorts even the leaders like mckenny and Sim Jan
footnotes in history names with no beginning or end end ah but big George wouldn’t fade from our Collective memory so easily mostly thanks to a couple of maab doctors a pair of real saw Bones by the names of Thomas McGee and John Eugene Osborne never and I cannot stress this enough never trust anybody named Eugene write that down first thing these two quacks did was make a plaster death mask thus preserving George’s colossal snout for posterity by the way according to True West Magazine’s Marshall tremblethis was the only death mask ever made
of an old west Outlaw that we know of at least I did find an article in the Texas Observer titled who were those Mass men that I will link to in this episode’s show notes evidently there’s a museum in Midland County Texas that claims to have the Death Masks of Jesse James Wild Bill Hickock Klay Allison PCH Cassidy and a few others however most experts agree that these masks are not the real deal next up McGee and Osborne saw it open Georgia skull to study his brains the skull cap or the top portion of the skull was given to Dr McGee’s
15-year-old assistant lilan Heath more on her to come as far as studying of the brains goes it seems that Dr McGee’s wife was quote criminally insane whatever that means due to injuries from a horse riding accident I guess the good doctor was curious if he could find something on George’s brain that could fix his wife or even you know try to figure out what caused George choose the life of an outlaw Osborne Also may have had ulterior motives when it came to desecrating parrot’s body take this with a grain of salt but supposedly the
doctor was on a train that big nose once held up the robbery of course delayed the train and caused Osborne to be late to a party now I can see that being a little bit irritating but it doesn’t really justify what happens next Dr Osborne Eugene began slicing off strips of George’s skin from his back his thighs and his chest epidermis samples he’d send to a Tannery to have him turn into a nice pair of shoes in a matching medical bag weird right well we ain’t done yet creepy Eugene had a special request for the shoes not only did he
want them to be a stylish two-tone tan made out of the skin of another human being but he also wanted the tips adorned with George’s nipples one on each shoe Wing tits as opposed to wing tips hat tip to author Deborah Hufford for that one check out her blog by the way notes from the frontier she had a pretty good post on big nose including that little clever joke I’ll definitely be returning to her sight in the future lots of good fodder for this podcast that’s notes from the frontier I’ll link to it in this episode show notes Wing
tits indeed Deborah unfortunately for Dr Osborne whoever made those shoes drew a hard Line in the Sand and adorning them with human nipples maybe that was my initial thought at least you know that whoever was tasked with making the shoes just flat out refused to you know put nipples on them but then I got to thinking maybe nipples don’t hold up too well to a good tannning and how exactly would that work anyway you know would they be stretched out flat and tight or filled with some sort of substance to stand erect like little buttons and how
big are the nipples in question we talking normal man-sized nipples or are we talking Joe Rogan and an ice bath nipples or how about Fair faucet nipples huh oh man I I came across a Playboy featuring Miss faucet when I was around 11 or 12 years old and let me tell you those nipples are permanently burned into my brain those bad boys are so long I believe it D bird might perch up on him you know if she were to walk around without a shirt on the nipples are so long they show up 15 minutes before she does all right though that’s neither
here nor there the important thing is that Dr crazy ass Osborne did receive his skin loafers Sans nipples unfortunately which he did wear when he was inaugurated as the damn governor of Wyoming in 1893 the governor the tud also went on to become assistant Secretary of State under woodro Wilson proving the fact that only debauched degenerates serving politics but you already knew that didn’t you nipple shoes weren’t Osborne’s only wacky idea either when the Panama Canal was finished he tried to secure the remains
of Christopher Columbus so they could be placed on a battleship to travel across the channel as part of the opening ceremony far as big noos George Goes everybody kind of sort of forgot about him the long arm of the law soon put an end to rampant banditry of the 1870s and ‘ 80s there in Wyoming and the state settled down roads were paved indoor plumbing was installed and homes were magically lit with electricity even Dr Osborne lived a good long life eventually passing away in 1943 the age of 84 progress even came to the small
Metropolis of Rollins Wyoming whose population had blossomed to include over 7,400 Souls by the year 1950 the same year the construction was begun on a new bank construction that led laborers to make a Grizzly Discovery buried in the ground was a whiskey barrel whose contents included human bones half a skull and you guessed it a pair of leather shoes there was an investigation of course and the locals accurately assumed that these remains were those of the fabled big noos George remember lilan Heath that 15-year-old medical
assistant that was given the top half of Georgia skull well she was still alive in 1950 at 85 years of age and she stillhad the skull cap she brought it in and it did line up perfectly with the rest of the skull found in the barrel thus the Thor ities were able to positively identify the remains that top portion of the skull had been used over the years as an asay by the way as well as a door stop and even a small flower pot Lillian Heath was pretty interested in her own right after George’s untimely death she
went on to become the first female physician in the state of Wyoming and lived another 11 years after Georgia’s remains were discovered passed away in 1962 at the age of 96 what a life man lived in Wyoming in the 1870s back when you could still get SC outed if you venture too far off on your own she was there for the old west Outlaws and lived long enough to see the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis when asked how well she was accepted early on as a feml doctor she replied quote men folks received me cordially but women were
just as catty as they could be end quote as far as I can tell big noos George never did receive any sort of proper burial however if you’d like to pay the man of visit and show your respects to a real ass Outlaw he can be found at the Carbon County Museum there in Rollins Wyoming part of him at least they’ve got George’s death mask on display as well as those shoes skull cap may or may not be there uh at one point it was being held at the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs Iowa so if you’re dead set on seeing an astray made out of a
bandit skull maybe go ahead and call him first to make sure it’s available as far as George’s nipples are concerned I don’t know where they are sorry so earlier I very briefly mentioned Jesse James in regards to Frank McKenna and Sim Jan you know George’s old buddies well when George was locked up there in Rollins he made the claim that those former Compadres were in fact Frank and Jesse James do I buy it no I do not just like I don’t really Buy George’s claims of being born in Ohio and I’m not aware of either of the James boys spending
time in Wyoming either however they did stay in Mckenna Texas for a spell back when they were gorillas under Quant tril Frank James Mckenna Texas Frank mckenny hm M so whatever make of that what you will now with all this talk of big noses you’re probably curious how big George’s nose actually was big enough that Legend States when they initially tried to bury him you know before the doctors got a hold of his body the casket wouldn’t shut because his nose got in the way now that’s obviously not true but I couldn’t
help but think of another Old West legend named big nose doc holiday’s girlfriend big nose Kate I’ve looked at pictures of her both as a young lady and as an older woman and her nose looks pretty average matter of fact the younger pictures of Kate portray a very attractive woman one Theory as to why she was known as big nose was because she had a habit of sticking her nose into other people’s business but judging by the one known picture of George plus his death mask he did literally have a pretty big nose damn thing looks like a
natural canopy looks like the dude could smoke a cigar in the rain with both hands tied behind his back all jokes aside though it’s not the end of the world if you’ve got a big notes I got a big one myself and according to a recent study it might actually be a very good attribute to possess so all you two can Sam look alikes listen up a survey published in basic and clinical andrology may have found a connection between the size of a nose and the size of a penis I’m no doctor so I won’t bore you with all the details but surgeon
Anthony Young claims men with larger noses tended to have larger than average tally whackers and that there seems to be a direct correlation I will link the study in this show notes so if you’ve got a little bit of nostril dois action going on you know if anybody’s everever accused you of breathing up all the air you know maybe you start showing people this study and ask them what the damn deal is okay ye El Paso back in April of 1886 was most definitely still the Wild and Woolly West hell this was almost 9
years before the aform mentioned John Wesley Harden would make the Bordertown his home and his final resting place in the year 1880 El Paso boasted a population of 7 36 a decade later in 1890 the population had exploded to over 10,000 of course people had been living in the local for much much longer than that falson points discovered in the greater El Paso region suggest at least 12,000 years of human habitation tribes whose names we don’t even know resided there and so did tribes that we do know about like the
Yano and later on the Mescalero and in the Spanish who first visited the area way back in 1581 before establishing the village of Paso in 1630 a village that was actually still a part of New Mexico until the 1850 Compromise by 1859 a visitor had this to say about the village quote the Texas town of El Paso had 400 inhabitants chiefly Mexicans hisbusinessmen were Americans but Spanish was the prevailing language all the features were Mexican low and flat Adobe buildings Shady cottonwoods under which Dusky Smoky women with sarthy children
sold fruit vegetables and bread ual gambling Universal from the boys game of pitch and corellas to the great saloons where huge piles of silver were staked at Monty in this little village $100,000 often exchanged hands in a single night through the potent agencies of Monty and poker there were only two or three american ladies and most of the whites kept Mexican Mistresses all goods were brought on wagons from the Gulf of Mexico and sold in an advance of three or 400% at eastern prices from hills overlooking the town the eye takes in a
Charming picture far stretching Valley enriched with orchards Vineyards and corn fields through which the river traces a shining pathway across it appear the flat roofs and Cathedral towers of the old Mexican El Paso still further dim Misty Mountains melt to the Blue Sky end quote my goodness sounds picturesque sadly however El Paso wouldn’t stay a sleepy little exotic Hamlet forever the railroad would come in 1881 and with it an influx of migrants mostly from Back East this accounts for the DraStic change in population that I mentioned a
minute ago between the years 1880 and 1890 as you can imagine a boost in population also means a boost in crime what long before the Boom Town became known as the six shooter Capital as violence gambling and prostitution flourished by 1890 El Paso had a new nickname the Monte Carlo of the United States or as visiting US president Benjamin Harrison called it Sin City and of course they’ll pass so many Western towns back in those days was actually two separate entities you had your respectable part of town right where the
so-called decent people live that’s where you’d find legitimate businesses churches schools and such then you had the other side of town an area that would become known as the Tinder loin District this is where a man could find temporary love get a good drunk on Gamble away his money and quite possibly his life this is also where the broken lived the downtrodden the unfortunate along with those that pray on their kind and within this tenderloin District you had an area known as the Utah Street reservation and that’s where hundreds of
soil doves applied their trade by soil doves I mean working gals prostitutes one of which was a lady by the name of Alice Abbott aka Big Alice also known as fat Alice now a little history lesson of El Paso that I shared with you Alice Abbott likely didn’t know anything about any of that probably she did didn’t even care the only part that concerned her was when the railroad came to town as it was her vessel of choice when she joined the growing population in the year 1881 now we don’t know much about Alice what else is new right she was probably
born sometime in the 1840s possibly in Louisville Kentucky luckily there is at least one picture of big Alice so we know what she looked like darkhaired and thin lipped with somewhat of a plump face Alice could be best described as looking Stout like the kind of lady that could lift heavy objects as well as heavy men you can only tell so much from one pitcher you know thankfully as far as Alice is concerned we’ve got plenty of eyewitness descriptions and they’ve all got one thing in common Miss Abbott was a big gal they say she stood 6 feet
tall and weighed anywhere from 190 to 230 lbs hence the name big or fat Alice now me personally I kind of take issue with this first off how the hell did anybody know what she weighed I highly doubt she was sharing that information with anybody and secondly 200 lb on a 6′ tall woman isn’t really what I’d consider overweight big yes at a height of 6 feet tall she likely towered over most of the men who called El Paso home but even if she weigh 230 lbs uh I don’t know I kind of feel like that doesn’t really qualify as huge or anything
healthy maybe rubenesque even or as I’d like to call it a good time and what if she was on the bigger side you fellas are scared of a little bit of meat with your potatoes maybe you need to start taking your damn vitamins they don’t call them love handles for nothing you know what I mean besides let’s be honest bigger the foa the tastier the chalupa okay full disclosure I did find one and just one reference to Big Alice weighing in at 300 lb which would make more sense considering the nicknames and judging by
that one pitcher 300 lb does look more accurate than 190 however the point still stands I guess you know for the time and place she was considered a bigger woman anyway once Miss Alice Abbott showed up in El Paso she opened up her own joint on Utah Street number 19 Utah Street to be exact by the way Utah Street is now known as South Mesa for any of you living in or visiting El Paso and by joint I do mean wh house a legal wh house kind of I mean sure you did have to grease the copsevery now and then in more ways than one
I’m sure you know most of these madams charged a quote unquote fine of $10 a month just the price of doing business and then they likely paid a little extra to keep the peace you know protection money long story short everybody was getting paid and everybody was getting laid but not everybody was equal there were levels to the horror game back in the old west especially in places like El Paso the bottom of the rung you have what was called the crib girls sort of like your modern-day Street Walkers they advertised their goods on public
thorough fars and took clients back to their small little dens or apartments also known as cribs these women could be purchased for as little as 50 cents and led what could only be described as miserable lives and I don’t say that out of judgment I say it out of pity you know many of them were broken spent used up abused just eing out the last of their days got to imagine the sex traffic had played a very large part down in the cribs a lot of women if not all of the women there were there against their will women who often times
couldn’t even speak the same language as the men who were buying them then you have the saloon girls think of the GS who worked at the gym Saloon on HBO’s Deadwood just like on the show the saloon girls would meet their clientele in the saloon proper and then take them to the back or upstairs and trade some loveing for money once again we’re dealing with women who often times did not have a choice in what they were doing in the real life Deadwood the real life Alice swen did lure these women to his Saloon under false pretenses the
promises of job’s cleaning or cooking and stuff like that only to then force them into prostitution and if you wanted to leave well you did so at your own Peril trust me this practice ran rampant across the West just like the crib Girls Saloon working gals were often on the losing side of beatings and abuse another good example for these type of ladies would be from the movie Unforgiven remember the ones that were working at the Billards hall for skinny remember how that one girl got her face cut up I can only assume that abuse like this also
ran rampant and there was very little done in the way of Justice other than paying off her pimp these women simply put were just property of course you also had the more upscale establishments once again I’ll use Deadwood as an example remember S Oliver and the Bella Union remember what he said when Al came sniffing around we’re offering different atmospheres you’re a pioneering type trailblazing type you’re going to draw a trailblazing element to which Saran replied mean and I get the ones who don’t wash and yeah that is kind of what
it meant the fancier the place the cleaner the girls the more a man could expect to spend especially at places like the shami Joanie stub’s fancy horror house she opened up and she broke from toiv her that would have been the top rung what would be called a parlor house and from what I can tell that is what it appears that fat Alice ran a proper horr house or a Parlor House only problem was she had competition directly across the street with another Madam redheaded Canadian by the name of Eda the grasshopper Clark I’m not making
that name up fat Allison the grasshopper I think I saw them open up for tripping daisies back in ’98 uh anyway these two madams weren’t always enemies by the way evidence suggests that they were friends at one point and maybe even lovers but money is money and you don’t mess with another man uh woman’s money and you damn sure don’t go poaching the girls which it seems Miss Clark did even if it was was inadvertently and while I’m pretty sure this little tussle was a long time coming for sure Clark and Abbott had a
history the actual violence was directly related to the grasshopper stealing or at least given Refuge to one of Alice Abbott’s top earners a young lady named Bessie cvin and Bessie wasn’t just one of fat Alice’s top earners but she was one of the most popular girls in the entire damn tenderloin District as such she could probably name her price so comes as no shock to learn that she and Alice began quar over money by the way there is a picture of Bessie online and yeah she was very pretty it almost doesn’t seem like a
real picture from those days it looks more like a modern-day model is posing and using some sort of Instagram filter so just judging by that one photo the idea that Bessie culvin was very sought after certainly adds up and maybe it got to her head because apparently she stopped paying Alice the money she owed for rent Story Goes that Miss cvin got some liquid courage in her and told big Alice that she didn’t owe her [ __ ] I’m paraphrasing of course and then things escalated and Bessie finally had enough bidy Alice a do and sa and her fine ass
across the thoroughfare to Ed’s joint telling all who would listen that quote Prime Cut will soon be found across thestreet end quote Prime Cut of course meaning her little punon Tang you know that’s a good thing about being good and what you do if you’re an average employee you’re replaceable or you might find it hard to get a new job somewhere else else but learn you a good skill a good trade and get really good at it and you can take your skills elsewhere Bessie knew she had that sweet puss that’s French for [ __ ] and knew that it
would be appreciated elsewhere only problem is one doesn’t simply just walk away from Big Alice Abbot now if she’s got anything to say about it that’s just not going to happen Okay Alice don’t play no [ __ ] you hear me Alice never been about that never been about playing no [ __ ] shout out to the other guy I love that movie all right moving forward Miss Alice promptly marched across that Dusty Street and began banging on the front door of Eda the grasshopper Place opening the door just barely enough to look out Eda told Alice to kick rocks
and refused to let her angry rival come inside got to assume letting people come inside is an occupational hazard both Alice and Eda were familiar with if you catch my drift this refusal however didn’t sit too well with Alice using her massive or Stout frame she ripped the Tire door off its hinges and came barreling in smashing at his face in the process not exactly a wilon flower herself and knowing full well you can’t have a conscience in the pimp game Eda Clark went for the nearest weapon she could find a heavy brass gas lighter now
these old gas lighters from what I can tell they aren’t tiny they’re long enough about 2 and 1/2 3 ft long to Light Street lamps or high up ceiling lights made of brass there usually have a wooden handle and a valve key on the end for turning on gas as well as a wig for light and lamps not something you’d want to take into battle but then again it’s not exactly something you’d want to get slapped upside the face with either in the right hands it would be possible to beat a man or a plump Madam to death with such a Contraption which I’m sure
is what ad I had in mind swinging that brass lighter at Alice’s large head with all she had it was no use though Alice Abbott had her dander up she deflected the blow and rammed her fist into eda’s mouth sending the smaller Madam tumbling to the ground Alison grabbed Eda by the wrist and began dragging her across the floor like a damn Swiff or Wet jet finally Eda mustered up enough strength to escape Abbott’s clutches led to her quarters quickly reemerging with a bon handled 44 Bulldog revolver Miss Alice I
want you to leave my house Eda ordered sumon back the hammer oh I’ll leave your house was Alice’s reply as she did the exact opposite start approaching ad with a menacing look on her face just seeming to disregard the pistol entirely Now by this time Eda was done making threats I guess she didn’t play either I’ll kill the damn [ __ ] she cried now by the way I’m not making this dialogue up these are the reported words that they said to each other I’ll kill the damn [ __ ] is what Adda said right before she squeezed
the trigger sending around straight into Alice’s Money Maker Yes you heard me correctly for a lack of better words Eda shot Alice in the cter my God I’m shot AB bellowed staggering out of the cat house and collapsing on the street Eda wasn’t done though and aiming to finish things she followed firing three more rounds that Alice that luckily missed their Mark now that 44 slug that hit Alice struck her in something called the pubic Arch a medical term that a local paper would report either accidentally or tongue and cheek as her public Arch
alluding to her occupation I didn’t know what a pubic Arch was so I Googled it medically speaking it’s the not formed by the inferior Rami of the two conjoined pubic bones as they diverge from the midline and that’s according to Mariam Webster who I don’t believe was a prostitute but I still don’t really know what a pubic Arch means so you know I kept looking I’ll try to sum it up for those of you like me without a damn medical degree but here’s what it is think about those fake skeletons we used to have back in school now imagine that
pelvis bone region the pubic Arch is the very bottom of the pelvis bone you know what better yet just Google it or trust me in saying that it’s not exactly a fun place to get shot either way once you understand what I’m talking about you’ll get why I say that Miss Abbott caught around right there in her coochie coochie y y y talk about a vaginal discharge luckily for her the bullet passed on through without hitting any vitals although I suppose her little thy poot could be considered vital still though it wasn’t much longer before she
was back on her feet and back and knes making that money Eda Clark ended up turning herself into authorities and got slapped with attempted first-degree murder charges less than a month later a jury would find her not guilty on grounds of self-defense and while Iagree she was definitely defending herself I do wonder how many customers of hers were on that jury as far as Alice goes well she may not have let bygones be bygones like I said that paper to her humiliation referred to her cubic Arch as her public Arch and she
had to deal with the fact that Eda remained unpunished right there across the street and in my mind at least I imagine that Eda probably would have been taunting Alice it does look like there is a chance that Alice got her revenge and if she did she waited two long years to do so finally one dark night in the summer of 1888 Ed of the grasshopper place got torched completely burned to the ground and reduced her and her 0s to apply in their trade on the streets right along with the crib girls at least temporarily you know eventually
a wealthier client came along and built her a new parlor now obviously I can’t prove that it was Alice that set the building on fire but I don’t believe much in coincidences and she certainly did have the motivation Abbot would continue pimping in El Paso until 1890 before selling her cat house to another Infamous Madam Tilly Howard and finally on April 7th 1896 big Alice Abbott’s heart gave out she was likely only in her early 50s and she was buried there in the Evergreen Cemetery I’m not sure what happened to Bessie culvin the Helen
of El Paso if you will other than that she did return to work for big Alice after that shooting incident over at Eda brothel which leads me to believe that Alice’s pimp hand was indeed strong as for Eda her place would burn down again in 1905 already not doing all that well healthwise inhaling that smoke didn’t much help matters she herself would pass away a few years later in Atlanta in 1908 as a direct result of her lingering illness and the complications from that smoke inhalation now the pictures we have of these ladies come from Alice
Abbott’s photo album which is full of all kinds of interesting notes left by The Madam herself apparently she kept pictures of all her soil doves and many of them have the letter A surrounded by a heart drawn on them a symbol that some indicates the girls who also doubled as Alice’s lovers other notes she scribbled in the album include nicknames such as the Missouri Wacker [ __ ] of the road and one prostitute she doed lover boy Mabel Jacobs as far as the picture of Eda Clark goes well Alice marked a big red X over and left a note that appears
to read quote [ __ ] to n words end quote I’ll let you figure that one out you know I don’t know about you but when I consider old west prostitutes it’s very easy for me to slip into a uh I don’t know a Fantastical frame of mind have you ever seen West World on HBO I mean the women on there are sexy right but then I remind myself of how it really was nobody brushed their teeth and I do mean nobody in the early 1900s only 7% of American households brushed their teeth or at least had toothpaste in their homes during the first world war
most of the army recruits had such poor oral hygiene that the military considered Dental dis disase a national crisis and that was nearly 40 years after big Alice and Eda got in that fight the women didn’t shave their legs or anything else for that matter neither did the men nobody wore deodorant and how often do you think these prostitutes bathed let’s pretend it was once a day which it for sure wasn’t but let’s just say it was how many men did they service in A Day Men Who also weren’t bathing on the regular and this was El Paso it gets
hot there like really hot even the stench of the most upscale Parlor House in 1880 would be enough to make us modern-day people gag but I suppose it’s what you’re used to right as far as the actual historical town of El Paso goes I did try to find out what now stands at 19 South Utah Street where fat Alice pled her trade but I don’t know what that location is in terms of present day South Mesa if it is 19 South Mesa then it is just a fenced in empty lot in front of a s K Cosmetics Beauty Supply building we know that Alice sold
her horr house to Tilly Howard however that place burnt down but Tilly’s new brothal was just a block away at 214 South Mesa which also appears to just be an open lot right next to a beauty salon and a sporting goods store interestingly enough that place at 214 South Mesa was the site of another famous Wild West incident in 1894 when a guy named bass Outlaw not to be confused with the outlaw Sam Bass got himself shot to death by El Paso Constable John Selman Constable Selman of course would go on to kill John Wesley Harden just a year
later at the Acme Saloon located on you guess it what’s now known as Mesa Street actually the northwest corner of Mesa in San Antonio Avenue which now appears to be if I’m looking at this map correctly an Al Rio toy store and I believe uh check me on this but I believe this is the same Corner that Dallas student Meer had his famous four in 5se seconds gunfight and it’s the same area whereJohn Selman who I just mentioned himself was gunned down just 9 months after he Gunn down John Wesley Harden lots of killing and lots of
History right there on El Paso’s Mesa Street and a whole lot of horing remember that Bulldog revolver I mentioned that Edie used to shoot Alice well that’s basically just a snub-nosed revolver it’s the same type of pistol that was used to assassinate US President James Garfield in 1881 that one being chambered in 442 and I reckon that’s about all I’ve got on Alice Abbott and Eda Clark for a very brief period Newton Kansas was the end of the Chism Trail for the cattle herds coming up out of Texas and the town seemed to pop up
nearly overnight there’s a story of someone passing through Newton in May of 71 and only seeing a couple of buildings the first train would arrive in July and by late summer it was a regular Boom Town and this was before the Santa Fe line made its way to witto and see is how Newton was a good 60 or so miles closer to Texas than abene was it soon became the destination of choice for the trail bosses now the two men I mentioned earlier mclusky and Bailey they were these so-called special policemen hired by the railroad to help keep the peace
during a very contentious election taking place that very August there in Newton I was unable to find out the exact details of said election other than it had something to do with the railroad or a bond of some sort remember since Newton was a Cow Town during entire economy was built around being a hub for the Santa Fe Rail and this brought a lot of money to the town especially in the form of all them Buck rusos coming up out of Texas who would be more than ready to spend some of their hard-earned money once they sold
off their beavs and one of these young cow pokes was a man by the name of Hugh Anderson who unfortunately for Mike mcclusky considered the recently departed Billy Bailey to be a friend according to at least one source the two men were possibly related through Hughes Mama side of the family whatever the connection Mr Anderson was outraged to learn that biley had been gunned down like a dog in the street and well he decided to even up the score speaking of mclusky as soon as he terminated Bailey he got to worry about having his NE
stretch so he skedaddled not for long though once he was assured that the killing would most likely be considered justifiable he returned rumor ased that Billy Bailey had previously killed a couple of guys in various gunfights so I guess all Mike had to say was that he feared for his life but offense that while it may have worked in the court of law would fall on deaf ears when it came to the Texas cowboy Hugh Anderson he and his friends went hunting mclusky and they found him along with a buddy of his named Jim Martin in a saloon playing
cards tuttles dance H it were located in what passed for the red light district there in Newton an area the locals called Hyde Park and the men in question those friends of Hugh Anderson were none other than Jesse Woodson James Leroy Butch Cy and Paul GD bunan and brother they was looking for blood and no that last part is absolutely not true the actual names of Anderson’s friends are names you’ve probably never heard before Henry Karns Jim Wilkerson and Billy Garrett together with Hugh they were just four wild-eyed young Cowboys a few
of the Legion that trailed cattle from Texas to Kansas back in them days and if it weren’t for the events I’m about to describe it’s very likely that all these men mclusky and Anderson included would be all but forgotten to history except for maybe appearing on someone’s ancestry.
