March 20, 1834 & March 20, 1871 - Future outlaws sharing the twentieth day of March for their birthdays, along with the same first names and non-American births, George Parrott and George Sutherland Currie will also share the distinction of playing out a good portion of their outlaw careers in the badlands of Wyoming, and will jointly be known by friend and foe alike for the nicknames that are given them due their distinctive beaks ... Parrott will become known as "Big Nose George" and "Big Beak Parrott" (along with the aliases George Warden and George Manuse), while Currie will be saddled with a decidedly different hooter-handle and will end his life as the notorious Wild Bunch rider, "Flat-Nose George" (along with using the fake moniker of George Langthorpe). The two bandits will also share the fate of coming to decidedly poor endings.
Big Nose And Flat Nose
While little is known about the parenting he receives and the early life of "Big Nose," his birth date is given as taking place in Montbeliard, France on March 20, 1831. A horse thief, cattle rustler and two-bit highwayman once he transplants to the United States and moves out West, the robber graduates to murderer in 1878 while in Wyoming prepping with the bandits he leads for a job robbing payroll money being transported by the Union Pacific Railroad. From the beginning of his move into train robbery, things do not go well though for George. After loosening the train tracks near Como Lake their target will be traveling over, east of the town of Medicine Bow, Wyoming, "Big Nose," and seven of his associates (including second-in-command "Dutch Charley" Burris, two men claiming to be Frank and Jesse James, Joe Manuse and Frank Tole) hide in the nearby wilds and get ready to plunder the transport to hit their intended target when it goes off the tracks the bandits have sabotaged. Before the robbery can take place however, the tampering is spotted by a roving section crew that repairs the sabotage and notifies the authorities that bandits appear to be operating in the area. Responding to their plan to rob the train being discovered, the gang retreats back into the nearby wilds of Elk Mountain and Rattlesnake Canyon, where their next move is decided upon when the outlaw's campsite is discovered on August 19, 1878 by Carbon County Deputy Sheriff Robert Widdowfield and Union Pacific detective Henry "Tip" Vincent.
Elk Mountain, Wyoming
About to play hunting guide for a group of visitors to the area that includes legendary mountain man John "Texas Jack" Omohundro, Dr. Amandus Ferber, and Count Otto Franc von Lichtenstein, Vincent asks for two days off to help a friend (Robert Widdowfield) track down the group of miscreants that attempted to waylay the Union Pacific train near Como Lake a few days earlier. Starting at the site of the attempted robbery, the two lawmen are soon on the miscreant's trail, following the track of the badmen while posing as cowboys tracking cattle that had wandered away from the herd the men were moving. Following the trail the outlaws had left for 25 miles, the pair come upon a recently abandoned campground below Elk Mountain in Rattlesnake Canyon. Investigating, Widdowfield steps off his mount to investigate the remains of an apparent campfire and tells his partner that the ashes are fresh ... that however is all he has time to say as a rifle bullet hits him in the face, killing the lawman instantly (the 32-year-old lawman leaves behind a widow and a young son), their quarry has been in hiding and watching the two men checking out their campsite. Reacting immediately, Vincent turns his horse and spurs the animal in the opposite direction but gets only a few yards before he too is hit and tumbles out of his saddle after being fatally struck by 12 bullets (a bachelor, Vincent is 38-years old at the time of his death). Intruders taken care of, the crooks then grab the fallen men's weapons, hide their victims under a cover of brush and leaves in a dry streambed, and then ride off in different directions with plans to meet up later at a safer location. Unbeknownst to "Big Nose" and his criminal companions, the murders have been heard though by a surveyor working in the region named L. M. Hampton who will contact Carbon County Undersheriff James Rankin and Union Pacific Agent James Adams with the information. Sadly though, it takes until August 27th for the corpses to be discovered, and by then, the miscreants responsible, with a bounty of $10,000 on their heads (soon to rise to $20,000) are long gone ... but not forgotten.
