Townes was, I think, a poet first and kick-ass musician second; though undoubtedly some would disagree. His guitar skills almost make me disagree. However, when I look at songs like this, I can't help but insist that it's the poet that shone through most when he was speaking his mind. Here's how he looked at a game of 5 card stud:
Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold
(Townes Van Zandt)
Well, the wicked King of Clubs awoke; it was to his Queen he turned,
His lips were laughin' as they spoke; his eyes like bullets burned.
"The sun's upon a gamblin' day." His Queen smiled low and blissfully.
"Let's make some wretched fool to pay." Plain it was she did agree.
He sent his deuce down into diamond, his four to heart, and his trey to spade,
Three kings with their legions come and preparations soon were made.
They voted Club the day's commander. Give him an army, face, and number;
All but the outlaw Jack of Diamonds and the aces in the sky.
Well, he give his sevens first instruction: "Spirit me a game of stud
Stakes unscarred by limitation 'tween a man named Gold and a man named Mudd."
And Club filled Gold with greedy vapors 'till his long green eyes did glow.
Mudd was left with the sighs and trembles, watchin' his hard earned money go.
Flushes fell on Gold like water; tens they paired and paired again,
But the aces only flew through heaven and the diamomand friend.
The diamond Queen saw Mudd's ordeal; began to think of her long lost son,
Fell to her knees with a mother's mercy; Prayed to the angels, everyone.
The diamond queen, she prayed and prayed and the diamond angel filled Mudd's hole
Then the wicked King of Clubs himself fell face down in front of Gold.
Now three kings come to Club's command, but the angels from the sky did ride;
Three kings up on the streets of gold; three fireballs on the muddy side.
The club Queen heard her husband's call, but Lord, that Queen of Diamond's joy
When the outlaw in the heavenly hall turned out to be her wanderin' boy.
Now Mudd, he checked, and Gold bet all; Mudd he raised, and Gold did call
And his smile just melted off his face when Mudd turned over that Diamond Ace.
Now here's what this story's told: You feel like Mudd, you'll end up Gold;
Feel like lost, you'll end up found, so Amigo, lay them raises down.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
A Van Zandt-ecdote
Mike got this letter from a Facebook friend this morning and we thought you all might enjoy it:
Subject: bizarre
Hi Michael,
Re your status update:
I was having a Townes Van Zandt weekend alone...lovin it...and mentioned it to my friend and told him a story of when Townes came over here with John Stewart and Guy Clark. After the show Townes sat with me in the hotel bar, just me, him, John Stewart and the barman...and sang Springsteens' "Racing In The Streets" ...TO ME!!!
At the time (early 90s) i didnt realise the hugeness of the moment but now i realise what a privelage it was and hold it dear in my memory.
Just thought I would share this with yoiu as your status update mentions that song...and its just a little spooky considering I've not even thought about that song for years then in the space of one weekend I hear it in my head and you write it on your page.
Hope youre well
Greetings from London UK
Subject: bizarre
Hi Michael,
Re your status update:
I was having a Townes Van Zandt weekend alone...lovin it...and mentioned it to my friend and told him a story of when Townes came over here with John Stewart and Guy Clark. After the show Townes sat with me in the hotel bar, just me, him, John Stewart and the barman...and sang Springsteens' "Racing In The Streets" ...TO ME!!!
At the time (early 90s) i didnt realise the hugeness of the moment but now i realise what a privelage it was and hold it dear in my memory.
Just thought I would share this with yoiu as your status update mentions that song...and its just a little spooky considering I've not even thought about that song for years then in the space of one weekend I hear it in my head and you write it on your page.
Hope youre well
Greetings from London UK
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
J.J. Webb
Continuing to look at the wildest town in the wild west, Las Vegas, New Mexico, and the wildest bunch of outlaws the frontier ever saw, The Dodge City Gang...
J. J. Webb was born on February 14, 1847, in Keokuk County, Iowa. For most of his adult life he was a lawman but for a while he was part of the Dodge City Gang. It proved to be his undoing.
In 1862, his family moved to Nebraska and then later to Osage City, Kansas. Webb traveled west in 1871. He was a buffalo hunter and then a surveyor in Colorado. He then drifted from Deadwood, South Dakota to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Dodge City,
Kansas.
By 1875 he was a teamster in Ford County, Kansas/Dodge City. He later became a business owner and peace officer. He was also a leader of the mercenary force on the side of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad in their battle against the Denver & Rio Grande railroad for right–of–way through the Royal Gorge in Colorado.
Webb was well–respected in Dodge City and was deputized to ride in a number of posses. In September, 1877 he rode with Ford County Sheriff Charlie Bassett and Under-sheriff Bat Masterson to Lakin, Kansas in pursuit of Sam Bass and his gang who had recently robbed a Union Pacific train of $60,000 at Big Springs, Nebraska. Their
By January, 1878, Bat Masterson had been made the new Ford County Sheriff, and he deputized Webb along with two other men by the names Kinch Riley and Dave "Prairie Dog" Morrow, to help him track down six outlaws who had robbed the westbound train at Kinsley, Kansas, two days earlier, including "Dirty Dave" Rudabaugh. They were caught within days. During the arrest, when Rudabaugh went for his gun, Webb stopped him and forced him to surrender. The other four accomplices were arrested later. Rudabaugh then informed on his cohorts and promised to go “straight.” Rudabaugh's accomplices were sent to prison, but Dirty Dave was soon released, drifting to New Mexico and returning to thievery once again.
In September of 1878, Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife and his band fled their reservation in Oklahoma for their home in the Black Hills. Exaggerated reports of killing and thievery committed by the Cheyenne on their journey began to be told in Dodge City. Most of the soldiers at nearby Fort Dodge were sent out to corral the Indians, leaving only about nineteen troops to protect the area. Dodge City citizens wired the governor requesting arms and ammunition.
The weapons were received within days and Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Lewis, the Fort Dodge Commander, chose Webb and a few others to scout the area. The men soon brought back word that some 200 warriors were nearing and the rumors of their acts continued to grow. It was all smoke and mirrors, however, and things ultimately returned to normal.
Webb moved on to Las Vegas, New Mexico and found many of his aquaintances from Dodge City there, including Henry "Doc" Holliday, David "Mysterious Dave" Mather, Wyatt Earp, and his old nemisis, Dave Rudabaugh. Soon after his arrival in Vegas, Webb partnered with Doc Holliday in a saloon, where Doc spent most of his time gambling.
On July 19, 1879, the two were seated at a card table when a former army scout, Mike Gordon, began to yell at one of the saloon girls who he'd been involved with in the past. He'd tried to convince her to leave town with him and she'd refused. Gordon stormed out of the saloon shouting obscenities. Doc followed him outside and Gordon shot at him. Doc shot once. Gordon died the next day. Doc fled back to Dodge when he heard he'd be arrested for the killing.
In 1880, Webb became Marshal of Las Vegas, joining the Dodge City Gang, a criminal cartel bent on thumbing their noses at the law. For two years, the members of the Dodge City Gang participated in several stage coach and train robberies, organized cattle rustling, and were said to have been responsible for multiple murders and lynchings.