com tree however that’s not to say they were just a bunch of nobodies Billy Garrett in particular was said to have already come out on top in a couple of shooting scrapes and Hugh Anderson weren’t no slouch either the son of a Rancher Anderson had very recently rode with none other than John Wesley Harden in pursuit of a wanted killer and take this next part with a grain of salt as I was not able to verify it but there is a possibility that Hugh and his older brother had been participants in the Sutton Taylor Feud what’s for certain is that Anderson wasted no time and
confront Mike mclusky and he did not mince words when doing so called Mike a cowardly son of a [ __ ] to his face and said he was going to blow his dang head off and this weren’t no idle threat either no sooner were the words out of Hugh’s mouth when he cleared leather but let’s just back up for a sec remember this dance hall wouldn’t have exactly been empty of civilians when all this went down there would have been other customers likely other Cowboys looking to blow off some steam wet their whistles and hopefully their carrots you
would have had Dance all employees a bartender or two probably a few working gals maybe even a pharaoh dealer in addition to just a few random citizens of Newton who decide to have a night cap before calling it a day but I don’t knowany of their names the only other name that I can give you that was there at tuttles Dana at this very crucial point when Hugh Anderson threw down was a teenager by the name of Riley a longer he was had tuberculosis by all accounts it wasn’t looking good now this kid is somewhat of a mystery scratch that he’s
a huge mystery nobody seems to know where he came from and he doesn’t appear to have any family or anything like that matter of fact the only thing that Riley did have was a friend one solitary friend in the whole wide world a man who had previously been kind to him and that man was Mike mclusky now what Mike did to Garner the undying loyalty of this Riley character I have no idea a few sources will tell you that mclusky taught the youngster how to handle a firearm or that he was simply nice to him when others weren’t whatever the
cause the kid soon became known as plus he’s Shadow okay now we’ve got all the pieces in place right hopefully you’ve kind of got an idea of the situation Hugh Anderson and his pals come hunting for mclusky looking to get even and find him in a dance hall with Jim Martin and somewhere nearby was the shadow Riley Anderson quickly threatens mclusky and unholsters his revolver and what follows is one of the deadliest gunfights of the old west upon seeing the brandish revolver Jim Martin jumped to his feet and Tred to diffuse the situation but it
was just too late Anderson’s pistol barked and Mike mcclusky took around to the side of the neck still though the wounded man was able to pull his own Iron which misfired damn it Mike drops to the floor and Anderson closes in and pumps several more rounds straight to mcclusky’s back by this point all hell had broken loose Hugh’s Buddies the for Mission Garrett Karns and Wilkerson they started firing as well at whom we do not know one theory is they opened up just to Simply keep the crowd at Bay likely they couldn’t even see what they were
shooting at due to all the guns smoke and they almost certainly had no idea that their most immediate threat lie nearby in the form of a sickly and emanated teenager who had just witnessed the only friend he had gun down right before his eyes now there’s a dramatic version of the story that says Riley then calmly walked to the saloon door barred it shut for the inside so as not to allow anyone to escape sort of like that scene in that movie The Bronx tell if you’ve ever seen it you know the one now you can’t leave and I personally
don’t believe Riley locked the door though it’s a bit uh I don’t know theatrical but what I do think happened what most people even historians agree on is that as soon as Mike mcclusky was gunned down this young Riley produced two revolvers of his own and commenced a dealing death his bullets ripped into Anderson all of Anderson’s friends and whoever else got the damn way even mcclusky’s other pal Jim took a fatal round to the throat by the time the smoke cleared eight men would lay dead or dying as for Riley well he simply
lowered his guns and stepped out into the street never to be seen again gives me chills just thinking about it this whole bloody ordeal probably lasted less than 90 seconds if that and some unknown teenager just dropped more men in one gunfight than any of your more well-known and celebrated gunmen which begs the question who the hell was this Riley kid seriously nobody knows where he came from or where he went he just flat out disappeared and like I said eight men were shot Jim Martin Garrett an innocent railroad man who took a bullet to the
gut and Mike mclusky were all dead Anderson was shot twice in the legs and his buddies Karns and Wilkerson were wounded as well along with another innocent bystander and each one of these casualties were due to the lethal guns of Riley except for Mike mclusky of course as for Anderson he would survive his wounds but he was facing serious legal troubles a warrant was issued for his arrest on account of gun and down mclusky but Hugh was snuck out of town and back into the safe beaconing arm to the Lone Star State before he could be
brought to Justice and like I said Riley just disappeared and that in a nutshell is the shootout at Hyde Park also known as the Newton Massacre but trust me the story is far from over look if you’re like me then you were probably at least a little familiar with this fight already I mean I’ve been reading some version of it for as long as I can remember and for the most part the story is pretty consistent and it’s pretty similar to what I just described especially with the strong empasis on this young man Riley I always wondered
though you know could there be more to the tell what would I find if I dug just a little deeper luckily I was not disappointed I also didn’t have to go digging all that deep turns out somebody had done quite a bit of research on our behalf and that someone is a lady named Christine Schmucker the curator for the Harvey County Historical Museum there inNewton more on Chris later I just wanted to point out that her work was phenomenal but first let’s address the fake elephant in the room you go ahead and Google the Newton Massacre or the
shootout at HDE Park and you’re sure to find another exciting tale of Revenge one that would take place a couple of years after the gun playay I just described Story Goes that Mike mcclusky had a brother and if there’s one thing Brothers don’t care for it’s someone else murdering their sibling I got a brother too okay and if he needs killing I’ll be the one to do it allegedly not some Rando and I reckon Mike’s brother Arthur felt the same way remember Hugh Anderson was safely with back to Texas following that shootout but according to
this version of events I’m about to recount he would soon find himself back in Kansas Medicine Lodge to be exact working as a bartender and as soon as Arthur mcclusky found out he send an emissary on over to formally invite Anderson to a duel yeah a proper duel this wasn’t going to be no wild free-for-all like the one Mike died in or Billy Bailey for that matter now this would be a standin the street affair with rules and such Anderson was even given a choice pissed or knives and he chose pistols I can’t blame him there
both men stood back to back walked several Paces away and then at the signal of a pistol shot whir and began firing at each other and both men drew blood matter of fact they both emptied their damn revolvers and although both were horribly wounded neither one was willing to call it quits according to one dubious reporter who claimed to have witnessed the fight quote mclusky summoning by a supreme effort his remaining strength drew his knife and began to crawl feebly in the direction of his antagon the latter who had raised himself to a
sitting position saw the movement and prepared to meet it end quote What followed was a good old hack fest with the gruesome Duo slicing and stabbing until finally with the last flicker of a blade both Hugh Anderson and art mcclusky lay still in the street dead in hell at least to quote Mike Row that’s the way I heard it kind of I mean there are a few sources that are willing to admit that maybe Hugh Anderson actually survived his wounds and once again returned to Texas and lived to be an old man and they admit that because well
it’s true and we know it’s true because there’s one hell of a clear paper trail when it comes to Hugh Anderson listen I love a good fight to the death as much as the next man believe me but here at the wild west Extravaganza we try to focus on true TS from the wild and wooly West as such I do at least attempt to separate fact from fiction when I can and it turns out this is one situation where I definitely can do so once again largely due to the research of Christine Schmucker who we’ll get to later as far as that fatal duel there at Medicine
Lodge there’s one source and one source only and that source is a shady AF News correspondent that went by the Alias of Allegro yes Allegro sounds like some sort of over-the-counter allergy medication or something common side effects of algro include nausea diarrhea upset stomach muscle or back SC or pain sleepiness drowsiness rectile dysfunction anal bleeding anal fissures anal warts anle anything a propensity to listen to horrible podcasts please consult your physician you get the drift and when it comes to this algro guy let
me tell you the dude knew how to spin a tail he had also reported on the gunfight at Hyde Park back in 1871 and he was the one that dubbed Riley as the avenging Nemesis matter of fact let me read you that passage so you can get an idea of what sort of flare that this Allegro guy wrote with in August of 1871 very shortly after the actual gunfight of Newton he wrote quote there is an avenging Nemesis on track a stalwart figure suddenly appears on the scene for an instant he remains MO L as if studying the situation then a sheet of
flame vomits forth apparently from his hand and a Texon staggers from the room across the area and Falls dead at the door of the Alamo another and another and another shop follows until six men have bowed to his prow end quote so here’s the deal this Allegro in addition to being a correspondent to various newspapers also made a living as a fiddle player there in Kansas dance halls at least he did before getting run out of the territory he would soon however continue to write salacious stories for a rag dub the New York world
but even they got tired of him fired him and doxed him saying that his true identity was quote a Shyer named EJ Harrington who was utterly Unworthy of confidence and continence and belonged in the penetentiary end quote and it is this man this quote unquote Shyer who is our only source when it comes to the Duel at Medicine Lodge now before you get to but Josh and me it’s not just this bad reputation of Allegro who was also referred by the way uh in the Newton papers as a dead beat that makesme question the validity of the duel now
some people point to the location of this alleged fight as being proofed positive that the story was fake Allegro says it took place in Medicine Lodge which he described as being quote in the very heart of the Indian Nation about 100 miles south the Kansas Frontier end quote now you and me know that Medicine Lodge was in fact in Kansas and not in the Indian Nation or Indian Territory but I am of the opinion that this could possibly be explained away just by the awkward phrasing to a green horn like legro everything outside of the city
limits there in Kansas was the Indian nation and I mean in one sense he could be right you know you had a lot of arapo and Southern Cheyenne kowa and even your occasional commanche out there furthermore the town of Medicine Lodge which was founded in 1873 the year The Duel allegedly took place was only 25 Mi north of official Indian Territory and coincidentally about 100 Mil Southwest Newton so allegro’s description of being 100 miles south of the Kansas Frontier can easily be explained in my opinion now the main issue with this story to me
is that there’s zero corroboration Allegro claimed that he and about 70 others witnessed mclusky and Anderson fight to the death yet there’s no proof that anyone anywhere at this time nor in the years that followed ever mentioned it matter of fact the local papers there in Kansas were already calling the story a lie almost as soon as it was printed and furthermore we know the old ultimate outcome of the duel the death of Hugh Anderson is absolutely not true here’s where the paper trail comes into play that I mentioned earlier you know thanks
to census and marriage records as well as family Recollections we’ve got a pretty good General overview of Anderson’s entire life he was born in November of 1851 by the way so he was still just 19 years old when he threw down on Mike mclusky there in that dance hall rash and full of piss and vinegar and probably thinking he could live forever Just Like a thousand other young men you can still find to this day in dance all scattered from Houston to Midland full of fake courage and meanness especially comp payday not to
say that Anderson wasn’t from tough stop as I mentioned previously his daddy was a Rancher and Veteran of the Civil War having served in the Shiloh hom guard in dwit county and as I previously teased the family may have been involved in the Sutton Taylor Feud and while I could find no solid proof of that I did find some pretty good evidence that our young Q Anderson did in fact know John Wesley Harden now that’s an interesting story all on its own in early July of 1871 a bakero by the name of Juan badina shot
and killed Billy Koran Trail Boss this led some wealthy Cattlemen to recruit none other than the notorious Wes Harden to track this Bina character down according to the book 10 deadly Texans Harden ran into to Billy’s brother John as well as a young cowboy named you guessed it Hugh Anderson and together this Bunch was able to locate Mr Juan Bina at suar City about 60 Mi south of Newton on July 7th and once located John Wesley hardens pistols bar and another one bit the dust get it another one one eh whatever anyway the gunfight there at
HDE Park would occur just about a month and a half later and it does seem that this may have been Hugh Anderson’s Scared Straight moment remember he was still a teenager himself that’s another weird angle to this whole story there’s so much emphasis placed on the Youth of Riley who we’re going to get to in a minute but many of the sources I’ve seen list Riley is being 18 years old however when it comes to Hugh Anderson we automatically imag im a grown man with plenty of experience under his belt and that could not be further from the truth
and yeah you know John Wesley Harden would have only been about 18 years old himself in 1871 but I do think he was just built different some men most men don’t have the stomach for such deadly action PTSD is real and most of us just want to live our lives peacefully Harden however was a bit of an anomaly a pure killer who didn’t seem to fear death nor have any respect for the sanctity of Life he’d continue his violent ways for the next 20 years whereas Anderson seemed to steer clear of trouble after gunning down mclusky once back in Texas
Hugh would get married at the young age of 20 after recuperating from his wounds and his first son was born in 1873 the same year when he was supposed to be up there in Kansas fighting art mclusky to the death by the way I’m no detective but uh I would like to point out that I was not able to find an Arthur mclusky anywhere near Kansas in the 1860s 7s or 80s now take that for what it is I’m not saying it’s definitive proof that the man didn’t exist this but I am saying that the proof isn’t readily available
for a dummy like me to find back to Hugh Anderson his wife would die sometime in the 1870s and by 1880 the widower isliving in mullet County Texas working as stockraiser a career he would continue even after his second marriage in 1884 as he and his new bride relocated to New Mexico couple would have two daughters but unfortunately Hugh Anderson would find himself a two-time widower by the year 1900 a decade later in 19 10 he was still alive and well there in New Mexico now living with his grown son Oscar and
his family and still working as a Stockman in mid June of 1914 old Hugh Now 60 something years old took Refuge under a tree during a rainstorm the tree was struck by lightning and that was the end of Hugh Anderson who the local paper dubbed a well-known Cattleman he’s buried over in teny New Mexico by the way just outside of Lincoln and as far as anybody knows he never once mentioned no duel up in me Lodge Hugh’s younger brother Wyatt who lived all the way up to 1948 would later describe that cattle drive that took place back in 1871 now
Wyatt would have only been five or six at the time but he does confirm hearing that Hugh did Kill a Man in Kansas that summer and that their older brother Richmond also had a couple of killing scrapes one in Texas and one in Kansas and yeah just like his brother Wyatt Anderson likewise never mention any second duel with Arthur mclusky I think it’s safe to say that that duel never happened not only was the man who pinned the original article and untrustworthy Source but there’s also zero evidence and you got to have evidence as far as
the mysterious Riley goes oh boy where to start look your guess is as good as mine the biggest question I initially had was whether or not Riley even existed I mean there are some obvious holes in the story right there was a coiners jury formed following the shootout to determine whether or not Hugh Anderson murdered Mike mcclusky and shortly thereafter a warrant was issued for Anderson arrest and it turned out to be quite the exciting Affair remember young Q Anderson wasn’t in town alone he was with a group of half wild cow pokes
who weren’t too happy about the findings of that Coroner’s jury matter of fact they promised that bodies would soon be hanging like ornaments from Telegraph Poes if Hugh was arrested Anderson’s father Walter then 50 years old wasted no time in getting to Newton and not only securing the best medical care for his boy but also appealing to the Business Leaders there in town to help get his son out for their part they wanted to avoid any additional Bloodshed so a plan was soon concocted to Spirit the wounded Cowboy out in the dark and
night the excitement was intense recall Newton resident judge Robert WP Muse going on to say quote and the city Marshall Tom Carson and his assistant all heavily armed were parading the streets day and night with warrants for the arrest of Anderson end quote once the local saw bones decided that you could be safely moved and with the help of the aforementioned judge the young man was placed on a train at about 2 a.m.