"Big Nose" And His Friends In Action
The first bandit to join the two lawmen in death is Frank Tole. Attempting to continue his life of crime independent from the rest of the gang, Tole transplants his lawbreaking to the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. There, in September of 1878, the gunman attempts to rob a coach belonging to the Black Hills Stage Line, and fatally holed, comes in second in the gun battle that ensues at Old Woman's Creek with the messenger riding shotgun, 26-year-old Daniel Boone May (by the time he dies in 1910 of Yellow Fever in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil at the age of 58, he will be said to have killed 12 robbers for the transportation line).
Daniel Boone May
Named for Indian fighter Nelson Appleton Miles, in February of 1879, members of the gang reconvene in Milestown, Montana (now Miles City, Montana), and under the direction of Parrott, begin planning their next escapade, the robbery of prosperous merchant, Morris Cahn. A job for four men, Parrott selects Charlie Burris and two other members of the gang to help him rob the merchant despite the man traveling with a small military convoy of 15 soldiers and 2 officers accompanying an ambulance and a wagon. Planned to ambush the convoy at the bottom of a steep coulee about ten miles beyond a track crossing the Powder River (near present-day Terry, Montana), the four men take the elements of the convoy captive after the unit splits apart on the narrow byway (known thereafter as "Cahn's Coulee"), with no one killed, and between $3,600 and $14,000 of stolen cash in their pockets. It will be the last successful robbery for the brigands.
Powder River Country
Celebrating the gang's successful robbery along the Powder River, the next miscreant to violently enter the afterlife is the gang's second-in-command, "Dutch Charley" Burris. Surprised by three lawmen while imbibing at a saloon in Green River, Wyoming on New Year's Eve, the outlaw surrenders without a fight when he finds himself suddenly facing three drawn guns while holding only a double-shot of whiskey. Following his arrest, the outlaw is taken by train to Laramie and turned over to the newly sworn-in Albany County Sheriff N. K. Boswell. Five days later he is placed aboard a train bound for Rawlins where he is to stand trial for the killings of Widdowfield and Vincent. Stopping to take on coal and water though, in the town of Carbon, a mob of around 20 to 30 masked gunmen (some believed to be members of Widdowfield's family) take the prisoner away from the single lawmen guarding him, march him off the train and hang the outlaw from a telegraph pole outside of John Milliken's Boarding House, despite the outlaw's pleas to be shot instead of getting his neck stretched. The neck stretching delays the train being on its way for only 13 minutes.
Where Burris Was Hung - #10
Front Street - Rawlins, Wyoming
Following through with his promise to the lynch mob, when "Big Nose" is arraigned in court the following Monday, he does officially plead guilty to murder, but only four days later he reneges on his promise to the mob and changes his plea to not guilty as he begins contemplating escaping custody. The legal process now set in motion with a request to move the proceedings to a different locale (the request will be denied), a jury is impaneled on November 16, 1880 and the trial ends just two days later, with "Big Nose" changing his plea back to guilty after the jury hears testimony from a Union Pacific detective as to the robber's guilt, along with testimony about his train confession. On December 15, 1880, "Big Nose" is found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to be "hanged by the neck until dead," a sentence to be carried out on April 2, 1881. Parrott though has other plans and uses a pocket knife and a piece of sandstone he somehow procures on his cuffs (along with a mixture of soot and grease to cover up his tampering with his bonds). Slowly grinding his way through the iron rivets of his leg shackles, the killer makes his break for freedom on the evening of March 22 as Sheriff Rankin makes a final inspection of his charge before retiring for the evening. Slipping out of his loosened irons as the sheriff briefly turns his back on the captive, "Big Nose" swings his heavy iron cuffs like a club and pummels his keeper about the head, fracturing the lawman's skull and severely injuring the lawman. The blows and noise of the pair's brief fight though also alert the sheriff's waiting wife Rosa that there is trouble, and she intrepidly makes her way the few steps to the scene, grabs his husband's fallen revolver, and holds the murderer at bay until a few moments later help arrives.
