The train had not gone 10 miles down the tracks before he breathed his last. Wheeler later learned that J. One of his victims was the brother of former Ranger Dick Hickey. Nevada officials offered Wheeler the reward, but he promptly turned it down.
Tracy, and in May as a captain he killed George Arnett. On the fifth night of their vigil, the two lawmen heard a horseman approach. The rider was leading another horse. Wheeler had leveled his revolver, and when Arnett snapped off a shot, the Ranger captain instantly triggered his.
The rider bolted, firing a second pistol shot before disappearing over a ridge. After retrieving their own horses, Wheeler and Humm searched the area by lamplight. The outlaw had been hit twice.
In April , the month before Captain Wheeler bested Arnett, Sergeant Jeff Kidder was not so fortunate in a gunfight just across the border. Wheeler had moved Ranger headquarters to the border town of Naco and ordered his men not to cross into Mexico.
But when Kidder rode into Naco from his post at Nogales, Wheeler was away, and the sergeant—his Colt. In a cantina Kidder had trouble with a senorita. The wounded Ranger palmed his Colt and dropped both officers with leg wounds. Kidder then staggered outside and reached the border fence a quarter mile away.
Under fire he wounded the chief of police, who was the brother of the officer who shot Kidder. Once out of ammunition, the Ranger surrendered. The chief and his men dragged Kidder to jail, where they robbed him and roughed him up. Although permitted visitors from the American side, including physicians, he died 30 hours after being shot. Jeff Kidder was Downing, a terror in Willcox, Arizona Territory, where Speed was stationed.
Downing, who toted a revolver in his hip pocket, ran the Free and Easy Saloon and clashed openly with many local men.
On the night of August 4 Downing hit and then gouged the eyes of saloon girl Cuco Leal, who lived and worked in the Free and Easy.
Speed advised they wait until morning. Early on the 5th the still drunk Downing emerged from his saloon shouting crude threats against Speed and Snow. The lawmen armed themselves and split up to corral Downing. As Speed turned down an alley, a bystander shouted that Downing was coming up the street. Winchester at his shoulder, the Ranger emerged and ordered Downing to throw up his hands.
The saloonkeeper raised his arms and walked unsteadily toward Speed. When he was less than 30 feet from the Ranger, Downing suddenly groped with his left hand at his hip pocket, apparently forgetting he had left his revolver at the Free and Easy. Still he kept advancing, and Speed again shouted for him to throw up his arms.
Left with little choice, Speed finally squeezed the trigger of his Model Winchester. The impact threw him onto his back, and within minutes he was dead. Wheeler reported to Governor Joseph H. The deaths of Downing and Arnett in left no other prominent badmen in Arizona Territory. The Rangers had relentlessly hounded most other criminals. For instance, during the fiscal year of —05 they made 1, arrests. But by late the company had virtually achieved its goal of cleaning up the territory.
The Rangers had worked themselves out of a job. Several Arizona sheriffs complained about the authority Rangers exercised within their jurisdictions. Many Democrats, resentful that the Ranger company was a creation of Republicans, clamored that to continue it would be a waste of funds.
In February the Democrat-controlled Territorial Legislature abruptly disbanded the company—with Rangers still in the field. Wheeler had not been permitted to testify on behalf of his beloved Rangers. From late until early the hard-riding, quick-triggered band of riders had brought into a new century the crime-fighting traditions of Wild Bill Hickok, Pat Garrett, Commodore Perry Owens and other members of an earlier generation of frontier lawmen.
The gunfights presented here were the ones with fatal consequences, but there were many other shooting incidents involving Rangers. Tombstone, when it was booming in the early s, featured gambling, shootings, political factions that divided the law enforcement community and, of course, the gunfight near the O.
Corral, in which three Earp brothers and Doc Holliday killed three uncooperative cowboys. Yet one could find a hot time in that old town, too. Hot Springs had gambling galore, its share of shootings, law enforcers who definitely did not see eye to eye and two shocking gunfights on the same day—the first resulting in no casualties, but the second leaving five men dead.
News of the Shootout on Central Avenue made the papers from New York City to California though it became old news fast and left the city fathers distressed. After the gunfight, lines of visitors rushed to take the next train out of town. Hot Springs depended on the tourist trade for its economic health, and a battle between local badge-wearers in the middle of Central Avenue was not exactly good for business. The little village that sprang up around the springs in the late s was known as Thermopolis, but its first real resort season was the summer of That year, U.