The Dodge City Gang consisted of of men formerly from Dodge City including Justice of the Peace, Hyman "Hoodoo Brown" Neill; City Marshal, Joe Carson, Deputy U. S. Marshal "Mysterious Dave" Mather, police officer John Joshua (J.J.) Webb, and a number of gunfighters and outlaws including "Dirty Dave" Rudabaugh, William P. "Slap Jack Bill" Nicholson, John "Bull Shit Jack" Pierce, Selim K. "Frank" Cady, Jordan L. Webb (no relation to J.J.), and a number of other hard cases. While Rudabaugh, Jordan Webb, Cady, Nicholson, Pierce, and the rest committed acts of thievery, Neill, Mather, Carson, and J.J. Webb, helped to cover the outlaws' tracks.
On March 2, 1880, the Dodge City Gang were responsible for the murder and robbery of a freighter named Mike Kelliher. The Ford County Globe of March 9, 1880, reprinted the report from Las Vegas Daily Optic:
"About four o'clock this morning, Michael Kelliher, in company with William Brickley and another man, entered Goodlet [a member of the Dodge City Gang] & Roberts' Saloon and called for drinks. Michael Kelliher appeared to be the leader of the party and he, in violation of the law, had a pistol on his person. This was noticed by the officers, who came through a rear door, and they requested that Kelliher lay aside his revolver.
"But he refused to do so, remarking, "I won't be disarmed – everything goes," immediately placing his hand on his pistol, no doubt intending to shoot. But officer Webb was too quick for him. The man was shot before he had time to use his weapon. He was shot three times–once in each breast and once in the head... Kelliher had $1,090 [$1,900] on his person when killed."
Webb was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. On April 30th, Rudabaugh and a man named John Allen burst through the Sheriff's office to free him. The jail break was unsuccessful and Rudabaugh murdered jailer Antonio Lino in the attempt. Webb's sentence was appealed and commuted to life in prison.
It's been speculated that he was set up by Hoodoo and Dutchy, another member of the gang who left with Hoodoo soon after the incident. It's assumed the pair were motivated by both greed and a desire to get back at Webb for some undercover activities. Webb insisted at the time that he'd been given the impression that Kelliher wanted to kill him/it was a kill or be killed situation. The amount of money that Kelliher had on him had also been misrepresented to Webb, and Hoodoo made off with the bulk of it. The local press and townspeople seem to have had a hard time believing Webb guilty at the time.
After Dirty Dave’s conviction, he found himself in jail with Webb. Soon, the pair along with two other men tried unsuccessfully to shoot their way out of jail on September 19, 1881. One of the men was mortally wounded and the attempt was unsuccessful.
Two months later, Webb and Rudabaugh, along with five other men, chipped a stone out of the jail wall and escaped out of a 7"x19" hole. Rudabaugh and Webb raced to Texas and then to Mexico where Webb disappeared and Rudabaugh was later killed
Later Webb returned to Kansas, where he took the name "Samuel King," and worked as a teamster. Somewhere along the line he moved on to Winslow, Arkansas working for the railroad. In 1882 he died of smallpox in Arkansas. He never married.
J. J. Webb was born on February 14, 1847, in Keokuk County, Iowa. For most of his adult life he was a lawman but for a while he was part of the Dodge City Gang. It proved to be his undoing.
In 1862, his family moved to Nebraska and then later to Osage City, Kansas. Webb traveled west in 1871. He was a buffalo hunter and then a surveyor in Colorado. He then drifted from Deadwood, South Dakota to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Dodge City,
Kansas.
By 1875 he was a teamster in Ford County, Kansas/Dodge City. He later became a business owner and peace officer. He was also a leader of the mercenary force on the side of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroad in their battle against the Denver & Rio Grande railroad for right–of–way through the Royal Gorge in Colorado.
Webb was well–respected in Dodge City and was deputized to ride in a number of posses. In September, 1877 he rode with Ford County Sheriff Charlie Bassett and Under-sheriff Bat Masterson to Lakin, Kansas in pursuit of Sam Bass and his gang who had recently robbed a Union Pacific train of $60,000 at Big Springs, Nebraska. Their
By January, 1878, Bat Masterson had been made the new Ford County Sheriff, and he deputized Webb along with two other men by the names Kinch Riley and Dave "Prairie Dog" Morrow, to help him track down six outlaws who had robbed the westbound train at Kinsley, Kansas, two days earlier, including "Dirty Dave" Rudabaugh. They were caught within days. During the arrest, when Rudabaugh went for his gun, Webb stopped him and forced him to surrender. The other four accomplices were arrested later. Rudabaugh then informed on his cohorts and promised to go “straight.” Rudabaugh's accomplices were sent to prison, but Dirty Dave was soon released, drifting to New Mexico and returning to thievery once again.
In September of 1878, Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife and his band fled their reservation in Oklahoma for their home in the Black Hills. Exaggerated reports of killing and thievery committed by the Cheyenne on their journey began to be told in Dodge City. Most of the soldiers at nearby Fort Dodge were sent out to corral the Indians, leaving only about nineteen troops to protect the area. Dodge City citizens wired the governor requesting arms and ammunition.
The weapons were received within days and Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Lewis, the Fort Dodge Commander, chose Webb and a few others to scout the area. The men soon brought back word that some 200 warriors were nearing and the rumors of their acts continued to grow. It was all smoke and mirrors, however, and things ultimately returned to normal.
Webb moved on to Las Vegas, New Mexico and found many of his aquaintances from Dodge City there, including Henry "Doc" Holliday, David "Mysterious Dave" Mather, Wyatt Earp, and his old nemisis, Dave Rudabaugh. Soon after his arrival in Vegas, Webb partnered with Doc Holliday in a saloon, where Doc spent most of his time gambling.
On July 19, 1879, the two were seated at a card table when a former army scout, Mike Gordon, began to yell at one of the saloon girls who he'd been involved with in the past. He'd tried to convince her to leave town with him and she'd refused. Gordon stormed out of the saloon shouting obscenities. Doc followed him outside and Gordon shot at him. Doc shot once. Gordon died the next day. Doc fled back to Dodge when he heard he'd be arrested for the killing.
In 1880, Webb became Marshal of Las Vegas, joining the Dodge City Gang, a criminal cartel bent on thumbing their noses at the law. For two years, the members of the Dodge City Gang participated in several stage coach and train robberies, organized cattle rustling, and were said to have been responsible for multiple murders and lynchings.
The Dodge City Gang consisted of of men formerly from Dodge City including Justice of the Peace, Hyman "Hoodoo Brown" Neill; City Marshal, Joe Carson, Deputy U. S. Marshal "Mysterious Dave" Mather, police officer John Joshua (J.J.) Webb, and a number of gunfighters and outlaws including "Dirty Dave" Rudabaugh, William P. "Slap Jack Bill" Nicholson, John "Bull Shit Jack" Pierce, Selim K. "Frank" Cady, Jordan L. Webb (no relation to J.J.), and a number of other hard cases. While Rudabaugh, Jordan Webb, Cady, Nicholson, Pierce, and the rest committed acts of thievery, Neill, Mather, Carson, and J.J. Webb, helped to cover the outlaws' tracks.
