Thursday, May 26, 2016

BAD HOMBRE, TEXAS STYLE

5/26/1853 - Something wrong with the gene pool, in Bonham, Texas, a family with a member that fought for Texas freedom at the Battle of San Jacinto, another that signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, another that served in the Congress of the Texas Republic, a member judge with a county named for him, and a Methodist circuit preacher, school teacher, and lawyer welcome a new member to the Hardin Family ... one who will grow up to be the psychopathic killer, John Wesley "Wes" Hardin (he will be the second surviving son of a family with ten children and a direct descendant of North Carolina Revolutionary War hero, Colonel Joseph Hardin).
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Hardin

Named John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist denomination of the Christian church) by his father in hopes that he will someday become a minister, Hardin grows up in southwestern Texas, learning to shoot in part, by plugging away at effigies of President Abraham Lincoln.  At eleven he shows what his grim future will be full of when an argument with a classmate escalates and he pulls a knife and stabs the boy in the chest and back (the youngster lives). His first murder (he'll claim self-defense of course) takes place when he is fifteen and bests a former slave named Mage in a wrestling contest ... upset at losing, when Mage accosts Hardin on the road later with a stick in his hand, the gunfighter-to-be simply pulls his .44 and pumps three bullets into his adversary.  And so it begins, a bloody journey that will see Hardin kill between 42 (Hardin's own count ... AND HE DOESN'T INCLUDE IN THE TOTAL INDIANS, MEXICANS, OR NEGROES HE PLANTS BECAUSE HE DOESN'T THINK THEY ARE ACTUAL HUMANS) and 27 people between 1868 and 1874, using a one-motion, two-gun draw of crossed pistols that he practices daily (the butts of his pistols pointed inward across his chest, he draws his left gun with his right hand, and the reverse for his other side).

Hardin

Truth or fiction, here are some of the most monstrous moments of his Wild West life:

*November, 1868 - Learning three soldiers are seeking him for the murder of Mage, Hardin sets up an ambush and kills two men with a shotgun, and guns down the third with his pistol.
*December 25,1869 - A bigger winner in a Christmas card game in Towash, Texas, Hardin is accused of cheating by a local hard case named Benjamin Bradly ... who foolishly curses Hardin on the street later that evening and pulls a knife, claiming he is going to cut out Hardin's liver, to which the gunman responds by calmly putting a bullet in the man's chest and head.

Hardin - Still A Teenager
*January, 1870 - The gunfighter vanishes a citizen called Judge Moore when the man won't give up the gambling funds, or pistols, he was holding for Hardin.
*January, 1870 - Hiding out from the Bradly killing at Horn Hill, Texas, Hardin quarrels with a worker in the circus that is performing there, and when the man punches him in the stomach, shoots him dead in the head.
*January, 1870 - Catting about in Kosse, Texas, Hardin is about to bed a saloon woman of loose morals, when her bedroom door is kicked in and her boyfriend/pimp demands money ... acting as if frightened and accepting of the situation, Hardin accidentally on purpose drops a large roll of cash on the floor, and when the blackmailer bends down to pick up his loot, pulls his weapon and shoots the man in the head.
*January, 1871 - Arrested for the murder of Waco, Texas city marshal Laban John Hoffmann (Hardin will deny the crime) and being taken to Waco, Texas to stand trial, Hardin produces a hidden gun he has bought from another prisoner, kills a guard, and rides off towards Gonzales, Texas.
*January, 1871 - Caught again, Hardin claims to kill three posse men named Smith, Jones, and Davis with their own weapons when the men become drunk trying to return the gunfighter to Waco.
*February, 1871 - Breaks the skull of a black man named Bob King with his pistol when Hardin catches the man cutting a beef cow out of the herd he is rounding up. 
*February, 1871 - Hiding out with his cousin Mannen Clements on a cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail from Texas to Kansas, Hardin gets into a ruckus with a group of Mexican cowboys over a game of Monte ... game over, Hardin leaves the dealer with a busted skull from his pistol, and shoots two of the man's friends when they come to his aid (lucky, all three men survive their encounter with Hardin).
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Clements
*May, 1871 - Out hunting wild turkeys for a change of chuckwagon cuisine, Hardin encounters a local Indian and kills the man just because he doesn't like Indians.
*May, 1871 - Near Bluff Creek, Kansas, Hardin kills an Indian for trying to collect a cattle "tax" on the herd crossing the warrior's former hunting grounds.
*June, 1871 - In action again when a following herd of Mexican cattle mixes with the beasts Hardin is driving north, the gunfighter claims to kill the Mexican trail boss, and when they try to defend their leader, five more protesting vaqueros.  
*July 6, 1871 - Getting into an argument in an Abilene restaurant with an anti-Texan named Charles Cougar ... Hardin sends another victim to Boot Hill by way of a well placed head shot.
*July, 1871 - Joining a posse looking for Juan Bideno, a Mexican cowboy accused of killing Texas cattleman William Cohron, Hardin finds him in a cafe in Bluff City, Kansas ... and when Bideno refuses to surrender, kills him with yet another on target head shot.
*July, 1871 - When Abilene marshal Wild Bill Hickok, his weapon already drawn, demands Hardin give up his guns while in town, the killer turns the tables on Hickok with a trick called a "border roll" where guns presented butt first are then spun forward into a firing position.  Whether the incident ever happened or not, what is known is that during Hardin's sojourn in the wild cow town, neither of the gunfighters kill each other.