President Andrew Jackson signed a special act of Congress to protect what became known as Hot Springs. Stage service from Little Rock began three years later, and in Hot Springs was incorporated as a town. The place became virtually deserted during the Civil War but experienced a postwar population boom as more and more visitors ventured there to bathe in—and also drink—the legendary waters.
By the mids, the federal government had begun administration of the Hot Springs Reservation which would be renamed Hot Springs National Park in On January 15, , an undetermined amount of money was taken when a stagecoach was robbed five miles east of Hot Springs on the road to Malvern, Ark.
The robbery has been pinned on the famous James-Younger Gang, though some historians say otherwise. That particular stage was not held up, but the terribly bumpy ride is said to have inspired Diamond Jo to build a mile connecting narrow-gauge railroad between Malvern and Hot Springs.
With this more comfortable transportation, Hot Springs became one of the favorite destinations not only of one-time New Yorker Reynolds but also of many other wealthy people from across the nation. Some of these visitors wanted more than just hot thermal baths.
By the late s, gambling, which probably existed in Hot Springs as early as , had become a local growth industry that rivaled the healing waters. The question of who would control the gambling became an issue that influenced every election for many years. In February , a gunfight occurred on Central Avenue between two gambling factions, known as the Flynns and the Dorans. Each man had hired gunmen to protect his interests.
In the ambush and ensuing gun battle, three men were killed and three others, including Frank Flynn, were wounded. Within a few hours, a vigilante group called the Committee of Thirteen had formed, and these vigilantes herded many gamblers at bayonet point to the trains for hasty departures.
Gambling in the spa city had taken a hit, but before long it revived and came on stronger than ever. The position of mayor was hotly contested every two years. Gambling and prostitution either thrived or dried up depending on the politics of the mayor and police chief.
In the election for mayor in , Independent candidate William L. Gordon defeated Liberal incumbent W. Thomas C. Toler was actually a Liberal with connections in the gambling community. The two men soon argued about policies, and Gordon tried to dismiss the popular Toler. The city council members sided with the chief, so Gordon backed off. With another election coming up in April , Toler suddenly threw his support to Independent candidate C. Fry announced that if elected he would reappoint Tom Toler as chief of police.
Trouble began to brew in a town that now had some paved streets, as well as electric trolleys, or streetcars, moving hundreds of visitors every day. The Democratic mayoral candidate, young businessman George Belding, had the support of perhaps the most powerful man in Garland County, Sheriff Robert L. Such a development would mean control of the entire county for the Williams brothers. Until the election caused them to bump heads, Toler and Bob Williams had been warm friends.
Toler, 45, was an experienced lawman, having been hired as a deputy in the early s by the first sheriff of Garland County, William Little, and then appointed chief of police in During the Flynn-Doran fight the following February, he had disarmed the combatants and herded some of them off to jail. Afterward, one of the gunmen brought in by Major Doran, Edward Howell, hung around town threatening to kill Chief Toler on sight.
It was ruled self-defense. Another time, Toler got the best of a Hot Springs encounter with O. Toler, who lived with a woman referred to as Mrs. Toler in official records, was the kind of police chief the citizens of Hot Springs wanted. He and his man department collected enough fines to pay the salaries of the force, but they enforced the law without any undue hardship on the tourist trade.
Haley, 33, had married a local girl, and they had two children. Sergeant Thomas F. Goslee, a printer by trade, was considered a top-notch officer, fearless and totally loyal to Toler. Appointed chief of police by Mayor D. Kimbell in , Hart had proved too straight-laced for everyone and had accepted a demotion to remain with the department.
He had a wife who was blind and three children. Bob married Martha Allen there in , and the couple moved to Hot Springs in Once he had found financial success as the owner of a mercantile store, his parents joined him in Hot Springs, as did his older sister, Matilda Watt, and her family and his younger brother, J. He was re-elected in and and then was voted in as mayor in He chose not to seek a second term. When he decided he wanted to be sheriff again in , he ran successfully as an Independent.
Bob Williams was an outgoing individual, polite to women and friendly to most men, except those who disagreed with him too much. His brother Coffee had greater flaws. He drank too much and spent too much time hanging around the gambling clubs. Several of his business ventures had not worked out, and Bob had had to bail him out a few times. But Bob had appointed his brother chief deputy sheriff, and Coffee had handled his duties well. Bob Williams also appointed two nephews, Sam and Will Watt, as deputies.
Sam showed good judgment and composure on the job, but Will was a bit unstable and more impetuous. Williams, was managing the mercantile store in March , but he had ridden on several posses headed by his father, and he loved to go out and practice target shooting with Uncle Coffee.