On March 2, 1880, the Dodge City Gang were responsible for the murder and robbery of a freighter named Mike Kelliher. The Ford County Globe of March 9, 1880, reprinted the report from Las Vegas Daily Optic:
"About four o'clock this morning, Michael Kelliher, in company with William Brickley and another man, entered Goodlet [a member of the Dodge City Gang] & Roberts' Saloon and called for drinks. Michael Kelliher appeared to be the leader of the party and he, in violation of the law, had a pistol on his person. This was noticed by the officers, who came through a rear door, and they requested that Kelliher lay aside his revolver.
"But he refused to do so, remarking, "I won't be disarmed – everything goes," immediately placing his hand on his pistol, no doubt intending to shoot. But officer Webb was too quick for him. The man was shot before he had time to use his weapon. He was shot three times–once in each breast and once in the head... Kelliher had $1,090 [$1,900] on his person when killed."
Webb was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. On April 30th, Rudabaugh and a man named John Allen burst through the Sheriff's office to free him. The jail break was unsuccessful and Rudabaugh murdered jailer Antonio Lino in the attempt. Webb's sentence was appealed and commuted to life in prison.
It's been speculated that he was set up by Hoodoo and Dutchy, another member of the gang who left with Hoodoo soon after the incident. It's assumed the pair were motivated by both greed and a desire to get back at Webb for some undercover activities. Webb insisted at the time that he'd been given the impression that Kelliher wanted to kill him/it was a kill or be killed situation. The amount of money that Kelliher had on him had also been misrepresented to Webb, and Hoodoo made off with the bulk of it. The local press and townspeople seem to have had a hard time believing Webb guilty at the time.
After Dirty Dave’s conviction, he found himself in jail with Webb. Soon, the pair along with two other men tried unsuccessfully to shoot their way out of jail on September 19, 1881. One of the men was mortally wounded and the attempt was unsuccessful.
Two months later, Webb and Rudabaugh, along with five other men, chipped a stone out of the jail wall and escaped out of a 7"x19" hole. Rudabaugh and Webb raced to Texas and then to Mexico where Webb disappeared and Rudabaugh was later killed
Later Webb returned to Kansas, where he took the name "Samuel King," and worked as a teamster. Somewhere along the line he moved on to Winslow, Arkansas working for the railroad. In 1882 he died of smallpox in Arkansas. He never married.
Big Nose Kate
Katie Elder, aka as Kate Fisher, Big Nose Kate, Nosey Kate, Mrs. John H. "Doc" Holliday, Kate Melvin, and Kate Cummings was born Mary Katharine Haroney in Hungary on November 7, 1850. She died in 1940, and was buried under the name Mary K. Cummings in Prescott Arizona.
She was born November 7, 1850 in Budapest, Hungary, the eldest daughter of a wealthy physician/aristocrat named Dr. Michael Haroney. Very well educated, she spoke several languages, including Hungarian, French, Spanish and English.
In 1862, Dr. Haroney left Hungary for Mexico to accept a position as personal surgeon to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. When the government crumbled in 1865, Dr. Haroney took his family to Davenport, Iowa. His wife died that March, the doctor in May of that same year, both of unknown causes. 14-year-old Kate and her younger siblings were placed in the home of their uncle, Gustav Susemihl, and in 1870, they were left in the care of attorney Otto Smith.
At 17, Kate stowed away on a steamboat to St. Louis, Missouri. The captain discovered and took pity on her, adopting her and sending her to a convent school in St. Louis. She graduated in 1869. Kate claimed to have married a dentist named Silas Melvin and to have had a child with him, though no record survives of either event. She said that both husband and baby died of fever.
By 1874, Kate had made her way to Dodge City, Kansas, calling herself Kate Elder. She worked as a prostitute in a brothel run by Nellie Bessie Earp, James Earp's wife. Some historians speculate that she had a relationship with Wyatt at the time, but Kate wrote that she did not meet him until several years later. It seems likely that they did know each other, he was there when she was and it was a small town. The fact that she denied knowing him at the time actually seems to support that something had gone on at some point. If so, they both kept quiet about it.
Either way, by 1878 Kate had moved to Fort Griffin, Texas. There she did hang out with Wyatt Earp and it was through him that met Doc Holliday. Doc once said that one of the reasons he had loved her was that she was his intellectual equal. She's said to have been as tough and stubborn as he was, with just as much of a temper.
By the time she met Doc, she was a hard drinking, gun slinging prostitute. The pair may or may not have been married at some point, (historians can't seem to agree on that). They met in a Fort Griffin saloon in the fall of 1877 and began an affair that lasted for quite a while, either way. The deciding moment of their love affair seems to have been when she helped Doc escape from the law after he knifed and killed a man in a barroom brawl. (Actually, she saved him from hanging by an angry mob. He must have made quite an impression on her that night.)
The two registered in a rooming house in Dodge City Kansas the following year as Dr. and Mrs. John H. Holliday. They both gave up their lawlessness for a while, but he ultimately returned to gambling and she to prostitution. They're said to have had terrible fights, and finally, one was so bad that he left her in Dodge City and went to Colorado then to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Doc returned to Dodge City after a gunfight went bad in Las Vegas but found both Kate and Wyatt Earp, who had also been there, were gone. He heard that Wyatt was headed to Tombstone so decided to follow him there. Kate was on her way to Tombstone too and the two ran into one another in Prescott, Arizona.
They arrived in Tombstone together. However, there, Kate and Doc got into another argument. She reportedly became drunk and abusive, so Doc threw her out.
A few days before the incident, four masked men attempted a hold up on a stagecoach near Contention and in the attempt, killed the stage driver and a passenger. The Cowboy faction of Tombstone immediately seized upon the opportunity to accuse Doc Holliday of being one of the holdup men. The sheriff who was investigating the hold-up, found Kate drunk and berating Doc for throwing her out. He gave her even more whiskey and talked her into signing an affidavit that Doc had been one of the men who killed the stagecoach driver.
Kate sobered up and the Earps rounded up witnesses who could verify Doc's whereabouts on the night in question. Realizing what she'd done, Kate repudiated her statement and the charges were thrown out. But Doc was over it. He gave her some money and put her on a stage out of town. The two reconcilled, however, and seem to have continued an on-again off-again relationship until Holiday's death.
Wyatt told a colorful tale of how Kate got Doc out of trouble in Fort Griffin: Doc was dealing cards to a difficult man named Ed Bailey, who was used to getting his way and not being questioned. Bailey was unimpressed with Doc’s reputation and was trying to irritate him by picking up the discards and looking at them. (Looking at the discards was strictly prohibited by the rules of Western Poker to the degree that doing it was understood to forfit the pot).
Holliday warned Bailey twice, but Bailey ignored him and picked up the discards again. So Doc raked in the pot without showing his hand, or saying a word. Bailey immediately brought out his pistol from under the table, but before the man could pull the trigger, Doc slashed the man across the stomach with a knife. Bailey lay sprawled across the table, blood and guts spilling across the floor.
Doc didn't run because he'd acted in self defense. He was arrested but imprisoned in a local hotel room because there was no jail in town. A vigilante group formed to seek revenge. Knowing that the mob would quickly overtake the local lawmen, “Big Nose” Kate devised a plan to free Holliday. She set fire to an old shed, which started to burn rapidly, threatening to take the entire town.
