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 Bill
Chadwell, aka: William Stiles, Jack Ladd, J. Ward (1840s-1876)
- Born in
Missouri but raised in Minnesota, Chadwell returned to
Missouri and was thought to have ridden with William Quantrill in the
Civil War. Some time later he hooked up with the
James-Younger
Gang
and participated in the
Missouri
Pacific Railroad train in Otterville,
Missouri on
July 7, 1876, where gang members made of with some $15,000. Some
believe it was he who persuaded a reluctant Jesse James to rob a bank
in Minnesota. On September 7, 1876, he and seven other members
attempted to rob the
First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota, but when
local citizens fought back, Chadwell and
Charlie Pitts were
killed. The rest escaped but the Younger Brothers would be captured
and sent to prison. After his death, his remains were taken by a young
medical student named Henry M. Wheeler, who had been involved in the
shoot-out. His skeleton would later be displayed in Wheeler's office
when he went into practice.
Will Christian, aka:
Black Jack, Ed Williams, 202 (18??-1897)
- Leader of
an
Oklahoma
gang of robbers called the
High Fives Gang,
Will was first called "202” because he was such a large man. Later, because of
his skill with a six-gun, he earned the nickname of "Black Jack.” When he and
his brother Bob were arrested for the killing of a peace officer in Guthrie,
Oklahoma
in 1895, they escaped from jail and headed to
New
Mexico
and
Arizona.
There, they began to rob banks, trains, and stagecoaches in earnest.
On August 6, 1895,
the
High Fives Gang
robbed the International Bank in
Nogales,
Arizona.
However, as they were headed out of town, gang member Bob Hays was shot and
Black Jack dropped the bag of money. Aggressively pursued by a posse led by
Sheriff Bob Leatherwood, the officers caught up with the gang near Skeleton
Canyon. When a gunfight ensued, Deputy Frank Robson was killed before the gang
escaped across the border into
Mexico. When
authorities learned the
outlaws
were back in the area in 1897, another posse was organized. They soon tracked
them to what is now known as Black Jack Canyon and in yet another gunfight, Will
Christian was killed.
Willard
Erastus Christianson, aka: Matt Warner, Ras Lewis, The Mormon Kid (1864-1938) - Both an
outlaw and a
lawman,
Christianson was born in
Ephraim,
Utah
in 1864 to a Swedish father and a German mother who had come to
Utah
as converts to the Mormon Church. Though his start was good, he got into a fight
when he was 14 years-old, and fearing he had beaten the other boy to death, he
ran away. He soon joined up with a band of
rustlers to begin his life as an
outlaw. It was
at this time that he began going by the name of Matt Warner. Somewhere
along the line, he got married to a girl named Rose Morgan and the two ran
a cattle ranch in Big Bend,
Washington
before returning with his wife and a daughter to
Utah.
He then hooked up with his brother-in-law,
outlaw Tom McCarty.
In no time, Warner was robbing banks and trains with the likes of
Elza Lay and
Butch Cassidy.
He then got into a shoot out, that earned him five years in the
Utah
Sate Prison. Though he received an early release for good behavior, his wife
died during his incarceration.
After his release, he remarried and settled in
Carbon
County,
Utah. Warner ran for public office under his real name, Willard Erastus
Christianson, and lost. He then had his name officially changed to Matt Warner, the
name most people knew him by, and was elected justice of the peace and then
served as a deputy sheriff. Later he worked as a night guard and detective in Price,
Utah.
He
died a natural death on December 21, 1938
at the age of seventy-four.
 Billy
Claibourne
(1860-1882)
- Claibourne,
most likely from
Arizona
or
New Mexico,
began to make a name for himself in his early twenties. After
William Bonney’s death in 1881, he insisted that he too, be called
Billy the Kid. He claimed to have killed three men who laughed at this demand, though
newspapers report that he only shot one man. Billy was arrested
after having killed a man named James Hickey, but was found not guilty and
released. A cattle rustler with
Clantons,
he readily enlisted in the confrontation with
Earps
at the
O.K. Corral
in
Tombstone. However, when the time came, Claibourne, claiming to have been unarmed,
ran from the confrontation and survived the gunfight. On November 14,
1882, Claibourne got into an argument with
gunfighter "Buckskin” Franklin
Leslie, when the
gunfighter refused to refer to him as "Billy the Kid.” Later that night, a drunken Billy returned to the
saloon
and called to Leslie from outside to come out and fight. It was the
last mistake he would ever make. In the inevitable gun battle, Claibourne
was hit several times. While he lay in the dusty street, Leslie
walked up to him and Billy said,
"Don't shoot me
anymore I'm killed." His friends took him to the doctor where he died
six hours later. Allegedly, his last words were: "Frank
Leslie killed
John Ringo. I saw him do it."
