ACE OF ACES - ERICH HARTMANN

9/20/1993 - Seventy-one years after his happy birth to Dr. Alfred Erich Hartman and his wife, Elisabeth Wilhelmine Machthoff (one of the Germany's first woman glider pilots), in Weissach, Wurttemberg, Germany (April 19, 1922), Erich Alfred "Bubi" Hartmann passes away quietly at his home in Weil im Schonbuch from the heart condition angina pectoris (it also claims his father at the age of fifty-eight) on September 20, 1993, taking the title, Ace-of-Aces with him ... a title that is never challenged during his WWII career with the Luftwaffe in which he is known as Der Schwarze Teufel ("The Black Devil"), and one that will never be challenged in the future due to changes in the way aerial combat takes place, a title Hartmann wins by shooting down 352 (the next closest total is Germany's Gerhard Barkhoen with 301) Russian and American fighters (345 Soviet and 7 American) on the Eastern Front of the war, over Russia, during 1,404 combat missions (825 of which lead to aerial combat) while winning the 18th Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds and surviving sixteen plane crashes (he is never bested in combat, each crash is caused by plane issues or from flying through the shrapnel of close combat in the sky) and ten years in Russia as a Soviet prisoner of war.  

Hartmann And Friend

Transplanted to China at the behest of a relative in the diplomatic services, when the Germany economy tanks following the conclusion of WWI, the rollercoaster ride of the ace's childhood takes him back to the country of his birth in 1928 when civil war breaks out between the Republic of China (led by Nationalist politician Chiang Kai-shek) and the Chinese Communist Party (under the direction of party chairman Mao Zedong).  Footing found on his return to the Fatherland, Hartmann is educated at the Volksschule in Weil im Schonbuch (April 1928 - April 1932), the Gymnasium in Boblingen (April 1932 - April 1936), the National Political Institutes of Education in Rottweil, (April 1936 - April 1937), and Korntal's Gymnasium (April 1937 - April 1940), where he receives his Abitur of secondary education, and where he meets his future wife, fifteen-year-old Ursula "Uschi" Paetsch (love at first sight for Hartmann, the pair meet cute while bicycling, Erich beats up a rival for Paetsch's affections and they marry while the flier is on leave in 1944 ... they will have two children, a boy who dies when he is only three and whom Hartmann never sees, and a daughter, Ursula).  And his embrace of flying doesn't take a backseat to his classroom education (for a brief period, Hartmann considers becoming a doctor like his father), love of the sky instilled in his personality almost from the moment of his birth (he also has a younger brother, Alfred, who will join the Luftwaffe, become a gunner on a Stuka bomber, and survive the war as a POW after being shot down over Tunisia), with his mother's guidance, at 14, Erich is teaching members of Weil em Schonbuch's Hitler Youth the principles of gliding and at 15 becomes fully licensed to fly sail planes.  Continued his aerial education, Hartmann moves on to powered aircraft, and at the age of 18 in 1939, he becomes a fully licensed pilot.  In October of 1940, one year into the war Germany has started with the world, Hartmann begins his military training by joining the Luftwaffe (his first posting is with the 10th Flying Regiment in Neukuhren.  Classes passed, in March of 1941, Hartmann moves on to Air War School in Berlin0Galow and in a little less than three weeks he makes his first solo flight.  Basic flight training completed by October of 1941, he begins advanced flight training at the fighter pilot school in Lachen-Speyerdorf, then he is on to learning advanced combat techniques and gunnery skills.  He completes the course on January 31, 1942 and is assigned to the Luftwaffe's Fighter Pilot School 2 in SchleiBheim where he learns to fly the weapon he will use throughout the course of the war, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter.

Erich's Parents

In China

Glider Pilot

"Bubi" - The Kid

One of the finest fighter planes of its time, the single-seat Bf 109 (it will become the #1 fighter produced during the war, with 33,984 being produced before Nazi Germany surrenders to the Allies in May of 1945) has a length of 29 feet and 4 inches, a wingspan of 32 and 7 inches, and a height of 8 feet and 6 inches.  It is powered by a Daimler-Benz inverted liquid-cooled piston engine turning a three-bladed propeller so that Willy Messerschmitt's invention can obtain a speed of 386 mph at an elevation of 26,247 feet (its rate of climb is 3,960 feet per minute), reach a ceiling of 39,000 feet, and combat loaded, can travel 355 miles to its assignment and then back to base.  For fangs, the fighter comes with two wing-mounted, synchronized 13 mm MG 131 machine guns and a single centerline 20 mm Motorkanone canon (later models will also have the capability of firing two eight-inch rockets).  In a matter of weeks, Hartmann masters the fighter, and to celebrate, following a successfully gunnery training flight, Erich ignores regulations, and performs aerobatics over the Zerbst airfield he is calling home.  Less than amused with the neophyte fighter pilot, Hartmann's commanding officer confines Erich to his quarters for a week and fines him tow-thirds of his pay.  It is a punishment that saves Hartmann's life when the pilot's roommate takes a training flight that was to be Erich's, and in the Bf 109 Hartmann was to fly, and kills himself crash landing the fighter near the Hindenburg-Kattowitz railroad.  Shocked by the suddenness with which death can come for aerial knights, Hartman becomes more serious about his training and soon adopts several generic flight and attack rules that will see him through the war ... "Fly with your head, not your muscles," "See - Decide - Attack - Reverse" (a philosophy which avoids dogfights and allows Hartmann to prune away lesser Russian fighter pilots and their inferior fighters, then before the enemy can react, drop away and start his cycle all over again), and lastly, get as close as possible to an opponent before opening fire, "when the enemy fills the entire windscreen you can't miss" (so close that on a number of occasions, flying through the debris of his latest triumph, he actually shoots himself down and has to crash land due the damage his Bf 109 takes).  By the time his training is completed, Hartman is qualified to fly 17 different types of German planes, can accomplish the difficult task of hitting a target drogue with half of his allocated ammunition, and is reported to be a pilot with "... excellent eyesight, lightning-fast reflexes, great flying instincts, and an uncanny ability to stay cool in combat ..."  He is also extremely lucky.