The Old Jail House
The news of the attempted escape spreads rapidly over the city and by 10:30 in the evening a mob of over 200 people (some masked and some not) is at the door of the jail to take Parrott to a "neck-tie" party in his honor at the corner of the town's Front and Third Streets. There, a crying "Big Nose" has a noose put around his neck, and then with the rope flung over a convenient crossbar, is placed atop an empty kerosine barrel. Seconds later the barrel is kicked out from under the outlaw, but instead of beginning his dangle dance, the rope breaks and "Big Nose" hits the ground. But only briefly. Yanked to his feet by the fuming lynch mob, the killer pleads to be shot, but the enraged mob quickly procures a heavier rope and a 12-foot ladder and with a new noose around his neck, forces Parrott to climb aloft before pushing the ladder away. Though the rope doesn't break with the second attempt at hanging the miscreant, "Big Nose" continues to fight against his fate and is able to free his hands. Clinging to the telegraph pole his noose is attached to, Parrott continues to plead with the mob, but to no avail and eventually the leg irons he is wearing weary him enough that he begins his final struggles and slowly strangles to death (his fight against finality is so violent that he leaves life sans the ears he loses struggling with the rope). Left dangling for several hours, "Big Nose" is eventually cut down by the local undertaker, William Daley.
Rawlins Is The Guest Of Honor At A Neck-Tie Party
And the fun of taking out a bad guy doesn't end with the death of "Big Nose!" With no one else available for the duty, two local doctors, John Eugene Osborne and Thomas Maghee take on the duty of declaring Parrott officially dead, and since no relatives of the deceased are around, take possession of the body to study it's "criminal brain." And the study looking for "criminal abnormalities" in turn leads to parts of "Big Nose's" body being turned into ghoulish souvenirs of the occasion ... his head is loped off and the top of his skull is given to the men's 15-year-old medical assistant, Lillian Heath (the first Wyoming woman to become a physician), who over the next decades will use it as an ashtray, a pen holder, and a doorstop, lacking the destroyed ears of the hung killer, a plaster-of-Paris death mask is created, and large swaths of outlaw skin are removed from Parrott's chest and thighs, sent to a Denver tannery, and made into dress shoes and a medical bag (though upset that the shoemaker doesn't keep the nipples attached as he requested, Osborne nonetheless wears them for all the world to see at his inaugural ball when he becomes Wyoming's third governor on January 2, 1893). Souvenirs created and disseminated, the rest of Parrott is chopped up, placed in a whiskey barrel filled with a saline solution, and eventually buried in the yard behind Dr. Maghee's office (forgotten for a time, "Big Nose" will be rediscovered in 1950 by construction workers making improvements on the Rawlins National Bank located on the town's Cedar Street ... the "Big Nose" skin shoes, bottom of his skull, and his earless death mask are now on "permanent" display at the Carbon County Museum, the top of his skull and the shackles the outlaw wore when executed can be seen at the Union Pacific Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, while the medicine bag of skin has now gone missing).
John Eugene Osborne
Heath With The Top Of Big Nose's Skull
Rediscovery Of Pieces Of "Big Nose"
"Big Nose" As Shoes
Meanwhile ...
On March 20, 1871, north of the United States, George Sutherland Currie, is born to John and Nancy Ann "Macdonald" Currie in West Point, Prince Edward Island, Canada (the second of six children the family will have). Seeking better times, the family will eventually transplant to Chadron, Nebraska, and seeking even better times, at around 15-years-old, George leaves home and begins his outlaw life by rustling cattle and horses, becoming quite proficient at the activity. He also soon masters the related outlaw skills of drinking, gambling, and whoring, along with knife and gun skills as he wanders about the West. Sadly though for the youth, while learning how to master his horse riding skills, George is kicked in the face by the mount he is trying to ride. The physical injury that results will result in the youth from then on and forever more being known as "Flat Nose" Curry.