While everyone was busy fighting the fire, Kate, a pistol in each hand, confronted the officer guarding Holliday, disarmed him, and she and Doc escaped. They headed to Dodge City, Kansas on stolen horses the next morning, registering at Deacon Cox’s Boarding House as Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Holliday. Sources say that Doc was so happy about all of this that he gave up gambling for a while and returned to being a dentist. Kate gave up saloons and prostitution. But neither lasted long in 'normal' life.
They spent the next few years together going to Dodge City, Kansas, Deadwood, South Dakota, Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory, and Prescott, Arizona Territory. Their relationship was allegedly turbulent and sporadic.
Kate rented a boarding house to miners in Globe, Arizona Territory. In 1880, she may have run a bordello/the Grand Hotel in Tombstone, (or it may have been run by another Tombstone prostitute named Rowdy Kate, who she's often confused with). Doc Holliday, had a great run playing faro and poker in Tucson and joined Kate in Tombstone later that year.
Kate went back to live in Globe, and in 1887, she traveled to Glenwood Springs, Colorado to see Holliday before he died. He also spent some time in a cabin owned by one of her brothers near Glenwood Springs, when he was ill but he ultimately went into town to die. Kate went with him. Since Holliday is known to have been destitute by this time and it's probable that Kate helped support in his final months.
After Holliday's death, Kate married a blacksmith named George Cummings in Colorado. They moved to Bisbee, Arizona, where she briefly ran a bakery. After returning to Willcox, Arizona, in Cochise County, Cummings became an abusive alcoholic and they separated. She then worked at the Cochise Hotel, where no one was aware of her real identity. Cummings committed suicide in Courtland, Arizona, in 1915. Kate then lived with a homestead miner in Dos Cabezas, Arizona, until his death in 1930. She does not appear to have received very much in his will.
Using the name Cummings, Kate, increasingly frail, applied to the Arizona Pioneers Home, a state establishment in Prescott for elderly and destitute Arizona residents from frontier days. Though a lifelong friend of the Governor at the time, who helped her become one of the first residents of the home, it took six months to place her there because she had never become a U.S. citizen. She became an outspoken advocate of residents rights and helped others while there, writing many letters to the Arizona state legislature, and when she was not satisfied contacting the governor.
When she was 89 she wrote a letter to her niece revealing that she was with Doc in his room in Fly's Boarding house, next to the O.K. Corral, and that she actually witnessed the shootout.
"In Kate's story, on the day of the gunfight, a man entered Fly's boarding house with a bandaged head and a rifle. He was looking for Holliday, who was still in bed after a night of gambling during which he'd had one argument with Ike Clanton that had been stopped by onlookers. The man was turned away by Mrs. Fly. He was probably Ike Clanton, although how Clanton's head had come to be bandaged is unknown.
"Clanton was known to have headaches, and perhaps he had been treated for that even before Virgil Earp hit him over the head and removed his weapons a short time later. In any case, Clanton's actually entering Holliday's rooming-house with a rifle would have given Holliday and the Earps all the reason they needed to believe that a gunfight between Holliday and the cowboys was inevitable.
"While Clanton was being disarmed, arrested, and taken before a judge, Kate claims that Holliday put on his clothes and went up to see the Earps. They had gathered at the corner of 5th Street and Allen, where they could keep an eye on the courtroom to the South, the O.K. Corral a block west, and the various cowboys who were believed to be coming and going from out of town.
"Eventually, the Earps and Holliday walked down Fremont Street to confront the cowboys in the vacant lot West of Fly's (and Holliday's) boarding house. Kate would have been able to see the fight, just feet away, from her window overlooking the vacant lot. In Kate's version of the gunfight, Holliday had a problem with this "rifle" after the shooting started. He threw it to the ground and drew his pistol. This report fits with what is known of the events, although what Holliday actually threw down would have been his double-barrelled short shotgun (the gun he had emptied when killing Tom McLaury)."
After the fight, Kate said that Doc Holliday went back to his room, sat on the edge of the bed and wept from the shock of what had just happened. "That was awful," Kate claims he said. "Just awful." Kate stayed at the Arizona Pioneers' Home until her death on November 2, 1940, five days before her 90th birthday.
Kate said of life: "Part is funny and part is sad, but such is life any way you take it."
She was born November 7, 1850 in Budapest, Hungary, the eldest daughter of a wealthy physician/aristocrat named Dr. Michael Haroney. Very well educated, she spoke several languages, including Hungarian, French, Spanish and English.
In 1862, Dr. Haroney left Hungary for Mexico to accept a position as personal surgeon to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. When the government crumbled in 1865, Dr. Haroney took his family to Davenport, Iowa. His wife died that March, the doctor in May of that same year, both of unknown causes. 14-year-old Kate and her younger siblings were placed in the home of their uncle, Gustav Susemihl, and in 1870, they were left in the care of attorney Otto Smith.
At 17, Kate stowed away on a steamboat to St. Louis, Missouri. The captain discovered and took pity on her, adopting her and sending her to a convent school in St. Louis. She graduated in 1869. Kate claimed to have married a dentist named Silas Melvin and to have had a child with him, though no record survives of either event. She said that both husband and baby died of fever.
By 1874, Kate had made her way to Dodge City, Kansas, calling herself Kate Elder. She worked as a prostitute in a brothel run by Nellie Bessie Earp, James Earp's wife. Some historians speculate that she had a relationship with Wyatt at the time, but Kate wrote that she did not meet him until several years later. It seems likely that they did know each other, he was there when she was and it was a small town. The fact that she denied knowing him at the time actually seems to support that something had gone on at some point. If so, they both kept quiet about it.
Either way, by 1878 Kate had moved to Fort Griffin, Texas. There she did hang out with Wyatt Earp and it was through him that met Doc Holliday. Doc once said that one of the reasons he had loved her was that she was his intellectual equal. She's said to have been as tough and stubborn as he was, with just as much of a temper.
By the time she met Doc, she was a hard drinking, gun slinging prostitute. The pair may or may not have been married at some point, (historians can't seem to agree on that). They met in a Fort Griffin saloon in the fall of 1877 and began an affair that lasted for quite a while, either way. The deciding moment of their love affair seems to have been when she helped Doc escape from the law after he knifed and killed a man in a barroom brawl. (Actually, she saved him from hanging by an angry mob. He must have made quite an impression on her that night.)
The two registered in a rooming house in Dodge City Kansas the following year as Dr. and Mrs. John H. Holliday. They both gave up their lawlessness for a while, but he ultimately returned to gambling and she to prostitution. They're said to have had terrible fights, and finally, one was so bad that he left her in Dodge City and went to Colorado then to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Doc returned to Dodge City after a gunfight went bad in Las Vegas but found both Kate and Wyatt Earp, who had also been there, were gone. He heard that Wyatt was headed to Tombstone so decided to follow him there. Kate was on her way to Tombstone too and the two ran into one another in Prescott, Arizona.
They arrived in Tombstone together. However, there, Kate and Doc got into another argument. She reportedly became drunk and abusive, so Doc threw her out.
