George “Bitter Creek” Newcomb Dead.
George Newcomb, known as “Bitter Creek” Newcomb and the Slaughter Kid, was born in 1866. He came from a poor family in Fort Scott, Kansas, and started his career as a cowboy at the age of 12, working for C.C. Slaughter on the Long S Ranch in Texas.
In about 1892, he made his way to Oklahoma, where he became an outlaw. Newcomb soon became a member of the Dalton Gang and took part in the botched train robbery in Adair, Oklahoma, on July 15, 1892, in which two guards and two townsmen were wounded. One of them died the next day.
Later, after being called “too wild” by Bob Dalton, George Newcomb, Charley Pierce, and Bill Doolin returned to their hideout in Ingalls, Oklahoma. On October 5, most of the remaining members, except Emmett Dalton, of the Dalton Gang were killed during the Coffeyville, Kansas Raid.
He and Bill Doolin then started the Wild Bunch gang.
By May 1895, Newcomb had a $5,000 reward on his head. After the Doolin Gang split up, fellow outlaw Charley Pierce and Newcomb rode to the Dunn Ranch on the Cimarron River to visit Newcomb’s lover, the famous “Rose of Cimarron.”
They also planned to collect $900 owed to Newcomb by Rose’s brothers. However, as they approached the house, the pair of outlaws were ambushed and shot out of their saddles by Rose’s brothers, who wanted to collect the large bounty on their heads.
Both bodies were then taken to Guthrie, Oklahoma, but Newcomb was still alive. When he sat up and begged for water, he received another bullet for his efforts. His father, James Newcomb, claimed the body and buried George on the family farm near Nine Mile Flats, southwest of Norman, Oklahoma, on the north bank of the Canadian River.
© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated March 2025.
Also See:
Doolin-Dalton Gang, aka Oklahombres, the Wild Bunch
See Sources.