Cherokee Bill - See
Crawford
"Cherokee Bill" Goldsby
The Clantons:
William "Billy” Clanton (1862-1881)
-- Born in Hamily County,
Texas
,
Billy moved with his family to Fort Bowie,
Arizona in
1865. The next year, the family moved once again to
San Buena Ventura,
California
and somewhere along the line, Billy's mother, Mariah Kelso Clanton dies
leaving
Newman "Old Man" Clanton with four boys and two girls to care for. For
the next decade they move several times before finally settling down near
Charleston,
Arizona
in 1877. Not long afterwards, the
Clantons began to be known as cattle rustlers, horse thieves and road
agents who often ambushed unsuspecting travelers. Billy soon became
involved in the ongoing feud with the
Earps in
Tombstone
and was involved in the
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. On that fateful day,
Billy Clanton, along with
Frank and
Tom McLowery were killed and later buried at the Boothill Graveyard in
Tombstone,
Arizona.
 Isaac
"Ike” Clanton (1847-1887)
- A member of the Clanton family in Cochise County,
Arizona, he
was unarmed when the
Earps and
Doc Holliday
advanced on them at the
O.K. Corral. Ike, the braggart leader of the
outlaws, fled at the first sound of gunfire with Billy Claibourne hot
on his heels. His brother William "Billy” Clanton was killed in the
shootout along with
Frank and
Tom McLowery. Ike Clanton schemed revenge on the
Earps,
arranging to have Virgil
Earp
ambushed in November 1881. Virgil was hit in the back and was
crippled for the rest of his life. In March 1882 Clanton and 4
henchmen, shot and killed Morgan
Earp.
Wyatt Earp
then gathered a posse including his brother Warren and
Doc Holliday
and went after the Clanton Gang killing three of them. Ike fled to
Mexico and hid under an assumed name. When
Earp
finally gave up the search, Ike returned to the
Tombstone
area, took up his old rustling ways, and was shot in 1887 by
lawmen. He was buried where he was shot in an isolated grave in Greelee County,
Arizona.
Newman Haynes
"Old Man” Clanton
(1816-1881) - The head of the Clanton Clan in Cochise County,
Arizona,
Clanton was accused by the
Earps of
rustling, ambushing smugglers and harboring rustlers. However, he
was never prosecuted or arrested for these alleged crimes. In July
1881, Old Man Clanton and several of his rustlers, ambushed a group of
Mexican
cowboys
driving a herd through Guadalupe Canyon, killing 19 of them. The
slaughter was later known as the Guadalupe Canyon Massacre. In
retaliation, Clanton and four of his men were killed in the same canyon by
Mexican
cowboys
seeking revenge for the earlier ambush. Originally, he was buried in
the Animas Valley of
New Mexico. However, he was later reinterred in Boot Hill at
Tombstone,
Arizona.
 Archibald
J. "Little Archie" Clement
(1846-1866) - Born in Moniteau County,
Missouri on
January 1, 1846, Archie joined the Confederate guerillas under Captain
William "Bloody Bill"
Anderson in 1861 and by the time he was 17, had already become a
lieutenant. A very small man, weighing just about 130 pounds and standing
just over five feet tall, he made up with it with his fearlessness and as
an expert pistol shot. He quickly took a prominent role in
Anderson's military
operations, including the raid on
Lawrence,
Kansas
where some 150 men were killed and the town was burned. He also
participated in the Centralia,
Missouri
massacre where 23 Union soldiers were robbed and shot. When "Bloody Bill”
Anderson was killed by Union forces on
October 26, 1864, Clement took command of the unit until the war was over.
Though the
Civil War was officially over, an embittered Clements continued to
create problems for the government by intimidating voters in elections and
becoming part of a gang that would later be referred to as the
James-Younger Gang. Thought to have
been the initial leader, he led them in their first robbery on
February 13, 1866. The
first daylight armed bank robbery in the
U.S.,
the men stormed the County Savings
Association in Liberty,
Missouri
taking over $60,000 in cash and bonds. As the
outlaws
were making their escape,
gunfire erupted and an
innocent 17 year-old boy was killed.