A few days before the incident, four masked men attempted a hold up on a stagecoach near Contention and in the attempt, killed the stage driver and a passenger. The Cowboy faction of Tombstone immediately seized upon the opportunity to accuse Doc Holliday of being one of the holdup men. The sheriff who was investigating the hold-up, found Kate drunk and berating Doc for throwing her out. He gave her even more whiskey and talked her into signing an affidavit that Doc had been one of the men who killed the stagecoach driver.
Kate sobered up and the Earps rounded up witnesses who could verify Doc's whereabouts on the night in question. Realizing what she'd done, Kate repudiated her statement and the charges were thrown out. But Doc was over it. He gave her some money and put her on a stage out of town. The two reconcilled, however, and seem to have continued an on-again off-again relationship until Holiday's death.
Wyatt told a colorful tale of how Kate got Doc out of trouble in Fort Griffin: Doc was dealing cards to a difficult man named Ed Bailey, who was used to getting his way and not being questioned. Bailey was unimpressed with Doc’s reputation and was trying to irritate him by picking up the discards and looking at them. (Looking at the discards was strictly prohibited by the rules of Western Poker to the degree that doing it was understood to forfit the pot).
Holliday warned Bailey twice, but Bailey ignored him and picked up the discards again. So Doc raked in the pot without showing his hand, or saying a word. Bailey immediately brought out his pistol from under the table, but before the man could pull the trigger, Doc slashed the man across the stomach with a knife. Bailey lay sprawled across the table, blood and guts spilling across the floor.
Doc didn't run because he'd acted in self defense. He was arrested but imprisoned in a local hotel room because there was no jail in town. A vigilante group formed to seek revenge. Knowing that the mob would quickly overtake the local lawmen, “Big Nose” Kate devised a plan to free Holliday. She set fire to an old shed, which started to burn rapidly, threatening to take the entire town.
While everyone was busy fighting the fire, Kate, a pistol in each hand, confronted the officer guarding Holliday, disarmed him, and she and Doc escaped. They headed to Dodge City, Kansas on stolen horses the next morning, registering at Deacon Cox’s Boarding House as Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Holliday. Sources say that Doc was so happy about all of this that he gave up gambling for a while and returned to being a dentist. Kate gave up saloons and prostitution. But neither lasted long in 'normal' life.
They spent the next few years together going to Dodge City, Kansas, Deadwood, South Dakota, Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory, and Prescott, Arizona Territory. Their relationship was allegedly turbulent and sporadic.
Kate rented a boarding house to miners in Globe, Arizona Territory. In 1880, she may have run a bordello/the Grand Hotel in Tombstone, (or it may have been run by another Tombstone prostitute named Rowdy Kate, who she's often confused with). Doc Holliday, had a great run playing faro and poker in Tucson and joined Kate in Tombstone later that year.
Kate went back to live in Globe, and in 1887, she traveled to Glenwood Springs, Colorado to see Holliday before he died. He also spent some time in a cabin owned by one of her brothers near Glenwood Springs, when he was ill but he ultimately went into town to die. Kate went with him. Since Holliday is known to have been destitute by this time and it's probable that Kate helped support in his final months.
After Holliday's death, Kate married a blacksmith named George Cummings in Colorado. They moved to Bisbee, Arizona, where she briefly ran a bakery. After returning to Willcox, Arizona, in Cochise County, Cummings became an abusive alcoholic and they separated. She then worked at the Cochise Hotel, where no one was aware of her real identity. Cummings committed suicide in Courtland, Arizona, in 1915. Kate then lived with a homestead miner in Dos Cabezas, Arizona, until his death in 1930. She does not appear to have received very much in his will.
Using the name Cummings, Kate, increasingly frail, applied to the Arizona Pioneers Home, a state establishment in Prescott for elderly and destitute Arizona residents from frontier days. Though a lifelong friend of the Governor at the time, who helped her become one of the first residents of the home, it took six months to place her there because she had never become a U.S. citizen. She became an outspoken advocate of residents rights and helped others while there, writing many letters to the Arizona state legislature, and when she was not satisfied contacting the governor.
When she was 89 she wrote a letter to her niece revealing that she was with Doc in his room in Fly's Boarding house, next to the O.K. Corral, and that she actually witnessed the shootout.
"In Kate's story, on the day of the gunfight, a man entered Fly's boarding house with a bandaged head and a rifle. He was looking for Holliday, who was still in bed after a night of gambling during which he'd had one argument with Ike Clanton that had been stopped by onlookers. The man was turned away by Mrs. Fly. He was probably Ike Clanton, although how Clanton's head had come to be bandaged is unknown.
"Clanton was known to have headaches, and perhaps he had been treated for that even before Virgil Earp hit him over the head and removed his weapons a short time later. In any case, Clanton's actually entering Holliday's rooming-house with a rifle would have given Holliday and the Earps all the reason they needed to believe that a gunfight between Holliday and the cowboys was inevitable.
"While Clanton was being disarmed, arrested, and taken before a judge, Kate claims that Holliday put on his clothes and went up to see the Earps. They had gathered at the corner of 5th Street and Allen, where they could keep an eye on the courtroom to the South, the O.K. Corral a block west, and the various cowboys who were believed to be coming and going from out of town.
"Eventually, the Earps and Holliday walked down Fremont Street to confront the cowboys in the vacant lot West of Fly's (and Holliday's) boarding house. Kate would have been able to see the fight, just feet away, from her window overlooking the vacant lot. In Kate's version of the gunfight, Holliday had a problem with this "rifle" after the shooting started. He threw it to the ground and drew his pistol. This report fits with what is known of the events, although what Holliday actually threw down would have been his double-barrelled short shotgun (the gun he had emptied when killing Tom McLaury)."
After the fight, Kate said that Doc Holliday went back to his room, sat on the edge of the bed and wept from the shock of what had just happened. "That was awful," Kate claims he said. "Just awful." Kate stayed at the Arizona Pioneers' Home until her death on November 2, 1940, five days before her 90th birthday.
Kate said of life: "Part is funny and part is sad, but such is life any way you take it."
Billy Wilson
Another controversial figure associated with the Dodge City Gang is Billy Wilson or the "Mystery Rustler". Associated with Billy the Kid, there are two different accounts of his life up to that point. There are two accounts of his early life, one asserting that he was born William Harrison Wilson on October 30, 1859 in Arkansas and that he ran away from home in his mid-teens after a fight with his father. He's said to have then fallen in with some outlaws and ended up killing a man in a barfight, causing him to flee the state.
Billy is believed to have then traveled through Mississippi, Missouri, and Indian Territory. After accidentally killing a friend in a hunting accident, he moved on to Dodge City, Kansas, and met up with Dirty Dave Rudabaugh, Tom Pickett, J. J. Webb, Mysterious Dave Mather, and others. Around this time he was given the nickname "Buffalo Billy" and he followed Dave and his friends to Las Vegas, New Mexico, Wilson.
Dave and the others stayed on to join the Dodge City Gang but Wilson continued south to another boom town, White Oaks, where he opened a livery stable. In late 1879 or early 1880, Wilson sold his stable to men named Sam Dedrick and William H. "Harvey" West. They paid for the stable, however, in counterfit bills. Wilson traveled south to Lincoln, unknowingly spending the fake money.