Bf 109 - 1943

Hartmann

With Another Friend

Assigned to legendary fighter squadron JG 52 (the group will be the most successful fighter command of the war, shooting down over 10,000 enemy aircraft, having the top three aces of th conflict amongst it's membership in Hartmann, #2 with 301 combat victories, Gerhard Barkhorn, and #3 with 275 aerial triumphs, Gunther Rall, and sixty-seven winners of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross) in October of 1942, Hartmann finds himself flying out of the Maykop airfield on the Russian Eastern Front (near the north-eastern shore of the Black Sea), under the command of Major Hubertus von Bonin (77 aerial victories in two wars), mentored by Oberfeldwebel Edmund "Paule" RoBmann (93 aerial victories in 640 WWII combat missions), and surrounded by experienced pilots he can learn from like Alfred Grislawski (133 aerial victories), Hans Dammer (113 aerial victories and credit for also destroying eleven parked aircraft, eight locomotives, 39 horse drawn wagons, 34 trucks, three anti-aircraft emplacements, and one armored scout vehicle), Josef Zwememann (126 aerial victories), Walter Krupinski (197 aerial victories during 1,100 combat missions), and Gunther Rall (275 aerial victories).  A long way from being history's aerial ace-of-aces, Hartmann begins his service with JG 52 by ferrying Junkers Ju 87 Stuka bombers from Maykop down to the Luftwaffe's Mariupol airfield ... and he gets off to a bad start.  Attempting to take off, the brakes of Hartmann's Stuka fail and he crashes into the airfield's control hut, destroying the building.  There are also massive problems with his first combat encounter with the Russians.

JG 52 Unit Emblem

von Bonin

RoBmann

Rall Gets #250

On Wednesday, October 14, 1942, Hartmann is finally given a combat mission to fly as RoBmann's wingman.  The mission does not go well for the Kid.  Spotting a flight of ten enemy fighters below his position, an impatient Hartmann goes full throttle, breaks away from RoBmann, and engages the Russian, scoring no hits, but almost becoming a victim himself when he almost crashes into an opposing fighter.  Already having broken several fundamentals of aerial combat, Hartman breaks another big one hiding in a low cloud from the Russian fighters and then attempting to return to base ... running out of gasoline, he survives having to crash land his Messerschmitt.  Surprised the youth is still alive, upon his return to base, an angry von Bonin grounds Hartmann for three days and assigns him to work as a member of one of the airfield's ground crews (during this period the fighter pilot will become a good friend of crew chief Heinz "Bimmel" Mertens, who subsequently will be put in charge of Hartmann's fighter, with no one else allowed to touch the ace's plane without permission coming firts from either Hartmann or Mertens).  The punishment he receives from RoBmann is much more simple, taking the form of silence and a vow kept, never to fly with Hartmann again.  Mentoring responsibility passed on to Alfred Grislawski and then Walter Krupinski.  Out of the doghouse and into the air again, Hartmann scores his first victory of the war against an Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik of the Russian 7th Guards Ground Attack Aviation Regiment on Thursday, November 5, 1942 (and he crash lands again after flying through the debris of his first combat triumph).  Still learning from the squadron's veterans and not yet turned loose, Hartmann's kill total stands at two as 1942 turns into 1943.

Hartmann

With Crew Chief Mertens

Ilyushin Il-2

A turning point year as the fortunes of the Nazi Third Reich rot following the German defeat at Stalingrad, 1943 becomes magical for Hartmann as all his training and combat experiences coalesce as he is sent on mission after mission, and becomes his country's ace-of-aces.  Falling out of the sun, coming up behind an opponent, closing until he can't miss, then breaking away after firing and seeking out a new target, starting slowly, by April of 1943, Hartmann is a legitimate ace with 11 aerial victories (at the end of May his total will be seventeen).  Relocated to center section of the Russian eastern front as the Wehrmacht prepares for the greatest battle (Kursk or Operation Citadel, a clash of nations and cultures, the epic July 1943 battle will feature the efforts of almost three million combatants, over 8,000 tanks, and over 30,000 artillery pieces and mortars) in world history, Hartmann enters the fight looking to vent some of the anger he feels at losing the advice and protection of his friend Krupinski, the pilot hospital convalescing with injuries to his head, a fracture of the parietal bone, and a broken rib after colliding with another Bf 109 fighter that is taking off while the veteran pilot is trying to land.  As the Battle of Kursk plays out below him in July 1943, Hartmann will add 25 more Soviet planes to his score, ending the month with 42 kills, including an ace-in-a-day performances on Wednesday, 7/7, in which he takes out two Il-2 and five LAGG-31 fighters.  And things will grow even worse for Hartmann's opponents the following month.  Flying in mission after mission in August (for awhile he is also the temporary commander of the squadron), whenever there is a fighter available and the weather cooperates, Bubi goes up and more Russian planes come down ... forty-eight in all, bringing Hartmann's total to 90 by the month's end, with the ace scoring five kills on Aug. 1, five more on Aug. 4, another five on Aug. 5, and five more on Aug. 7.  And his luck stays intact.  Crash landing his fighter behind Soviet lines after leading an escort mission in which he flies through victory debris again, Hartmann is made a prisoner, but feigning internal injuries, is put in a truck for transportation to a local hospital, and seizing the opportunity presented when a Stuka strafes his ride, the pilot takes out his only guard and walks back to the German lines to the west (his adventure includes a run through a field of tall sunflowers as he is fired on by the armed locals, reversing direction for awhile to avoid a small village, following a small Russian patrol that is wiped out when it blunders into the German line, and almost getting shot by a frightened German who puts a round through the flier's trousers for not knowing that day's password ... and includes his crew chief grabbing a rifle, some water, and a plane, and going off by himself in search of his friend, with a big party at the base when the pair are reunited).         ..