thus ends the third or fourth chapter in Newton’s bloody history a town only a little over 3 months old but if the worse than beastly prostitution of the sex is is continued and the town is controlled by characters who have no regard for virtue decency or honor it will not soon become fit for the Abode of respectable people reported the abene chronicle on August 24th 1871 so yeah there you go you know a lot was written about Hugh Anderson directly following the shootout but there’s barely mention of this mysterious Shadow Riley the correspondent Allegro didn’t
even mention Riley by name remember only referring to the shooter as the quote unquote avenging Nemesis matter of fact it is this judge Muse who seems to be the first to name the kid saying quote a friend of mclusky a boy named Riley some 18 years of age quiet and inoffensive in deportment and evidently dying from consumption end quote he’d go on to recall that Riley was known locally as mclusky Shadow and that he was a quote sin tubercular man who followed the railroad gunman around like a little dog that barked and snapped from behind his
master end quote judge Muse who while a citizen of Newton wasn’t actually presid at the dance hall on the night in question was also the one that theorized that Riley cooly locked the door of that Saloon before drawing his revolvers a poem published a year after the incident also lists Riley by name and this poem pinned by Theodor f price reads as follows what form strides over the threshold red with weapons fierce clenched he looks upon M klusky Dead with gory garments stretched then calmly aimed the trigger drew a Texon died his
aim was true seven gory forms before him lying that friend was fearfully Avenged Grim Riley turned away I don’t know you would think there would at least be more said of this Riley guy why was there no warrant issued for his arrest or if there was why no mention of it nor mentioned of the deputies walking the streets of Newton searching for him asopposed to Anderson there was all this excitement about Hugh leaving town in the middle of the night and he only killed one man whereas Riley took down several in 1950 nearly eight decades
after the gunfight a newspaper there in Newton quoted an unnamed prominent citizen is saying quote law-abiding men knew what had taken place in Tuttle Saloon they furnish the youth Riley with saddle and Bridal a livery stable owner gave him a pony and he rode out of town that night and wound up in Ellsworth nothing more is heard of him and it is presumed that his pulmonary disease ended his life skip ah had another 20 years and 1971 an author named William Moran wrote in his book Santa Fe and the Chism Trail in Newton that he thought
Riley could have Escape town the next morning possibly as a stow away and you know simply changed his name and according to another author Mary Sandos uh she wrote in her book The Cattleman that there was a posy for him to look for Riley but of course they never found him so few details so many questions I suppose though that it’s not that surprising that the good citizens of Newton would likely want Riley out of town as quickly as possible you know you and me we look back at these stories and they’re exciting right Cowboys and
gamblers and shootouts Frontier towns but to the people living there in Newton you know the majority of them were law abiding citizens normal people shopkeeps and Merchants and hotel operators and Barbers and stuff like that family men they didn’t like crime any more than you and I do we know that according to judge Muse they were more than willing to help Anderson get out of town if it meant no more killing likely as not they were equally as willing to sneak young Riley if that was his name out of town as well
probably hoping he’d never come back and surely they would have never dreamed me and you would be talking about him 15 years later and don’t call me Shirley but man you know I sure wish I knew who Riley was driving me crazy and for what it’s worth there are theories but unfortunately none of them hold much water one that really picked my interest is that the young man wasn’t really consumptive and that he not only survived his escape from Newton but lived for many many more years under the Alias of Doc Middleton if you’re not
familiar with Doc whose real name by the way was Jim Riley he was one hell of a horse thief he was also described as being a very thin softspoken man which would line up with judge Muse’s description of the Newton Riley Middleton was born in 1851 so his age would have fit as well and then there’s the fact that doc wasn’t afraid to resort to violence having already killed a man by the tender age of 18 a killing that landed his ass in Huntsville prison now he would eventually Escape but here’s the thing not not until
1874 our gunfight at HDE Park took place in 1871 when doc was still behind bars so unless I’ve got my facts wrong here I think it’s safe to say that doc Riley Middleton is not our Riley by the way it’s thought that doc earned that title by the way he could doctor or alter a horse’s brand I’ll have to look more into Middleton one of these days he might just be a future topic here on the wild west Extravaganza all right so here’s what we’re left with in the end gunfight at Newton most certainly took place eight men were shot four of whom
died we know Hugh Anderson opened up the ball and that it’s likely his bullets that did mclusky in as for the mysterious shooter Riley who the hell knows well I don’t believe that he locked the doors of the saloon I do think there’s enough evidence to conclude that he not only existed but that he was also present and a participant in the gunfight at Hy Park as to how many of the wounded and dead he accounted for as opposed to Anderson’s friends who also opened up fire I don’t know and as far as what happened to Riley after the shoot out I
doubt any of us will ever know it’s my opinion that in cases like this it’s almost always the simplest answer that turns out to be true aam’s Razer right I tend to think that Riley probably did have tuberculosis and he was probably already on death store when he Shu them smoke wagons there in tuttles dance hall more than likely the young man fled town and he didn’t survive another cold Kansas winter just another kid buried in a poppers grave somewhere probably under a damn Starbucks now and once again as far as the Duel at Medicine Lodge I
think we can safely say that was a figment of allegro’s imagination there’s only one recorded telling of the story pinned under an assumed Name by an untrustworthy Source The Source reported as a liar even at that time and in the years that followed there have absolutely been no other pieces of evidence backing up these claims either way the whole ordeal is fascinating the gunfight in Newton didn’t involve anyone famous and none of the participants could be considered as real deal Gunslingers yet the result was a bodycount higher than most of the more
well-known shootouts the okay Corral for example I think there were what three wounded and three dead now I mentioned Chris Schmucker earlier the curator for the Harvey County Historical Museum near in Newton Kansas her research and articles proved to be invaluable to me while preparing this episode I always knew there was more to the story and sure enough thanks to miss Schmucker my suspicions were validated she has posted a series of articles on Museum’s website that I’ll link to in this episode show notes lots of good well researched
information on Hugh Anderson as well as the mysterious Lego gunfighting question and that duel that probably never happened I highly recommend you checking out her stuff for further reading Chris if you’re listening thank you thank you thank you hard work like yours really helps an idiot like me to sound like I actually know what I’m talking about and if your bosses are listening tell them I said to give you a raise when the Gambler made his way towards the hotel he did so With a Purpose with a score to settle one that
was over a year in the making you see his brother had been killed murdered to hear some tell it by a man of the law and the Gambler usually not the vocal type uncharacteristically let it be known that he intended to kill his brother’s assassin on site badge or no badge so when the two men finally came face to face there in Trinidad tensions were high to say the least the Gambler however did not immediately draw his revolver guess he figured he’d size his opponent up first maybe get a handle on what kind of cards he was holding and
believe it or not the two men actually sat down together there at the our mihill boarding house for the better part of 2 hours the exact details as to what was discussed we can only speculate but the story goes that when the duo emerged they shook hands and simply went their separate ways the Gambler when later pressed would explain that he now had a better understanding of what had happened with his brother and that the matter was closed and that’s about all he had to say about that you see the Gambler wasn’t predisposed to idle chatter nor
was he inclined to making friends hell the only real friends he’d ever had were his brother and his mama and they was both dead and gone so as soon as he could he drifted Colorado back down to New Mexico places like Las Vegas and Silver City over Arizona way to Tombstone further East El Paso never staying too long in one place never putting down roots and as I alluded to The Gambler wasn’t much given to loose talk so when he did speak his words had weight to him like the time he prevented the lynching of a fellow card Shar by
the name of Doc Kane or another instance in yet another Saloon where his calm words helped divert Gunplay when the free flow of spirits caused things to get a little heated other than that though the Gambler really didn’t do much of note at least nothing that would make the history books he lived his life as did many of his kind silently and in the shadows not leaving a Mark or Desiring to do so still though things change and not even a stoic Gambler can halt the path of progress wasn’t long before he even stopped wearing a gun and public at
least he still went healed on occasion hell you’d be a fool not to do so in the dark Dives where he earned his keep he just didn’t make it so obvious but Time Marches On right as The Gambler Grew Older and grayer the dusty streets were paved over and the automobile replaced the horse and buggy he witnessed the turn of the century the invention of the Aeroplane refrigerator silent films the radio he watched as the broken young men returned from the Great War and observed the flappers of the Roaring 20s and he
saw the beginnings of the Great Depression but despite living through all that history I got to wonder how often if ever The Gambler thought of his brother I mean he had to right one doesn’t simply forget a shadow that large and I can’t help but to contemplate on whether or not the Gambler wished he had said a few more words to his brother the last time they saw each other decades prior on that little ranch you see when the gambler’s mother died both he and his brother were abandoned by their stepfather the boys orphans were then
placed in separate homes and The Gambler without much of a parental figure unfortunately found his way to the dark side rather quickly started running errands and saloons and brothel as early as the age of 11 by the time he had reached his teens he had already learned how to spot a fish at the poker table and was even known to frequent the local opium dens as such when the small pox outbreak occurred it was probably a bit of a blessing got the young Gambler out of town and onto a nearby Ranch where he was able to enjoy a somewhat quieter
life however temporary working out in the fresh air filling the clean Sun upon his face engaging in honest labor and sweatingout the impurities and hopefully a few of the bad memories and like I said it was there on that little ranch on the MCE river that he last saw his brother The Gambler and an acquaintance by the name of Chanty trell were milking a cow when they spotted three strangers approaching on Horseback two of which appeared to be Indians not leaving anything to Chance The Gambler shucked his wichester and levered around good
Gambler you see never relies on chance that’s for suckers and our Gambler despite his faults weren’t no sucker thankfully in this instance his precautions were not necessary hold on now don’t you know your own brother the gambler’s prodal sibling hollered as he galloped closer a crooked grin on his peach fuzz covered face gambler’s brother always seemed to be smiling even after all that had happened two would been the night catching up there at the ranch and as far as I know that’s the last time the Gambler ever again saw one
of his blood relatives at least on this side of the veil he’d eventually find his way to Denver Colorado where he’d s met or should I say sank continuing to eek out a living at the poker tables as well as any other odd jobs he could find up to and including working as a cook at a bartender a quote unquote colorless figure as one newspaperman would recall an old Relic that nobody paid much attention to but I guess that’s the way the Gambler liked it shortly before his death he’d be interviewed by the aforementioned reporter Edwin Hoover who
described his subject is both friendless and contener and when a colleague pointed out just who the gambler’s brother had been the unimpressed newspaperman simply replied who cares who cares huh not many I suppose including the Gambler himself or so it would seem I mean so efficient was he at playing things close to the vest that when he finally died and nearly 70 years of age in the year 1930 nobody even came to claim his body as such the gamblers remains were handed over to the Colorado medical school who I’m sure had no idea
who they had gotten their hands on there’s a report out there somewhere indicating that whatever remained The Gambler after being dissected and prodded was buried but where he was laid to rest is anybody’s guess kind of ironic considering that we don’t even know where his much more famous brother is buried either at least not the exact location two floods one in 1889 and the other in 1904 took care of that washing away all the headstones in that particular cemetery and unceremoniously relocating quite a few kabers in the
process and although some Old-Timers were called in to loc at the precise location of the Grave they were relying on fallible memories sure there’s a tombstone there now surrounded by a big iron cage to disuade any wouldbe Trophy Hunters but we don’t know for sure who rest underneath it despite the pleadings of more than a few who would love to start digging and find out not sure how I feel about that selfishly I’d love to find out who’s down there but mostly I figure maybe it’s better to let both The Gambler and his brother rest wherever
they are that said I do tend to think or at least hope hope that the gambler’s Final Chapter has yet to be written that’s kind of how history works right there’s always new discoveries to be made and I am confident that as time goes by we’ll eventually uncover new information regarding both he and his brother and maybe even their mama too that Jolly Irish lady full of fun who died too soon far too soon but not before delivering her two sons to the territory of New Mexico where they’d both be shaped by times and
circumstances that no mother could predict one Joseph or Josie as he was called as a child would eventually become a gambler and live the long obscure life I briefly covered dying penniless there in Denver his older brother Henry however was a much different story his time on Earth was brief but anything but boring but you know that already don’t you and you probably already know that the gambler’s brother Henry went by many other names as well a lot of people don’t know that Billy the Kid had a brother and a lot of
people don’t know he led such a what I consider interesting life full disclosure I did exercise a little bit of creative license but for the most part it is factual at least if the scant resources available on Joseph anram are to be believed Joseph really was a gambler really spent time in Tombstone and Silver City and Las Vegas and all those other places I mentioned and he really did prevent both a lynching and a shooting and yes the word is he did vow to kill Pat Garrett but when the two men sat down together he changed his mind
saying that the matter was now settled and boy what I wouldn’t give to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation unlike his older brother there’s no indication that Joseph antrum was ever in a gunfight although he was arrested and fined in Tombstone for engaging in a bout of fist of cuffs witha hotel porter still though considering the places he plied his trade in the late 1870s and the decade that followed I think it’s safe to say that our Gambler witnessed more than his fair share of excitement I’m sure there were
quite a few hair raising moments and I’m positive he brushed shoulders with much more notorious characters I mean the was residing in Las Vegas New Mexico at the same time as Doc Holiday hoodoo Brown Dave rudal and mysterious Dave Ma just to name a few now as far as Joseph being a loner friendless and contener and all that numerous sources claimed that the man never married or had children and that he was nothing like his outgoing charismatic brother however it does appear that Joseph possibly could have taken a brief time out at being a
bachelor around the age of 28 shout out to Stig osgard for this next bit of information according to him him a Joseph antrum and a Jenny Stone tied the not in Pau in December of 1891 Mr Oscar’s article which I’ll link to in this episode show notes continues as follows quote at any rate the marriage was not a successful one and on February 25th 1894 Joseph and Jenny were involved in a serious confrontation which led to Joseph’s arrest for kidnapping according to the Rocky Mountain news of April 5th 1894 Joseph concerned about the
disreputable surroundings in which his stepson bald was being kept by his mother went to play Blow from Denver and abducted the child then he went back to Denver and enrolled the child in a private school Jenny antrum in turn swore out a warrant charging Joseph with kidnapping her child Joseph in response said that his wife had refused to reform and was not a proper person to have custody of the boy end quote now I found this intriguing that bit at the beginning of my story about Joseph The Gambler working in saloons at the age of
11 and spending time in opium dens and his team means that’s all true as well and you and me both know that that’s not the ideal setting for a child Joseph lacking both parents was forced to grow up far too soon in one of the roughest environments imaginable and while I’m sure those sporting gals and the high rollers and the bartenders were nice enough to Young Joseph that’s still no place for a kid I got to imagine that Joseph the adult didn’t like seeing the same thing happening to his stepson or former stepson and he made Moves to put
the youngster back on the right path if I’m correct in this assumption and I’ll admit it is an assumption then I think it’s commendable says a lot more about our Gambler who he really was than that damn reporter did speaking of which how frustrating is that here that newspaperman had a living source of History right in front of him a source who if he were somehow alive today would be pestered non-stop by historians and journalists every word recorded and archived obviously there’s the fact he was Billy the Kid’s brother that alone
is reason enough he could have filled in so many blanks Bob Bose Bell of true w m magzine had this to say quote Billy of ficado around the world would sincerely like to get their hands on Mr Hoover’s neck and ring it good with the death of Joseph mccardy antrum the door closed probably Forever on the answers to so many burning questions and quote but it’s not just that Joe antrum was one of the last of the breed of men who could tell you how it felt to walk the streets of Tombstone back when it was filled to
the brim with men who just as soon as shoot you as look at you he knew what it was like to ride the high desert when there was still a very real threat of losing one scalp and although he was no shist he surely to quote the great guy Clark remembered the smell of the black powder smoke and the stand in the street at the turn of a joke Joseph posted his blinds and anties and beer joints that were frequented by some of the most notorious Killers the West had ever known and he outlived all of them yet in his own time nobody cared which I guess
is a good reminder that history is all around us even now and with each gener ation passing more and more stories will be lost forever here’s a little something to ponder when Joe died in 1930 he was a lot younger in the most present day Veterans of the Vietnam War That’s how little time had passed between the days of the wild west and the start of the Great Depression and as of this recording we’ve only got around 200,000 Veterans of the second world war still alive but hell if a man was 19 years old on D-Day he’d be 97 right now
according to the National World War II m Museum we lose an average of 234 veterans each day Veterans of the second world war you do the math I mean it won’t be long till there’s nobody left to tell us how cold it felt in bason or what it was like when those Gates dropped on Omaha Beach thankfully we’re a little bit better nowadays at collecting and preserving these stories but I’ll say it yet again man if you’ve got a grandparent or a great grandparentStill Alive sit them down and talk to them interview them record it even if
you just use the voice recorder on your cell phone they’ve got stories to tell and one of these days when you’re old and boring you’re going to wish you had those stories to look back on all right I’m rambling now as far as Jose’s of antrum goes there’s honestly not that much information I can find no details on the lynching he prevented other than it happened in Silver City few months following that The Story Goes that he made a fellow Gambler by the name of Joe silks holster his revolver when things got tense this avoiding Bloodshed I
couldn’t find anything else about that uh the Census records as well on Anum or scant and thanks to the horrible butchering of his last name and the miscalculations on his birth year he’s a hard man to track the last sentence I could find on him 1920 he’s employed as a cook and living in a boarding house in Denver at 1617 larer Street and it’s that same boarding house that’s listed as Joseph’s place of residence a decade later on his death certificate now you know I looked up this address on Google Maps because I’m weird like that and
while there’s no longer a 1617 larer Street there is a 32-story highrise at 1625 larer called The barklay Towers taking up the area where that boarding house used to be and I got to admit the condos there at the barklay towers are pretty fancy but for the minimum price of half a million dollars I guess they should be Florida ceiling Windows a 24-hour coner heated pool and a spa not to mention a fitness center now for someone like me knowing that I was living somewhere where a guy like Joseph antrum lived I would find that pretty
cool not half a million dollars cool but still cool I’m willing to bet though that the residents there at barlay in downtown Denver would have the same reaction to Joseph as did that newspaperman who cares well Joseph Anum I care for whatever that’s worth imagine for a second that you’re a young immigrant lured to a foreign land with hopes of creating a better life for yourself and your family upon arrival however things don’t turn out quite like you dreamed and and those in power decide to take everything from you that
you hold dear your land is stolen your brother murdered by so-called Vigilantes without benefit of a trial and you yourself tied up horsewhipped and forced to watch your beautiful wife beaten and raped raped to the point that she would die in your arms shortly thereafter sounds like a nightmare I imagine most of us under similar circumstances would be looking for revenge and according to Legend vengeance is exactly what the fabled Bandit waim maretta exacted story he goes that he waited till Nightfall slid into the camp of his tormentors
dressed all in black dispatched one of them with a blade silently chopping up the body and leaving dismembered limbs scattered around Camp to be found in the morning and the next night he repeated this action and again the night after that once wen’s immediate thirst for retribution was satisfied he moved on to other such men the type who prayed upon his people he soon formed a group of like-minded Compadres who dedicated their lives to protecting the innocent robing from the rich and right and various wrongs a compelling story that
is said to have been the real life inspiration behind Zoro possibly even Batman a taale found repeated all over the worldwide web only problem is it’s mostly not true historian Susan Lee Johnson summed it up best when she wrote quote so many tals of growing around maretta that it’s hard to disentangle the fabulous from the factual and quote and hard is an understatement I know I’d have my work cut out for me with maretta but damn it I’m a man of the people people and I aim to please so here we are who was waim maretta I mean who was
he really why is there so much misinformation about the man was he a freedom fighter a righteous Avenger of Injustice or simply a bloodthirsty Bandit who prayed upon the weak how badly will I butcher any Spanish names that I attempt to pronounce we’re going deep into the heart of California on this one in an attempt to hopefully set the record straight Mi is Yash and estas isando the Wild West exem [Music] raans the problem with separating fact from fiction when it comes to W maretta mostly originates with one man gu by the
name of John Roland Ridge a member of the Cherokee Nation Ridge went on the lamb in 1849 after killing a man in I believe Arkansas hit out in the California goldfields and tried his hand in mining didn’t suit him so he started writing poetry essays and eventually novels matter of fact Ridge is considered by many as America’s first indigenous novelist and one of his books his first and probably his most popular was titled The Life and Adventures of wiim maretta the celebrated California Bandit published in 1854 a year after
the notorious Outlaw’s alleged death the book is still available on Amazon andthe blurb in one edition reads in part as follows quote the first novel to feature a Mexican-American hero an adventure tale about Mexicans rising up against us rule in California based on the real life Bandit who inspired their creation of Zoro The Lone Ranger and Batman The Life and Adventures of w maretta tells the story of Gold Rush Arab Mexican immigrant W maretta whose efforts to find fortune and happiness are thwarted by white settlers who
