George Scarborough
George Scarborough was a Texas sheriff and U.S. Deputy Marshal.
Born in Louisiana on October 2, 1859, Scarborough was the son of a Baptist preacher. Later, his family moved to Texas, and when George grew old enough, he began to work as a cowboy. In 1885, he was appointed sheriff for Jones County, Texas, and later worked as a U.S. Deputy Marshal in El Paso in the 1890s. On June 21, 1895, Scarborough and U.S. Deputy Marshal Jeff Milton were pursuing fugitive cattle rustler Martin Monrose when Scarborough shot and killed the outlaw. Later, John Wesley Hardin would claim that he had paid Milton and Scarborough to kill McRose. The U.S. Deputy Marshals were then arrested, but when Hardin withdrew his comments, they were released.
John Henry Selman, who had been a friend of Scarborough’s and had killed John Wesley Hardin in August of 1895, began to accuse Scarborough of having stolen money from Monrose’s corpse. When the two met up at the Wigwam Saloon in El Paso on April 2, 1896, the two began to argue, and Selman lay dead in the end.
Sometime later, Scarborough moved to Deming, New Mexico, where he worked as a gunman for the Grant County Cattlemen’s Association and was involved in the arrest of Pearl Hart. On April 5, 1900, he was chasing several members of the Wild Bunch, including Will Carver, when a gunfight broke out, and Scarborough was hit in the leg. Placed in a wagon and taken back to Deming, New Mexico, Scarborough’s leg had to be amputated. He died the following day.
© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2022.
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