"Flat Nose" Before He Is Kicked In The Face
In 1883, "Flat Nose" is in Texas, where he first makes contact with another wild youth (and his three brothers, Hank, Johnny, and Lonie), future Wild Bunch legend, Harvey Alexander Logan. Hired to break horses and cattle on the extensive Cross L Ranch near the small town of Rising Star in Eastland County, the two youths form an immediate and easy bond as Curry tells Logan of his wild adventures, so much so that Harvey and then his brothers begin using the "Curry" moniker. Still footloose and looking for more action though than can be found on a ranch, Flat Nose eventually rides off. Working more "cow punching" jobs, "Flat Nose" eventually shows up in Utah, where he manages to get a reputation as a yet uncaught cattle rustler. He is not in Utah for long though and soon flees to the wilds of Wyoming's "Hole-In-The-Wall" outlaw country. In the wilds of northern Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains, behind a 25-mile-long escarpment of high red sandstone called "The Red Wall," "Flat Nose" sets up shop in a series of log cabins along the banks of a wet known as Buffalo Creek. There, the outlaw grazes the horses and cattle he steals, plays host to other outlaws in the area, and plans out his next crimes in relative safety. Reunited with the Logan Brothers in early 1895 after Harvey kills Powell "Pike" Landusky in a drunken barroom brawl (in a small Montana town of Landusky where all the participants live, a town that had been founded by the loser of the fight, "Pike") that escalates from a fist fight into a shooting on December 27, 1894 that forces the winning brothers to flee the state. Reunited with their old friend "Flat Nose," the outlaws soon are planning their first robbery together ... a hit on the Butte County Bank of Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
Hole-In-The-Rock Country
Left To Right - The Logan Brothers -
John, Harvey, And Lonie
On June 28, 1897, an outlaw band consisting of Havey Logan, "Flat Nose" George, Walt Punteney, and Tom "Peep" O'Day hit Belle Fourche's bank seeking $30,000 in cattle money they believe the establishment is holding. The robbery is a fiasco from start to finish with O'Day getting so drunk that he can't hold on to his getaway mount, attempts to ride an old mule out of town, and then hides in an outhouse until he is arrested and locked up in the very bank he was trying to rob (he will later be acquitted of robbing the bank, lives out his life as the town character of Deadwood, South Dakota, and dies at the age of 68), while the rest of the gang, carrying booty that amounts to a meager $87, are able to clear the region by keeping a following posse at bay with the rifles they had cached earlier and a retreat over a series of hidden trails in the area's Big Hole Basin. Eventually making it into Montana, the outlaws are in the process of planning a robbery in the town of Red Lodge, when they are found by a posse led by Sheriff John Dunn near Lavina, Montana. A win for the posse, in the gun play that comes with the outlaws' discovery, Logan is shot through the wrist, his horse is killed, and so the suddenly surrounded outlaws decide to surrender and are hauled all the way back to Deadwood. Though confined in a cage inside the jail, when John "Lank" Forbes enters the cell area to give the prisoners dinner, caught off guard as Logan pretends to be sick, he is quickly overpowered by all three men (outside, the town is enjoying Halloween festivities), choked into silence, his two revolvers grabbed and locked in the cell with his own keys. The escapees then arm themselves with their own weapons, grab more firepower and ammo, then flee the area. Despite the confusion of Halloween celebrations taking place, the group of escapees is spotted and a gun battle ensues in which the escapees wound several citizens before managing to steal horses and supplies and flee into the mountains while yelling taunts at Deadwood's citizens. Taking up the challenge, over 200 citizens purse the three men into the South Dakota Badlands and then into Montana. Cornered in the Bearpaw Mountains, the outlaws get away by abandoning their horses and supplies, and fleeing into the area's mountain wilderness on foot where they are able to elude capture (on the way back to Wyoming, the outlaws rob two post offices to acquire cash and supplies) and by the end of November, make it back to their Hole-in-the-Wall hideout.. Safe back in the wilds of Wyoming, before the year is out "Flat Nose" George and the Logan brothers all agree to a merger with the outlaws riding with Cassidy and what will be known as the "Wild Bunch" is born.