Krupinski

Kursk - 1943

Mertens Resting On The Prop Of Hartmann's Fighter

September of 1943 sees Hartmann become the Staffelkapitan of JG 52's ninth squadron, replacing missing in action Lt. Berthold Korts (a hundred victory ace who is last seen dogfighting with a Soviet P-39 Airacobra).  Scoring twenty-five more victories during the month, Hartmann's victory total as October begins is 115 (he is the 54th Luftwaffe flier to achieve the mark).  In October, Hartmann's gets thirty-three more victories and his total rises to 148.  As a reward for breaking the century mark for aerial victories, on October 29, 1943, he is awarded the coveted Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.  By the end of 1943, Hartmann's total stands at 159 and he survives another forced landing when his Bf 109 suffers engine failure near the town of Kirovohrad.

Korts

Knight's Cross to Iron Cross

It is in 1944 when Hartmann becomes a Luftwaffe legend and a Soviet boogeyman.  Responsible for continuing to savage the Soviets and lead the men of his squadron (during this time period, Stalin places a , in January, Hartmann shoots down 26 Soviet planes (and has another ace-in-a-day days on the 30th of the month, besting six Russians), and takes out another seventeen in February (and has two more ace days ... knocking down five Soviets on the first day of the month, and another ten Russians on the month's last day).  Reputation growing among his enemies, Hartmann identifies himself to his foes with his radio call sign of Karaya 1 (which is also painted on his plane, long before the Heartbreakers of Tom Petty get the same idea years later) and the distinctive black tulip pattern that is painted around the cowling of his Messerschmitt's engine.  Talismans of terror, seeing Hartmann's plane or hearing his call signal, Soviet fliers, who by this time are calling the ace "Cherniy Chort" (Black Devil) start running back to base, and recognizing the menace he presents, Josef Stalin offers a reward of 10,000 rubles for any pilot or anti-aircraft crew that can take down The Kid.   Total victories now up to 202, in March he is summoned back to Germany to receive his next award, the oak leaves to his Knight's Cross, from the leader of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler.  Traveling to the Fuhrer's Eagle's Nest retreat in the Bavaria town of Berchtesgaden, Hartmann is accompanied by fellow aces, Gerhard Barkhorn (301 victories during the war), Walter Krupinski (197 victories during the war), and Johannes Wiese (133 victories during the war) that are also having their Knight's Crosses upgrade (leaves for Krupinski and Wiese, swords for Barkhorn).  Traveling into the mountains by train, the foursome get tanked imbibing massive amounts of champagne and cognac cocktails, and by the time they arrive in Berchtesgaden, the men can barely stand, their condition enraging Hitler's Luftwaffe adjutant, the man who must introduce the men to the Fuhrer, Major Georg Ludwig Heinrich Nicolaus von Below.  The major becomes even more irate when unable to find his hat, a not seeing straight Hartmann takes one off a hat rack, and puts it on, only to find it to be too large ... which is instantly explained when von Below grabs it off Hartmann's head and places it back on the rack as the cap belongs to Hitler.  Too drunk to care, Hartmann quips about the leader of Nazi Germany having a big head that must come with the job, and von Below becomes even more enraged.  Straightened up, the men get their awards without any further indiscretions. 

von Below

The Eagle's Nest

Hartmann & Barkhorn

Wiese

Back on the Eastern Front with his squadron after receiving his award, recognizing the fear he has put into his enemies and how they flee at the sight of his plane, Harrtmann begins lending his Messerschmitt to rookie pilots, who are able to get a little more experience in the sky as competent fighters before having to actually dogfight with Russian fliers, while meanwhile, Hartmann flies other fighters on missions, eventually covering up the black tulip design entirely so he can go about the business of shooting down Soviets.  Only five planes fall to Hartmann's guns in April of 1944, but reestablishing his aerial prowess flying in unmarked fighters in May of 1944, when he sends down 24 more Russian aviators, including an ace-in-a-day six on the 5th of the month.  In June Hartmann gets 35 more victories, and has ace-in-day totals on 6/1 (6), 6/4 (7), 6/5 (6), and 6/6 (5), and downs his first American P-51 Mustang fighter (in another encounter during the month, whipping his plane about the skies trying to avoid a patrol of P-51s, Hartman literally runs his fighter out of both gas and ammunition and is forced to bail out of his fighter).  July proves to be a quiet month with only two kills for the entire 31 days, but Hartmann explodes again in August by downing 34 more fliers during a month that includes besting ace Gerhard Barkhorn's top total of 274 aerial victories, having ace-in-a-day days on August 22 (5), August 23 (8), and the best single day of his fighting career, downing 11 planes on August.  Top of the pyramid, when the month ends Hartmann is alone in history ... the first pilot to shoot down more than 300 aircraft (his total is 303).  Too high a victory tally to risk the morale that would come with Hartmann being shot down, Luftwaffe chief, Reichsmarschall Herman Goering, grounds his top fighter and the pilot is told to report to Hitler at his Wolf Lair's retreat to have his Knight's Cross upgraded with Swords and Diamonds (only the 18th German to be so honored).  Arriving at Hitler's compound in east Prussia, Hartmann flies into the madness of the failed attempt on Hitler's life by Colonel Claus Philipp Maria Justinian Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.  No drunken controversary with his second visit with Hitler, this time Hartmann gets in trouble for refusing to give up his personal sidearm (a Walther pistol) to one of the new SS guards surrounding the Fuhrer, stating that if a Knight's Cross winner of diamonds can't be trusted then Hitler could be told to keep his medal (now a Colonel, this time von Below calms the trouble and the ceremony comes off without a hitch and includes coffee, lunch, and a long discussion between the two men on fighter training, the best approach to stopping the bombing of Germany, the arrival of jet fighters into the German arsenal, and conditions on the Russian Front.