murder his family and drive him off his land in retaliation maretta organizes a band of more than 2,000 Outlaws including the sadistic three-finger Jack who take Revenge by murdering stealing horses and robbing miners all with the ultimate goal of reconquering California end quote now Mr Ridge lived in California at the time the maretta was active he likely heard many historian rumor about the Bandit and used newspaper articles as well as his own writer imagination to spice things up I mean you don’t have to be no genius to
deduce there weren’t no gangs consistent of 2,000 Outlaws and following the publication of his novel Ridge had plenty of help making things even spicier in just a few years after its release The Life and Adventures of w maretta was plagiarized by the California police Gazette with a different title and several editorial changes it was in this version that wen’s wife was killed after being violated this appropriation was soon translated to Spanish and in no time flat it became quite the bestseller in Spain where was plagiarized yet again by
the dad gum French from there the novel was translated back into Spanish and distributed in Chile Where it became so popular that the Chileans actually erected a statue dedicated to this quote unquote Brave fighter of Injustice keep in mind that each time this son of a [ __ ] is copied it’s also somewhat altered like a big game of telephone the Spanish then copi the Chilean version again this time calling it El cabalero chilano before the Mexicans created their own version finally turning maretta back into a Mexican there were
poems songs even dime novels dedicated to the now mythical Bandit toss in the fact that there were other criminals in the same region at the same time who were also named Wen and you got yourself a legend a legend that doesn’t necessarily resemble the man on whom it was originally based even a legit historian got in on the shade kind of Herbert how boft used rid’s third edition of The Life and Adventures of w maretta as a primary source when he wrote his history of California or at least somebody did after B’s death it
was determined that much of his work had in fact been written by somebody else according to the Salt Lake Tribune in 1893 boft was a quote poiner of other people’s brains when it comes to history facts do matter believe it or not I never start off one of these episodes looking to debunk a legend my only goal is to tell the story as accurately as possible and hopefully an entertaining manner but if there’s one thing I’ve learned when it comes to Old West history is that the Legends often times rarely line up with the truth I’m
getting ahead of myself as usual to understand our subject while maretta we got to take a look at where he came from and the environment to help Forge him as you probably already know California was the territory of Spain and then Mexico before finally being seeded to the United States in 184 48 following the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Hildago the land acquisition just so happened to coincide with gold being discovered at Sutter’s Mill in present day El Dorado County a discovery that saw a huge influx of migration the
following year 1849 known as The Great California Gold Rush and yeah that’s where we get the term 49ers just to give you an idea how many people were flocking to California in the spring of 1848 the state boasted a population of just a little over 150,000 people most of which were Native Americans of the rest about 6,500 were of Spanish or Mexican descent leaving just a few hundred non-native Americans greenh skip ahead not even two years later and that non-native white population soared to over a 100,000 by
the mid1 1850s there were more than 300,000 new arrivals it wasn’t just Americans for back East rushia to California either by 1852 there were 25,000 immigrants from China alone not to mention Europeans of all Stripes even filthy drunk and criminally predisposed osed Australians and of course you had plenty of Mexicans coming up through the southern border ready to try their luck at the Gold Diggin as well one of which was today’s subject Wen maretta ah yes now we can get into the real man as much as we can at least with the scant
records available maretta appears to have been born in Sonora Mexico in 1830 to parents Wen and Rosalia and if you look at a map of Mexico Sonora is going to be in the Northwest portion directly south of Arizona at one point Mexico’s largest state Sonora would lose about13,000 square miles following the Treaty of Hildago and an additional 29,000 with the Gadson purchese would also be left largely in economic ruin following the Mexican-American War got to imagine Wen and his family probably weren’t too well
off following the conflict most average people in Sonora weren’t once skull was discovered in California it’s no wonder they began flocking North and drove seeking a better life but maretta would not make the journey alone he got married young while still a teenager to a girl named Rosa fiz and it was with her brothers claudo Reyes and Jesus along with his own brother Jesus that Wen would migrate this is where I make my obligatory apology for butchering the Spanish language got a lot of Hispanic names to pronounce on this episode and
I’m probably going to flub each and every one of them despite being born and raised in Texas and despite knowing a little bit of the lingo my mouth just doesn’t work like it’s supposed to so my apologies in advance compromiso all right so it appears marett and Company all initially settled in the town of Sonora California that right there tells you how many would be miners were coming up out of Sonora Mexico alone they actually formed their own town which still stands by the way home to nearly 6,000 Souls Sonora California is about
130 Mi west of San Francisco not too far from yose looks like upon arrival Rosa’s older brother claudo took up work for one of the many Greeno mine operations in the area while Wen and his bride headed east at Contra Costa County where he may have worked as bakero or a meero mustanger and I say may because there just isn’t a whole lot of hard evidence for a lot of wen’s life as always do your own research and please feel free to let me know if I get anything wrong now unfortunately Marietta’s brother-in-law claudo would get himself
arrested and charge with steing another man’s gold he got locked up and stocked him but was able to escape because well jails were pretty crappy back in those days and following this Escape claudo Feliz would organize his own gang of Bandits first known attack occurred on December 5th 1850 when they raided The Ranch at John Marsh no relation to Stan in Contra Costa County one man a visitor to the ranch was actually murdered during this strike bastard rote him down shot him then lanced him a little over a week later this same Bunch struck the
ranch at Digby Smith near San Jose and boy were they fing bloody their victims were tied up murdered by having their heads bashed in and then dumped into the ranch house which was set on fire the remains found still smoldering moving onward to February of 1851 once again near San Jose claudo Feliz and his band of Mary murderers attack the ranch of Anastasio Chaboya only this time they weren’t so lucky Chaboya and Old School California wasn’t about to let no Dam norin cave his head in evidently his BOS rode for the brand because they repel
Claudio’s attack in no time flats and he and his men Scurry in for the hills by the way californio is a term you’ll hear me use a few more times on this episode uh they were descendants of the original Spanish colonist there in California they had that old money many of them wielded profound influence and they owned a lot of land they would have had very little in common with a poor immigrant like claudo or Wen other than sharing a Common Language we’ll talk some more about the Californios coming up in a bit after that failed raid the
fleas gang set up shop in the foothills of the sieras and started robbing lone Travelers anyone who appeared to be carrying more gold than firearms and more often the not they left their victims dead now I’m not sure if Wen participated in any of the criminal activity I just described but evidently he would join the gang at some point in 1851 and by this time the bandits had grown pretty vicious they were killing people left and right and not being too discriminatory as to who their victims were make no mistake about it they would
not only target well-to-do Californios or Greeno miners but anyone that they saw as an easy target black brown white poor Chinese especially were targeted due to them often traveling with no weapons as well as not having any formal protection under the law pressure began mounting and Wen wisely began distancing himself either by Design or just dumb luck that and he had him a little side piece over in Los Angeles by the name of Anna Bonitas turns out he was visiting her when his brother-in-law finally met his end claudo made two mistakes well
three I guess uh just being a damn murder and Thief was his first blunder he also began targeting more of the well-to-do californos and they quickly tired of his Antics and finally mistake number three claudo left one too many witnesses alive he lost what little support he had among the local when it came out that he was targeting his fellow Hispanics uh victim was able to escape and name him to authorities andit weren’t too long before he along with several members of his gang were cornered and Gunn down what was left of
the group including little brother Reyes Feliz soon came under the leadership of waim maretta who was temporarily busy quote unquote keeping company with senorita Bonz over in Sunny Los Angeles once again I’d like to stress there’s just not much known wen’s early actions especially as far as uh how much honest work he was doing before he turned to Crime he would be mentioned in newspapers however I found many conflicting stories as to which actual newspaper article first mentioned him by his full name and there were other wiins
operating at the time so many in fact that their Collective group would eventually come to be known as the five Walkin a lot of their exploits sort of got mixed in together that said as early as January of 1852 a horse thief by the name of Theodore Basquez implicated maretta Theodore confessed that what was one of a dozen soran youth who would steal mules and horses from San Jose sell them in Maryville and then blow all the proceeds playing Monty evidently young maretta loved to gamble a few months following this confession aasi
confronted a band of horse thieves near Willow Springs California about 90 Mi north of La a gunfight ensued during which a posi member was shot and killed a few weeks later a young man named maretta was arrested and charged with this murder was this R maretta possibly but we’ll probably never know uh the mystery Mexican was to be sarily dealt with AKA lynched without any hint of legal trial but he escaped before they could string him up we get all the way to May of 1852 before we’re pretty confident in knowing what maretta was up
to this was maybe 6 to 8 months after claudo was killed by the way notice how I failed to mention anything concerning Wen having his Gold Mine stolen or his wife raped and murdered that’s because there’s no historical basis for any of that far as I could find and as far as I know Marietta’s wife Rosa is still alive and well at this point was Wen the victim of racial Injustice prior to 1852 probably we’ll get to that soon enough but there is no indication that I can find that there was some dramatic horrible atrocity that pushed the young
man to a life of uh banditry okay so may of 1852 Len operating with a gang that included his 15-year-old brother-in-law Reyes struck the corona Ranch in sisl County making off with about 20 head horses the bandits then headed north a couple hundred miles before having The Misfortune of Being overtaken by a band of tahon natives under Chief Jose zapatero they let Myriad and his group go with their lives but not before tying them up relieving them of their stolen horses and clothing luckily the bandits were able to loosen their bindings and
hoof it on foot in their damn birthday suits before the pursuing posi made an appearance by the way not only did they have a posi after him looking to get back those stolen horses but they also had a bounty hunter on the trail by the name of Harry love and this guy right here Oho boy weirdest start with hairy love let’s just say in addition to having a name straight from a late 1970s porno dude even had a sweet porn stash long with a Ron Jeremy haircut seriously Google the man quick search to turn up one of my favorite old west photos of
all time got hairy love in the center flanked by two other California rangers all three of them appear to be slightly wasted after a night on the town yet their hair is so perfectly uh what’s the word permed I mean your wife wishes she had curls like hairy love and especially the man to his Direct right these guys are exactly what you’d expect the California version of the Texas strangers to look like with just an extra scoop of fabulous on top now despite appearances Harry or Mr love whichever you prefer was the real deal
born in Vermont in 1810 love turned to the high seas as a teenager and eventually found his way to Texas where he possibly took up with the Texas Rangers I think him serving with the early Rangers is likely I just wasn’t able to find definitive proof he did for sure participate in the Mexican-American War serving with the group of Alabama Volunteers in the capacity of a courrier and express Rider the job that he evidently excelled at following the hostilities love would do a bit of exploring along the real grand during
which time he had his fair share of skirmishes with the indigenous and then of course when gold got discovered out west he headed to California just like wien maretta now Harry wasn’t worth a damn as a minor but he soon cultivated a reputation as a tough man with a gun became a deputy sheriff for a bit in Santa Barbara before turning to a more lucrative career as a Manhunter and like I said maretta and Feliz were able to elude both the posi and Harry love but fellow gang member Pedro Gonzalez wouldn’t be so fortunate love captured
the man alive but he wouldn’t stay thatway for long the Los Angeles star would report the following of the incident quote The Prisoner being on foot complained of fatigue and made several ineffectual attempts to escape when about 8 Miles this side of the river he complained of thirst and pointing to a ravine near at hand told his conductor that there was plenty of water a little ways up accordingly Mr love dismounted and proceeded with the man till they came to a small clump of bushes when the prisoner darted forward into them and
would have made his Escape Mr love Spurs prevented him from giving Chase but the latter endeavoring to knock him down with his pistol accidentally discharged it and shot him through the head killing him instantly end quote so there you have it bounty hunter Harry love air quotes accidentally shot Gonzalez in the head and if you believe it was an accident I think George Straight has some ocean front property you may be interested in a lot of people got their heads accidentally ventilated back in them days we’ll talk more about love in
a bit but I definitely pick up a lot of Rooster Cogburn type vibes from the guy while a very tough and capable man I’m going to go out on a limb and say he was more interested in collecting Bounty than he was in the strict enforcement of the law or any sort of due process shortly after the death of Gonzalez hin and Reyes Feliz may have have possibly been involved with the murder of one Joshua Bean older brother of previous Wild West Extravaganza subject Judge Roy Bean please check out my episode on Judge Bean for more of a backstory if
you haven’t already Link in the show notes but the judge’s brother Joshua was a pretty colorful guy himself veteran of the Mexican-American War and former Major General in the California state militia Joshua Bean was the last alal day and the first US mayor of San Diego where he was so corrupt that he allegedly sold City Hall to himself he moved to LA in 1851 hoped up a saloon called the headquarters and took into messing around with women he shouldn’t be messing around with a common defect among the bean Clan as such it was an
argument over a woman that caused his demise supposedly I’ll leave it up to you to figure out the truth of the matter I just didn’t want to spend too much time on this one incident but at least one source claims that Joshua got into a drunken argument with his teenage wife a young lady possibly as young as 13 had very recently given birth and as such wasn’t interested in indulging being with his marital urges Joshua got verbally abusive the girl fled with the baby he followed and they started fighting out in the street allegedly
waim maretta witnessed this and intervened putting a bullet into Joshua’s chest he’d linger for about 24 hours before finally going under is that true I don’t know uh there’s another version that has a Scotsman or a Mexican Scotsman named Reed as the one that did be in for m with his woman whatever happened the general consensus was there was a woman involved being ended up dead and there were repercussions Joshua’s brother the soon to become law west of the pacas Roy Bean joined up with the Los Angeles Rangers
which were just a glorified vigilante committee they started rounding up suspects one of which was mz’s brother-in-law the 15 or 16-year-old Reyes F and whether or not he had anything to do with Bean’s death he would pay dearly he and two other Mexicans were quickly found guilty and strung up their days of play in Monty in Los Angeles forever over this was November of 1852 unbeknown to W maretta he’d only have another eight months to live his own self and in those eight months he would embark on one hell of a bloody
Crim spree ultimately sealing his own fate now I won’t sit here and pretend like I know every single crime committed by maretta in his gang and there’s certainly no way to verify the ones I’m about to mention but to the best of my knowledge here’s the rundown of the events leading up to what keen’s untimely demise December of 1852 the miners and Merchants of San Andreas California were enjoying some holiday festivities when maretta and his band snuck in under the cover of a hell storm robbing several businesses and making
off with a ton of Loot and Provisions few days later and a few miles away a lone traveler named Edward Cameron was shot to death by some Mexican Bandits obviously no way of proven this was the same Bunch that robbed the town of San Andreas but it’s kind of of a where there’s smoke there’s a fire type situation this is all up in Calis County by the way guy named Henry Angel arrived in the area in 1849 and set up a trading post known as Angels Camp about 12 mil southeast of San Andreas and 16 Mi Northwest of Sonora where Wen first
settled when he arrived in California there was also another settlement nearby called Yaki Camp I believe predominantly Hispanic where the present day town of calavaras is located these various hamlets especially y key Camp werefrequented by Marietta and you’ll hear all these names again moving forward all right so following Edward Cameron’s murder Wen and his band either started or continued targeting the local Chinese laborers as I previously touched on the Chinese often went unarmed and as such they were Easy Pickins and unfortunately
since they were Chinese nobody else really cared whether or not they got robbed it wasn’t until Mareta started stealing horses from the white miners that people started paying attention and it wasn’t long before a Shar from San Andreas Charles Ellis would be called in to deal with the problem he and his posy tracked the bandits down and exchanged gunfire but nobody on either side was hit so they called it a day I mean come on this is California what do you expect they probably had to go grab some AC bows and slather themselves down with
CBD oil to be fair Sheriff Ellis would pursue the bandits again when it was reported that wae murdered a white man over in Yi Camp law man and his deputies this time were successful in Catching one of Marietta’s Associates guy by the name of Big Bill and promptly hung him by the neck till he was dead dead dead still on the hunt they made their way to Angel’s camp where they captured and hung another Bandit this one implicating Wen as the gang’s leader before he swung and since Yaki Camp was said to be one of wen’s main hideouts the posi
descended upon the settlement Burning It To The Ground meanwhile nearby Double Springs the calaris county seat passed an ordinance forcing all foreigners or anybody who wasn’t white into exile and I’m not making that anyone who wasn’t white distinction to prove my wokeness or anything there were literally laws on the books in California at this time that made special Provisions not to Target foreigners from European countries and more on that later at this point it was just pure vigilante justice with the area Hispanic and Chinese populations
retreating to Stockton the sheriff and his posi continued to track down and hang any Mexicans they thought were associated with Wen maretta well I’m sure they did indeed get their hands on some of the criminal element I can’t help but wonder if any innocent people got the news at this time as well and that mob Justice is truly a frightening thing believe it or not that might be my main takeaway from all the [ __ ] I’ve learned doing this podcast it’s a theme Central to the old west vigilante justice and I get it often times there
was no formal law citizens regular people Farmers ranchers miners they had to group together and sometimes take the law into their own hands that’s to be expected I mean if we nowadays experience some sort of breakdown of society we’d probably do the same things to protect ourselves and our family if not you’ll have chaos and you’ll continue to be victimized by two-legged wolves the problem occurs when the mob becomes the very thing they’re supposed to be protecting against and boy oh boy does that tend to happen I mean when
that crowd smells blood it’s a hard thing to stop all right I’m getting sidetracked despite being hunted Wen and his Bandits robbed several more Chinese Travelers in early February of 1853 and then a few days later they robbed even more Chinese murdering three of them along with an unnamed American meanwhile a deputy sheriff local there to caleris County raised a posy of his own this dude’s name was Charles A Clark with an E also a former Texas Ranger and a veteran of the battle of Sano he was able to get close enough to the bandits
to witness them robbing even more Chinese Miners And even exchanged some ineffectual gunfire with them but that’s about it while unsuccessful in stopping Wen Clark did at least make good on heaping on enough additional pressure caused maretta to leave the area the Bandit was next teen gambling and toomy I think I’m pronouncing that probably wrong toomi County about 40 miles to the east where he got so talkative that his boys had to escort him from the Monty table fearing he’d share too much information think maybe some liquid
Libations were at play there after a brief visit to Los Angeles maretta passed to the San Fernando Valley where he stole a small herd of horses from General Don Andre Pico a ballsy move indeed if you’re not familiar with pico he’s another californio who in addition to being the brother of the former Governor of Alta California was the commander of the California Lancers during the Mexican-American War if you subscribe to my patreon and you’ve heard my series on Kit Carson I cover the Battle of Sam Pasqual well Don Pico was
there he was the one leading the forces that were putting up such a fierce fight against kit and Fremont needless to say this wasn’t the type of man you wanted to piss off and I kind of think maybe Wen didn’t realize who he was stealing from one of Pico’s BOS paid maretta a visit and let him know he was treading on thin ice and Bing to reason W Keensmartly returned the majority of stolen horses around 40 of them only keeping a handful that he said he and his men absolutely needed quick side note Pico’s cousin was another notorious California
Bandit active at the time Solomon Pico all right so I think it’s safe to say that the citizens of California were over W maretta by this point on 11th 1853 the governor called for the creation of the California rangers special unit whose only mission in life was to reign in the so-called five wiin basically waim maretta and a few other guys he ran with some of whom were also named waen or just went by Wen very confusing when I was looking into it uh there were two brothers supposedly cousins of Marietas both nicknamed oo
Mareno one was actually named Wen but the other kind of went by Wen on occasion another member of the five wiins was waim Botella he like maretta was uh from Sonora then you had Wen Kio who supposedly was Marietta’s stepbrother I don’t know makes me wonder if Wen just wasn’t one popular ass name back in the day I mean all these guys were young in their early 20s kind of had me thinking what a band of similar young Outlaws would be named if they were around nowadays the five camens you know the five bradens hey be careful out
there the five coltons are on the loose anyway evidently these various Walkins along with maretta were all listed by name in the legislative act that created the California rangers and who better to catch them than the man the myth old porn stash himself Captain Harry love yeah that’s right Captain love was placed in charge of these newly formed Rangers and he promptly filled the ranks with a mly crew of 20 hardened men all right so I found two rosters uh one compiled by Henry Rolland Ridge and the other by a man named Nam William James
Howard who was actually a member and accompanied Captain love pursuit of maretta I will leave the link to these rosters in the show notes so you can compare the two maybe look for a few familiar names I do lean on trusting Howard’s list more but I’ve read his iwest accounts and he seems to be full of [ __ ] about half the time himself so who knows nevertheless I will share some of his observations of the Rangers Howard said that they quote had the law in their hands and could hang burn or crucify as they pleased under the
circumstances it was necessary to have in with courage and good judgment they were all dead shots with either rifle or revolver and not one of them knew the meaning of the word fear naturally all were familiar with the hardships of Border life which implied a great deal in view of the measures that had to be adopted to put a stop to the reign of terror then in full force end quote he also left us with the following tantalizing details as is what the men carried saying quote these old pioneers did not bother much with cooking