The Inept O'Day
The Bearpaw Mountains Of Montana
Safe once more within Hole-in-the Wall the outlaws transition away from petty crimes and stealing cattle, and under the leadership of Cassidy and Logan, become the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, or more simply, The Wild Bunch. Shifting from stealing cattle, selling whiskey, and petty thievery into a formidable band of robbers and gunmen, the brigands step into new territory when on June 2, 1899, they hit the westbound Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. 1 near Wilcox, Wyoming at about 2:15 in the morning. Though Butch Cassidy helps plan the job, because of a promise made to the governor of Wyoming while he is behind bars seeking a parole, the Wild Bunch outlaw does not physically participate in the job. Instead, a group consisting of "Flat Nose" George Curry, Harvey Logan (Kid Curry), Harry Longabaugh (The Sundance Kid), Will Carver, Ben "The Tall Texan" Kilpatrick, and Elzy Lay assault the train, with "Flat Nose" George overseeing the gang's on-site activities. During the robbery (it begins in the wee hours of a cold and rainy Friday) the train is stopped by two masked men with red, warning signal lanterns (believed to be Curry and Logan) that flag down Engineer William "Grindstone" Jones, who fearing the bridge ahead has been washed out in the storm, brings the locomotive to a screeching stop as it approaches a wooden bridge at milepost 609. Before he can get off the train to make an inspection of the tracks, he is accosted by two masked men Under the duress of being pummeled by pistols, Engineer William "Grindstone" Jones (assisted by a railroad fireman named Dietrick) uncouples the passenger cars from the locomotive and express car, then moves the front section (not fast enough for one of the masked men though who clubs the engineer with the butt of his gun for not moving faster) of the train over the wooden bridge that the outlaws then blow up with dynamite and the next phase of the heist begins two miles further up the line. Stopped once more, there is immediate trouble when Charles E.C. Woodcock, the Pacific Express Company messenger, refuses the order of the bandits to admit them to the express car. Not a tolerant man when it comes to inconvenience, Harvey Logan reacts to the refusal by setting off a dynamite charge against the door of the express car ... which damages the car and comes close to killing Woodcock. Awakening moments later with a monstrous headache and extremely groggy, the messenger claims to have "forgotten" the combination, so the bandits decide to blow the safe open themselves using an even bigger dose of dynamite on the armored box. Everyone retreating to a safe distance, the explosives are set off and pulverize the car, buckling its floor, blowing out its sides and roof, and scattering thousands of dollars in banknotes about the prairie surrounding the train, many stained with red raspberry juice from a consignment of fruit that was also being carried in the express car. When the outlaws finally ride off it is roughly 4:15 in the morning, and they carry away booty in the amount of between $30,000 and $60,000 (roughly 1.8 million dollars by today's standards), several bags of gold coins, bullion, and silver, four high-quality American Elgin pocket watches, 19 scarf pins, 29 pairs of gold-plated cufflinks, and roughly $10,000 in diamonds.
The Wrecked Mail Car
Inside Looking Out
The Wilcox Robbery - 6/2/1899
Leaving the area, the outlaws split into two groups to make their tracking more difficult as they head back towards Hole-in-the-Wall country using horse relays, paths picked to wear down pursuing posses, and the natural hiding grounds of an extremely raw area of the Bitter Creek Mountains called "The Haystacks." Despite everything though, as if reading the minds of the bandits, a small posse of seven out of Casper, led by the man known as the "Sunny Sheriff," 44-year-old Converse County Sheriff Josiah "Joe" Hazen (also in the posse are Dr. J.F. Leeper, Natrona County Sheriff Oscar Hiestand, Deputy Samuel Jenkins, Grand County, Utah Sheriff Jesse Tyler, and Deputies Robert Saylor and William Dinwiddie) is soon on the trail of Logan, Curry, and The Sundance Kid in a deep ravine near the present-day town of Kaycee, Wyoming. Finding a trail of fresh boot tracks in the dirt, Hazen calls out, "Here they are, boys. Right in Here!" and is instantly rewarded by a rifle round hitting him in the stomach, passing through his liver (thought to have been fired by Harvey Logan), and exiting near the lawman's spine. General firing breaks out, and since the outlaws are using smokeless powder and are better marksmen, it is advantage bandits and the three gunmen eventually sneak out of the ravine while the posse is tending to Hazen, who eventually is brought back to Casper by wagon, and then transported to his ranch in Douglas, Wyoming, where he dies on June 5, 1899. At the time, he will have the largest funeral in Wyoming history (the ceremony effectively shuts down the town for the day), a goodbye attended by thousands that includes the Union Pacific running special trains from Cheyenne and Casper just for the event, attendance by high-ranked officials in the state government that include Governor DeForest Richards, members of regional Masonic lodges from multiple cities, and a host of representatives from major ranching communities. There will also be rewards on the head of the killers that total $18,000 ($680,000 today) for the men involved in the Wilcox robbery and Hazen's murder (a third from the Union Pacific Railroad, a third from the Pacific Express Company, and a third from the United States Government).
