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Afterwards he fled south, becoming a
U.S. Deputy Marshal in
Indian Territory under
Judge Isaac Parker
and made a name for himself as a strong and honest
lawman. Canton accepted another appointment as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal in Alaska in 1897. Some time later, he returned to Oklahoma and once more became a
lawman. In 1907, he became adjutant general of the Oklahoma National guard, a post he held until his death in 1927.
T. Jeff Carr - The first sheriff of Laramie County,
Wyoming
Territory, in 1869. He made
Wild Bill Hickok
check his guns in Cheyenne and in 1876, arrested
Jack McCall, the man who shot
Hickok.
Later served as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal for
Wyoming.
Joe Carson (18??-1880) - Part of the
Dodge City Gang of
Las Vegas,
New Mexico,
Carson was the town constable. He was killed by
outlaw John Dorsey when he asked
him to check his guns on January 22, 1880.
Willard
Erastus Christianson, aka: Matt Warner, Ras Lewis (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.
Emanuel "Mannie" Clements, Jr. - Served under
Sheriff Dave Allison as deputy sheriff at Pecos City,
Texas. He
later worked for
Jim Miller during the Miller-Frazer feud and served as constable of EI Paso.
Charles Francis Colcord (1859-1934) -
U.S. Deputy Marshal in
Oklahoma
Territory, Chief of Police in
Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma.
Scott
Cooley (1845-1876?) - Born in 1845, Cooley was an honorable man for the first
30 years of his life and served as a
Texas Ranger. However, that all changed in September, 1875, when Deputy Sheriff Worley
arrested Cooley's friend and benefactor Tim Williamson on the suspicion of
cattle rustling. While Worley escorted Williamson to jail, an angry
mob of German cattlemen abducted the prisoner and shot him to death. This incident marked the beginning of the Mason County War in
Texas,
that pitted the German cattlemen against the native-born Texans. Scott Cooley blamed Worley for Williamson's death, believing him to have
been in collusion with the ambushers. Cooley then went to Worley's home
where he found the deputy working on his well with an assistant, who had
been lowered over the side. Cooley shot Worley dead, and the well
worker, clinging to the rope, tumbled to the boom of the well. Cooley
then cut scalped Worley, proudly displaying his prize to the Germans. Cooley and
his men then killed Peter Bader, the second man on his death list, before
tracking down murdering another man named Daniel Hoerster, whom they suspected
of having been part of the ambush group. The Germans retaliated by hanging two
of Cooley's confederates, and the murders continued in both directions for the
next year before the
Texas Rangers finally restored order. Cooley escaped from a posse at the
Llanno
River
and was thought to have fled into Blanco County where he was sheltered by
friends and died a short time later,
supposedly of brain fever.
Only a few minor gunmen were ever charged, one of which was
Johnny
Ringo, but he was
acquitted. He would later turn up later in
Tombstone ,
Arizona to tangle with the likes of
Wyatt Earp.
David J. Cook (1842–1907) - Denver,
Colorado
Marshal, responsible for over 3,000 arrests.
Timothy Isaiah "Longhair Jim" Courtright (1848-1887) – Born in Sangamon County, Illinois, little is known of Courtright’s early life. He served with the Union army during the Civil War then drifted around until he finally settled in Fort Worth,
Texas. While there, he served at various times as a jailer, deputy sheriff, hired killer, private detective, and racketeer. He was the first elected marshal of Fort Worth in 1876 -- tasked with keeping the peace in what had become known as Hell's Half Acre, the town’s wild red-light district. In 1883, he was appointed as a deputy
U.S. Deputy Marshal, but became a fugitive himself after his posse killed two ranchers. Later, he grew tired of running and turned himself in, though he was acquitted of any wrong doing. By 1887, Courtright was running the T.I.C. Commercial agency in Fort Worth,
Texas, which provided "protection" to gambling dens and saloons in return for a portion of their profits. In the meantime, Luke Short, a former friend of Courtright's, had set up the White Elephant Saloon and Jim was trying to get Short to utilize his services. But the Dodge City
gunfighter told Courtright to "go to hell," he could do any gunslinging that was necessary to take care of his business. Some time later, the two quarreled, resulting in one of the most famous gunfights in western history.
With Bat Masterson at Short's side, Courtright and Luke Short dueled in the street in one of the few face-to-face gunfights in the American West. Shot down by Short, Courtright was killed on February 8, 1887.
Edward Crawford - Served on the Ellsworth,
Kansas
police force in the early 1870s, until he was discharged for killing suspected
murderer Cad Pierce. Crawford was later killed by Pierce's brother.
William R. Cruger (1840-1882) - Born on May 30, 1840 in Albany, Georgia, he moved to Shackelford County, Texas when he was 34. Assisting in the county's organization, he named the city of Albany, which became the county seat, for his birthplace. In April, 1876, John M. Larn was elected as the sheriff of Shackleford County and Cruger became his deputy. Law and order was much needed in the area. as nearby Fort Griffin, some 15 miles north of Albany, had become a hotbed for outlaws, thieves, and other desperate characters. Early in 1877, when the lawmen attempted to restore order in a Fort Griffin saloon, a
gunfight broke out and in the end, three men were killed, and Cruger and the Shackleford County attorney were wounded. Afterwards, Sheriff Larn resigned and Cruger was appointed as his successor on April 20, 1877. Ironically, after Larn quit, he turned to cattle rustling and Cruger was given the warrant from he Albany court to arrest his former boss. After arresting Larn on June 22, 1878 and placing him in jail, he had
the local blacksmith shackle Larn to the floor of the jail house to prevent a breakout by Larn's supporters. However, the next night, vigilantes stormed the jail intending to hang Larn. When they found they couldn't lynch the shackled man, they shot him in his cell. Cruger continued to serve as sheriff until he resigned on July 20, 1880. Before long he moved his family to Tennessee where he served as marshal in Princeton. While there, he was killed by a drunken prisoner whom he had failed to search on May 29, 1882. He was buried in Albany, Georgia.
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