Black Tulip Messerschmitt

Another Russian Falls To Hartmann's Guns

Wolf's Lair After

Awards From Hitler - Hartmann is Second From Left

Diamonds on his Knight's Cross not the only reward Hartmann receives for becoming the all-time ace of aerial combat, the flier also is promoted to the rank of captain, and receives a ten-day vacation from the rigors of the Eastern Front ... time which he uses to marry Ursula Paetsch on September 10, 1944 (also in attendance are Gerhard Barkhorn as Harrtmann's best man, and two of his fighter pals, Walter Krupinski, and Wilhelm Batz, a JG 52 fighter ace and commander who will achieve 237 aerial victories during 445 combat missions, as witnesses) in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria (a second "religious" marriage will take place in a West German church in 1956).  During this time period Hartmann also is ordered to report to the former head of the Luftwaffe's fighter command, Generallieutenant Adolf Josef Ferdinand Galland in Berlin for discussions about a special project the former fighter pilot has been put in charge of (before being moved behind a desk, Galland will fly 705 combat missions in which he shoots down 104 Allied planes); development of a fighter squadron flying the potentially game-changing new fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet.  Flattered to be offered a pilot position within the new group, Hartmann nonetheless turns down the offer (twice, Galland will recruit the ace again a few months later in March of 1945 when the ace's total kills stands at 337), stating he wants to stay with the men of JG 52   Honeymoon and leave over, Hartmann returns to his squadron just in time to be with the group when it begins a ragged retreat from the Crimea region of Russia.as the war continues to fall apart for Germany (until his death, Hartmann will retain the memory of flying over a field covered with over 20,000 Wehrmacht battle dead) .  Revamping their fighters, the fliers of JG 52 can cram four members of their ground crews at a time into the tails of their fleeing Messerschmitts.

Erich & Ursula Get Married

Galland

Th First Combat Jets

Back in action as the squadron retreats into Hungary, at the end of October 1944, Hartmann shoots down tree Soviet fighters to bring his victory total to 305, before having a November in which he takes out twenty-seven more planes, including ace-in-a-day days on November 22nd (six aerial victories) and November 23rd (five YAKs), and closes out the year with 336 fighters downed by shooting four more Russian fighters out of the sky in December of 1944.  War winding down as the Third Reich is pushed on all sides back into the confines of Germany and Austria, in February of 1945, Hartmann is appointed Gruppenkommandeur of I/JG 52 and adds three more planes to his total, and then ups his score by twelve more in April, to bring his total victories to 351.  On the very last day of WWII in Europe, only hours before Germany calls it quits, one final time Hartmann (now a major) does what he has mastered better than anyone else in the history of warfare, and disposes of one final Russian flier with a surprise ambush attack.  Flying a morning reconnaissance mission with his wingman from their Czech airfield, Hartmann spots a group of Soviet fliers celebrating their imminent triumph over the Third Reich prematurely by flying victory loops above the advancing Russian infantry, only twenty-five miles away from the JG 52 base.  Instincts kicking in, Hartman selects another clueless opponent, dives on the Russian from 12,000 feet, and in the middle of a victory roll, blows up the Soviet flier with a round from his engine mounted cannon.  His 352nd victory achieved, Hartmann and his wingman flee the remaining Soviet fighters (reduced by one to seven), and a group of freshly arrived in the area P-51 Mustangs (twelve).  Ordered to fly to British lines with Commodore Hermann Graf (the first flier to reach two hundred aerial victories) by German General Hans Seidemann, with JG 52 fated to be surrendered to the advancing Russians, upon landing, Hartmann ignores the order, and instead, coordinates with Graf in destroying twenty-five Bf 109s (including Hartmann's Karaya One Messerschmitt) and an airfield full of ammunition, before marching the squadron to the west and surrendering to the Americans of the U.S. 90th Infantry Division.  On the day WWII ends for Hartmann, the leading ace of all-time is barely twenty-three-years-old.

Hartmann

Hartmann On The Hunt

Soviet YAK

Unfortunately for Hartmann, the flier's war against the Soviet Union is just beginning.  The Allies. having come together in an agreement on how the ending of hostilities will take, decide at the Yalta Conference of February 1945 between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, that surrendering troops lay down their arms to the men they have been fighting ... so when Hartmann gives up himself and JG 52 to American troops, those troops turn right around and transfer the Germans to Soviet care.  A wanted man with a price on his head for helping devastate the Russian Air Force, Hartmann adds more red marks against his name when he refuses an offer of "good" treatment if he spies on Luftwaffe officers, or gives up details of what he knows about the ME 262 fighter jet.  Instead, Hartmann refuses and is given ten days of solitary confinement (the first of many such occurrences) in a four-by-nine-by-six-foot concrete-floored container, with his meals consisting of only bread and water.  Additionally, Hartmann's family is threatened with death, and the flier is beaten over the head by a Russian with a cane, until he finals snaps and attacks the guard with a wooden chair (expecting otherwise, Hartmann is not executed for retaliating).  Honor over death, Hartmann finally negates the Soviet's requests for cooperation by going on a four day hunger strike (he specifically refuses to join the German communist party or to take a top position with the newly formed East German Air Force) ... that ends when his guards begin force feeding the ace his meals.  In turn, the Soviets in 1949, who have not forgotten their 352 lost pilots and planes, put Hartmann into a show trial for war crimes, claiming the flier is guilty of atrocities against Soviet citizens, attacks on military objects (i.e. the planes and their airfields), and significantly damaging the Soviet economy with his marksmanship.  A slam dunk for the military tribunal judging his guilt or innocence, Hartmann is sentenced to 20 years of prison hard time!.  Not satisfied though, a different tribunal puts Hartmann up again for war crimes in 1951 on charges of deliberately shooting 780 Soviet citizens of the town of Briansk, attacking a bread factory in 1943, and destroying 345 "expensive" Soviet fighter planes (American planes be damned).  For these "new crimes," Hartman is sentenced to 25 more years of hard labor behind bars.  Knowing a railroad job when they see one (during their time in prison, the friendship of Hartmann and Graf will come to an end over Graf giving info to the Soviets, an act Hartmann can not abide), Hartmann's fellow convict aviators react to the sentence (and the ace refusing to do the hard labor) by setting off a riot in which they briefly free their squadron leader.  A problem keeping him where he can stir up trouble (throughout his internment ordeal, the ace keeps his sanity by never wavering in his faith in God, or that he will see his beloved wife again), and maybe even a bigger issue if the internationally renowned pilot suddenly vanishes, Hartmann is transferred among various prison camps of the Soviet gulag that include Shakhty, Novocherkassk and Diaterka in the Russian Urals, until finally, in late 1955, as part of the last (remarkably Hartmann, with help from JG 52 ace, Hans ""Assi" Hahn is able to keep a copy of his Knight's Cross with Diamonds from the souvenir hungry Soviets during his prison confinement, hiding it in a double bottom cigar box alongside a nearby stream where Hahn recovers it before being released back into West Germany ... getting his cross back is an extremely pleasurable moment for the flier),   Heimkehrer (meaning "homecomer") of repatriated prisoners of war returning to Germany (Hartmann's case is personally worked by the Chancellor of Germany, Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer, and his mother makes a point of not only writing Adenauer of the injustice her son is dealing with, but also gets missives out to Stalin and his foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov).

