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Peter R. "Rattlesnake Pete"
Lanahan (18??-1871) - In 1861, Lanahan was employed by the
Quartermaster’s Department at
Fort Hays,
Kansas.
On February 22, 1868, he was hired as a city policeman for the newly
incorporated Hays City, a position he held until August, when he returned
to
Fort Hays.
In August, 1869, he went to work for
James B. "Wild Bill" Hickok
as a deputy, but In November, ran against the infamous gunfighter in the
Sheriff's election. Defeating
Hickok,
Lanahan assumed the new position in January, 1870 and
Wild Bill
moved on. However, some of the rowdy crowd of Hays City were none to happy
at the replacement and soon began to plot an assassination. On the night
of July 16, 1871, several of these assassins started a fight in the
Tenth Street Saloon, knowing that Sheriff Lanahan would come running. When
Lanahan arrived an tried to stop the violence, he was shot twice in the
chest for his efforts. The Sheriff was then taken to his quarters in the
court house and tended to by a doctor, but he died a couple of days later.
James Franklin "Bud"
Ledbetter (1852-1937) - Ledbetter was born and raised in Madison,
Arkansas
where he began his career as a
lawman. He served as a deputy sheriff in
Johnson County for ten years, gaining a reputation as a fierce fighter who was hard on
thieves and killers. He moved to Indian Territory in 1894, where he worked
for an express company before being recruited as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal. Working under Morton Rutherford, Ledbetter
quickly earned a reputation for his gunfighting skills and is credited
with single-handedly bringing in four members of the train robbing
Jennings Gang. The events of his career paralleled those of Bill
Tilghman, Heck Thomas and Chris Madsen and he has sometimes been referred
to as the "fourth guardsman." Ledbetter became the Police Chief of Muskogee,
Oklahoma in
1908, a position he held for two years. He lived in Muskogee until his
death in 1937.
 Joseph
"Joe" S. LeFors
(1865-1940) - Born in Paris,
Texas
in 1865, LeFors grew up to be a cowboy and after driving a herd to
Wyoming
in 1885, stayed there. Later he would become and inspector-detective
responsible for tracking stolen cattle in
Wyoming
and Montana.
In the process he was involved in a number of gunfights. In 1899, he
rode with a posse sent to capture those responsible for the Willcox
Train Robbery and was appointed as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal the same year. In this capacity, he pursued a
number of train robbers and other
outlaws
in the northwest.
In 1901, he became famous for arresting and
documenting a confession from the former
lawman
turned hired killer,
Tom Horn. Horn was later tried, sentenced to die and hanged. In
1902, Lefors was working for the Iron Mountain Ranch Company in Helena,
Montana, allegedly with the intention of infiltrating a gang of
cattle rustlers. However, he was unsuccessful in aiding with the gang and
was fired in 1904. Afterwards, little is known about his life, other than
he died on October 1, 1940 and is buried in the Willow Grove
Cemetery in Buffalo,
Wyoming.
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Lighthorse Police (1844-1889) - The
Indian
Police in
Oklahoma
were given the name Lighthorse by the Five Civilized Tribes when the state
was still
Indian
Territory. As early as 1808, when the
Cherokee
were still located in the southeast, they appointed "regulators" to stop
crime, protect widows and orphans, and kill those who resisted authority. The
tradition continued after the
Cherokee
were forced on the "Trail
of Tears" to
Indian
Territory and was taken up by the other "civilized" tribes including the
Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes. The police force got its name
from Revolutionary War hero, General Henry Lee
who was called "Lighthorse Harry" due
to how quickly his cavalry responded to conflicts. The first official Lighthorse
Company was formed in 1844 by the
Cherokee
National Council. Composed of a captain, lieutenant and twenty-four horsemen,
the men were tasked with the pursuit and arrest all fugitives from justice
before turning them over to the
Indian
courts for trial and punishment. Though history tends to focus on the
U.S.
Deputy Marshal's activities in
Indian
Territory, the Lighthorse Police were just as important and their tales,
unfortunately remain mostly "unsung." When the Five Civilized Tribes
lost their tribal lands in the late 19th century, the Lighthorse Mounted Police
were disbanded. However, today, some tribes still use the Lighthorse name for
for elements of their police forces.
Seldon T. Lindsey (1854-19??)
- Reared in
Louisiana, Lindsey's family moved to McClennan County,
Texas after his
father returned from the
Civil War. Upon settling down, Seldon's
father established a law practice and in 1870, at the age of sixteen,
Seldon found work as a
cowboy. Over the next several years he worked on a
number of cattle drives to the
Kansas railroads. He also spent some time hunting buffalo, where he had the opportunity to meet Buffalo Bill Cody on
two occasions. In 1881, he married and the couple would eventually
have eleven children. Appointed as a
U.S. Deputy Marshal in 1890, he
worked out of Paris,
Texas and was involved in a number of gunfights as he
brought in
outlaws for sentencing. On June 8, 1894, Lindsey, along with
U.S. Deputy Marshal Loss Hart, shot and killed
Bill Dalton, the last of the Dalton Gang.
Harry Love (1809–1868) - Love
was said to have known
Davy Crockett and Sam Houston in his boyhood and had a brother who
died at the Alamo. He fought in the Blackhawk
Indian War
in 1831 with Abraham Lincoln, and later in the Mexican War in 1846. He was also a scout, an army express rider, a
Texas Ranger,
and an explorer of the Rio Grande in 1850. He then moved onward to
California,
but after failing to make his fortune in the gold fields, he became
a deputy in Santa Barbara,
California.
On May 11, 1853,
California
Governor John Bigler signed a legislative act authorizing the organization
of a band of
California Rangers under the command of Captain Harry Love. Their
purpose was to capture or kill the infamous bandito
Joaquin Murrieta,
ringleader of a gang of men believed to be responsible for much of the
cattle rustling, robberies, and murders taking place in the Mother Lode
region. In July of 1853, the Rangers came across the group of bandits near
Arroyo Cantúa in San Benito County and in the ultimate gunfight, killed
two of them who were allegedly the famous
Joaquin Murrieta and his right
hand man, Three Fingered Jack. Love was killed in June, 1868
in Santa Clara,
California when he was in a wrestling brawl with a man named Christian
Ivorson. During the scuffle, Harry's own pistol accidentally
discharged into his armpit and Love died the next day.
 Captain
Louis J. Lull, aka W.J. Allen (18??-1874) - A
Pinkerton
Agent from
Chicago,
Illinois, Lull was working with fellow Pinkerton Agent James Boyle and
local St. Claire County, Missouri
deputy sheriff,
Edwin Daniels searching for the
elusive
Younger brothers,
who were thought to be in the area. On March 16, 1874, they set out from
Osceola to Roscoe,
Missouri. After
spending the night at the Roscoe House Hotel, the left the day for the home of Theodrick Snuffer, a family friend of the
Youngers, some three miles out of town. Posing as cattle buyers, they
questioned Snuffer, but got nowhere. Little did they know that
John
and
Jim Younger were watching from Snuffer’s attic. When the lawmen
left, the two Younger Brothers followed and ordered the three men to
halt. Panicked,
Pinkerton Agent James Wright, spurred his horse and
kept on going. However; the other two lawmen,
Pinkerton Agent Lull and
Daniels, stopped and within no time a gunfight ensued. When the smoke
cleared,
John Younger
and Deputy Edwin Daniels were dead, Louis Lull was severely wounded and
Jim Younger received a flesh wound in his
hip. Lull was taken to Roscoe for treatment, but would die of his wounds
a few days later.
Continued
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