At some point shortly thereafter, Wilson began riding regularly with Billy the Kid's gang, the Rustlers, (he had helped them from time to time in the past, but not been a full member). A few months after Wilson joined, Dave Rudabaugh, on the run from the law in Las Vegas, joined them.
Word of the counterfeit bills in Lincoln County reached Washington, D. C., and a special agent from the U. S. Treasury Department, Azariah Wild, was sent to New Mexcio to investigate. Wild determined that Wilson was part of West, and the Dedrick brothers counterfeit ring.
Though innocent of counterfiting, on Nov. 27, 1880, Wilson was involved in the killing of Deputy James Carlyle, when a posse surrounded Billy the Kid and his gang at Jim Greathouse's ranch. Between the murder of Carlyle, and the Wild investigation's, local law enforcement was more determined than ever to catch the Rustlers.
On Dec. 19, 1880, Wilson was with Billy the Kid and other members of the Rustlers, when they rode into Fort Sumner and Pat Garrett and his posse opened fire on them from ambush. Rustler Tom O'Folliard was killed, but the rest escaped.
Wilson was again with Billy the Kid and the Rustlers on Dec. 23, when they were captured at Stinking Springs by Garrett's posse,(Rustler Charlie Bowdre was killed in the fight.)
Wilson went to trial at Santa Fe for counterfeiting and robbing the U.S. Mail, the latter a crime he committed with the Rustlers when they held up a stagecoach. He was convicted of the counterfeiting charge and sentenced to seven years in prison. However, he managed to escape in Sept. 1882 and became a rustler again in Mexico and along the Mexican border, falling in with another gang, which also included Tom Pickett. He left the gang after an attack on four unsuspecting Mexicans. He's believed to have gone back to Missouri, gotten married, and had a child, settling down and changing his habits under the name Robert Levi Martin. Robert Martin died on September 30, 1935.
Other researchers say Billy Wilson was born David L. Anderson in Ohio on Nov. 23, 1861, moving with his family to Texas when he was still a child. It's said that he first became a cowboy and then began rustling, changing his name to Billy Wilson and travelling to Dodge City. Those who believe this account of Billy's life think that after escaping from jail he fled to Sanderson, Texas, where married, had a child, and opened up a bar.
It's said that in 1895, by pure chance he ran into Pat Garrett and that the two talked and Garrettbecame convinced that Wilson had changed so decided to try to use his influence to have him pardoned. Sometime in 1906, Garrett achieved this and Pres. Grover Cleveland issued a full pardon for "Dave Anderson, alias Billy Wilson."
In 1905, Wilson was elected sheriff of Terrell County, and is said to have been much loved by the people of the town. On June 14, 1918, he was called to silence a disturbance. A drunk ranchhand named Ed Valentine, who Wilson knew and had been on friendly terms with, was causing trouble. Anderson tried to talk Valentine down, but Valentine shot him in the chest, killing him. Valentine was then lynched by an angry mob.
No one knows for sure if William Harrison Wilson/Robert Martin from Arkansas was THE Billy Wilson, or if it was Dave Anderson. Because of the Garrett Pardon, it is generally believed to have been the latter of the two.
"Dirty" Dave Rudabaugh
Continuing to look at the wildest town in the wild west, Las Vegas, New Mexico, and the wildest bunch of outlaws the frontier ever saw, The Dodge City Gang...
Born in Fulton County, Illinois in July, 1854, after his father was killed in the Civil War, Dave (born David Rodenbaugh) grew up in Kansas, then followed the cattle trail west to Colorado. At one point his family had to move from Ohio back to Illinois and it is suspected that the move was because of a train robbery committed there by Dave.
It's said he got the nickname “Dirty Dave” because he rarely bathed and wore filthy clothes, (but maybe it was because he had a tendancy to do people dirty). He gained notirity as an outlaw in the 1870s when he headed of a gang of thieves and rustlers in Texas who robbed and participated in cattle rustling along with Milton Yarberry and Mysterious Dave Mather.
The three were suspected in the death of a rancher and fled the state. By some accounts all three went to Decatur, Texas, but other accounts say Rudabaugh headed to the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he became a stagecoach robber. Sometime around 1876, Rudabaugh joined Mike Roarke and Dan Dement to form the outlaw band known as the "Trio."
When he and his gang robbed a Santa Fe Railroad construction camp in Kansas in November, 1877, Wyatt Earp was issued an acting commission as a U.S. Deputy Marshal to pursue them.
Following Rudabaugh and his boy's trail for 400 miles to Fort Griffin, Texas, Earp met Doc Holiday for the first time when asking after Dave at Shanssey’s Saloon. There is a disputed story from around this time that Rudabaugh had taught Doc Holliday to use a pistol while Doc taught him the fine points of playing cards.
The owner told him Dave had been there earlier in the week, but didn’t know where he was. He said Doc had played cards with Dave and might know. It was well known that Doc hated lawmen, so Wyatt was reluctant to ask him. However, when Wyatt found him that evening at Shanssey’s, he was surprised by a talkative Holliday.
Doc told Wyatt that he thought Rudabaugh had headed back to Kansas. Wyatt wired this information to Bat Masterson and the news was instrumental in apprehending Rudabaugh. Nonetheless, Wyatt's time in Fort Griffen hadn't been wasted, he'd befriended Doc and his girlfriend, Big Nose Kate.
Trying to stay one step ahead of Wyatt, Rudabaugh had in fact returned to Kansas and made an unsuccessful attempt to rob another train before being caught. He and an accomplice named Edgar West were caught within days by Sheriff Bat Masterson and his posse, which included John Joshua Webb (J.J.). When Rudabaugh went for his gun, Webb stopped him and forced him to surrender.
When his four other four accomplices were arrested, Rudabaugh informed on everyone and promised to go “straight.” He was soon released and the other men were sent to prison. Dave didn't reform but went on to New Mexico and resumed robbing. Shortly following his release, Rudabaugh accepted an offer from Bat Masterson to join a group of gunfighters, which included Mysterious Dave Mather and Hoodoo Brown, to fight for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in the Railroad Wars. In 1879 he travelled to Las Vegas where joined the Dodge City Gang there, along with another former enemy, now City Marshal John Joshua Webb.
On October 14, 1879, a train was robbed in the Las Vegas area by masked men. The robbers made off with $2,085, three pistols, and all the lanterns on the train. Two years later, when Rudabaugh was finally arrested, he would confessed to participating in the robbery.
Rudabaugh was also involved in the gunfight that killed Marshal Joe Carson, along with the rest of the Dodge City Gang. He was part of the possee that surrounded the ranch that housed Carson's killers and called for their surrender as well. The men were ultimately gunned down by Carson's widow and Rudabaugh was cleared, along with other gang members, of wrongdoing. They continued to rob and commit other crimes until the murder of Mike Kelliher on March 2, 1880. A lynch mob formed to get gang member J.J. Webb but were the Dodge City Gang held them off, with "Dirty Dave" at the helm.
On April 30th, Rudabaugh, along with a man named John Allen burst through the Sheriff's office to free Webb, (again, his former enemy who got him to surrender/turn in his gang). The jail break was unsuccessful but Rudabaugh murdered jailer Antonio Lino in the process. Webb’s sentence was appealed and commuted to life in prison.