Prisoner Of War

Older Than 33

1955 With Ace Hans Hahn (108 Aerial Victories)

Back in West Germany, Hartmann is overjoyed to be home with his wife (the couple will have a daughter, Ursula Isabel, on February 23, 1957), but the joy is tempered by discovering that while he was a prisoner of war in Russia, his father and his son both died (a boy Hartmann never sees but in pictures). Intelligence and leadership qualities obvious, the flier joins the newly created air department of the German government, the Bundeswehr.  Surprising no one, with extensive training in Germany and the United States (much of it at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, named for a WWI Medal-of-Honor ace named Frank Luke) on the Republic F-84 Thunderjet, the Lockheed T-33, the Canadair Sabre, and the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, Hartmann is soon a colonel and is given command of the Jagdgeschwader 71 "Richthofen," West Germany's first all-jet combat unit.  Too much riding a desk for Hartmann's tastes, he crosses swords once too often with higher-ups over the reliability problems of the American F-104 and is quietly pushed into early retirement in 1970 (he is also right, as flying the F-104, German pilots suffer 269 non-combat crashes and 116 deaths before the flawed jet is replaced by the General Dynamics F-16 Flying Falcon in 1978).  With time on his hands and able to do how he chooses, Hartmann reverts to his youth and comes full circle on his life, and once more, in the skies near the city of Bonn,  becomes an instructor teaching others how to fly!  In his last years, the pilot also enjoys attending reunions with both friends and former foes, participating in fly-ins with other former fighter pilots, and he lives long enough to see his life story become a selection of best selling book in both the United States and Germany ("The Blond Knight of Germany" by Toliver & Constable, "German Fighter Ace Erich Hartmann" by Ursula Hartmann, and "Black Tulip" by Erik Schmidt    .  Finally frazzled to a stop by the heart condition he inherited from his father, Erich Alfred Hartmann, passes away in Weil im Schonbuch, Germany on Monday, September 20, 1993 at the age of 71 (twenty-three years after Hartmann's passing, in 2016, the fliers of the ace's former squadron, West Germany's JG 71, honor the blond knight WWII by putting the black tulip design on the cowling of their current aircraft.  And for the record (at that moment in time), after Hartmann's death in 1997, the ace's case is reviewed by the Moscow Chief Military Prosecutor for the Russian Federation.  Fate smiling on Hartmann one more time, the flier is acquitted of all historical charges against him in Russian law as the government agency states he had been wrongly convicted.   

Jet Pilot

West German F-104 Starfighter

Biography

The Hartmann's Final Resting Spot

At the age of seventy-one, Erich Alfred Hartmann, the all-time Ace-of-Aces finally falls in Germany on September 20, 1993 ... rest in peace Bubi.

Hartmann

  

     

     

Sheparding his flock and just another   

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That week confined to my room actually saved my life. I had been scheduled to go up on a gunnery flight the afternoon that I was confined. My roommate took the flight instead of me, in an aircraft I had been scheduled to fly. Shortly after he took off, while on his way to the gunnery range, he developed engine trouble and had to crash-land near the Hindenburg-Kattowitz railroad. He was killed in the crash.^[12]Afterward, Hartmann practised diligently and adopted a new credo which he passed on to other young pilots: "Fly with your head, not with your muscles."^[3] During a gunnery practice session in June 1942, he hit a target drogue with 24 of the allotted 50 rounds of machine-gun fire, a feat that was considered difficult to achieve.^[12] His training had qualified him to fly 17 different types of powered aircraft,^[12] and, following his graduation, he was posted on 21 August 1942 to Ergänzungs-Jagdgruppe Ost (Supplementary Fighter Group, East) in Kraków, Upper Silesia, where he remained until 10 October 1942.^[13] 

    

THE SKUNK MAN OF THE WILD BUNCH

9/12/1868 - William Richard "News" Carver (the nickname comes from the outlaw's enjoyment in reading about his and the gangs he belongs to exploits), the future outlaw that will gain notoriety as a member of the Wild Bunch (his wedding to soiled Forth Worth dove, Callie May Hunt aka Lillie Davis, sets in motion a bandit bacchanalia that will result in the dissolution of the gang after a celebratory souvenir photo the groom and his pals have taken is discovered and circulated throughout the West by Wells Fargo special agent Fred Dodge) is born to in Coryell County, Texas to George Alfred Carver and Mary Jane Rigsby Carver.