Hazen
Funeral Procession
Elzy Lay Is Shot At Turkey Creek
The "Blackjack" Hanging
Headless Ketchum After His Botched Hanging
His first stop in his southern relocation is to visit the Browns Park ranch (in what is now Dinosaur National Monument in the northeastern part of Uintah County, Utah) of the Bassett Family, Herb & Elizabeth Bassett and their daughters, 25-year-old Josie (romances with Wild Bunch members Elza Lay and Will Carver) and 21-year-old Ann (the amour of Butch Cassidy himself). After a short visit there, he next moves on to Grand County, Utah, where he finds work punching cattle for the Webster City Cattle Company (also known as the Webster City Outfit), where he uses his skills as a cowboy to brand cattle and handle livestock for the outfit in the rugged Thompson Springs and Moab areas of the state. Though he handles the work well, the job soon triggers his larcenous nature and he is soon cattle rustling once more, using his ranch work as a cover for stealing livestock from ranches in the area ... but not for long. Unhappy that their livestock is being pilfered, in April of 1900, the cattlemen of the area contact the authorities, and when word is received that a rustler has been spotted boldly changing brands near Rattlesnake Creek (the rustler also points his pistol at John "Peg-Leg" Wilson, manager of the Webster City Cattle Company, and tells the rancher to "scat" ... and scat he does, riding 30 miles to the nearest telegraph located at the Thompson Springs railroad station to send out word that criminal activity is taking place in the area). Notified in Moab, Utah of the blatant rustling going on in the region, two lawmen are sent out to look into the matter, 43-year-old Grand County Sheriff Jesse "Honest Jack" Tyler, and acting as his deputy, 46-year-old Uintah County Sheriff Thomas William Preece.
Tyler & Preece
Riding to the area (a remote drainage in eastern Utah where Rattlesnake Creek meets the Green River, located in the Book Cliffs, the longest continuous escarpment in the world) where Wilson had his confrontation with a rustler the day before, on April 17, the lawmen surprise "Flat Nose" as the outlaw is in the process of making changes to the brands on the cattle he has rustled, and they are not men that can just be verbally scared away. Mounted and in the process of spurring his horse away while also firing his rifle at the lawmen, just short of the river, "Flat Nose" is dropped by a single fatal rifle round sent his way by Tyler that hits the bandit in the temple above his left eye, knocking the bandit out of the saddle and killing him instantly. Dead before he hits the ground, the fallen crook is ar first thought to be a local rustler named Tom Dilly, but when the lawmen arrive at the corpse they quickly realize they have killed a core member of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, outlaw George "Flat Nose" Curry (his family actually spells it Currie). After policing the body for stolen valuables, Curry's corpse is buried nearby in a shallow grave and the lawmen then make a 50-mile ride back over the area's rugged terrain of mountain desert to report their accomplishment to the nearest authorities in the town of Moab, Utah. The dead outlaw remains there until later in the year when his father gets the news of his son's death and arrives from Nebraska to take George home for burial ... a process that involves locating his gravesite in the Utah wilds, digging George up and then transporting the body to Moab, sealing the corpse in a special metal "shipping" casket, before sending him on by way of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad to his family's homestead in Chadron, Nebraska, a journey of roughly 700 miles. In Nebraska, the outlaw is buried at the town's Greenwood Cemetery under a tombstone (Plot Blk 4, Lot 21, Sp7) that reads simply: GEORGE S. CURRIE 1871 - 1900 (the "S" stands for Sutherland and comes from his mother's maiden name, Nancy Sutherland). Still a member of the Chadron dead, when his head is holed by Tyler, the badman is only 29-years-old.
