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 William
H. "Bill” Carr (18??-19??) -
U.S. Deputy Marshal
commissioned in the Western District court at
Fort Smith,
Arkansas in 1887. He was later commissioned in the Southern District of Indian Territory
at Paris,
Texas
and in the
Kansas
District Court at Wichita. In April, 1889, he arrested Harris
Austin, a Chickasaw
Indian charged with murder. When Austin resisted arrest, gunplay
erupted and the outlaw was wounded three times. He would be
hanged at Fort Smith,
Arkansas
the following year.
Later that year, in August, Carr
confronted a gang of whiskey runners crossing the Red River
Bridge into
Indian Territory.
The
outlaws
quickly turned around escaping back into
Texas.
However, one of them who was left behind, a man named Lewis
Jackson, was shot and killed by Carr.
In 1892, Carr, along three other
previously commissioned deputy marshals were arrested and
charged with arson and murder for a fire in Lexington,
Indian Territory
where a man had lost his life. However, Carr was evidently
cleared of the charges, as he was back in action in April,
1894, when he and Marshal Evitt Nix confronted the
Doolin-Dalton
Gang near the Sacred Heart Mission in the Pottawatomie
Reservation. When a gun battle erupted,
Bill Dalton, and
George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb were badly wounded, but able to
escape. Carr was also shot three times and left for dead by
the
outlaws,
but he survived.
By this time, Carr had become so well known, he was called
"King of the Chicksaws” by the New York Times, who ran a
feature article on his deeds of daring in April, 1895 (see
article HERE.)
Though Carr had a solid reputation
as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal,
he was also allegedly friends with
outlaws,
Will and Bob Christian. When the Christians, along with
several other
outlaws,
broke out of jail in
Oklahoma City
in June, 1895, killing Chief of Police, Milt Jones and
wounding the jailer and two innocent bystanders, Carr would
soon be implicated in assisting the
outlaws
with their escape. Though the vast majority of lawmen who were
acquainted with Carr felt
Oklahoma
County Sheriff C. H. Deford made the charges against Carr in
an attempt to clear his office of any negligence, Carr would
later be arrested anyway.
In
the meantime, he continued to serve as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal
as on October 17, 1895, he arrested four murderers,
who were wanted for the murder of John Swilling near Tecumseh,
Indian Territory.
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As the
investigation into the escape of the Christian brothers
continued, some of Carr’s friends attempted to get him out of
the country. However, Carr was eventually indicted by a Grand
Jury for assisting the
outlaws.
The lawman then raised the $14,000 bond by selling his
property and personal possessions. Then, for reasons unknown,
he skipped his bond and was "officially” never heard from
again. Some speculated that he went to
Texas while
others thought he remained in
Indian Territory.
The
newspapers of the day then tried to link Carr with a number of
wanted fugitives. In 1896, the Beaver County,
Oklahoma
Territory newspaper reported that Carr was with
Bill Doolin
when
Doolin
attempted to make terms with lawmen and give himself up. Later
that year, the Guthrie Daily Leader reported: "while
playing with an old revolver, the 5 year old son of Bill Carr,
the noted
outlaw,
shot himself through the stomach, dying in a short time.”
In the
meantime, another man named John Reeves, with the help of a
woman, was charged with secreting the guns to the Christian
Gang which allowed them to escape and was sentenced to the
Kansas
penitentiary on December 21, 1896. However, William Carr was
still a wanted man.
The
last report of his existence was on June 1, 1900 when the
Tecumseh Republican
reported that a man who was called Dad Feagin had visited Bill
Carr, who was using an alias of "Bill Evans,” about 65 miles
east of Shawnee,
Oklahoma.
Feagin also said that Carr was in the presence of a former
deputy marshal named George Elkins. He further added that Carr
had been hiding out with the Christian brothers in southwest
Texas prior
to returning to
Oklahoma.
After this
unsubstantiated statement, nothing more was ever heard about
William Carr.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated January, 2009
See New York Times article Next Page
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