Fort Worth - 1900

Carver Is Standing On The Left With One Hand On The Shoulder Of Harry "The Sundance Kid" Longabaugh And One Hand On The Shoulder Of Ben "The Tall Texan" Kilpatrick, 

Beside Him In Back Is Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan 

Standing Behind A Seated Robert Leroy "Butch Cassidy" Parker

Described as a "good looking, quiet, nice boy," just one of the thousands of westerners that will take on the trade of cowboy before the turn of the century, Carver might never have been known to history if not for falling under the influence of his Uncle Dick (a former bandit that has spent time behind bars), who along with showing him the rudiments of the cattle business, introduces the youth to the basics of the outlaw trade when the men begin punching cattle together in 1889 at Half Circle Six Ranch in Texas' Tom Green County (an arid region on the Edwards Plateau, almost in the center of Texas, which is established in 1874 and named after Brigadier General Thomas Green, a Confederate officer killed in 1864 by a Federal gunboat shell while leading a division of Southern cavalry).  At the ranch, Carver becomes friends with two sets of cowboy brothers with whom he will ride the owlhoot trail of banditry ... Thomas Edward "Black Jack" Ketchum and Sam Ketchum, and two of the Kilpatrick family, George and his older brother, Ben.  During his time period at the Half Circle Six, Carver also falls madly in love with a local beauty, 17-year-old Viana Byers from the town of Dove Creek.  The couple marry in February of 1892 and are seemingly on their way to a life of happiness with Viana pregnant, but all dreams the pair have of a live together become ash when Mrs. Carver develops a fever and she and the baby perish in July.  The deaths and subsequent heartbreak (somewhat of a ladies man, along with countless evenings with a variety of "soiled doves," Carver will have relationships with Viana's younger niece, Laura Bullion, before passing her on to his Wild Bunch confederate Ben Kilpatrick, romances woman rancher Josie Bassett and her sister, Ann (who also dallies with Kilpatrick, Elzy Lay, and Butch Cassidy), and his second and last wife, Fannie Porter prostitute, Lille Davis) is more than enough to send Carver into a drunken bender in which he is more than willing to dice with the Fates and agrees to join up with the Ketchum's in creating a gang of desperadoes (along with cowboying together in Texas and New Mexico (Carver will also partner with Sam Ketchum in running the gambling concession in a San Angelo, Texas saloon between 1893 and 1895).

Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum

Josie Bassett

Bullion

Choosing the wild of the outlaw life, Carver participates in his first train robbery on Friday, May 14, 1897, joining Tom Ketchum and cowboy turned gunman, David Atkins (on the run from a killing that took place only a few days before), in hitting the lonely train depot at Lozier, Texas (the whole community consists of a tiny depot and a telegraph office run by Miss Addie Upson, with the nearest town being either Dryden or Langtry, 15 miles up the tracks or 15 miles down the tracks depending on the direction one is traveling)   Raiding the westbound #20 of the Southern Pacific Railroad, Ketchum and Carver hop aboard the train as it leaves Lozier, take control of the cab and stop the locomotive a few minutes from the depot where Atkins is waiting with a satchel full of dynamite.  Access to the baggage car gained by bullets being fired into the coach and Messenger William Joyce responding to the Winchester induced entreaties of Engineer George Freeze to "open the door," the outlaws blow up two safes (destroying the baggage car), taking an hour and twenty-three minutes (made available by Atkins cutting the nearby telegraph wires) to plunder the train and stuff three burlap bags of loot before riding off to the north (the railroad will announce thy have lost $48,980 in the robbery, a hefty payday in 1897 ... worth almost $2 million in 2022).  Posses escaped with days and nights of riding, the individual vanish into various cowboy jobs before coming back together for the group's next caper.

Atkins

The gang increases in size by one for its next robbery, with the one being Tom's brother, Sam Ketchum, and the next taking place on Saturday, September 4, 1897, when the bandits hit the southbound train No. 1 of the Union Pacific, Denver, and Gulf Railroad bound from Denver to Fort worth, the line's Texas Flyer.  The spot selected for the robbery is the wilderness southeast of Folsom, New Mexico; only a few miles distant from Colorado's southern border, a site below Twin Mountain where the curves and elevation almost bring passing trains to a stop.  Train boarded in Folsom, the bandits take control of the cab with their Winchesters, bring the engine to a stop at the heist's selected spot, intimidate the train's crew and it's passengers with randomly fired bullets (Express Messenger Charles Drew gets a Winchester clubbing from Sam Ketchum when he doesn't move fast enough for the outlaw), empty a safe the messenger is willing to open, and after two failures (its key is with the express agent in Amarillo), blow up a second safe with fourteen pieces (the destroyed express car is replaced when the train reaches Clarendon, Texas) and escape from the caper disappointed, carrying only $3,500 in cash and a consignment of silver spoons.  Hiding place in Turkey Creek Canyon, Arizona reached without any encounters with the local authorities, the men immediately begin planning their next attack on New Mexico's trains (a crime punishable by death at the time).