Normally that would be the end of George's story, but there is nothing normal about riding with a band of desperadoes like the outlaws led by Robert LeRoy Parker (aka Butch Cassidy), or mentoring, lending your name, and becoming the best friend of a stone-cold killer like Harvey Alexander Logan (aka Kid Curry), nothing normal at all. As 1899 bleeds into 1900, Logan is in the midst of a period of time that will see him letting his rage totally dominate his actions as he becomes the most dangerous man in the outlaw band:
*Participates with Samuel "Sam" Wesley Ketchum (the older brother of the notorious outlaw Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum), William Ellsworth "Elzy" Lay, and William "News" Carver in robbing the No. 1 "Overland Flyer of the Colorado and Southern Railroad of between $30,000 and $70,000 near Folsom, New Mexico on July 11, 1899.
*Engages a seven-man posse led by 31-year-old Sheriff Edward J. Farr of Huerfano County in a gun battle at Turkey Creek Canyon, New Mexico on July 16, 1899 that results in Sheriff Farr being killed by a high-powdered bullet fired by outlaw Elzy Lay that pierces the tree the lawman is hiding behind, Deputy Henry Love being mortally wounded by a rifle round fired by bandit Will Carver (he dies from the infection in his wound four days later), 45-year-old Sam Ketchum being mortally wounded in left arm and side by a rounds fired by Deputy James H. Morgan (Ketchum dies from gangrene at the New Mexico Territorial Prison in Santa Fe on July 24, 1899), and Elzy Lay is wounded in his chest and shoulder, but is able to ride out of the canyon, soon captured in Carlsbad, New Mexico about a month later (he will be sentenced to life in prison, but will be pardoned after only seven years behind bars by Governor Miguel Antonio Otero for saving the wife and daughter of the prison's warden during a botched 1906 escape attempt). Only Logan and Carver manage to escape.
*On February 28, 1900, Logan's brother Lonny is killed by law enforcement agents on the farm of his aunt in Dodson, Missouri, while on the same day in Cripple Creek, Colorado, his cousin Bob Lee, while dealing poker at the casino he works for, is arrested for rustling and passing stolen bank notes, incensing Harvey when he gets the news.
*Still in a very foul mood over the killing of his brother and the arrest of his cousin, when Logan discovers two novice lawmen following his, and the tracks of the four men he is riding with (Will Carver, Ben Kilpatrick, Tom Capehart, and Thomas C. "Tod" Carter), through the wilds outside of St. Johns, Arizona, he sets up an ambush against the neophyte debuties (believing they are following the trail of another batch of lawmen while actually on the track of Logan and two other Wild Bunch murderers are 19-year-old Deputy Frank LeSueur and 26-year-old Deputy Andrew "Gus" Gibbons) as the men ride up a rocky bluff. Overkill to send a message to other lawmen in the area, Gibbons is struck at least three times in the head and has a number of additional wounds to his torso, while LeSueur takes at least three mortal wounds of his own, one to his back, one that hits a leg artery, and one that hits the lawman right between the eyes. Following the murders, Logan and Carver flee into the rugged Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona
*Four days later, Logan and Carver are at it again! Working as a stock detective for the Grant County Cattleman's Association in the Spring of 1900 is one of the most famous lawmen in the west, 40-year-old George Scarborough, the man who killed the man who killed the infamous gunfighter, John Wesley Hardin in 1895. Working with Scarborough is 29-year-old Triangle Ranch manager Walter Birchfield. Seeking rustlers that have recently taken Triangle Ranch cattle, the pair follow the trail of the rustlers they believe to be the culprits into an area of steep rocky walls and dense brush known as Triangle Canyon. In the late afternoon, the lawmen and outlaws clash, and in one exchange of fire, Scarborough has his right leg fractured by a rifle bullet that hits him in the thigh from 350 yards away. Despite having his shoulder holed, being struck by ricochets that cause minor wounds to his arms and head, and suffering from additional damage being done to his body by flying rock splinters, Birchfield is able to crawl to Scarborough, built a rock barricade around him that shields both men from more bullet damage, and then in the darkness of the night, leaving his wounded partner with water and a rifle, slips away to ride 20 miles for help at the San Simon train station located in Cochise County, Arizona, near the New Mexican border. Finally returned by train to his home in Deming, New Mexico and immediately operated on, there is no hope for the lawman and on Thursday, April 5, 1900, too much damage done to his weakened system, despite having his right leg amputated just above the knee, blood loss and infection take the lawman at the age of 40 (he will be survived by his wife of 23 years, Mary Frances McMahan, five daughters and two sons, his mother Martha, and eight siblings), while Birchfield, as a respected cattleman, will live until 1941, and the ripe old age of 70.