Missouri
authorities suspected Clements as the leader and a price was quickly put
on his head. However, the fearless little man next led the gang in
robbing the Alexander Mitchell and Company Bank in Lexington,
Missouri
on October 30, 1866, making off about $2,000. He was finally killed by the
Missouri
State Militia on December 13, 1866 in Lexington,
Missouri.
He was buried in the Arnold Cemetery in Wellington,
Missouri.
Dan
"Dynamite Dick" Clifton (1865-1896?)
- Dan Clifton was already a wanted man before joining the Doolin Gang in
1892. Having committed robbery, safecracking, and cattle rustling in
Oklahoma,
lawmen
were constantly on his tail. Two stories tell of his nickname, one that he
gained it when he blew himself out of the side of a moving train while
trying to crack a safe. The other, more simpler tale, says that he
lost three fingers while playing with dynamite as a child. Upon joining
the Doolin Gang, Clifton supplied the fire power to the gang and took part
in the remainder of their robberies. In an 1893 gunfight with law
enforcement at Ingalls,
Oklahoma,
he was wounded, but that didn't stop the
outlaw. On May 20, 1895, he, along with
Bill Doolin and Bill
Dalton, robbed a bank in Southwest City,
Missouri,
killing J.C. Seaborn before escaping. The next year, both
Doolin
and Clifton were both behind bars in Guthrie,
Oklahoma,
but after gaining control over a prison guard, and made their escape,
along with 13 other prisoners. Holing up at a
farm outside of Newkirk,
Oklahoma,
he was trapped there on December 4, 1896 by
U.S. Deputy Marshals George Lawson
and Hess Bussey. As he tried to escape, he was shot down and killed. Clifton was
buried at the government's expense in the town cemetery at Muskogee,
Oklahoma.
Brack Cornett (1859-1888)
- The co-leader of the
Bill Whitley or Brack Cornett Gang, Cornett robbed banks and trains in
southwest
Texas in the
late 1880's. Born and raised in Goliad County,
Texas,
somewhere along the line he joined up with
Bill Whitley
and the two formed a gang that was successful in their robbery endeavors
for a couple of years. In June of 1887, the gang robbed a train near
Flatonio,
Texas, making
off with about $600 in money and $1000 worth of jewelry from passengers.
The next year, the gang robbed a bank at Cisco,
Texas, making
off with some $25,000. Several days later they robbed the
International-Great Northern Railroad, escaping with $20,000. However,
when they planned to rob the Southern Pacific train out of Harwood,
Texas, on
September 22, 1888, they found a posse waiting for them. The gang was
finally trapped by
U.S. Deputy Marshals
a few days later on September 25, 1888. In the inevitable gunfight that
took place,
Bill Whitley was killed and another gang member taken prisoner. Brack
Cornett was able to escape and fled to
Arizona.
However, one
Texas Ranger,
Alfred Allee,
doggedly pursued Cornett to Frio,
Arizona,
where he caught up with him. Gunplay erupted once again and when the smoke
cleared, Cornett was dead.
David
"Davy" Crockett (1853?-1876) - A
gunman and
outlaw,
Crockett was the nephew of the more famous
Davy Crockett of
Alamo fame. A
native of Tennessee, he made his way to
Texas where
he soon wound up in prison. However, he escaped in 1872 and soon made his
way to the
Cimarron,
New Mexico
area where he worked on a ranch. There, he endeared himself to the likes
of
Clay Allison,
as both men were from Tennessee and shared a dislike of the black troopers
stationed at Fort Union.
During this time,
Cimarron
was a wild town and in the midst of the
Colfax County War. Crockett soon became the bully of the town, and
along with
his ranch foreman, a mean customer named Gus Heffron, were regulars
at the bars and gambling halls. Though the 23 year-old Crockett was a
little arrogant, he was well liked until the night of March 24, 1876, when
he got drunk and turned deadly. According to the story, Crockett, Heffron and a man named Henry Goodman had been making the rounds in
Cimarron
that evening. Ready to call it a night, they stopped at Lambert's Saloon to pick
up a bottle of whiskey for the road.
