Wagons West Chronicles October Issue 2016 October Issue | Page 14

14 October 2016 Wagons WestChronicles
Study of Western Bad Men from page 13 blers , while to intimate to one of them that he was a murderer would be sure to result in his killing the insulter to prove he was not . Prominent among the desperadoes who flocked to Creede in its early days was a Kentuckian , who in his own state bore the name of Charles L . Creek , but who owing to his having had his features badly carved up by a bowie knife and his nose slashed out of shape , came to be known as “ Broken Nose ” Creek . Curiously enough , Kentucky has furnished more of these outlaws , than all of the other states put together . Creek served in the Union army during the war , and unlike most of the men in his native state , was a rampant Republican . It seems to have been the rule in these new towns and mining camps to select for their marshal or chief of police , a man who had already made a reputation as a killer . Before Creede was dreamt of Creek had qualified himself for the position of marshal by killing four men , in self-defense , he explained . The beginning made in civil life he kept bravely up as an official , and to him the distinguished honor of having supplied the corpse to start the graveyard in the new city . After Creede became more law abiding , it needed a higher type of city officials ;
“ Broken Nose ” Creek was elected out of office , and is reported to have been subsequently shot in a mining town on the Gunnison .
I have said that the native born Englishman took more naturally to the calling of “ bad man ” than did the genuine Yankee . One of the most striking examples of this was Ben Thompson , an Englishman , who was brought out to Texas by his parents while he was yet a child . Thompson began his vicious career while still in his teens and before he was thirty he had killed eighteen men , a record that warranted his being elected marshal of the capital city of Austin . Had Thompson been a native born Texan , with a lineage of frontier ancestors running back for many generations , he could not have shown more skill as a rider and a shot . He was one of the few men of this class who came nearer being devoid of physical fear than any I know of . On one occasion , learning that two barkeepers in a certain establishment had sworn they would kill him if he ever came into their place he boldly walked in alone . As soon as he reached the middle of the room the two men , one on each side and not more than twenty feet away , raised their shotguns and fired at the same instant , but they were so frightened that they missed their mark , whereupon
Thompson , who had been grimly smiling at them , drew his revolver and killed the two . It was the same desperate recklessness that led him into a quarrel with the proprietor of a theatre in San Antonio . Thompson would have killed the theatrical manager had not a boy named Sims , who was his assistant , drawn his pistol , stepped between the two , and sent three bullets through the desperado ’ s brain .
The James ’, Fords , and road agents of that class , while redhanded murderers , do not deserve to be classed with the western bad man who rather prides himself on his honesty , that is , he will not hold up a stage or a railroad train for the purpose of looting it , but he does not hesitate to make money by cheating tenderfeet and manipulating cards so as to win . A few years ago Harley McCoy , also a Kentuckian , having killed two men in his native state , and mastered the art of poker , felt himself qualified for the ranks of the western bad man and so went out to Colorado . Here McCoy at once became a protégé of the famous , or infamous “ Bat ” Masterson , the prince of “ killers ” and the Napoleon of western sports . Harley McCoy ’ s now about thirtysix years of age , tall , lithe and active . He has dark , curling hair , black eyes , and a wholesome olive
Bat Masterson .
complexion , and as he dresses well and in excellent taste , his handsome person is sure to attract attention wherever he goes . Under the guidance of Masterson , McCoy has learned prudence , and while he still keeps up his skill with the revolver , he takes care to avoid a quarrel and devotes himself to money making through his gambling establishment in Denver .
The most noted of all the western bad men , perhaps because he has the most murders to his credit , is Bat Masterson himself . Masterson was born in Middleton , Ill ., about thirty-six years ago . His father was a well-to-do farmer but the boy did not avail himself of his educational opportunities . While his companions were studying at school young Masterson could be found in the woods practicing with a revolver , and to this early training is no doubt the phenomenal skill with that weapon which he has displayed . The number of deaths credited to Bat Masterson range all the way from five to twenty-eight . Perhaps a fair average would be sixteen . Masterson had established a reputation as a shooter when he was made marshal of Dodge City , Kansas . Here , in the early seventies , his brother who was the sheriff , was killed by five Texas cowboys . As soon as Bat learned of this he sought out the men and at once shot the whole five down . He distinguished himself in those days as an Indian fighter and buffalo hunter , but while he was practicing with his rifle and revolver he did not cease to perfect himself in his skill with the cards . When the railroads opened up Colorado to the world he went thither , establishing innumerable gambling places , and because of his fearlessness and his skill with the pistol was elected marshal at different times of a half dozen infant cities , in each of which there is at least one grave in the cemetery filled by the victim of his revolver . Masterson is a man of medium height , with an intellectual face , strange as it may seem , and is not addicted to profanity or liquor . His friends claim , and with a show of justice , that he never drew his revolver except in the interest of law .
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