I guess figuring he'd done all he could, Rudabaugh, along with Dodge City Gang member, Tom Pickett fled to Fort Sumner and joined Billy the Kid there. According to some sources, Billy the Kid was afraid of only one man and that man was Dave Rudabaugh.
On November 30, 1880, Billy the Kid, David Anderson (aka: Billy Wilson,) and Rudabaugh rode into White Oaks, New Mexico. There they ran into Deputy Sheriff James Redman. They shot at him and, while he hid behind a saloon, several local citizens ran into the street, chasing the outlaws out of town.
As a posse gave chase, they hid out at the ranch of a man named Jim Greathouse, holding him hostage. They traded him to a posse at dawn for Deputy Sheriff James Carlyle who had been volunteered to negotiate with the outlaws in attempt to give themselves up. Surrounding the house, the posse waited for hours. Around midnight, they called out that they were going to storm the house. Just then a crash came through a window and a man came tumbling out. Shots ripped through the air and Carlyle lay dead. No one is sure if the bullet came from the outlaws or the posse, but it's generally suspected that the posse killed their own man. Probably because of that accident, they gave up the siege and the outlaws escaped. Whatever the truth, Billy the Kid was, of course, blamed for killing Carlyle.
Now trailed by Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, Billy Wilson, Rudabaugh, Tom O'Folliard, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom Pickett rode into Fort Sumner, New Mexico on December 19, 1880 and were confronted by Garrett's posse. Pat Garrett, Lon Chambers, and several others leaped from cover as Garrett ordered the outlaws to halt. Several of the posse members didn’t wait for the outlaws to respond to Garrett's demand, and instead opened fire on Pickett and O'Folliard, who were riding in front and were shot from their saddles. Rudabaugh's horse caught a bullet and collapsed but he managed to jump onto Wilson’s horse and he and the other outlaws escaped. They hid out in an abandoned cabin near Stinking Springs, New Mexico .
Soon, Garrett and his posse tracked them down there. They surrounded the hideout. Inside were Billy the Kid, Charlie Bowdre, Rudabaugh, Tom Pickett and Billy Wilson.
When Bowdre passed before an open window, he was shot in the chest. The siege continued until the next day, when Rudabaugh finally waved a white flag and Billy the Kid's gang surrendered. They were taken to Santa Fe, New Mexico .
Rudabaugh was taken to Las Vegas to stand trial. He attempted to avoid being charged with a capital offence, by pleading guilty to the Las Vegas train robbery in October, 1879. However, his attempt was unsuccessful and he was sentenced to hang for murder. He was taken to the Las Vegas Old Town Jail to await his execution, where he was united with J.J. Webb, still serving time for the offense Dave had tried to help him with.
In the meantime, Billy the Kid was jailed at Lincoln, New Mexico where he escaped on April 28, 1881 only to be tracked down and killed by Pat Garrett that July.
Rudabaugh, Webb, and two other men, Thomas Duffy and H.S. Wilson tried unsuccessfully to shoot their way out of jail on September 19, 1881. Duffy was mortally wounded in the attempt. Webb, facing life in prison, and Rudabaugh the threat of hanging, were determined to try again and to not fail the next time.
Two months later, Webb, Rudabaugh and five other men, chipped a stone out of the jail wall and escaped out of a 7"x19" hole. Rudabaugh and Webb went to Texas and then to Mexico where Webb disappeared.
Rudabaugh then fled to Arizona where he joined the Clanton faction in their feud against the Earps. Dave may have even participated in the murder of Morgan Earp and the attempted murder of Virgil Earp, and he was present at the fight in which Curly Bill Brocius was killed.
There are two stories as to what became of Rudabaugh after that, the most common is:
As the Clanton gang broke up, Rudabaugh headed down to Mexico where he worked as both a cowboy and a rustler. On February 18, 1886, Rudabaugh was involved in a gunfight with locals in Parral, Chihuahua over a card game. Rudabaugh and a Mexican man faced off and Rudabaugh shot him through the head. When another player drew and fired, Rudabaugh put a bullet into his heart. Having killed two men and wounded another, the then unarmed but unable to find his horse, Rudabaugh returned to the cantina, which was now in total darkness. On entering he was shot several times from the shadows and decapitated with a machete, then his head was paraded around around town on a pole.
That on February 18, 1886, Rudabaugh was involved in a cantina card game in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico which broke up after accusations of cheating. Rudabaugh and a Mexican man faced off and Rudabaugh shot him through the head. When another player drew and fired, Rudabaugh put a bullet into his heart. Unable to find his horse, Rudabaugh returned to the cantina, which was now in total darkness. On entering he was jumped and decapitated. For the next several days, his killers were said to have paraded through town with his head on a pole. A few photos were taken of the event, (there's one on-line of someone's head anyway). The body and head were then either buried in an unmarked grave "fit for a rabid dog", or left on a hillside for the vultures.
Another story tells that Rudabaugh finally left Mexico with a heard of cattle headed to Montana where he lived a normal life, married and fathered three daughters. Those who support this claim say that he ultimately died, a destitute alcoholic rancher in Oregon in 1928. He was the only man to have ever been captured by both Bat Masterson and Pat Garrett.
Born in Fulton County, Illinois in July, 1854, after his father was killed in the Civil War, Dave (born David Rodenbaugh) grew up in Kansas, then followed the cattle trail west to Colorado. At one point his family had to move from Ohio back to Illinois and it is suspected that the move was because of a train robbery committed there by Dave.
It's said he got the nickname “Dirty Dave” because he rarely bathed and wore filthy clothes, (but maybe it was because he had a tendancy to do people dirty). He gained notirity as an outlaw in the 1870s when he headed of a gang of thieves and rustlers in Texas who robbed and participated in cattle rustling along with Milton Yarberry and Mysterious Dave Mather.
The three were suspected in the death of a rancher and fled the state. By some accounts all three went to Decatur, Texas, but other accounts say Rudabaugh headed to the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he became a stagecoach robber. Sometime around 1876, Rudabaugh joined Mike Roarke and Dan Dement to form the outlaw band known as the "Trio."
When he and his gang robbed a Santa Fe Railroad construction camp in Kansas in November, 1877, Wyatt Earp was issued an acting commission as a U.S. Deputy Marshal to pursue them.
Following Rudabaugh and his boy's trail for 400 miles to Fort Griffin, Texas, Earp met Doc Holiday for the first time when asking after Dave at Shanssey’s Saloon. There is a disputed story from around this time that Rudabaugh had taught Doc Holliday to use a pistol while Doc taught him the fine points of playing cards.
The owner told him Dave had been there earlier in the week, but didn’t know where he was. He said Doc had played cards with Dave and might know. It was well known that Doc hated lawmen, so Wyatt was reluctant to ask him. However, when Wyatt found him that evening at Shanssey’s, he was surprised by a talkative Holliday.
Doc told Wyatt that he thought Rudabaugh had headed back to Kansas. Wyatt wired this information to Bat Masterson and the news was instrumental in apprehending Rudabaugh. Nonetheless, Wyatt's time in Fort Griffen hadn't been wasted, he'd befriended Doc and his girlfriend, Big Nose Kate.