utensils a Tin Cup a tin plate buoy knife sugar spoons individual coffee can represented a complete outfit whenever they obtained meat it was cooked over the fire on Fork sticks and bread was baked in the same way while potatoes were roasted in the hot ashes all Frontiersman understood this phase of the situation and can appreciate the importance of packing as little weight as possible in a Manhunt of this character the Firearms consisted of old-fashioned muzzle loading guns of every variety and each man carried a
Colts Navy s shooter the Rangers were operating in a comparatively Aid region and as activities began in Midsummer the above equipment was considered adequate for all practical purposes end quote so there you have it that’s the kind of stuff right there that fascinates me everyday things or the tools of the trade that such men carried good thing they were traveling light too since they’d be on the hunt for probably longer than they expected matter of fact for the first couple of months they were pretty much drawing blanks evidently Wen
smelled trouble in the air and he and his Bunch went to Hole Captain Harry love was determined however and he soon caught him a break someone tipped him off as to the whereabouts wen’s remaining brother-in-law Jesus Feliz young Jesus was located arrested and promised that if he’d spill the beans on Marietta’s location they’d let him go and he agreed now if you’re of the geographical bent I believe at this point the Rangers weren’t too far from San Juan Bautista upon apprehending Senor Feliz Harry and the boys rode
South for the sleep Valley this was just a ruse however as Harry love didn’t get to be a captain by being a dummy he was hoping if anybody was watching they’d assume he was going in the wrong direction later that night the Rangers backtracked and headed Southeast First to the San Bonito Valley and then through the Diablo range almost kind of parallel into the west of present day Highway 5 finally they came upon their destination the aoo day coua or the coua canyon aka the super secret hideout of Wen maretta very near where the town ofCoalinga now stands and almost
immediately a huge herd of several hundred horses came into view many of which were likely stolen by Marietta and the boys and many that were just actually wild all mixed in together and being looked after by a force of about 80 men these were meseros that particular breed of bico that specialized in Catching and breaking wild mustangs now they were just working boys but you better believe they knew where Wen was Harry love pulled the Rangers back for for a couple of days just to observe and it wasn’t long before the M Aros broke Camp traveling
at night and into the early morning Captain love soon located in another small camp to the south of pinocha pass yeah pinocha pass if you’re familiar with the Spanish language you probably know the meaning of pinocha growing up in Texas you’re going to learn that particular word probably around the age of seven or eight no matter your native tongue and if you don’t know what it means well let’s just say I found it amusing that old porn stash Harry love was about to penetrate pinoa pass all right so uh yeah that small camp that
Ranger love located was indeed wen’s camp and he and the boys almost made it too easy for the lawmen per usual there are a few versions as to what happened the Rangers probably took a couple of Lookouts into custody as is claimed in one account that’s also consistent with other reports that have the Rangers arting a few of the bandits and it helps explain why they were able to come upon Wen and the remaining Outlaws unaware I’m also not sure how many Bandits there were total but it looks like anywhere between just 6 to8 and despite the
varying accounts they all seem to agree that waen was able to escape the initial attack possibly yelling out every man for himself when doing so while attempting to race his Pony across the creek Rangers John White and Bill Henderson both fired hitting maretta in the small of his back and knocking him out of the saddle down but not out the Bandit was able to rise and take off on foot just not fast enough Ranger Henderson fired again this time striking Wen in the chest staring up at his Killers metta’s last words were
noanoa stop shooting I’m already dead the other version of wen’s Final Moments has only Ranger John White pursuing him with maretta hanging off the side of his horse commanche style white closed the distance and was able to get off around striking Wen in the hand that he was using to hold on to the horse’s M upon spilling to the ground the wounded Bandit held up his hand and surrendered and wouldn’t you know it just as Ranger white exclaimed I arrest you some of the other boys just rode up and riddled Wen with bullets as far as the other Bandits
go once again they’re different accounts uh One Source claimed three total were killed another says four killed and two captured of those captured one drowned while trying to escape and one later confessed to his crimes and was then strung up and as far as I can tell no California Rangers were killed although Harry love is said to have gotten his face grazed by a bullet of the dead I only know of two for a fact waim maretta and his trusted Lieutenant three-finger Jack now Mr three fingers his actual name was Manuel Garcia but he did come
upon his nickname honest see as how he only had three fingers on one hand a hand that was quickly severed and kept as proof you see both he and waen had a price on their heads and the Rangers had to have some way of demonstrating that they got their men so not only did they remove three fingers telltell hand but his head as well and the head of w maretta evidently Garcia had a big gaping bullet wound in his skull causing the rot to set in quickly so they simply buried it somewhere near Fort Miller in present day Fresno County good thing
they had that hand I guess Bin’s head however would be carefully placed in the jug of Brandy for preservation but no word as to what happened to the rest of his body the head originally used simply as proof that W was dead in order to collect the reward was then taken on tour with Captain love where he charged the public of Buck per person to view it the trophy eventually found its way to San Francisco where it was either destroyed or lost during the Great Earthquake of 1906 if you do a Google search you will
find a picture of a head in a jar supposedly hin but I don’t think it’s a reliable photo looks too much like a movie prop if it is real and you can tell me more about why you believe this is actually Wen severed dead please email me Josh wildwest extra.com now before we go any further there are stories that W maretta was not really killed that day and that Captain love simply cut the head off a random Mexican Bandit of bico and claimed it was waim I suppose that’s possible but I doubt it the head was paraded throughout
various mining camps and towns where W was known furthermore Don Pico when retrieving more of his stolen horsesalso positively ideed it all total Captain love was able to collect 17 affidavits of people who knew Wen including a priest and saying that the head did indeed belong to the Bandit and in the end Harry love got his reward $6,000 was do out by the state to he and his Rangers that’s $227,700 in today’s money or two full tanks of unleaded gasoline now I’m pretty sure love got the biggest cut but assuming that money was evenly spread
out you’re looking at ad justing for inflation almost 11,000 per man not a bad payday but considering it took him 3 months and it putting themselves at considerable risk I don’t know what do you think I suppose the ultimate removal of a deadly Menace who had he lived would have almost certainly killed more innocent people was likely uh worth the sacrifice even the Chinese Community which maretta merly targeted were said to have raised some money on behalf of Harry love to show their gratitude whether that’s actually true or not now
that’s a different story allegedly allegedly allegedly everything is alleged when it comes to this episode even that Ranger I previously mentioned William J Howard his personal Recollections are just riddled with fantasy he’s the one that claimed maretta surrendered and was accidentally gunned down by the other rangers he also claimed that one of the prisoners committed suicide by quote plunging under the water and holding to the ground beneath thus defying the efforts of the Rangers to save him and the other
prisoner was placed in a jail but whoops don’t you know he somehow ended up found hung to death the next morning hate it when that happens look maybe these two Bandidos who were captured deserve to die but if you can’t read between the lines here and see that Mr Howard is being a little less than honest once again George straight and me got some property to sell you the California rangers their job now done were disbanded and Captain Harry love used his proceeds to buy a nice piece of land in Santa Cruz County even got
married to a witer woman named Mary Bennett unfortunately the two just could not get along they split up several times over the next decade until finally Mary moved out for good and sued love for divorce a suit she lost because she was a woman in the 19th century or maybe she was just a [ __ ] I don’t know now love had him run a bad luck there was a fire at his place a couple of floods believe it or not he had an issue with squatters all this coupled with a pretty serious drinking problem caused him to lose his land his wife initially felt
bad for him and allowed him to move into a tiny home on her property not the main house however dude was not allowed there but as time grew on Mrs love grew very scared of Harry and she even hired a bodyguard to protect her a bodyguard who I’m going to assume was a well-built younger man as you can imagine Harry didn’t much appreciate this damn it and one day he decided to confront this young stud of a man Rippling with muscles who was hired to protect his dear wife when The Bodyguard whose name I could not determine so we’re going to
go with Chad when Chad and Mrs loved arrive home one day they found Harry lounging on the ground in front of the main house where he absolutely was not allowed upon seeing this Chad with his young six-pack slightly covered with a dewy sweat non saggy balls perfectly spaced facial features wasted no time in attempting to shush Harry away go on get but Harry love had had enough you can only push a man so far right especially a once celebrated Ranger as with everything else in this damn episode there are different versions one has
Love’s pistol accidentally going off as the two men began wrestling and him shooting himself in the armpit the other has Harry armed with a shotgun as he and The Bodyguard both up and up fire each other at the same time the young man received a superficial birdshot wound to the face and Harry received a bullet to the right arm above the elbow wherever the truth lies we know Harry love was wounded in one of his arms this much is a fact and it wasn’t necessarily a fatal wound but for whatever reason the arm would have to come off I guess it was
beyond fixing and amputation was called for regrettably the all bones that performed the operation miscalculated the amount of chloroform he needed to put Harry under the wounded California ranger went to sleep all right and he never woke up this occurred in Santa Clara California on June 30th 1868 and Harry love was in his late 50s at the time of his death all right so I don’t know about you but I don’t feel quite satisfied there’s just so much buildup over Wakim maretta you know so much Legend So Many ballads and stories
and you’re telling me he was nothing more more than a common Bandit is there no Truth at all behind that grand Revenge story well I found an excellent essay by the great John boser titled California Bandido social Bandits or sociopaths that shed some much neededlight on the subject it also gives a great context to the times and culture wiim was part of and if you’re not sure about the term social Bandit we can just go with Robin Hood okay the so-called Noble robber the rebel The Outlaws who were victims of Injustice and were
forced into a life of banditry as way to write various wrongs all right so Mr boser writes the following quote the reasons for Hispanic peasant banditry are complex and seem to be closely tied to the causes of violent crime in the frontier crime and violence were common place in California during the 1850s homicide rates were much higher than those of today Gold Rush Society was unsettled hordes of ambitious young men flocked to California leaving behind their families and most significantly their mothers Sisters Wives and
sweethearts the simple presence of women in a community exerts a strong settling influence upon antisocial male Behavior this scarcity of women is perhaps the single most important root cause of violent crime on the Western frontier the development of Colts revolving pistol a huge improvement over the old single shot weapons made it possible for every man to carry six-fold Firepower in his holster the rough ethic of that error which required a man to withstand insults with deadly force and to never back down from a fight coupled with the
ready availability of buoy knives six shooters and liquor was a recipe for Carnage with human life so cheap it is little wonder that some men held little regard for property rights incidents of claim jumping slle robbing highway robbery and stock theft were common during the Gold Rush many young men who came to the mining Frontier were by nature adventuresome and perhaps somewhat Reckless most were consumed by Gold Fever if not greed and most did not strike it rich the San Quint prison registers in the California state
archives demonstrate that men of many races and nationalities turned to Crime After 1850 at or near the bottom of the social Heap were the poorest of the Hispanics Bad Blood between American and Mexican had been stirred up in the Mexican American War and many anglos still looked upon Hispanics as the enemy racism fueled by ignorance and religious bigotry was the order of the day many Hispanics were driven from the mines Savaged by callous anglos and occasionally logged and hanged without just calls by Vigilantes denied a means
by which to earn a living it is not surprising that numerous Hispanics turned to robbery and stock theft although the plight of these Hispanics certainly deserves sympathy and understanding The View that Wakim maretta Salomon Pico and terso Vasquez were social Bandits or revolutionaries does not withstand close scrutiny each of them appears to have had a magnetic personality and a strong leadership qualities which attracted followers and supporters Marietta Pico and Basquez were not sociopaths undoubtedly they had
grievances against Anglo Society but the facts surrounding the careers of these three Bandits demonstrate that they were more motivated by hopes of plunder and profit than by any wish to Aid their fellow man there’s abundant evidence that they were opportunistic thieves who generally prayed upon innocent victims sometimes including fellow Hispanics end quote sorry I know that was long I actually suggest reading the entire article I’ll link to it in the show notes Mr Bose Neer does a great job of dismantling the myth of the social
Bandit very very good read as are any of his books you may get your hands on and basically he’s just hammering home what you’ve already likely picked up for your own listening to this episode but I will expand further on some of the injustices that Hispanics and other minorities had to deal with there in California during this time if you’ll indulge me there was actually something called the foreign miners Tax Act that basically imposed a fine on any non- US citizen who wanted to pay for gold $20 a month which is
about 750 in today’s money now this wouldn’t affect Hispanics living in California before the Treaty of Hildago but immigrants like w Moretta or the many Asians who came looking for a better life were affected and it was the Chinese believe it or not who were the main target of the foreign miners act as the amount of available gold began to shrink tensions Rose and miners began fighting over available real estate as such violence against foreigners in this case the term Foreigner indicates anyone who wasn’t white began to rise just like
Mr BOS Necker wrote there were beatings rapes and even murders and vigilante justice or so-called Justice ran rampant just to give you an idea of the mentality of that time against various races the man who passed the foreign miners tax then California governor Peter Bernett also at one point called for All Blacks to leave the state or face a public flogging an he made an exemption in the foreign miners Act waving the fine for white foreigners soif you were from Ireland or Scotland or France or God forbid Germany you were in
the clear you’re our type of Foreigner got too much melanin in your skin well you’re [ __ ] out of luck and of course let’s not forget California’s insanely named Greaser act whose official purpose was to quote punish vagrants vagabonds and dangerous and suspicious persons but I don’t guess I got to tell you what group an anti vagrancy law named the Greaser Act was targeting like it or not California was at this point in history ruled by anglo-americans they the elite and those gal enough to believe that them in power
actually cared for their interest only tolerated people that looked and talked differently than them for a few reasons cheap labor a servant class and a piece of exotic strange on occasion I know I know there’s a certain segment of our population here in the US that despises hearing about these inconvenient facts as if anything that doesn’t portray America as a 100% shining Beacon of equ equality chosen by a Christian God to Let Freedom Ring is somehow akin to blasphemy the United States of America is the greatest country on the face of
this Earth no other place I’d rather live hell I’d get thrown in jail for saying some of this [ __ ] in other countries we’ve come very far in the past Century and a half and people are still flocking here in droves looking to improve their lives this is a land of opportunity and freedom for the most part at the same time there’s also been great injustices committed against other races by those in power and just so happens the ones in power here have historically been white these two truths are not mutually exclusive you already
know this I know the only reason I bring it up is because anytime I say anything remotely in this vein I’ll invariably receive a few emails with people eager to point out other atrocities committed by other races as if I’m somehow blaming them but Josh what about all the bad stuff the Mexicans did what about the Spanish indentured servants what about blah blah blah blah blah we’re talking about California in the 1850s maybe if I do an episode on Spanish colonialism then I’ll talk [ __ ] about them too matter of fact I’m positive I will this
isn’t a white versus Brown versus black thing it’s a human being versus human being thing and we humans are historically without a doubt some vicious [ __ ] all that said we have no idea whether or not wa Marietta was ever specifically targeted in such a manner I mean you can assume he was subjected to some form of discrimination and if by some miracle he wasn’t and he knew people who were he and his fellow immigrants were secondhand citizens and as an economically marginalized people some of them turned to banditry and it
wasn’t just Mexicans or Hispanics either not in the old west replace W and maretta with Jesse James or rub burrow or Sam Bass and the Legends and their mythical motivations are much the same I mean hell switch out white California miners with Northern Carpet Baggers and Kansas red legs and you pretty much got the plot to the outlaw Josie Wells the truth is however both Jesse James and wae Marietta targeted innocent people and they killed innocent people and remember maretta wasn’t shy about who he robbed many of his victims were Hispanic
and a whole bunch of them were Asians nobody has to bend their imagination to think there would be plenty of motivation for someone like wi maretta or any other persecuted group to go on some sort of noble Vengeance Quest that said in this particular case there’s just no proof as far as maretta is concerned learned the stories of waim being some sort of grand Aventure dealing Justice to the men who killed his wife and brother targeting the rich Anglo miners protecting the poor Mexican laborers those in lie of any semblance
of historical evidence are just stories whereas what we know about maretta based on newspaper articles and eyewitness accounts along with the testimony of his own Compadres is that he was an equal opportunity Bandit who stole from the weak whether they be white brown yellow or whatever shade you want to toss in and if they were were lucky maybe they’d escaped with their lives look I’m fully cognizant of the idea that history is written by The Victors is it possible that the historians got everything wrong and Wen was indeed some sort of hero
yeah I suppose but you’re going to have to provide me some sort of proof I’ll be the first to admit that history is complicated and often times you got to sip through a lot of [ __ ] to find the truth and that was especially the case here with wi maretta and I’m still not sure we’ve gotten to the whole truth at the end of the day the evidence were for to rely on is pretty flawed the folk hero aspect of maretta was created after his death by many various authors and Poets by TV shows and movies and by our own Collective imaginations and our very
American desire to see wrongs writed andinjustices Avenged the Hispanic population of California endured many atrocities at the hands of anglo-americans that is true W maretta however was simply a criminal with no righteous ulterior motive but that’s the way it goes like I touched on earlier many and Outlaw of the old west of all ethnicities were considered to be righteous you know virtuous misunderstood victims for the most part they were just charismatic criminals taking the easy way out hell same goes for the law men they were tough and when
needed they could get mean real mean but were they upright paradigms of righteousness absolutely not mostly they were simply criminals too Josh wildwest extra.com if you got something you’d like to share with me about W maretta anything I didn’t get to and anything I got wrong please email me okay so now that I’ve dashed any hopes of w maretta being some sort of hero at least we can still say he was the inspiration behind Zoro right eh maybe according to the Santa Barbara Historical Museum Zoro Creator Johnston mccolley was inspired
by the exploits of bandits in California in the 1850s most notably Solomon Pico whose exploits pretty much mirror those of maretta quote the story of Solomon Pico soon passed into folklore a man taking Vengeance on those who wronged him a gorilla Warrior fighting to save his homeland from an unscrupulous Invader it’s likely Pico was protected from capture to a certain extent due to the growing tensions between the californos and the American authorities mcui meled Pico’s story and additional Outlaw tals to create the character of
Zoro in deference to his 20th century American readers he placed Zoro in Spanish California battling corrupt Spanish authorities rather than American mccul stories of a highly romanticized pastoral Spanish California actually have their roots in a troubled transitional era of California history end quote and then there are several sources that claim Zoro wasn’t even based on a Mexican at all but an Irish Catholic named William Lamport born in the year 1611 and quite the adventurer Lamport eventually found his way to
Mexico where he attempted to lead local Native American and blacks in a revolt against their tyrannical over overseers he was unsuccessful and ultimately tried during the Inquisition and senten to be burned at the stake but he chose to take his own life before they could make it official looks like Zoro is just a mix of many different people most of them if real LED lives that were highly fictionalized after their deaths as far as maretta being the inspiration behind Batman I’m not seeing any links other than maybe Zoro inspired Batman and both
Zoro and Batman were wealthy Aristocrats with double identities both of them committing their heroic deeds and secret I don’t know man if you want to continue to say Zoro was based on wiim maretta as your go-to Icebreaker at parties far be it for me to stop you now with that out of the way let’s talk about the gold I want to know where the gold at surely it wasn’t all blown on Fast women and Monty and don’t call me Shirley Legend has it that Wen left a bit of treasure out there and the remote reaches to California on one occasion with a wagon
full of ill gotten gold The Outlaws were ambushed by a war party near Old cza Stage Station some 100 Mil east of San Diego to avoid losing their treasure to the hostiles they cast it under a rock ledge hoping to return but of course Harry love saw of that another story goes that Marietta buried some treasure near Hatcher Pass in Shasta County California and yet another worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is supposedly buried near Susanville California off Highway 36 now some of these locations such as that Old cizo
Stage Station look pretty remote might need a four whe drive and good supply of water and extra gasoline if you head that way turns out though you might not have to go any further than Los Angeles you see Hollywood wasn’t always Hollywood before being purchased by a developer in the 1880s it was Ranch Land Ranch Land that contained a hill in which Marrietta was rumored to have buried quite a bit of gold and the land where the hill stood was bought by The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart and the early 1900s in order to build a school
but they eventually sold it to the American Film Institute and many believe that the treasure is still buried there deep in the ground under the American Film Institute at 2021 Northwestern Avenue mere three miles from the Hollywood sign I don’t know about all that I think you can spend your whole life searching for wen’s gold and end up broke the real treasure mine lies there in the movies and if they made a movie on waim maretta even if they went with the legend they could cash in think about it Quinton Tarantino directs it we