Wild Bill Hickok
*August 6, 1871 - Tired after a heavy night of drinking and gambling, Hardin becomes irritated at his slumber being disturbed by the snoring come from the next room, so he pulls his pistol and fires a bullet through the wall, killing its occupant.
*September, 1871 - Hearing two black state policemen are looking for him in the town of Smiley, Texas, Hardin finds the men eating crackers and cheese in the local general store, introduces himself as the man they are seeking, draws, and empties his pistols at the men, killing one and sending the other to the local doctor with a bullet through his mouth.
*June, 1872 - The desperado wounds a lawman in the shoulder that tries to arrest Hardin in Hemphill, Texas.
*July, 1872 - Not happy about having been conned by Hardin about the gunman's bowling abilities, in Trinity City, Texas a man named Sublett goes at Wes with a shotgun ... struck by buckshot in the side, Hardin survives, but is only able to wound his assailant in the back when the man runs away after firing on the gunfighter.
*August, 1872 - Still recovering from his shotgun wound, Hardin shoots his way out of a posse trap in Angelina County, Texas.
*April, 1873 - Visiting a local saloon while in Cuero, Texas to sell cattle, Hardin gets in an argument with a half-drunk local deputy named J. B. Morgan ... when Morgan follows Hardin out of the saloon, guns are drawn and Morgan goes to Boot Hill.
*July, 1873 - Siding with his cousins in what is called the Sutton-Taylor feud, while having a horseshoe replaced, Hardin sees the leader of the Sutton faction, Jack Helm, passing by on the street ... reaction instant, Hardin grabs a shotgun and blasts Helm into eternity by way of a huge hole in the man's chest (hatred profound, Hardin's friend, Jim Taylor, then empties his pistol into the corpse).
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The Jack Helm Killing
*May 26, 1874 - Celebrating his 21st birthday in Comanche, Texas, Hardin wins big at the day's horse races and goes to the nearby saloon for refreshments ... instead, there he is accosted by Comanche County Deputy Sheriff Charles Webb ... guns drawn, Hardin takes a bullet in the side, but survives ... Webb however hits the floor dead with a bullet in his forehead.
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Webb
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Wanted Poster

The aftermath of the Webb killing is that finally most of Texas has had enough of John Wesley Hardin ... so much so that when he escapes a posse and vanishes, his brother Joe, and two cousins, Bud and Tom Dixon, are grabbed up instead and lynched.  Realizing Texas is too hot to remain in, Hardin and his family (he will marry twice, one that lasts only a single day before the bride realizes what she has gotten herself into, and fathers three children) relocate to Florida where he masquerades as a cattleman named J. H. Swain for three years (during this period, he ONLY kills two men ... two former Texas slaves that have seen through his disguise and try to arrest him in Gainesville, Florida).  Alias and location discovered due to mail foolishly being sent to family members back in Texas, Hardin is arrested by Texas Ranger John Armstrong and several other officers ... but not until a major struggle takes place in which Hardin tries to draw on the Rangers, but his pistol catches on his vest and he can't bring it into play, his 19-year-old friend, Jim Mann, does pull and is gunned down, and the outlaw is put to sleep by several blows to the head by Armstrong's long barreled .45 revolver.  Brought back to Texas for trial in the killing of Webb, Hardin is found guilty and sentenced to 25 years at the Huntsville state prison.  Behind bars, Hardin uses his time well, becoming a model prison, reading religious books, helping others as the superintendent of the prison's Sunday school, writing his autobiography, and studying to become a lawyer.  After 17 years a Huntsville, Hardin is paroled, passes his bar examination, and sets up shop in the town of El Paso.
Jane Ann <i>Bowen</i> Hardin
Hardin's First Wife, Jane, And His Daughter, Neill

