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Lincoln County Regulators (1878) -
Made up of a group of young men ranging from 14 to 30 years old, the Lincoln
County Regulators began as a deputized posse seeking revenge for the death of
their boss and friend, John
Tunstall. Formed just days after Tunstall was
ambushed and killed by
Lincoln County Sheriff
William Brady
and his posse on February 18, 1878, the
incident and subsequent formation of the Regulators started the
Lincoln County War.
The group was formed by
Alexander McSween,
Tunstall's
lawyer and friend who rounded up
several men who had been employed by
Tunstall, including
Dick Brewer,
John Middleton,
Henry
Newton Brown, Fred
Waite, and
Billy the Kid. Legally deputized by Justice of the Peace John Wilson,
the group was initially formed for the purpose of serving the warrants that were
issued for Tunstall's murderers. For the next five months the violence would
escalate and a number of men would join the Regulators including
Charlie Bowdre,
Henry
Newton Brown, Jose Chavez y Chavez,
George and
Frank Coe,
Tom O'Folliard, Jim French, William McCloskey,
Frank MacNab, Vicente Romero, Yginio Salazar,
Josiah Gordon "Doc" Scurlock, Francisco Zamora, John Scroggins, "Tiger Sam"
Smith, and "Dirty Steve" Stephens.
Richard M. 'Dick' Brewer was
the group’s first leader until he was killed by
Andrew "Buckshot” Roberts
at Blazer's Mill on April 4, 1878. Frank MacNab then took command, but would also
die less than a month later at the hands of a posse made up of the combined
forces of the
Jessie Evans Gang and
Seven Rivers Warriors at the Fritz Ranch on
April 29th. Josiah Gordon "Doc” Scurlock then took the lead.
The violence of the
Lincoln County War
continued to rage until finally in September,
1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes removed
New Mexico's corrupt Governor Axtell from office and appointed Lew Wallace
as
New Mexico's new governor. At first, Governor Wallace felt that conditions
in Lincoln County might call for martial law. The President, however, advised
lawbreakers to return to peace. On November 13,1878, Governor Wallace proclaimed
an amnesty for all those involved in the
Lincoln County War
if they
were not already under indictment This proclamation; however, did not include
Billy the Kid.
Officially, this ended the
Lincoln County War,
but not before nineteen people had been killed in the conflict.
John Long, aka: "Long John"( 18??-??) - The first record of John Long in the
Old West was when he got into a
gunfight in the lawless settlement of
Fort Griffin, Texas in 1876 and killed two men -- one Vergil Hewey and an unknown black soldier who was assigned to the fort. Long then moved on to Lincoln County, New Mexico
where he got a job working as a deputy sheriff and was with the posse that
killed John
Tunstall, which triggered the Lincoln County War. On April 1, 1878, he, along with Sheriff William Brady, George Hindman, Billy Matthews, and George Peppin were ambushed by a group led by Billy the Kid. He would later be a prominent figure in the climactic four-day battle in Lincoln. When the violence finally abated, Long evidently either settled down or disappeared, as his name was soon lost to history.
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"Cock-Eyed” Frank Loving (1860?-1882) – Born
in Jackson County,
Missouri around 1860, Loving moved with his mother to Fort
Worth,
Texas in the early 1870s after his father died. By the time he was in his
late teens he had made his way to the lawless town of
Dodge City,
Kansas, having
taken on the "career” of a professional gambler. Making his main "place of
business” the
Long Branch Saloon, Loving had been arguing with a man named with
Levi Richardson, allegedly over
Loving's wife, Mattie. On April 5, 1879, the argument came to
a head when Richardson strode purposely into the
saloon and drew his six-guns on
Loving. Loving obviously drew his in response. The
Long Branch Saloon was then filled with smoke.
Charlie Bassett, the
Dodge City Marshal heard the shots and came running. By the time he arrived,
both men were still standing but
Richardson had shot five shells from his gun
and Loving's Remington No. 44 was empty.
Richardson then fell to the floor with
a fatal gunshot in the chest, as well as a shot through the side and another
through the right arm. Frank Loving, who had only a slight scratch on the hand,
was immediately taken to jail. Two days later, on April 7, 1879, the coroner's
inquest ruled that the killing had been in self-defense and Loving was
immediately released. The
gunfight is known as the
Long Branch Saloon Shootout or the
Richardson-Loving Gunfight. (See historical accounts
HERE.) Later,
Frank Loving would leave his wife Mattie, a two-year old son, John, and a
one-year old daughter, Mintie.
After
Dodge City, Loving moved on to another lawless town --
Las Vegas,
New Mexico, before finally making his way to Trinidad,
Colorado in 1882. There, he ran into an "old”
Dodge City acquaintance and gambler,
John Allen. Allegedly the two had been
arguing for some time over loans the two had made to each other. The next thing
you know another
gunfight was in the making. This time Loving would not be so
lucky. On April 16, 1882, he was killed by
Allen in what is known as the
Trinidad, Colorado Shoot-out. Allen was arrested and charged with murder,
but several months later he was found not guilty and released.