cast John leguisamo as Samuel Jackson is Harry love toss in Danny tryo and Selma hes boobs and you got yourself a box office hit maybe even hire Danny McBride as a narrator you’rewelcome Hollywood one last thing on maretta every summer in California sanin Valley for the last 40 or so years there’s been something called The waim maretta Ride you can check out some videos on YouTube uh I don’t know how many people participate but it looks like hundreds mostly all Hispanic they’re all on horseback many of the men
in sombreros a few of the women in traditional flowing dresses and they ride something like 60 mies over the course of a couple of days looks like a lot of fun anyway this trail ride was originally formed to draw attention to the plight of Farm Workers there in the valley being forced from their homes or made to work in poor conditions to them the legend of Wii maretta is an inspiration he’s a hero that they look to and I’m not trying to take away anything from that with this episode trail ride looks badass and I hope
people continue to participate in it and I hope they continue to fight for things that they hold dear as one organizer put it quote it’s about Community good for them Lord knows here in Texas we’ve got an event or two or a school or a dozen named after some not so Savory characters whose reality and morality doesn’t exactly live up to the hype and that’s about all I’ve got on my ke maretta yeah George Edgar Scarboro was born on January 12th 1879 in molic County Texas and if the name Scarboro rings a bell that’s likely due to Ed’s daddy being
George Adolphus Scarboro the man who killed the man who killed John Wesley Harden George senior spent decades working as a law man first as Sheriff of Jones County Texas and then as a deputy US Marshall working out of El Paso and it was there in El Paso in 1895 that George Scarboro was involved D in the controversial killing of Martin marose this in and of itself is an absolutely crazy story that I will go way more in depth on in the near future but long story short the notorious gunman John Wesley Harden allegedly paid Scarboro
along with the El Paso chief of police Jeff Milton and possibly his Constable John Selman Senor to kill Mr morose just 3 weeks later Selman would kill John Wesley Harden and then less than a year after that Scarboro would gun down John Selman George then headed over to New Mexico where he went to work for the Grant County Cattleman’s Association and in April of the year 1900 it was finally his turn to die by the gun as he attempted to apprehend a few remnants of the Wild Bunch which brings us back to his boy Ed Scarboro by the time Ed was
just 18 years of age he was saddling up and helping his father on these various manh Hunting Expeditions as such by the time of George’s death the then 21-year-old Ed was already well on his way to becoming a distinguished law man Not only was he one of the first ever Arizona Rangers but he also tracked down and arrested Todd Carver one of the men suspected of killing his daddy and you know that must have felt good only thing is Scarboro seems to have had a little bit of an ego problem despite being initially lauded by his peers Ed was
dismissed from the Rangers after just nine months due to his quote unquote high-handed arrest tactics that and his all around hotheadedness hell so volatile was ad Scarboro that he even tried to draw down on his own Ranger Captain guy by the name of Bert Mossman now I think it goes without saying that the Arizona Rangers are far inferior to the Texas variety be that as it may it still ain’t no small thing making a ranger Captain over in the Grand Canyon State and Captain Mossman a legend in his own right was about the last person
that Ed should have tried to tangle with luckily for Scarboro Mossman simply introduced his fist to the young Lawman’s face before Ed could clear leather but things could have been much much worse despite this much needed attitude adjustment and his lack of employment as an Arizona ranger Scarboro would still continue working in law enforcement in various capacities a career that nearly came to an end is he was tracking cattle thieves near New Mexico’s hatcha mountains Ed was asleep one evening when a damn skunk crawled up
in his blankets and gave him a little love bite on the wrist hell of a way to wake up right Scarboro hops up out of his blanket in a panic can’t blame him there and Shakes the skunk loose but it comes lunging back causing Ed to fetch his pistol and open up fire he misses but I guess the Flash and the bang was enough to make the skunks get outle momentarily at least Ed finally settles down enough to try to get some more shut eyee and here comes the skunk again launching a third assault luckily this time Scarboro was ready and he got a
direct hit on Pepe Lew with his Winchester and that was that still a nerve-wracking experience right especially considering that there’s really only one reason for a critter to act in such an aggressive manner I’ll give you a hint it starts with an r and it rhymes with scabies now according to Google the rabies vaccine did alreadyexist at this time although I was unable to determine how widely distributed or available it was which may explain Scarborough’s next course of action the stricken law man beat feet to the big
city of El Paso where he underwent a little something known as mad stone treatment now this was completely new to me but apparently mad Stones also known as basor Stones can be found in the stomachs or intestines of kachu and animals and were used in centuries past to draw poison out of bites or wounds this is done by boiling the stones in sweet milk or sometimes alcohol and then applying it to the injury in question Legend has it that once the stone is attached to a wound it can’t be pulled off but once it absorbs the poison it’ll
simp fall away on its own accord I don’t know about all that me personally I get bit by a skunk I’m going to the damn urgent care okay not no damn El Paso bruha my skepticism aside however I do feel like I should point out that Ed did not die and to be fair I guess we don’t know for sure that the skunk was rabid I’m also not a doctor and I’ll admit complete ignorance as to whether or not it’s possible for someone to get bitten by a rabbit animal only for the virus not to take effect I’m sure that’s happened somewhere at
some time throughout history what I do know is that even nowadays despite Michael Scott’s best efforts some 60,000 people per year succumb to rabies and there have been very very few recorded cases of someone surviving without proper medical treatment statistically if you get rabies and you do not get yourself some legit Doctrine you’re as good as dead and just like you heard me say Scarboro didn’t die that being the case his behavior does seem to have grown increasingly erratic following this incident like the time he decided
to get into a gunfight with a bicycle it was March of 1904 and Scarboro was employed as a constable in Douglas Arizona and it’s there on the streets of Douglas that Ed came face to face with his most formidable foe since that skunk a young bicycle Enthusiast named rube Shields it seems that rubbe came riding into town one day and took doing bicycle tricks in front of a growing and astonished crowd and I guess Scarboro didn’t much like bicycles or he didn’t like the idea of anyone other than him getting attention or maybe he was just
looking for yet another excuse to throw his weight around which according to news articles from back in the day does seem to be his Mo whatever the case things started off mildly enough with Scarboro simply ordering Shields to desist and move on rub wasn’t having it though and bluntly told Ed not to bother him as he was in the process process of attempting a rather difficult stunt oh boy this casual Defiance really pushes Scarboro over the edge not only does he bristle and tell Shields not to talk back but then just to emphasize his
point he goes ahead and pulls out his service revolver and starts blasting away at ru’s bike tires laughing like a maniac while doing so you would think rubbe Shields within scurry and fear right negative in fact he does the exact opposite ducking his head down low the young man began pedaling with all his might Straight Ahead at the craz Constable Ed Scarboro and before Ed could draw a good bead bam Rubes slams right into him dismounting from his bike which I can only assume was a little dented at this point Shields proceeds to
bin down and grab the stunned Scarboro by the throat disarm him and then as one newspaper account put it took his time and skillfully kicked ated Scarboro into a state of utter submission now I’m a two sides of the story kind of guy I always feel like that’s the best way of viewing the world right trying to see things from the other person’s point of view on one hand I think we can all agree that bicyclists can be pretty damn annoying I mean yeah I understand they have a right to be on the road just like the rest of us and they’re not only
getting exercise but they’re also helping to reduce pollution in the process I get that fine great but dude they need to look so damn ridiculous while doing so I’m not saying it’s okay to take a shot at somebody for any reason much less for riding a bicycle but I am saying that if you decide to take a bike on the damn freeway and your little tiny shorts and silly looking helmet you got to at least expect a little aggression every now and then on the other hand I’m picking up on some real Angry Boomer get off my lawn vibes
from Ed Scarboro it’s like he all of a sudden became the old west version of a mall cop who’s irrationally angry over just the sight of a teenager enjoying himself on a skateboard we obviously don’t know the whole story maybe the kid was obstructing traffic or blocking the entrance to a local business something like that and maybe he shouldn’t have smarted off but I’m willing to bet that whatever Shields was doing on that bicycle most certainly did not justify a member of law enforcement opening upfire and it looks like I’m not the only
one who felt that way Not only was Ed Scarboro arrested and fined while rub Shields got off completely scot-free but Ed also got sacked from his job according to the aformentioned news article quote rubbe is now the hero of the hour and Ed goes around looking like a broken man with a secret sorrow end quote and sadly that was just the beginning of Ed Scarborough’s downward spiral out of work and looking to make a quick Buck Scarboro decided to hold up a restaurant over in Demi New Mexico that in and of itself is bad enough right I
mean the guy had dedicated his entire life to upholding and enforcing the law and here he goes throwing away whatever reputation he still had and doing the very thing he had always fought against ah but it gets worse not only does that Scarboro Rob that restaurant making off with a whopping $24 but he does so in drag wearing his girlfriend’s dress but wait there’s more the genius then removes his cute little outfit and returns to the scene of the crime and orders lunch restaurant employees immediately recognize Ed’s voice and he
soon found himself locked up behind bars yet again now this incarceration would not last long Ed was released on Bell and was somewhat successful in fighting the case but the man just could not manage to stay out of trouble by 1909 Scarboro would be arrested for horse theft and then a few years later he started feuding with Arizona Rancher John Clifton over weird gra cattle an argument that led to Scarboro killing Mr Clifton right there in his front yard Ed was arrested again tried convicted and life in the Arizona State Penitentiary a
sentence he commenced to undergoing on May 19th 1916 as inmate number 4787 that’s crazy to think about you know in just a few short years this guy had gone from being a respected law man an Arizona ranger to a life destined Behind Bars and he wasn’t even 40 years old to make matters worse he had a wife and young daughter who now had to F for themselves but you know how that goes right prison isn’t exactly easy on a marriage and a life sentence is a little too long to expect a woman to wait as you can imagine Ed soon received that
dreaded Dear John Letter seems his wife had fallen in love with another man a railroad conductor by the name of Omar Ash and Scarboro wasn’t exactly thrilled with this new development to say the least vowing Revenge Ed made it clear to all who’ listened that his new mission in life was to escape jail and kill both his wife and her new lover and sure enough after just one year and 6 days behind bars Ed Scarboro busted out of that Arizona Prison only thing is despite his threats he never did go after his ex- old lady and her new
husband Ed didn’t exactly Fade Away into history but he definitely spent the rest of his days lying low and as far as I can tell staying out of trouble word is that Scarboro crossed over into Old Mexico and took to anion and for the next 30 Years saved for a few clandestine trips to California to see his aging mother Ed simply kept his head down and tended to his cows now scarb br’s Mama passed away in 1949 and it’s at that point that we lose all contact with the crossdressing bike shooting skunk fighting X Ranger Ed
would have only been in his mid-60s around that time and as far as I’m aware nobody knows where or when he died Legend has it that if you’re riding your bicycle at night and you get to smell in a skunk you’d be best advised to turn around and pedal like hell in the opposite direction Direction and that’s about all I’ve got on Ed Scarboro Alfred grer Packer was born in Pennsylvania in January of 1842 not far from Pittsburgh his father James a cabinet maker by trade would relocate the family to Indiana shortly after and
it’s there in lrange County the young Alfred would spend his formative years as you’ll soon see however Alfred Packer had a bit of a wander lust upon turning 18 years of age he moved out on his own and headed west for the land of crockpots horrible accents and Jesse Ventura also known as Minnesota now despite finding steady work there as a shoemaker’s Apprentice Alfred wouldn’t stay in Minnesota all that long either the nation was soon plunged into a bloody Civil War and at 20 years of age Packer fulfilled his patriotic Duty and
enlisted with a 16th us infantry in April of 1862 as such his first Duty station was Camp Thomas a training facility for Union troops outside of Columbus Ohio and it’s here that Alfred did something I strongly recommend you do not do he got his own name tattooed on his arm I know and if that’s not bad enough the tattoo was spelled incorrectly no regts now I’m not entirely sure who was at fault here the tattoo artist or Packer but the fact remains for the rest of Alfred’s life he’d have the name Alfred as opposed to Alfred Inked on his arm
and this may be where some of the confusion as to the man’s actual first name comes from go ahead and Google him you’ll see many sources Wikipediaincluded that list Packer’s name is Alfred according to author Harold sheer in his book Maneater The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal this misconception stems from that erroneous tattoo he also posits that it’s very uh possible Alfred himself was unsure how to spell his own name as a younger man this was actually more common than you might think back in those days case in
point Alfred’s sister Melissa she repeatedly misspelled her name as well later in life Alfred would write many a letter some of which I’ve seen copies of and they are all signed Alfred not Alfred so unless he changed his name in his latter years I’m going to go ahead and say that his actual real name was Alfred all right back to the story after getting this regretful tattoo private I can’t spell my name Packers next stop was to Camp Douglas just south of Chicago and this was not a very fun place to be let me tell you uh sometimes
referred to as the Andersonville of the north Camp Douglas was one of the largest P camps of the Civil War it’s also where Alfred would contract typhoid fever which of course is spread by eating or drinking food and or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person this tells you all you need to know about the conditions there at Camp Douglas right either that or Alfred was a dirty boy and he went ass to mouth but much to my dismay we have no way of knowing that for sure when applying for government disability later
in life Alfred claimed that this typhoid Affliction was due to quote constant and prolonged and unnecessary guard Duty end quote he also blamed the typhoid for causing another physical malady that he’d suffer for the duration of his life epilepsy ah yes Alfred Packer was epileptic now epilepsy aside from being a word that my mouth finds very hard to pronounce is a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance loss of consciousness or convulsions associated with abnormal electrical activity in the
brain it can be genetic but most common causes seem to be low oxygen during birth head injuries brain tumors or even just from infections like menitis even abnormal levels of sodium or blood sugar can cause it and up to 70% of all cases no cause can be determined the only person I’ve ever personally known who was EP eptic I never actually saw her have a seizure but according to her things like flashing lights could trigger it now evidently Alfred’s case was much more extreme oh in FYI he was fibbing when he said that it was the
typhoid or the guard Duty that caused this epilepsy in fact he had suffered from these seizures since childhood Fitz they sometimes called him back in those days and Alfred would have these so-called fits or seizures on a very regular basis often to the point of passing out or losing Consciousness not the greatest of conditions to have when attempting to fight a war right I don’t think it’s much of a surprise to learn that after just a few months of service the young Soldier would find himself medically discharged up at Fort Ontario
in New York and this was an honorable discharge a doctor’s note on the separation papers basically states that Alfred was unfit for Duty due to his seizures and this obviously wasn’t something that he himself could control still though Packer was determined to serve got to give him credit there he’d enlist again 6 months later in June of 1863 this time with company L of the eth Ohio Cavalry uh for any new listeners I also struggle with the word Cavalry so uh yeah anyway this stin would last a little longer the eighth was sent out to
Tennessee where they were involved mostly with guard and Garrison duties and some skirmishes with gorillas west of Nashville and somewhere along the line Alfred got his pay docked for quote plundering the citizens of Nashville end quote make of that what you will I’m assuming he was stealing [ __ ] that absolutely did not belong to him and it most certainly would not be the last time wasn’t long after that when Alfred was once again medically discharged thanks to his epilepsy uh this was in April of 1864 10 months after his
enlistment by the way just a history nerd tangent real quick the Battle of Nashville wouldn’t take place for like another 9 months I thought initially maybe that’s where the the plundering came into play but no not exactly sure of the situation here uh maybe some of you Civil War Buffs can email me and let me know what action if any Packer may have been involved with in the area at that time as it is I’m not sure whether Alfred ever saw combat and even if he didn’t that doesn’t take anything away from his service I’m just genuinely
curious we know that by the time of Packer’s discharge he was suffering from seizures at least every couple of days sometimes having two or three within a 48 hour period and and that is according to a doctor’s note by this point the war was almost over and Alfred not bothering to enlist a third time simply driftedWest taking odd jobs as he went everything from a harness maker to a laborer and according to him he even spent time as a hunter and Wilderness guide although I do find that a little hard to believe for reasons that will
become apparent soon enough Alfred eventually found himself in the gold digging to Colorado where he would have the misfortune of losing the top portions of both his pinky and index fingers in a mining accident he also took up work as a jack whacker old Packer the whacker now I found this especially interesting as I had no idea you could actually earn a living being a jack whacker boy oh boy if I had a dollar for every time I’ve whacked my Jack well let’s just say talk about striking a rich a real stroke of good luck if you
know what I mean and it really says a lot about Packer skill level you know being able to whack a jack while missing parts of two fingers although I have been told it does make make it more natural that way uh no uh actually a jack whacker was sort of like a mule Skinner it was Teamster work Alfred was basically driving pack mules carrying supplies Lumber food all that good stuff back and forth from various mining camps all the while while still suffering from chronic seizures Packer would eventually continue his Trek Westward and by the
year 1871 could be found working in the Bingham Canyon copper mines not far from Salt Lake City Utah a vocation that caused Alfred to quote unquote get Leed a Minor’s term for Contracting lead poisoning a very real danger then and now especially in developing countries where laborers get it probably the same way the Alfred did horrible work in conditions that cause them to inhale dust that contains lead severe cases can lead to death and symptoms include super fun stuff like joint muscle and abdominal pain headaches difficulty
concentrating mood disorders even seizures kind of wonder if Al for’s epilepsy was kicked into overdrive during this time and this would not be his only case of lead poisoning not long after this B Alfred took up work in Sandy Utah just south of Salt Lake where he got Leed yet again this time ingesting castor oil as treatment per a doctor’s order now I’ve never tried castor oil but I’ve heard a lot about it from older family members who were forced to take it when they were growing up and they were forced to take it to
cure pretty much everything feeling sick to your stomach here’s a spoonful of castor oil constipated castor oil headache castor oil don’t feel like going to school oh yeah you taking that castor oil from what I’ve gathered it pretty much causes you to [ __ ] your insides out along with all the impurities that are causing whatever ails you I’ve even heard that it’s been used to induce labor so you know it’s some strong stuff not sure it actually really helps with anything though and I’m pretty positive it does nothing for
lead poisoning or epilepsy for that matter a quick search on Google reveals that a common modern day treatment for lead poisoning is a method known as chal therapy you’re injected with a certain cocktail of drugs that bind the metals to your blood and then you just sort of piss them out obviously this wasn’t an option back in the 1870s so cast your oil it was and who knows maybe it did help as Alfred was back on his feet and filling spry by the fall of 1873 right around the time that he met up with a failed prospector turn Freight
hauler Bob mcgr and here’s where things get interesting now Bob and some other old boys were planning on headed east to pay him for gold in Colorado Breen Ridge Colorado or thereabouts and long story short Alfred sort of conned his way in with them he told the group that he knew the area they were going to and that he had previously lived and worked in Colorado which was true however when he added that he could serve as a guide and help them Reach their destination in just 20 short days he was either lying through
his teeth or at very least vastly overestimating his own abilities truth was Alfred Packer couldn’t guide himself out of a damn paper sack much less a vast Wilderness but I’m getting ahead of myself Packer was broke as a joke at this point and he needed some money I’m not above lying to get a job my own self so okay fine and who knows maybe he did really believe he could guide them in to the gold digging I mean he had made the trip himself at least in the opposite direction so who knows either way he convinced this Bob McGrew to provide him
his $50 grub steak and away they went it would be 21 Men total who’d leave Utah Bound for Colorado none of them it seems very experienced in the Arts of wilderness survival and in all fairness someone like Packer who knew the lay of the land could prove to be invaluable at least that was the hope couple of things I found interesting though first off it does appear that mcgr was initially impressed by Alfred he was state that Packer looked to be in great physical shape that he was smart and even a quoteunquote fine talker he also let it slide
that Packer enjoyed arguing Rel religion with the Mormons now I’m not sure if these were like intellectual good faith type theological debates or if they were more akin to just internet trolling type arguments and I say that because other than Bob McGrew literally nobody else was impressed by Alfred Packer matter of fact the other men of the Expedition could not stand the man and I mean not at all the other thing worth noting is that Alfred was rumored to have circulated a little bit of counterfeit money there in the Salt Lake City region
he also by his own admission spent three months in jail after being caught in a wh house and I can’t blame him on that one I think we all know how freaky them Mormon women can be right all you little Salt Lake soakers out there think I don’t know little Mormon marinator you seriously uh although Alfred does at this point strike me as being a little shady what with the constant moving around the lying about being a guide some possible jail time there’s nothing too damning here right none of what I just mentioned would have really caused
the men to dislike him that much now it seems it was a combination of all the above and a whole bunch of other stuff first and foremost it quickly became apparent that he weren’t no God you know nowadays if you were to travel from Salt Lake City Utah to Brick andri Colorado you’re looking at about 7 and 1 half hour drive head south through Provo hit I70 and take that du West all the way to Colorado and your final destination no fuss no mus maybe stop and grab some lunch along the way at a tiny Diner where the waitress call you honey and
they chain smoke marble or Reds and probably sound like Selma and Patty from The Simpsons things would have been much different for Alfred packer in the gang back in 1873 however they set out on the 1st of November after stocking up on supplies and they headed Southeast on the Old Spanish Trail till they cross the Colorado River possibly near present day Moab Utah this is where things sort of petered out seeing as how it was already late in the year the road if you want to call it that was already buried under the snow as such it became