Texas Ranger John Barclay Armstrong

Hardin 

Everything in place for Hardin's story after prison to be one of change, forgiveness, and redemption, his tale instead goes the way it has been pointing since as a child, he first picks up a gun. Feuding over the treatment of the the "widow" (code for prostitute), Mrs. Beulah Mroz, Hardin pistol whips El Paso lawman, John Selmon Jr. ... pissing off 56-year-old senior, a gunfighter himself and constable of the town.  After heated words earlier in the day between Hardin and the older Selmon (Hardin threatens to kill Selmon and his son), on August 19, 1895, Hardin thinks nothing more of the encounter and decides to play some cards and dice in the town's Acme saloon.  Shooting dice with the town grocer, H. S. Brown, Hardin has his back to the establishments front door when Selmon Sr. enters with his gun at the ready.  "You have four sixes to beat," are Hardin's last words, as Selmon fittingly shoots the gunman in the head, and then just to make sure Hardin is dead, pumps two more bullets into his opponent's body ... over and out, Hardin is 42-years-old when he finally is on the fatally wrong side of a gunning (no hero himself, though he shoots Hardin in the back of the head without warning, the Texas killer's reputation is so dark that the killing is ruled self-defense, but Selmon also goes out from lead poisoning ... drunk, on April 5, 1896, he picks a fight with the wrong man, fellow El Paso peace officer, George Scarborough, who, tired of yet another argument about Hardin's death, shoots Selmon without warning in the neck, and then with his adversary in the dirt of an alley, puts three more bullets into the old gunfighter's hip, knee, and side ... and Scarborough in turn will be killed by Wild Bunch outlaw, Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan, in April of 1900).

Selmon Sr.

Hardin In Death - Note Where Bullet Came Out Near His
Eye
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Gun Hardin Never Got To Pull On The Fatal Night
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Scarborough

Harvey Logan

5/26/1853 ... a killer is born in Texas, named John Wesley Hardin!
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Hardin

Wednesday, May 18, 2016

THE THREE BANKS OF BEGGS, OKLAHOMA

5/18/1927 - A relatively new community in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, named for C. H. Beggs, the vice-president of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway that has a stop there, the town of Beggs is officially born in September of 1900 when it's United States Post Office opens, and quickly becomes a center for the area's hog, cattle, and horse ranches.  By 1901, the town is composed of about 50 buildings, but undergoes big changes when an oil boom hits the area in 1920 and the town and it's population suddenly undergo a growth spurt that includes enough commerce to support three banks ... the First National Bank, the Farmers National Bank, and the American National Bank, financial establishments that the region's notorious Kimes-Terrill Gang are very interested in robbing ... at the same time (they have already hit the Farmers National Bank the previous year)!

St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Engine

A loose confederation of robbers and killers led by 28-year-old outlaw Ray Terrill, and the Kimes Brothers, 23-year-old George and 22-year-old Matt, by 1927, the criminal resume of the group includes burglaries with future Karpis-Barker public enemies Volney Davis and Doc Barker, a $20,000 train robbery with Al Spencer and Frank Nash, night robberies of banks and stores with Herman Barker, Wilbur Underhill, and Elmer H. Inman, multiple jail escapes, the robbery of Covington, Oklahoma's two banks, the murder of Oklahoma City police officer Luther Bishop, taking $42,950 out of Sapulpa, Oklahoma's bank, the kidnapping of an Oklahoma police chief, and the killing of Sequoyah County Deputy Sheriff Perry Chuculate.

Ray Terrill
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George Kimes & Wife

Matt Kimes

Chuculate 

A two bank day already on the books, Matt Kimes (George is behind bars, serving a life sentence for killing Deputy Sheriff Chuculate) and Ray Terrill decide with the right manpower, weapons, and planning, all of Beggs' banks can be taken in one day. Manpower recruited, Kimes and Terrill are joined by three drivers, Elmer Inman, Roy Brandon, and Everett Stephens, and five other robbers, Raymond Doolin (a distant relation to Oklahoma's notorious Bill Doolin), Jack Whitehead, Claude Smith, Clyde Brandon, and Roy Wilson.  Assignments practiced, weapons cleaned and loaded, matching black Buick sedans stolen and gassed up, and escape routes driven in advance, on the sunny spring morning of Wednesday, 5/18/1927, the outlaws are ready for their grand caper.
 