Sam Ketchum

Turkey Creek Region

The gang expands again by one for its next job, adding out-of-work Texas cowboy and trail cook named Ed "Shoot-Em-Up-Dick" Cullen (a nickname he hangs on himself when he introduces himself to a Chinese restaurant owner he refuses to pay for his evening meal).  The five men that hit the westbound No. 20 Southern Pacific train on the evening of December 7, 1897 at Steins Pass, New Mexico (the tiny bit of civilization is nineteen miles west of Lordsburg and a few miles short of the Arizona state line and consists, of a small train depot, a post office, a general store and a few other buildings ... just before robbing the train when it pulls into the depot at around 8:00 in the evening, Sam Ketchum, Cullen, and Atkins ransack the post office) are the Ketchum brothers, Tom and Sam, Will Carver, Atkins, and Cullen.  Tom Ketchun and Carver cut nearby telegraph lines and build two bonfires on either side of the tracks where the gang wants the engine to stop, but run into problems when the fires illuminate their firing positions in the night and the employees and guards aboard the express car (more men than usual as the railroad has responded to rumors of an upcoming robbery, the car is defended by Messenger Charles J. Adair, and guards C. H. Jennings and Eugene Thacker) take advantage of the mistake, along with besting the bandits' rifles by using shotguns at close range.  In the thirty minute gun battle that takes place, the car defenders take no hits, but strike each of the outlaws with buckshot ... Tom Ketchum is hit in the legs while he is trying to crawl beneath the car and blow it up with dynamite, Carver takes similar wounds, Sam Ketchum is twice grazed in the head, and Atkins is also struck in the legs Sam Ketchum and Atkins will angerly argue over which wound is the most hurtful.  But Cullen gets hit the hardest, replenishing his ammo, the neophyte bad man exposes himself reaching into his saddle bag for bullets and takes a killing blast to his head.  "Boys, I'm dead," Cullen cries out after being hit, and he is correct, his outlaw career comes to a bloody conclusion roughly three hours after it has begun.  Wounded, a member down, knowing the authorities will soon be arriving, the surviving bandits mount there horses and flee, escaping two posses that come after them when they mistake another group of cowboys in the area as the desperadoes.   

"Shoot-Em-Up-Dick"

"Shoot-Em-Up" Shot Up!

Fleeing across the border into Mexico, the bandits avoid both Federales and American posses while resting up in northern Sonora and Chihuahua.  They return to the States in 1898 to hit the Southern Pacific Railroad again with a different mix of gun thugs.  For the Comstock, Texas (a small town out in the wilds of the Lone Star State, about 180 miles to the east of San Antonio) robbery of the lines No. 20 that takes place of April 28, 1898, the band of raiders consists of the two Ketchum brothers, Will Carver, and a man never fully identified that is thought to be Ben Kilpatrick; replacing Atkins who has tired of the brutality and viciousness in Tom Ketchum's personality (eventually he takes his adventuring across the Atlantic Ocean and hires out his services to the Kaffrarian Rifles of South Africa during England's war with the Boers).  A evening robbery that slops over into the next day, the Ketchum Gang uses their usual playbook in the heist ... the train is boarded by two bandits, the outlaws take over the engine cab, split off the cars of the No. 20 they want to rob, move the engine, baggage and postal car, and express car two miles forward forward to a desolate spot called Helmet where they are joined by two more men, blow up the safe in the express car (the dynamite blast sends the safe through the roof of the car with a hole in it that is one foot in diameter), and ride off $20,000 richer than they were before the evening began.  Or they get nothing at all based on the timely arrival in the vicinity of a troop of Texas Rangers, which is what the Wells Fargo superintendent, Gerrit A. Taft, tells the public.  Whatever the case, there is no gunplay during the robbery and the men all escape into the night.  Hiding in plain sight as working cowboys, the boys are ready to hit another train two months later.  In the interim between the Comstock raid and their next job, the Ketchums and Will Carver are put on Wells Fargo wanted posters offering $1,000 each for their arrest and convictions (Carver laughs hearing the posters have his height and weight wrong, that he has a dark complexion that allows him to pass as a Spaniard, and funniest of all, that he has one glass eye).  Taking a break from the heat, the Ketchums and Carver move about the outlaw hideouts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho, where they meet future confederates, Robert Leroy Parker aka Wild Bunch leader Butch Cassidy (Cassidy likes Carver and discusses working with him in the future, but takes an instant dislike to the Ketchums and tries to talk Lay out of working with the brothers on a future New Mexico train robbery), Parker's best friend, bandit William Ellsworth "Elzy" Lay, and Harvey Alexander Logan, aka the man many will consider "the wildest of the Wild Bunch," the murderous Kid Curry.

Taking The Engine Cab

Butch's Wyoming Prison Photo

Lay

Logan

Returning to their southwestern stomping grounds, evidence that Cassidy was correct about the Ketchums is soon forthcoming.  One tantrum too many, after almost killing a friendly rancher over a set of horses Black Jack wants for free despite promising to pay for them, and yet another fight with his brother over the gang's leadership, Sam Ketchum and Carver kick Tom out of the gang he created and has led.  The job set for 1899 though is still on, and the pair soon meet up with Lay and another new recruit, another former Texas cowpuncher, Bruce "Red" Weaver (recently recovered from coming down with smallpox) near the town of Cimarron, New Mexico.  There, drawing the attention of locals, the outlaws set up camp nearby while prepping for their coming robbery, buying supplies (Carver, using the alias of G.W. Franks, will place orders for two forty-inch rifle scabbards, a .30-40 carbine, and a thousand rounds of .30-40 smokeless ammunition ... delivered before the job to "Simerone" by the employees of Wells Fargo), taking occasion meals, and sometimes imbibing a little while playing a little Saturday night poker).  At the beginning of July, the men suddenly vanish from the locale, reappearing on the Tuesday night of the 11th at almost the exact same site of their 1897 train robbery.  Bold or foolish, they hit the Southern Railway's No. 1 at the same double curve, using the same tactics as previously, although the dynamite this time is managed and set off by Carver (who also sets the bonfire where the No. 1 is ordered to stop after being boarded by two outlaws at it's Folsom water stop).  Safe penetrated and car ruined in the blast, the outlaws enjoy whiskey, pears, and peaches (the latter two items found among the wreck of the express car) before escaping with over $70,000 in plunder.  Thinking retribution is a long ways away, Sam Ketchum, Lay, and Carver (Weaver has ridden off from the gang after receiving his portion of the loot, pursuing a vendetta against William Holliman over dating the latter's sister, he will be killed in Alma, New Mexico in 1901) settle into their familiar Turkey Creek Canyon mountain hideaway, where on Sunday afternoon, July 16, 1899, a posse of lawmen (quicker than expected, posses are sent out from Cimarron, Walsenburg and Trinidad, Colorado, and from Wells Fargo) consisting of Cimarron Marshal Creighton M. Foraker, Wilson "Memphis" Elliott, a bounty hunter from Texas, mountain teamster James H. Morgan, Sheriff Edward J. Farr of Colorado's Huerfano County, railroad detective William Reno, cowboy Henry M. Love from the nearby Springer Brothers Ranch, locals Perfecto Cordova and Santiago Serna (Serna will leave the group before they find the outlaws), and Frank H. Smith, a well-connected youth visiting friends, Chicago-based ranchers Garrett and McCormick     