As Crockett started out of the
saloon, he
had trouble opening the door because someone was trying to open it from
the outside, which made the drunken Crockett angry. When he finally got
the door open he faced a soldier from the U.S. 9th Cavalry, the black
cavalry unit known as buffalo soldiers.
Crockett was said to have pulled his gun and killed the man, then turned
his gun on three more black troopers at a card table in the bar, killing
two of them. Crockett and Heffron ran out of town on foot because
their horses were stabled in a barn where the buffalo soldiers were
camped. Crockett insisted that putting uniforms on former slaves was
adding insult to injury. Appearing before the justice of the
peace, Crockett was acquitted of the murders because he was drunk, the
court fining him just $50 and court costs on a reduced charge of carrying
arms.
After having gotten away with the murders, Crockett became even more
arrogant and his antics intolerable. Over the next several months,
he and Heffron ran rough shod over
Cimarron
riding their horses into stores and
saloons,
firing their guns into the air and ceilings, and forcing people at
gunpoint to buy them drinks.
Tired of the two bullies antics, Sheriff Rinehart deputized Joseph
Holbrook, a
Cimarron-area rancher, and John McCullough, the town's postmaster, to
go after the lawless pair. On
the night of September 30, 1876, the three men, armed with double-barreled
shotguns, hid themselves near Schwenk's barn. About 9 p.m., Crockett
and Heffron approached the barn on horseback, at which time Holbrook
revealed himself and told the two to raise their hands. Crockett just
laughed and told Holbrook to go ahead and shoot, and much to Crockett's
surprise, Holbrook did just exactly that.
Sheriff Rinehart and McCullough also fired blasts at the two men,
startling their horses, who bolted and galloped a quarter mile or so north
across the
Cimarron River. Heffron, who was not hurt badly, kept on riding
but Crockett's horse stopped on the other side of the river. Crockett's hands were locked in a death grip on the saddle horn and had to
be pried open. A
short time later, Heffron was arrested but escaped on October 31, 1876 into
the Colorado
mountains, never to be seen again.
James Robert Cummins
or Cummings, aka: "Windy Jim" (1847-1929)
- Cummins, born on January 31, 1847, lived near Kearney,
Missouri
and rode with Quantrill’s Raiders during the
Civil War, most often
assigned to follow "Bloody” Bill Anderson. A known horse thief, he
joined up with the
James-Younger
Gang after the war and was involved in
the train robberies at Winston and Blue Cut,
Missouri.
He was suspected of being involved in the plot to kill Jesse James because
his sister, Artella Cummsins, married Robert Ford, Jesse’s killer. After
the break up of the James Gang, he became a farmer in
Arkansas
and actually tried to turn himself in several times, but no one believed
he was really Jim Cummins. At the age of 63 he married Florence
Sherwood and lived to an old age. He died in the Old Soldiers Home
at Higginsville
Missouri
on July 9, 1929.
George Curry, aka: Flat Nose, Big Nose (1864-1900) -
Born on Prince Edward Island, Canada about
1864, Curry moved to
Nebraska
with his family when he was still a child. At the age of 15 he drifted
west and soon became involved in cattle rustling. Some where along the
line, a horse kicked him in the nose, earning him not only a
disfigurement, but also the nicknames. He soon joined the
Wild Bunch with whom he participated in
several holdups. While working with
Cassidy's gang,
Harvey Logan adopted his surname and
became known as
Kid Curry.
In June, 1897, George Curry, along with
Harvey Logan
and
Tom O'Day held up the Butte County Bank at Belle
Fourche,
South Dakota.
O'Day was arrested immediately as his horse had run away, but the other
two escaped. However, while Curry and Logan were holed up in Fergus
County, Montana,
a posse caught up with them and hauled them back to
South Dakota
where they were placed in the
Deadwood
jail. The
outlaws,
however, had other ideas and in November they overpowered the jailer
and escaped.
After participating in more robberies of
post offices and trains, Curry was rustling cattle in Moab County,
Utah
when lawmen Jessie M. Tyler and Thomas Preece finally caught up with him on April 17, 1900
and Curry was shot and killed. His friend,
Harvey Logan, was so enraged that he soon traveled to
Utah
where he killed both Tyler and his Deputy, Sam Jenkins, in a gunfight.
Curry is buried in Chadron,
Nebraska.
Kid Curry - See
Harvey Logan
Continued
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