abundantly clear that that their Intrepid guide Alfred Packer had no [ __ ] clue where to go and just in case you’re not all that great with geography the men were now approaching the Rocky Mountains the San Juan range in particular a very rugged area and not something you’d want to try as a tindero foot unless you had a scout that is a real Scout and even then there are cases of experienced hands getting lost in such areas John C Vermont the famous explorer for example had a very disastrous Expedition not far from the
area where Packer and the boys were headed he was being Guided by old Bill Williams a very capable Mountain Man and still 10 of their party perished this rugged terrain in the dead of winter does not discriminate one false step one mistake and you’re a dead man experience be damned just to get an idea of how rough going it was remember how I said it was supposed to be a 20-day Journey well two months later the wouldbe miners were still trying to make it and by this point they were completely fed up with Alfred Packer and it wasn’t just because
he sucked at a guide nor was it due to his condition and his constant seizures although that certainly didn’t help matters now it seemed that Alfred Packer was just sort of a creepy guy and not much of a team player the Expedition started rationing their food rather quickly you know once it became app parent that the trip would take longer than planned this however did not stop Alfred from eating his Phil and he wasn’t even being sneaky about it just blatantly eating more than his fair share he was also a little too nosy for
his own good constantly asking the men how much money they had on them and gossiping about said money to the other party members he complained a lot and about everything and was just basically unwilling to pull his own weight a quote unquote whining fraud is how one of the men of the Expedition would later remember Packer and then there’s the fact that his voice had this annoying high pitch to it so yeah not only did Alfred prove to be useless but he was also grading on the nerves not a winning combination trust me I should know and nobody ever
makes mention of it but I get the feeling that Alfred was the type of guy that stands uncomfortably close when he talks to you and for sure if he was around nowadays he talk really loud over speaker phone out in public and just to give you an idea of how little he was respected at one point he had a seizure and fell into the fire and nobody even made a move to help him they told Bob McGrew who eventually got up and pulled him out of the fire that Alfred was now his responsibility all right so obviously the men soon ran out of food remember
they only packed for 20 days and they might just have been doomed had it notbeen for some various friendly Native Americans that they ran into along the way these indigenous saviors would guide the Prospectors for a day or two and then head home then the Myers run into another Good Samaritan who would do the same still though it wasn’t that long before they were completely out of food at one point they even had to live off a horse feed chop barley I believe it was for five whole days finally on January 25th 1874 for nearly 90 days after
depart in Salt Lake City the man had the Good Fortune to run into a band of you under the leadership of Chief uray their present day montros Colorado now this was Ute land that they were on legally and once uray determined that the men weren’t a threat he did invite them to Winter just a couple miles away from his village which they gladly did setting up camp in various shelters everything from tents to dugouts to crude shrub and brush type dwellings that Packer himself took refuge in the men were also able to
trade a bit with the you securing a couple of goats for food as well as some clothing stuff like that and believe it or not some of the men still wanted to push on even asked uray if he’d lend some Scouts to get them where they needed to go the request that the chief wisely refused said that the conditions were so rough not even a you would attempt to make such a journey and he urged the men just to chill where they were for the Winter ah but they wouldn’t listen and by February six of the men were ready to travel seeing that these
hard headed fools were determined and knowing that they wouldn’t listen to reason uray was gracious enough to load them up with some food and even give them directions a much safer route that would take them along the Gunnison River and thus provision they set out with Alfred Packer attempting to follow but they would not have him one of the guys the former officer of the law actually pulled a pistol on Alfred and told him to get his ass back to Camp not the most popular guy on the Expedition Alfred Packer still though he was undeterred
and for whatever reason he was not content to stay put near the UK Camp either claiming once again to be some sort of a guide he proposed a direct route that would take them in over the mountains in the effing winter and somehow he convinced five others to accompany him I guess the idea was to head straight for the Los Pinos Indian agency which I believe was the closest point of civilization but come on man what is the rush all they had to do was just sit around a campfire for the next couple of months flirt with beautiful
you women and eat barbecued goat but no they had to go out there and follow a damn lunatic on a 75m long journey into the freezing damn Wilderness and this group of geniuses consisted of Alfred Packer of course a guy named Frank the butcher Miller George California noon Israel Swan Shannon Wilson Bell and James Humphrey they had two rifles One pistol a hatchet couple of knives and a handful of matches no Flint or any other way to start a fire very little ammunition no heavy coats no snowshoes they barely had any food they were in no
way shape or form in any sort of condition to attempt to cross over the rocky damn mountains in the middle of winter or even the summer for that matter with that in mind I think it should come as no surprise that once spring had sprung they were all dead all of them except for Alfred Packer that is he finally arrived at their intended destination the Los penos Indian agency alone and half froze in mid April of 1874 over 2 months after after he and them other five set out from the Ute Village and there’s various versions of
what exactly happened when Packer showed up some claimed that he was ravished and ate almost immediately others say that he only wanted whiskey another version which seems to have the ring of Truth is that he took the whiskey to calm his nerves to get his appetite up and then he ate likely he needed the whiskey to steal himself before telling his tale after all I think we’d all need a few shots of whiskey after doing what Alfred did he initially claimed that he got Afflicted with snow blindness at which time the rest of the men abandoned him
leaving him with just a Winchester rifle as such he had to make it out of the Wilderness alone living mostly on rose buds he found along the way the men of the agency found the rose buds claim especially strange seen as how Alfred did not appear all that starved he looked like a wild man who had just emerged from the mountains sure but he wasn’t Skin and Bones he clearly had more to eat than damn rose buds uh by the way if you’re like me you’re probably thinking why didn’t they eat the damn horses well the horses they
still had were back at the UK Camp when Alfred and those Five Guys set out they did so on foot the snow would have been far too deep for the horses to cross through anyway all right so Alfred after making his tail also claimed to be brokeand sold his rifle to the agency’s Justice a guy named a major James Downer and soon set off for the nearby Town saat bu supplies said he was going to go back home to Pennsylvania another strange claim considering that he hadn’t lived in Pennsylvania since he was a baby either way Alfred would not leave
town immediately matter of fact he went on a little bit of a spree spinning a whopping $100 in Dolan Saloon 10 times the amount of money he got for selling that Winchester by the way so he clearly wasn’t as broke as he claimed $100 in 1874 just in case you’re curious is like 2500 in today’s money and that’s a lot of whiskey Packer then went to the General Store and spent a reported $78 1900 in today’s money on some fresh Duds and supplies and then of course he headed back to Dolan’s Saloon liked it so much there that he actually took up
residence in it living off of canned oysters peaches and of course whiskey now I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not but strong liquor tends to loosen one’s lips just a bit and Alfred was no different he began drunkenly sharing his heroin tail to all who would listen and of course each telling differed from the other one story often contradicting the previous there’s also the suspicious amount of wallets or billfolds that he had on his person and then something else happened that didn’t help his cause
none remember all them guys that stayed back with the Ute opting to look after the wagons and horses till Springtime well these old boys began trickling in astonished to find Packer drinking it up there in the saloon of course they were curious you know what happened to the other men that Alfred departed with where were they what became of them Alfred stuck with his original story kind of uh saying that the men left him to F for himself after he stepped in some water and froze his foot remember originally he said that he was uh temporarily
blinded nonetheless it was curious to these men that Packer had been left with a rifle it was also curious that he had other possessions on him that once belonged to his former uh companions like oh I don’t know their wallets or Mr Miller’s much beloved butcher knife or a tobacco pipe that belonged to party member Shannon Bell as for the knife Packer claimed that Miller stuck it into a tree and went off and left it Finders Keepers losers weepers I guess these men of the Expedition weren’t buying it though especially a guy by the name of
Preston Nutter he knew something bad had happened and claimed that Packer was a quote unquote quarrelsome liar and before too long accusations began to fly things got so heated that Preston wanted to string Alfred up right there on the streets of seatch cooler heads prevailed though and the two men were separated and Packer quickly and wisely began making play to get the hell out of town unfortunately for him he took his leaving a bit slow other members of the Expedition start showing up you know them guys that follow Chief uray safer
route along the river you know the ones that uh wouldn’t let Alfred join him and when they heard Packer’s story they cried [ __ ] as well saying that those men with Alfred weren’t the type just to abandon a man like that they were so damn adamant that Not only was Alfred not to be trusted but that something horrible must have happened up there in the mountains that they finally convinced the head of the agency Charles Adams to send some men to swat to bring packer in for questioning they didn’t simply just arrest the man though they
caught up with Alfred and explained that they were going to send a search party to look for his companions and that they needed him to guide them there of course he didn’t want to do this but old Mr Nutter and his buddies were still on his ass and he had the very real fear at this point of being lynched so he rode on back to Los Pinos with this escort once there he had to sit down with Adams who by this time had quite a few questions for Alfred Packer matter of fact he even convened a council of miners essentially this was like a come
to Jesus moment tell me what really happened Alfred I understand if it’s what I think well you did what any man would have done to survive it’s okay just tell me and then it didn’t help matters much when a couple of Youth showed up with what they called White Man’s meat dried strips of human flesh that they found on a nearby Hill oh boy it was all too much for Alfred he got so overwhelmed that he fainted once revived and back on his feed I guess Packer felt like it was time to come clean started begging for mercy and began his
confession ominously saying quote it would not be the first time that people had been obliged to eat each other when they were hungry Packer claimed as I’ve already mentioned that they ran out of food after a few days and they were living off whatever they could find Roots rose buds an occasional rabbit these dudes even ate their own boots okay then one day with all of them onthe verge of starvation Packer left Camp to get gather firewood upon his return he found Israel swan dead on the ground his head caved in with a hatchet and the
other four men just standing around him they then butchered Swan’s body divy up the money he had on him and they DED on his flesh the body of one person won’t last long when picked at by five hungry men though then a few days Israel was all add up and once again hunger began gnawing at the men’s bellies according to Alfred this is when they began conspiring to eat the butcher Miller Next which they did likewise dispatching him with a blow to the head by that hatchet as he’ been over to pick up some fuel for the fire evidently there was a
method to their Madness as Miller was said to be stocky so I guess they were hungry for a little bit of fat and so it went Humphrey was next followed by George noon leaving just Packer and Bell who made a pack not to eat each other said they’d never speak of what truly happened and if they made it out alive they would just claim that the other men died of starvation or the weather and that they all had proper burials but of course why I stop now I mean eating human flesh is kind of like a can of Pringles right you just can’t stop soon
enough both men were out of food and hungry again Alfred claimed that this is when Bell snapped and ran at him swinging his rifle like a club Packer deflected the blow and Counterattack striking the bigger man with a fatal blow to the head with that hatchet and shot him and once again Alfred Packer had a full belly and you know the rest he was soon emerged from the Wilderness there at Los Pinos upon hearing this so-called confession the minut of the Expedition once again called [ __ ] especially when it came to Bell saying
that he was the type to lay down his life for others as opposed to being the craze killer that Packer claimed either way a search party was organized they were to head to the area where Packer claimed he and Bell camped out for a few days a big lake some 50 or so miles from Los Pinos and Alfred would be forced to guide them there things didn’t go so smoothly though he had a few members of the original Expedition including Nutter who hated ER you had a few youth Scouts and the agency Constable a guy named louder a few days into the journey
louder noticed that Alfred had that old skin and knife that he took from Miller concealed on his person louder demanded that he hand it over and Packer sort of snapped and came rushing at the Constable blade in hand this attack was easily thwarted and Packer was both disarmed and subdued Nutter ripped into him again saying that he deserved to be hanged and at this point Packer began claiming that he was lost and refused to go any further he and the conable soon returned to the agency where Packer was placed into the custody of the Salat
Sheriff as for the other men of the search party they continued and they did find Packer’s Old Camp but despite searching for a couple of weeks they were not able to locate any bodies meanwhile back of the agency and in custody Packer withdrew his original confession this time he claimed that the men made a pack that if someone died it’d be okay if the others ate him Swan was the first to go dying of exposure Humphrey suffered the same fate then when pack was out Gathering wood butcher Miller was killed by accident or at
least that’s what Alfred claims he was told at some point thereafter Bell shot and killed California noon and then Alfred killed Bell when he came at it as far as the money goes Packer admitted that he took it because it weren’t no use to the dead men any longer now this part here I agree with him on you know what Earthly good would it do to leave all that money there of course the proper thing to do would have been to make sure the money gets to the next Ain rather than you know a several day whiskey and oyster bench maybe help
yourself to just one day of oysters and whiskey and then you send the rest of the money to the family members I think that’s what I do now from what I can tell Alfred Packer was stuck there in that makeshift Jail at the Los Pinos Agency for the next few months at least until August not sure what they were planning on doing with the man but they weren’t going to just let him go you know maybe they were hoping to establish proof that he had indeed murdered his companions as suspected like I said Nutter and the others on that search
party they spent weeks looking for the bodies of the missing and presumed dead men they even damned up a little portion of a river thinking that Packer had dumped the bodies now what happened next is a little confusing as two things happened very quickly one the bodies were discovered that August there’s some disagreement as to who made the gruesome Discovery but it was likely an artist named John Randolph and the location is now known as Dead Man’s Gulch near the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River and twoAl Alfred Packer escaped from jail and
disappeared now which order these things happened in I was not able to determine I think Packer escaped shortly before the bodies were discovered but I could be wrong we also don’t know for sure how he escaped some say that he bribed the guards or even the sheriff While others think he was slipped a pin knife that he used to kind of slip out of his shackles still others claimed that it was the town of seat’s Founders who helped him Escape mostly due to them not appreciating having to foot the bill for this prisoner for months on end one
thing’s for sure though Alfred wasn’t about to sit around and wait patiently for a hangman’s noose as soon as he had his opportunity he took it and got the hell out of town and you got to give credit where credit is due you know the guy didn’t linger he didn’t just go to the next town and get drunk no he flat out disappeared so much so that many speculated that he was dead as word of his Grizzly deed spread so did the rumors with many thinking that he never even made it out of Colorado that he was killed by Native Americans shortly after
escaping and of course nothing of the sort was true Packer wasn’t dead he was just simply in Arkansas which to be fair is about as close to dead as you can get on this side of the Grave after laying low in Arkansas Packer continued to wander never staying too long in one place first Nevada then Arizona up Montana way and eventually Wyoming and somewhere along the line he took to use in the Alias John Schwarz now remember Packer was a minor by profession and he soon found himself back in that line of work matter of fact it’s what he was
doing there in Wyoming when he finally got caught nearly a decade after his Escape an original member of the Expedition a guy by the name of John Frenchie cabazone he was one of the guys who stayed put there in the UK Camp well he happened to be on his way to Fort fedman when he stopped at a roadside end as he was attempted to catch a little shut eye he couldn’t help but to notice a familiar high pitched annoying voice speaking loudly in the Next Room upon further investigation he found out that the voice did indeed Belong To None
other than Alfred Packer what I can tell however it appears both men sort of pretended they didn’t know each other Alfred obviously was trying to pass as this John Schwarz guy and even went so far as to ask cabazone to bring him some bakon soda next time he passed through the area claimed to have been prospecting in nearby Spring Canyon but as far as Frenchie was concerned it was Packer without a doubt right that voice and those missing fingers even crude false teeth in the place of his missing ones I think I actually forgot to
mention that earlier uh Packer was missing his front two upper teeth and had been ever since the Expedition but I guess by this point in time he’d obtained some false teeth somewhere the next day cabazone wasted no time in alerting authorities and the laramy county sheriff paid Alfred a visit arresting him without incident and placing his ass in the jail there in Cheyenne evidently this wasn’t Packers first run in with the law in Wyoming he had previously been locked up for threatening a waiter uh with a damn
revolver just because the man was a tab bit on the slow side in bringing Alfred his water and that little tidbit of information is where I lose what little sympathy I have for Alfred Packer and I did believe it or not have a Little Bit of Sympathy you know nobody ever really cared about Alfred and I do think a lot of it had to do with his epilepsy it would have made him a bit of a social Pariah wherever he went especially in those days he likely felt ostracized and getting kicked out of the army twice even though it was for medical reasons
probably didn’t help either dude was missing two fingers and two teeth so you know he wasn’t winning no Beauty contests and he just had a way about him that rubbed others the wrong way I got the same failing myself there’s times when I think people despite my intentions take what I say or do the wrong way and I get it I’ve also kind of always had a soft spot for rejects mostly because I’ve been a bit of a reject my entire life as well and I couldn’t help but to think that maybe Alfred kind of felt the same way and
then I hear about little incidents like this with the waiter and that’s one of my biggest pet peeves and something I think is very telling about somebody’s character you know how they treat their weight staff or anyone that they consider to be below them on the social ladder whether it’s an employee at a restaurant you know some kid working McDonald’s or just whoever’s bagging their groceries I found that people who act like this generally feel powerless in their day-to-day lives you know they’re ball treats them like [ __ ] and
they just take it because they have no spine their wife and kids ignore them they’ve got no say at home so the onetime they actually feel like they have some pow is when they have another human being taking food orders for them or something and for the record I’ve never even worked as a waiter I just hate that type of mentality oh this person’s jobs serve me as if I’m some sort of King so let me try to make them feel as shitty as I do as if someone who has that type of job is somehow below you go [ __ ] yourself if that’s how you think I don’t
care if someone’s working at Taco Bell or not they’re working they’re being productive you aren’t somehow above them just because you feel inadequate in your day-to-day life the chaps my hi all right enough of my ranting also Packer did brag a bit when he got arrested he told the sheriff quote that’s the first time in 20 years I didn’t have my gun on me if I had you could have never taken me like he’s John Wayne or something to Loosely paraphrase Charles Bronson in the excellent movie Mr Majestic Alfred packer was making sounds like he was a
mean little ass kicker only I ain’t convinced for what it’s worth once apprehended Packer calmed down and readily confess to his true identity he was eventually taken to Denver by train and reunited with Charles Adams from the Los Pinos agency and his mean little ass kick and facade began cracking as well seems that Alfred got Mighty nervous at the throng of people who came to see the infamous Colorado Cannibal and as such he began to once again fear a lynchin promis at Adams that he’d give another confession a true and full confession if
only he was placed in jail and protected from the murderous mob by the way I’m not sure of the exact location of Packer’s arrest uh One Source claimed a cabin on Hound Creek West of laramy just thought i’ toss that in there Packer was true to his word and he did give another confession this one differing from the previous two once again he explained how bad off he and the men were you know snowed in and living off a rose buds how they had to eat their boots told some of the men were so hungry they were crying
out in pain finally Packer took the rifle and he went to go look for help when he returned to Camp later that day un successful he found that everybody was dead except for Bell who was cooking a piece of meat that he had cut off of uh butcher Miller Bell seemingly gone mad by this point ran at Packer and Alfred shot it as he fell Packer then gave him a Cuda grow over the top of the head with that hatchet and that was that Alfred claimed to have left the next morning but was driven back to Camp due to the deep snow and and it’s then that
he finally gave into his hunger each day that followed Packers said that he tried to get away to leave camp but each day he would end up returning and dining on human flesh yet again there was $70 he collected among the dead men which he pocketed with his own 20 eventually the weather broke and he was able to leave carrying some of the meat with him and eating as he traveled and finally discarding what was left as soon as he got to the agency when he was asked why this confession was so different than the earlier two he claimed that he was
himself at the time that he couldn’t be held responsible for anything that he might have said Remember at the very beginning Packer claimed that his companions abandoned him then when he was finally called on his [ __ ] he gave the elaborate tell of them killing each other one by one now with this confession he claimed that it was Bell that killed everybody and he only killed Bell out of self-defense I’ll give him a little bit of leniency as far as you know being out of his mind at the time it certainly would have been a traumatic experience
and I could see not exactly being in the right frame of mind after finally making it back to civilization nevertheless Packer would be tried for murder a trial that would take place in the new mining town of Lake City Colorado not all that far from the so-called Dead Man’s gold where Packer claimed that Bell killed the other men I was actually familiar with Lake City before ever researching Alfred Packer and I was surprised that there was a connection but I’ve always been kind of fascinated with the place even
though I’ve never been there located in a valley in the San Juan mountains Lake City only cl to population of around 400 it’s fairly secluded beautiful and unfortunately it’s colder than a witch’s tit F thought it would be a cool place to escape to you know provided I could one day afford such an escape however the older I get the more I realize that maybe I’ve spent too much of my life in Texas and I might not enjoy spending months at a time freezing my ass off beautiful or not I don’t know what it is about getting older and not being able