Trying to stay one step ahead of Wyatt, Rudabaugh had in fact returned to Kansas and made an unsuccessful attempt to rob another train before being caught. He and an accomplice named Edgar West were caught within days by Sheriff Bat Masterson and his posse, which included John Joshua Webb (J.J.). When Rudabaugh went for his gun, Webb stopped him and forced him to surrender.
When his four other four accomplices were arrested, Rudabaugh informed on everyone and promised to go “straight.” He was soon released and the other men were sent to prison. Dave didn't reform but went on to New Mexico and resumed robbing. Shortly following his release, Rudabaugh accepted an offer from Bat Masterson to join a group of gunfighters, which included Mysterious Dave Mather and Hoodoo Brown, to fight for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in the Railroad Wars. In 1879 he travelled to Las Vegas where joined the Dodge City Gang there, along with another former enemy, now City Marshal John Joshua Webb.
On October 14, 1879, a train was robbed in the Las Vegas area by masked men. The robbers made off with $2,085, three pistols, and all the lanterns on the train. Two years later, when Rudabaugh was finally arrested, he would confessed to participating in the robbery.
Rudabaugh was also involved in the gunfight that killed Marshal Joe Carson, along with the rest of the Dodge City Gang. He was part of the possee that surrounded the ranch that housed Carson's killers and called for their surrender as well. The men were ultimately gunned down by Carson's widow and Rudabaugh was cleared, along with other gang members, of wrongdoing. They continued to rob and commit other crimes until the murder of Mike Kelliher on March 2, 1880. A lynch mob formed to get gang member J.J. Webb but were the Dodge City Gang held them off, with "Dirty Dave" at the helm.
On April 30th, Rudabaugh, along with a man named John Allen burst through the Sheriff's office to free Webb, (again, his former enemy who got him to surrender/turn in his gang). The jail break was unsuccessful but Rudabaugh murdered jailer Antonio Lino in the process. Webb’s sentence was appealed and commuted to life in prison.
I guess figuring he'd done all he could, Rudabaugh, along with Dodge City Gang member, Tom Pickett fled to Fort Sumner and joined Billy the Kid there. According to some sources, Billy the Kid was afraid of only one man and that man was Dave Rudabaugh.
On November 30, 1880, Billy the Kid, David Anderson (aka: Billy Wilson,) and Rudabaugh rode into White Oaks, New Mexico. There they ran into Deputy Sheriff James Redman. They shot at him and, while he hid behind a saloon, several local citizens ran into the street, chasing the outlaws out of town.
As a posse gave chase, they hid out at the ranch of a man named Jim Greathouse, holding him hostage. They traded him to a posse at dawn for Deputy Sheriff James Carlyle who had been volunteered to negotiate with the outlaws in attempt to give themselves up. Surrounding the house, the posse waited for hours. Around midnight, they called out that they were going to storm the house. Just then a crash came through a window and a man came tumbling out. Shots ripped through the air and Carlyle lay dead. No one is sure if the bullet came from the outlaws or the posse, but it's generally suspected that the posse killed their own man. Probably because of that accident, they gave up the siege and the outlaws escaped. Whatever the truth, Billy the Kid was, of course, blamed for killing Carlyle.
Now trailed by Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, Billy Wilson, Rudabaugh, Tom O'Folliard, Charlie Bowdre, and Tom Pickett rode into Fort Sumner, New Mexico on December 19, 1880 and were confronted by Garrett's posse. Pat Garrett, Lon Chambers, and several others leaped from cover as Garrett ordered the outlaws to halt. Several of the posse members didn’t wait for the outlaws to respond to Garrett's demand, and instead opened fire on Pickett and O'Folliard, who were riding in front and were shot from their saddles. Rudabaugh's horse caught a bullet and collapsed but he managed to jump onto Wilson’s horse and he and the other outlaws escaped. They hid out in an abandoned cabin near Stinking Springs, New Mexico .
Soon, Garrett and his posse tracked them down there. They surrounded the hideout. Inside were Billy the Kid, Charlie Bowdre, Rudabaugh, Tom Pickett and Billy Wilson.
When Bowdre passed before an open window, he was shot in the chest. The siege continued until the next day, when Rudabaugh finally waved a white flag and Billy the Kid's gang surrendered. They were taken to Santa Fe, New Mexico .
Rudabaugh was taken to Las Vegas to stand trial. He attempted to avoid being charged with a capital offence, by pleading guilty to the Las Vegas train robbery in October, 1879. However, his attempt was unsuccessful and he was sentenced to hang for murder. He was taken to the Las Vegas Old Town Jail to await his execution, where he was united with J.J. Webb, still serving time for the offense Dave had tried to help him with.
In the meantime, Billy the Kid was jailed at Lincoln, New Mexico where he escaped on April 28, 1881 only to be tracked down and killed by Pat Garrett that July.
Rudabaugh, Webb, and two other men, Thomas Duffy and H.S. Wilson tried unsuccessfully to shoot their way out of jail on September 19, 1881. Duffy was mortally wounded in the attempt. Webb, facing life in prison, and Rudabaugh the threat of hanging, were determined to try again and to not fail the next time.
Two months later, Webb, Rudabaugh and five other men, chipped a stone out of the jail wall and escaped out of a 7"x19" hole. Rudabaugh and Webb went to Texas and then to Mexico where Webb disappeared.
Rudabaugh then fled to Arizona where he joined the Clanton faction in their feud against the Earps. Dave may have even participated in the murder of Morgan Earp and the attempted murder of Virgil Earp, and he was present at the fight in which Curly Bill Brocius was killed.
There are two stories as to what became of Rudabaugh after that, the most common is:
As the Clanton gang broke up, Rudabaugh headed down to Mexico where he worked as both a cowboy and a rustler. On February 18, 1886, Rudabaugh was involved in a gunfight with locals in Parral, Chihuahua over a card game. Rudabaugh and a Mexican man faced off and Rudabaugh shot him through the head. When another player drew and fired, Rudabaugh put a bullet into his heart. Having killed two men and wounded another, the then unarmed but unable to find his horse, Rudabaugh returned to the cantina, which was now in total darkness. On entering he was shot several times from the shadows and decapitated with a machete, then his head was paraded around around town on a pole.
That on February 18, 1886, Rudabaugh was involved in a cantina card game in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico which broke up after accusations of cheating. Rudabaugh and a Mexican man faced off and Rudabaugh shot him through the head. When another player drew and fired, Rudabaugh put a bullet into his heart. Unable to find his horse, Rudabaugh returned to the cantina, which was now in total darkness. On entering he was jumped and decapitated. For the next several days, his killers were said to have paraded through town with his head on a pole. A few photos were taken of the event, (there's one on-line of someone's head anyway). The body and head were then either buried in an unmarked grave "fit for a rabid dog", or left on a hillside for the vultures.
Another story tells that Rudabaugh finally left Mexico with a heard of cattle headed to Montana where he lived a normal life, married and fathered three daughters. Those who support this claim say that he ultimately died, a destitute alcoholic rancher in Oregon in 1928. He was the only man to have ever been captured by both Bat Masterson and Pat Garrett.
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