Sheriff Farr
Gibbons & LeSueur
Scarborough
Flat Nose's two avengers don't last much longer themselves, and there will be no one seeking revenge for either of their deaths. Foolishly buying supplies after 9:00 p.m. in the Texas town of Sonora they plan on soon robbing (with Harvey Logan and Ben Kilpatrick), on the evening of April 2, 1901, 32-year-old Will "News" Carver and the younger brother of Ben "The Tall Texan" Kilpatrick, George, are buying supplies in the Jack Owens Bakery when they are confronted by Sheriff Lije Briant and a group of local citizens who have noticed the two heavily armed strangers wandering about town. Told to throw up their hands and surrender, Carver goes for his gun instead, but has the weapon catch in his suspenders as the small posse opens up on both would-be felons. No match for a group of citizens protecting their town, Carver, the Wild Bunch killer, goes down as a result of seven bullet hits, while George Kilpatrick falls to the floor after being struck five times (hearing the gunfire, Ben Kilpatrick and Harvey Logan quietly slip out of their own town walk). The wounded men are then taken to the courthouse and stretched out on the floor. Carver never gets up, but does have a few final words for whomever is interested, stating "Die game, boys!" He will be buried in the local cemetery under a tombstone that simply reads "April 2, 1901" that his sister pays for using money that comes from the purchase of Carver's meager belongings, the outlaw's guns, horse, and saddle. Meanwhile, surprising everyone in town, 33-year-old Ben Kilpatrick survives his wounds, and since he never drew his gun and fired on anything, he eventually is let go by the authorities and simply rides out of town (scared straight by his Sonora close call, he eventually dies in 1940 as an honest citizen). The other killer of Sheriff Tyler, Harvey Logan, goes on to more robberies and killings before leaving himself in 1904. After robbing a train two days before (a Denver and Rio Grande express bound for San Francisco outside of Parachute, Colorado) with two other men (they are never officially identified) using the alias of Tap Duncan, Logan is hit (while exchanging fire with local 26-year-old rancher Roll Gardner, before going down though, the outlaw, spraying rifle fire at the posse, kills the mounts of Gardner and 29-year-old rancher Joe Dobey, and also nicks the cheek of brand inspector and posse member Elmer Chapman) by a .38-55 caliber round from Gardner's Winchester rifle that hits the bandit in the left arm, travels across his chest, shattering the outlaw's breastbone and breaking two of his ribs, before finally coming out the killer's right arm. Brought down by the single hit, one of Logan's partner's will yell over to him, "Are you hurt, Sam? (other members of the posse will hear the name "Tom" used), to which the outlaw calls out "Don't wait for me. I'm all in and might as well end it right here." Which the outlaw does as he draws his revolver and fires a single .45 round into his own head (as directed, the other two bandits will vanish). Though there will be rumores around the West for years that the suicide victim isn't Logan, the dead man is indeed the infamous Wild Bunch killer who dies at the age of 37. He is buried in the Potter's Field section of the Linwood Cemetery in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
Firing At Logan
Logan
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