to take the cold anymore anyway back to the story Packer’s trial began on April 6th 1883 not even a month after his arrest and it was during this trial that the prosecution put forth the theory that Alfred deliberately lied about hisabilities as a scout to lure these men who he knew had money out into the Wilderness with the expressed purpose of murdering them and taking their money and this is a good spot to point out that Alfred was never put on trial for cannibalism only murder just wanted to clear that up and get this it’s not even
against the law here in the United States to consume human flesh at least not in 49 of our 50 states not technically Idaho does have a specific law barring cannibalism but even they make an exception for life-threatening conditions where eating human flesh is the only means of survival it’s crazy though you know it’s not illegal to be a cannibal anywhere else in the US here’s the catch though you can’t murder somebody to eat them even if they agree to it that’s still murder and you’re not allowed to desecrate a corpse so you
can’t just dig up like a freshly buried body or something however you could theoretically buy a body part which is way easier than I thought in a 2017 article published by Rutters titled the body trade cashed in on the donated dead they shed light on abuses that occur when cadavers are sold to a mostly unregulated Market I guess the idea is that some poor families turn to certain organizations who offer free cremation services in exchange for donating their loved ones bodies to quote Advanced Medical studies and in a lot of
legitimate circles this is absolutely necessary medical students doctors some nurses even some dentists have uses for cavers for training purposes the article goes on to say that from 2011 to 2015 private Brokers received at least 50,000 bodies and distributed more than 182,000 body parts and since it’s an unregulated Market we don’t really know what’s happening to many of these parts that said you probably could purchase a body part legally you didn’t have to kill nobody for it and it doesn’t fall under the desecrating a corpse thing I
think you know is it then legal to buy and eat a body part I don’t [ __ ] know sounds fishy to me I know that according to a 2018 Vice article a man who wanted to remain anonymous had his foot amputated after a motorcycle accident he asked to keep said foot and the doctors agreed he then invited several of his friends over to his home where they all dined on talk made from his foot woo and of course there are those absolute psychos who keep and eat their placentas after giving birth I [ __ ] you not if you’re
looking for a step-by-step guide on how to obtain human flesh with the expressed purpose of eating it you’re on your own I I can’t help you there uh this is where I’m guessing the dark web would come into play also all this talk of cannibalism is getting me to thinking about what it might taste like and the answer is probably pork at least that’s the course according to an article I found on the guardian from 2010 aptly titled what does human flesh taste like they quoted one verified real life cannibal as saying that it tastes like
pork only a little bitter while another said that it tastes like good fully developed ve so there you go you got one for pork the other for Vil now we need a tiebreaker well German serial killer Fritz Harmon who killed 24 male prostitutes in the early 1900s actually disposed of their Remains by selling them as pork and as far as I know none of his customers complain that their pork tasted funny so I think it’s safe to say that us people taste a little bit like swine one last thing then we’ll get back to Alfred Packer I’ve seen the Book
of Eli like a hundred times and I had to know does eating human flesh make your hand shake well from what I can tell it depends on whether or not you eat the brains uh I guess there are prons in the human brain that when eaten can cause a disease called Kuru K Ru kind of like mad cow disease for humans the four or 4A people of Papa new guine have been observed with this after eating their victims it can be fatal and since it’s a disease of the nervous system the symptoms do include a lack of control over your body movements loss of
coordination and yes the shakes but in the case of Alfred Packer I guess as long as he didn’t eat their brains then I think he was safe anyway who cares right we are disgusting and we eat disgusting [ __ ] all the time if you think you’ve never had human flesh and you’ve eaten can ravioli or hot dogs or McDonald’s you’re kidding yourself you’re out of your damn mind you know a finger got lost in there at some point all right back to the trial of Alfred Packer it would last all of a week and he would be found guilty as hell of
premeditated murder despite his pleading the opposite and he would be sentenced to death by hanging with an execution date of May 19th 1883 it was reported and it still to this day is often repeated that the presiding judge MB Gary said the following as he handed down the sentence quote Stand Up You voracious man eaten son of a [ __ ] and receive your sentence when you came to hensdale County therewere seven Democrats but you ate five of them godamn you I sent you to be hang by the neck till you’re dead dead dead as a
warning again reduce the Democratic population of this County Packer you Republican cannibal I will sent you to hell but the statues forbid it end quote and as entertaining as was it’s not true not even a little bit uh the judge was actually much more levelheaded when laying down the sentence if not long-winded I’ve actually read the entire speech the judge gave and I’m not going to recite it here because it would take [ __ ] forever the dude loved the sound of his own voice probably should have started his own podcast and there
was no condemnation or anything like that no mention of Republicans Or democrats he didn’t sound like y samity Sam but he did in the end sentence Alfred to hang by the neck until he was dead dead dead by the way why do they say dead three times like that I know why they say until dead of course you know hangings aren’t always pretty and they don’t always ensure a quick death so you want to hang them until they’re dead but three times I don’t know if you happen to know why the word is repeated three times please email me and let me
know Josh wildwest extra.com the sentence not withstanding Packer had himself some decent lawyers and believe it or not they were able to get his rendevu with the Noose overturned I’m not too good on the whole leg Le for the matter but it was something due to the effect of uh when the crime was committed Colorado wasn’t yet a state ex poost facto law I think is what it’s called there were other issues with Packer’s trial as well like the fact that he damn sure didn’t have an impartial jury there in Lake City now
this doesn’t mean that Packer just got off scott free though his death sentence was overturned but he was still culpable for the deaths of those men he had another trial after a change of venue and once again pled not guilty and he was once again found guilty this time instead of being sentenced to death he was only sentenced to 40 years in prison and I use the word only semi sarcastically this was at the time in June of 1886 the longest mandatory sentence ever handed down in the United States by the way one thing I found that
was interesting was that hunters came forward during this time claiming that while the winter of 1874 when the deaths occurred was a very harsh winter there was still abundant game big and large enough that as far as they were concerned there was no need to resort to cannibalism to which I say maybe what may seem easy to an experienced Colorado Hunter may not be so easy for others I’ve personally gone hunting on many many occasions when weather was optimal and not seen a damn thing but then again I wouldn’t starve him to death either
Packer’s credit he did testify on his own behalf and his version of events remained very similar to that third full confession that he gave on the trip back to Colorado he steadfastly maintained the only man he killed was Bell and even during the sentence he asked that if they were determined to send him away for 40 years to do so for the killing of just that one man by the way Alfred always maintained this story he never did admit to killing the others you would think that you know as many do when their backs are against the wall
that that he would have admitted to anything to get out of such a long stretch but he did not which leads to the big question was he telling the truth if things happened as Packer claimed you know if he returned back to Camp to find that Shannon Bell killed everyone and then Bell attacked him then what Packer did was in self-defense and remember he wasn’t on trial for eating human flesh everybody knew he was a cannibal he admitted to it and it wasn’t against the law you know nobody really held that against him anyway it was not
unheard of it was taboo but it was not illegal we’ll get more into whether or not you think Alfred was guilty later uh at the time though as far as he was concerned all that mattered was what the judge said and the judge said he was asked to jail for what would have prom been the rest of his Natural Life had the tide not begun to change and had he not gotten some help from a lady by the name of Paulie pry Paulie was a journalist for The Denver Post who took great interest in Packer and his situation after meeting him in 1901 and
it was her actions along with the backing of the paper that secured Alfred Packer and early release also as I alluded to public opinion was changing Alfred was sentenced back in 1886 by the turn of the century however uh some what more liberal mindset had taken hold of the populace people started feeling sorry for him you know they started noticing how his health was quickly deteriorating due to the imprisonment and his everpresent seizures and they also kind of viewed him with a bit of nostalgia he was a remnant of the old
west days you know kind of a leftoverartifact from the days of wild Indians by the way a primary source I used to research Alfred Packer was the excellent book Maneater by Harold sector I definitely recommend it if you’re interested in the subject very well researched it goes into great detail about the various trials Packer’s time spin incarcerated and his relationship with Miss Paulie Pride there’s a lot I’m leaving out okay the damn audio version of the book is over nine hours long obviously I’m not going to make a
podcast episode that long this is already too long so yeah there’s a lot more involved with the story all kinds of crazy stuff Packer was given a job making Bridal out of horse he also worked in the prison Gardens and he himself made extra money by building and selling these Victorian style doll houses how creepy would that be having a dollhouse made by a damn homicidal Cannibal and he got scammed while in prison at least like three times he was getting a military pension 25 bucks a month and what little bit he was able to
save away he was constantly getting scammed out of by others who were claiming to be trying to get him released from prison one of these even convinced Packer to sign him over as a power of attorney this crazy dude by the name of plug hat Anderson and this plug hat guy he eventually daed and shot two of the reporters from The Denver Post while paully pry was present uh there’s a story about her dress catching one of the bullets or something the whole damn story is insane buy the book trust me you’ll love it all right let’s keep
going and try to wrap this up after many many appeals and with the help of paully pry a sympathetic public and The Denver Post Alfred Packer was finally paroled from prison on February 8th 1901 at 59 years of age the governor of Colorado actually signed the parole not the pardon parole on his last day in office as his last official act as Governor the original crime had been committed nearly three decades prior after nine years on the lamb and two trials Packer had spent 18 years total Behind Bars and he was
amazed at how much it changed over the years he initially took a job there at The Denver Post as sort of a security guard but eventually moved on to nearby Jefferson County where he led a quiet life prospected a bit and then moved again to Sheridan Colorado not Wyoming and there he continued this quiet life raising chickens tended to his garden he became known as a kindly old man who hat out candy to Children regaling them with Tails likely made up from the old days tails and encounters with grizzly bears and heroin battles of Native Americans
in 1905 Packer would moved back to Jefferson County near Deer Creek Canyon where he worked parttime for an old friend named ed Connelly in July of the following year 1906 the Connelly left Packer on the ranch alone as they went on a trip one morning a passer by happened to notice that Packer was collapsed on the ground unconscious rushing him to obtain medical help Packer would uh slightly improve but he would be constantly racked by seizures for months and these were very very violent seizures he was basically
bedridden in the fall of 1906 in one 24-hour period he had 15 seizures still though he lingered however by early April knowing that the end was probably near Alfred asked for pen and paper he wrote to the then Governor that he was dying and once again claimed innocence asking for an unconditional pardon for his past crimes uh saying that he wanted to die clear in the opinion of his fellow men no action was ever taken and on April 23rd 1907 Alfred Packer passed away he was buried the next day in Littleton Colorado in full Grand Army of
the Republic rights uh the Grand Army of the Republic or the G was a Fraternal Order of Civil War veterans so I assume this was some sort of a milit milary funeral and yeah man that’s about it for the life of Alfred Packer uh the dude has been the subject of much speculation over the years and to this day nobody can say for sure if he was actually guilty of killing all those men the site where the alleged murders happen has been dug up extensively bodies have been exhumed I’ll leave it up to you to look up more info on these findings but as
far as I’m concerned nothing has really been disc discovered that says whether or not Alfred was telling the truth none of us been conclusive who knows man I sure don’t I’ll tell you what I do not think if Alfred did murder all five men I don’t believe that he led them into the Wilderness with that intention as he was accused of during that first trial that’s a little too far-fetched if it happened I think it was an insanity sort of thing you know they were all starving I think Alfred probably snapped due to
hunger and he killed them all and then he ate them even if he’s telling the truth and it was Belle that killed everybody and then Alfred just killed Belle it was still insanity and Alfred obviously stole the money just because it was there but yeah Iguess it is possible that things could have happened the way Alfred claimed there at the end maybe he did Kill Bell out of self-defense I don’t know I mean we don’t know much about Bell other than what Packers said but we do know he was a well-respected man as opposed to
Packer who [ __ ] nobody respected at least not at that point of his life and furthermore not something that’s touched on much but Packer as an old man made these strange claims that he was a former Scout even saying that he scouted for custody and that’s obviously not true still though as far as the murders go there was no deathbed confession and he did always maintain his innocence whatever his faults he never wavered on that last confession so what do you think was Alfred Packer guilty of murder in all five of his fellow miners are
just a desperate man in a desperate situation surviving the only way he knew how hit me up at Josh wildwest extra.com and let me know or just head on over to my website wildwest ex ra.com and hit that contact button I’m curious as to your thoughts on the matter and if any of this sounds familiar maybe you’ve seen the musical cannibal written by modern-day philosopher Geniuses Trey Stone and Matt Parker the very entertaining comedy is Loosely based on Alfred Packer’s life ye the two Saloon Robin Cowboys in question were William
Evans also known as Smith and his buddy John Shaw the pair beat Feed out of The Wigwam $300 richer and hopped to train Bound for Flagstaff dropping a few ill gotten silver dollars in the process now Evans and Shaw never did make it all the way to Flagstaff instead opting to leave the train about 25 miles west of Winslow at the now ghost town of Canyon Diablo and depending on who you talk to Canyon Diablo or the Devil’s Canyon was a pretty rough Town back in the day I guess with the main drag named Hell Street it kind of had to be right take
into account it’s 14 saloons 10 gambling joints four brothel two dance halls and a partridge in a pear tree and it most certainly lived up to its name and yeah I did add in the Partridge for good measure but I think you get my drift but just in case you don’t The Story Goes the canyon Diablo’s first town Marshall was sworn in at 3:00 p.m.
and buried just a few hours later at 8:00 p.m. five additional Marshalls followed all killed in the line of duty with the longest last in all of just one month so yeah pretty rough town but I reckon hell Street was about a good of place as any for Shaw and Evans to make their final stand turns out Navajo County Sheriff Chad Hawke and his Deputy Pete pimberton along with Town Marshall Bob Giles had discovered the silver dollars that the Outlaws dropped when hopping that train they headed straight for Flagstaff but soon got word that The Wanted men had
been spotted hiding in some bushes outside of the Devil’s Canyon as such Hawk and pimpton arrived that evening round about Dusk and began questioning local business owner Fred voles and just as Mr voles was in the process of confirming that yeah there were indeed a couple of shady newcomers in town sheriff Hawk notices the pers walking brazenly right out in the open he and pimberton rush out to confront the Outlaws who waste no time fleeing down an alley the Law Men pursue and upon turning a corner find themselves staring
down the business end of a couple of six shooters in the hands of Shaw and Evans all four men immediately open up fire empty and their guns just feed away from each other in a matter of seconds and miraculously neither law man was wounded the same could not be said for the dice Robin Duo Evans caught around in the leg and shoulder but he still fared better than his partner Shaw who lay SP out in the dirt dead in hell and minus a good portion of his brain matter Evans would later be sentenced to nine hard years at
the Territorial Prison in Yuma while Shaw was placed in a cheap pine box and unceremoniously buried brought there Canyon Diablo and trust me when I say this is not the end of the story much like last week’s episode things are about to take a turn for the strange the following day a bunch of cowboys from the hash knife outfit were drinking in The Wigwam Saloon the scene of the initial robbery and conversation naturally drifted to the recent hold up and the subsequent gun battle and if you’re not familiar the hash knife
outfit officially the Aztec landed Cattle Company had been operating there in Arizona since since 1884 and at one point was something like the third largest cattle outfit in the entire country they got the nickname hash knife on account of their brand resembling a type of knife once used by Chuck Wagon cooks and their hands soon garnered a reputation as the thievous fightingest bunch of cowboys who ever set a saddle now while your average hash knife cowpoke was known to let the wolf howl on occasion they like all other Cowboys
were mostly honest and hardworking that said there were a few bad apples andsome of the men employed by the Aztec Cattle Company had also been guilty of robbing trains and stage coaches and rustling cattle as well as getting into their fair share of gunfights in hallbrook the closest vestage of civilization to the hash knife headquarters there were an astonishing 26 shoo and deaths in the year 1886 alone and that in a town whose population was just 250 Tom picket one time Compadre of Billy the Kid was a noted hash knife
Cowboy as was Bert MossMan who we just discussed in the recent episode on Ed Scarboro prior to Bert becoming the first captain of the Arizona Rangers he was employed by the hash knife bunch to help put an end to the rustling which he did by firing 52 of the 84 men on the payroll Now by 1905 things had calmed down a considerable amount but as you’ll soon hear the hash knife still employed more than a few rough old cobs which brings us back to them cow hands at The Wigwam who were discussing the prior day’s excitement when the bar let slip a
shocking Revelation it seems that before robbing the dice game Evans and Shaw had ordered themselves a couple of shots of whiskey drinks they never touched as they soon grew preoccupied with Larsen a negligence near Unthinkable to the hash knife Cowboys I mean sure Evans could always embibe after his stint in prison but poor Shaw was destined to meet his maker with parched lips reckon this didn’t sit too well with them cow pokes and it weren’t long before they got it into their heads to ride on over to Canyon Diablo dig up John Shaw and make
damn sure he got that final drink and so it were that somewhere between 15 and 20 inebriated hash knife Cowboys boarded a train Bound for hell Street a bottle of the wigwams finest Rock gut in tow the mly crew arrived at the Devil’s Canyon just before first light and began banging on Fred volz’s door buggering him to lend over a few shovels we stopped at the Depot and had a few more drinks and then we went and dug the grave open with shovels Cowboy Lucian crestwell later recalled now Fred volz wasn’t too happy about this new
development after all it was he who the day before had identified the Outlaws right before the shootout and it was he who was tasked with Barry and Shaw afterwards now not even 24 hours later he had to sit back and watch as a bunch of wild ass Cowboys dug up a corpse just so they could give him a drink thinking he might as well make the most of it voles went ahead and grabbed his fancy Kodak box camera after all who knows maybe a few photos of Shaw’s body would help him collect a reward for assisting the lawmen or even possibly induce Shaws
next to Ken to pay him VES for a proper burial so as it were Fred began snapping pictures as the cow pokes put them shovels to work digging up the coffin all of them experiencing a shock of surprise when they popped open the lid and found Shaw’s face Frozen in a smile a sight that caused at least one cow hand to shed a few tears undaunted and true to their word they hauled Shaw up out of the casket held his body upright and began pouring whiskey through his smiling clinched teeth one Cowboy by the name of Marley began singing bringing in
the sheaves at which point even more tears began to freely fall a final prayer was given I imagine a supplication of the sort that only a free living Cowboy could make merciful and understanding Creator and then Shaw was gingerly placed back in the coffin with a unfinished bottle of whiskey resting on his chest the boys shoveled dirt back on top and solemnly made their Journey back to Winslow each of them no doubt wondering what their own burial would be like and who if anyone would sing over them now as far as I know none
of Shaw’s family ever did come forward and those photos would end up displayed in The Wigwam Saloon until it was torn down in the 1940s I’m not sure who owns the originals but you can find them online Link in the show notes if you’re curious or just Google the shootout at Canyon Di I normally don’t suggest viewing photos of the deceased but the expression on Shaw’s face truly is uncanny I mean if you didn’t know any better you would swear he was still alive it’s like an old west Weekend at Bernie’s only with
one of the most contented Smiles I have ever seen it’s almost unbelievable speaking of unbelievable hopefully you know by now that I do strive for accuracy here on the wild west Extravaganza and it turns out that maybe Canyon Diablo wasn’t quite as wild as I portrayed it to be earlier don’t get me wrong the gunfight I just described definitely occurred as did the unearthing of John Shaw for that last drink all of that was true the other stories though the ones talking about the various Town Marshals killed in the
line of duty and the abundance of saloons and the other Dennison of Vice well those just might have been the imaginative musings of a fiction author by the name of Gladwell Richardson why he felt the need to embellish I do not know as the true story of Canyon Diablois absolutely wild in my opinion at least there may or may not have been a succession of town Marshals killed and Canyon Diablo may or may not have been lined up and down with whouses and gambling joints and there may not have been a bunch of gunfights in the streets
as people like to believe but there was at least one deadly gunfight there and it did result in one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard the final Toast of a Down andout cowpoke Gone Wrong by the name of John Shaw you may be interested to learn that just 7 months after the gunfight Deputy pimberton was in The Wigwam Saloon the same establishment with this whole damn thing got started in drinking with Winslow toown Marshall Bob Giles the fell who had previously helped him find them silver dollars by the train station the
two lawmen got into an argument about what I do not know but it resulted in pimberton drunkenly and fatally shooting Marshall Giles pimperton was found guilty in sentenced to 25 years at the prison over in in Yuma the same one where William Evans the man who he had shot and helped capture over at Canyon Diablo was also doing time no word on how they got along behind bars but I got to assume it made for some awkward conversations in the prison yard unfortunately I don’t know what became of either man later in life pimpton did
not end up serving anywhere near his full sentence he got a pardon after just a few years and all Evans had to do was less than a decade so I can only assume they both bre there is free men once more whether or not they ever went back to the Devil’s Canyon for a reunion is anyone’s guess all right that’s about all I’ve got this week please head on over to wildwest extra.
com for more true tells from the Wild and Woolly West while you’re there hit that contact button let me know what’s on your mind and try not to Rob any dice games okay it won’t end well at best you’ll end up behind bars walking with a damn limp like Evans at worst a bunch of damn drunks are just going to dig your ass up up and toss a bunch of cheap booze down your gullet on second thought that doesn’t sound too bad all right till next week adios