Mayoral candidate C. Fry was present, along with a dozen or more other people, including several police officers. What was said at the meeting is not known, but it stands to reason that the officers were told that if Fry was elected, then Toler would be reappointed police chief and all the policemen would be able to keep their jobs.
As soon as the meeting concluded, an unidentified man phoned Bob Williams at the courthouse, telling him all about it. The angry sheriff then stormed downtown. When he arrived on Central Avenue at about p. Goslee had left his. Seeing Goslee come out of the barber shop across the street, the sheriff called out to him.
Goslee waited for a trolley car to pass, then crossed over to the two unsmiling men. Goslee could see his own name on the list. When Williams seemed to move his hand toward his coat, Goslee responded by drawing his derringer. Then the sheriff saw his son Johnny come out of the City Hall Saloon, at the intersection of Central and Prospect, and broke away to greet him. According to witnesses, Johnny Williams handed his father a short-barrel. Witnesses were divided over who fired the first shot, but Goslee would have been a fool to start a street gunfight armed with only a two-shot derringer.
Outlawries resulting from civil proceedings can be traced quite simply by searching the plea rolls CP Criminal outlawries, on the other hand, are found on the eyre rolls which survive from the late twelfth to the mid-fourteenth centuries JUST 1 , the c uria regis rolls KB 26 and the coram rege rolls KB By the fifteenth century these rolls, compiled annually, begin with writs of inquiry into the chattels of persons recently outlawed.
In instances of treason, rebellion or homicide, the lands and possessions of the individual would normally have been seized by the crown by the time a second writ of capias had been issued. A special writ of capias utlagatum could also command the sheriff to seize possessions. Many debt-related actions did not proceed to outlawry. A writ was obtained from Chancery ordering the sheriff to make an inquisition into the possessions of a defaulting debtor.
Once a case had resulted in outlawry, an inquisition was officially appointed to inquire what lands, goods and chattels the outlaw possessed. Some inquisitions can be found amongst Chancery: inquisitions miscellaneous C For the 17 th century they are recorded in outlawry books E and E The results of the inquisition were then returned to the Exchequer. Lands which were forfeited escheated back to the crown and were consequently accounted for by escheators in each county.
To reverse an outlawry the defendant had to appear in person before the court. Another way to reverse an outlawry was by pleading a pardon. Pardons for civil and criminal outlawries were commonly enrolled on the patent rolls C Having obtained his pardon, he would then present this to the court. If an outlaw had been guilty of a serious felony or treason, a reversal could be obtained by petitioning parliament C A person outlawed in the Palatinates will be found amongst records of those jurisdictions.
For quick pointers Tuesday to Saturday to Discovery is a catalogue of archival records across the UK and beyond, from which you can search 32 million records. This website uses cookies We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work.
Set cookie preferences. Skip to Main Content. More than a dozen killings later, he surrendered in , broke out of jail, joined the anti-Reconstruction movement and kept on killing.
Fleeing capture with his wife and children, he was caught by Texas Rangers in Florida and sentenced to 25 years for the murder of a deputy sheriff. After prison time and miraculously being admitted to the Bar, Hardin hired assassins to murder one of his clients, with whose wife he was having an affair.
On 19 August , constable John Selman, one of the hired guns, shot and killed Hardin in the Acme Saloon, ironically, it is believed, because he had not been paid for the hit job. In the years that followed, Starr married three outlaws. It was from this point Belle was said to act as a front for bootleggers and harboured fugitives. She died on 3 February Though suspects included an outlaw with whom she was feuding, a former lover, her husband, and her own son, the killer of Belle Starr was never identified.
Born in Arkansas in , William Doolin was never as hardened a criminal as some of his companions. He went west in , finding work in Oklahoma at the big ranch of Oscar D. Halsell took a liking to the young Arkansan, taught him to write and do simple arithmetic, and eventually made him an informal foreman on the ranch.
Doolin was considered to be trustworthy and capable. By the last decade of the 19th century, Doolin involved himself in bank and train robberies. He was known as a meticulous planner, and so he was never caught in the act or seriously wounded. Doolin and his newly formed gang went on to perform more daring heists until , when increased pressure from law enforcement forced them into hiding in New Mexico.
In , when a posse finally caught up with him at Lawton, Oklahoma, Doolin apparently decided he was not going to be captured alive. Badly outnumbered, Doolin drew his gun. A rain of shotgun and rifle fire instantly killed him. He was 38 years old. He left his home at age 18 and drifted to Texas, where in he befriended Joel Collins.
In , Bass and Collins went north on a cattle drive but turned to robbing stagecoaches. Bass was able to elude the Texas Rangers until a member of his gang turned informant.
0コメント