Matt Kimes' Winchester Model 1905

Elmer Inman

Hits scheduled to take place exactly at 10:40 in the morning, the men in their three cars take up positions near the three banks, all located on the town's Main Street.  On time, Terrill, Smith, and Kimes enter the First National and after announcing, "We're robbing the bank," begin stuffing a gunnysack with the establishment's cash.  All the while, Kimes greets customers in the bank with a warm smile and a "good morning" as he keeps watch that everyone behaves themselves.  Done, eleven bank employees and customers are locked in the bank's fault, Kimes leaves the building whistling, and walks down the street to see how the other jobs are going.
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Matt And His Wife

At the Farmers National Bank, Roy Brandon stays with the car, Clyde Brandon enters the bank, and Doolin guards the door.  A piece of cake, the only action inside takes place when stooping down to pick up some loot he has dropped, Clyde Brandon's automatic falls out of his trousers and lands on the floor ("Damn, I'll be shootin' myself in a minute," Brandon exclaims).  By the time Kimes walks in the robbery is over, and his only assist to his men comes by locking five more people in a bank vault that morning.  The story is different though at the American National Bank.

Beggs Police Chief
William J. McAnally

Parking in front of the American National Bank and watching the hands of a huge two-faced clock tower for 10:40 to arrive ... the three men in the third car wait, and wait, and wait for their appointed moment to hit the bank, unaware that the clock side they are facing is 15 minutes slow ... just the right amount of time for the town to begin responding to the other bank robberies. Discussing the weather with neighbors on Main Street, Police Chief William McAnally learns that his town is being robbed just after Kimes, Doolin, and Clyde Brandon leave the Farmers National Bank.  Aware that there are armed citizens now on the streets of Beggs, Roy Brandon puts his stolen Buick in gear and is already leaving town by the time Kimes jumps in, dodging two bullets sent his way by McAnally.  Shots fired, hearing the noise, Stephens reverses from the curb in front of the First National Bank, makes a U-turn, and firing shots to keep heads down, races out of town.  No time now for the third bank job, Inman pulls away from the American National bank, swerves across the central parking lane in the middle of the street and leaves town on the wrong side of the road, with Whitehead and Wilson firing away at random targets from inside the vehicle ... firing that wounds Mrs. Charlie Campbell in the neck, and kills Police Chief McAnally (hit in the back by both barrels of a shotgun blast, he dies within 15 minutes from 90 lead pellet wounds).  

Front Page News For Thursday

Gone, the bandits leave town with a lot less cash and valuables than they expected ... $5,968 is taken from the First National, along with three diamonds and a ruby worth $7,975, and from the Farmers National, $4,018 ... the freedom for everyone involved though will be short lived.  Claude Smith is mortally wounded trying to escape group of lawmen near Henryetta, Oklahoma, Stephens and Whitehead are arrested in Okmulgee, Oklahoma when they ask a suspicious service station attendant for directions to the Tulsa highway (Whitehead and Stephens will be sentenced to life behind bars), Roy and Clyde Brandon will be arrested while hiding out on the family's farm (both are given life sentences), Texas Rangers will pick up Wilson outside the town of Oil City (Wilson is given immunity for McAnally's murder for testifying against Kimes and gets 10 years for the robbery), after a struggle in which shots are fired and fists are thrown, Kimes and Doolin are arrested while vacationing at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (Doolin is given life, while Kimes, known to be the crime's planner, gets the death penalty, appeals, is granted a second trial, and is given a life sentence), Ray Terrill gets in a gunfight with police and is arrested in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is foolishly released on bond under an alias, and then is rearrested (another life sentence upon trial), along with Inman (multiple years for other crimes) in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in November of 1927.
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Gang no more within a year of their biggest caper, the leaders of the gang, all behind bars with life sentences, each go out differently ... Ray Terrill dies in prison, Matt Kimes toes the line as a "good convict," becomes a prison trustee and walks away from his sentence while on an errand outside the Oklahoma State Prison at McAlester (after already being given leave to go quail hunting with his lawyer), robs yet one more bank, and then is killed when he crosses a street at the wrong spot and is hit by a speeding poultry truck in 1945 (after the victim is identified, the truck driver's ticket for speeding is torn up), and George Kimes is eventually released after spending over thirty years paying for the death of lawman Chuculate, dying from cancer at the American River Hospital at Carmichael, California at the age of 65.

Matt Kimes