Joseph "Rowdy Joe" Lowe (1845-1899) - Hailing from
Illinois, Joe and his wife Kathryn, who was known as "Rowdy Kate," left the area after the Civil War and roamed through the various cow towns of Kansas where they established a number of rowdy saloons. In 1870, the pair set up a combination brothel/gambling hall in Delano, Kansas, the worst section of Wichita. On October 27, 1873, Lowe shot and killed Edward "Red" Beard, who owned a saloon next door. After Beard had argued with one of the "ladies" in his own saloon, she fled into Lowe's place with Beard chasing her with his guns ablaze. Instead of hitting his intended target, Beard shot one of Lowe's "girls" and hit another patron,
one William Anderson, in the eye. Retaliating, "Rowdy Joe" shot Beard, who later died from his wounds. Lowe's saloon soon became so notorious for shootings and rigged card games that
customers would no longer come into his the gambling hall, so
"Rowdy Joe" and Kate moved on. Next, they were again setting up drinking halls in Texas, where it was said that Lowe sometimes joined up with the
Sam Bass Gang, participating in several robberies. By 1899, Lowe had moved on again establishing a small ranch outside of Denver and claiming to have given up his wild ways. However, on February 11, 1899, he was drunk in Denver's Walrus Saloon, when he found out that a man at the bar named E.A. Kimmel was an ex-policeman. Lowe immediately began to insult Kimmel, who knowing that Lowe had a reputation as a gunman, pulled his six-shooter and fired five bullets into him, dropping "Rowdy Joe" to the floor. When Lowe was rolled over, it was found that he was unarmed.
John Middleton
(1854?-1882?) - Born around 1854, Middleton arrived in Lincoln County,
New Mexico from
Texas in the mid-1870s and went to work as a cowboy for John
Tunstall. When Tunstall, along with Alexander McSween got into a
feud with the Dolan-Murphy faction of Lincoln, New Mexico, Middleton
obviously sided with Tunstall. After Tunstall was killed, Richard Brewer
was appointed as town constable and put together a group known as "The
Regulators,” which included not only Middleton, but also
Billy the Kid
and other deputies. As the Lincoln County War erupted, Middleton utilized his
excellent shooting skills to participate in many of the battles. On
April 4, 1878, he was
seriously wounded in the chest during a
gunfight with Buckshot Roberts at Blazer's Mills. When the "war" was
finally over, the Regulators split up. Where he went remains a mystery.
Some say that he
remained in the area, dying of smallpox on
November 18, 1882. Other accounts say he moved to
Kansas, where he
married and worked as a cowboy, dying in 1885.
James "Jim" Moon
(18??-1881) - Jim Moon was a frontier gambler and saloon owner in
Ellsworth and
Dodge City,
Kansas before making his way to Denver,
Colorado. During the Chinese riots in Denver in 1880, an angry mob began
beating and lynching the Chinese. Moon stood outside a Chinese business
with a gun in each hand and held off the mob alone. He would later
state: "These Chinks do my laundry and I was there to see nobody
bothered them." Though he stood up on the immigrants' behalf, he was a
man with a violent temper and abuse manner. On June 16, 1881, he was
killed in a gunfight outside his Ocean Oyster Saloon.
John
O'Rourke, aka: Michael O' Rourke, Johnny Behind the Deuce - (1862-1882) -
O'Rourke began his life as a gunman and gambler when he worked as a hotel
porter. In 1878, at the age of 16, he turned up in Tucson,
Arizona, and by 1880 he
had earned a reputation as an expert card player. At the same time he was also
suspected of stealing, most often from the many drunks he encountered in the
gambling halls. However, few were willing to challenge the young man, as he had
sharpened his shooting skills to the same degree as he had his card playing
skills. In 1881, when he was caught by a miner stealing his pack, the miner
challenged him and received a bullet between his eyes. Taken to jail in Tombstone,
a miners' mob intended to lynch him until
Wyatt Earp
held them off. O'Rourke was then moved to the Tucson jail but soon escaped. The
following year, when O'Rourke was gambling in Sulphur Springs Valley,
he was accused of being a card cheat and a murderer. In the ultimate
gunfight
that occurred, Johnny Behind the Deuce was to slow that time, and was killed.
 Commodore Perry Owens (1852-1919)
- Born in Tennessee on the anniversary of the great naval commander, Commodore Perry's victory over British naval forces in 1813, he was named for the naval officer, whom his mother admired. Later his family moved to Indiana, but he ran away fro home when he was just 13 years old and was soon working as a cowboy in Oklahoma and New Mexico. By 1881, Owens had moved on to Arizona where he homesteaded near Navajo Springs. In 1886, he was elected sheriff of Apache County and is credited with taming the lawless town of Holbrook. In September, 1887, while trying to subdue a
one of the factions involved in the Pleasant Valley War, a
gunfight ensued. Referred to as the
Owens-Blevins Shootout took on several men
and came out unscraped. However, rather than seeing Owens as a hero he was relieved of his commission. He moved on and was later in Seligman. Arizona where he ran a
saloon. In 1902 he married and in 1919 he died at the age of 66. He is buried in Flagstaff Arizona.
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