Cimarron, New Mexico

Carver

Using information provided by Morgan that he has seen the posse's quarry head into Turkey Creek Canyon, the lawmen follow the outlaws' trail to their hideout, find the site eight miles into the canyon (as the crow flies, they are eleven miles from Cimarron), and in the late afternoon, quietly start setting up on ridges surrounding Ketchum, Carver, and Lay.  Before everyone is in place for their ambush of the outlaws though, Lay comes out of the trees with a canteen and makes his way to a pool of water in the dry creek of the canyon (Ketchum and Carver are standing beside the group's campfire.  Ignoring wasting time asking for the bandits to surrender, at a range of roughly a hundred yards, Farr fires on Lay, and knocks the outlaw to the ground with a bullet to his left shoulder and one in his back from another member of the posse.  Gunfire sprouting from all directions, Ketchum and Carver take up positions behind sturdy pines and large boulders and begin firing back at the posse.  Surprised, at first the lawmen seem to have the advantage as Lay's wound knocks him out for a few minutes, and Sam is hit from 150-yards away by a rifle bullet from Elliott that breaks the outlaw's left arm (additionally, two of the four horses the bandits have are killed) just below his shoulder.  Taking on the whole posse, Carver finds a protected spot where he can fire without being seen, and is soon sending slugs all about the canyon, while at the same time, Lay crawls back to the camp fire, gets his Winchester, and though he drifts in and out consciousness, also begins firing on the posse.  Hiding from the heavy fire coming their way, Farr and Smith hide behind a tree that is not big enough to hide both men, and not thick enough to stop the steel jacketed slugs the outlaws are using thanks to Carver's ammunition order.  Smith is the first lawman to be hit, going down with a Carver round that passes through the flesh of the youth's left calf.  Lay, awake targets Farr, grazing the lawman's right arm just above his right wrist, stepping back to wrap a handkerchief around his wound, the outlaw then adjusts his aim and sends a bullet one hundred yards at the Colorado sheriff.  A killing shot (many historians believe that it is actually Carver that fires the round that does in Farr), the round pierces through several inches of wood before plowing into the thirty-one-year-old Farr's chest as he collapses on top of the wounded Smith, living just long enough to whisper to Smith to "say goodbye to my wife and baby."  The battle all Carver's again, Lay faints after his killing shot as accurate fire from the Texas cowboy takes Reno out of the contest with four near mixes that go though the railroad detective's clothing, and a grazing shot the cuts two of the cartridges on his belt in two.  Then Carver drives the other men behind a large rock outcrop that the men can only fire from by exposing themselves to the outlaw's marksmanship, effectively pinning the men down until evening falls. During this period, Carver mortally wounds Love when a slug from his Winchester hits the man in the leg, sending shards of an unclean knife (before joining the posse, the cowboy has been using the knife to treat anthrax infected cattle) into the flesh and bones of the deputy's right thigh (too late to treat Love when doctors finally see him eighteen hours later, the cowboy dies in agony four days after being wounded). 

Lay Is Hit And The Battle Begins - True West

Magazine Illustration

Looking For A Target - True West Magazine

Illustration

Farr

The arrival of darkness and the steady rain allow the outlaws to move up and out of the canyon to the west using only two horses (Carver will walk while making sure Ketchum stays on his mount), refusing to leave Sam behind as the outlaw requests of his companions.  Deciding they need to rest, the men are able to travel only three miles to the confluence of Cimarron and Ute Creeks, where they decide to rest in a small cabin used by a rancher, his wife, and the rancher's sons, the McBrides.  Though Lay wants to stay there and fight off any lawmen that might show up, both Carver and Ketchum finally convince him of the pointlessness of that being the men's best play, and as difficult as the decision is, Sam is left behind to fend for himself (but not before giving his cash and gold watch to Carver).  Tiring of their guest, for $500 in reward money, the McBrides let authorities in Cimarron know where one wounded bandit is residing, and on Wednesday, after a brief struggle with lawmen, Sam is arrested.  Taken to the territorial prison in Santa Fe, the 45-year-old outlaw dies on July 24, 1899, from blood poisoning after not allowing a doctor to remove his wounded arm (Sam's crazy brother Tom will try to rob the No. 1 at Folsom again, by himself this time, and in the August 16th attempt, he will be suffer a wounded arm that requires an amputation, and captured, gets put on trial, is convicted, and sentenced to death by hanging ... a hanging that instead becomes a decapitation when the authorities butcher the execution.  Dead on April 26, 1901, Black Jack is 37-years-old at his leaving).  While Ketchum is dying in prison, the other two outlaws remain at large, and because of the deluge of rain that hits the area, the search by authorities is quietly called off.  The specific hunt ended doesn't mean the outlaws are in the clear however, and on August 16th, outside the town of Chimney Wells, New Mexico, the men are betrayed to the law by V.H. Lusk, a rancher they think is their friend, while trying to get fresh mounts.  Lay is arrested for various outrages (the outlaw does not go into captivity peacefully, wounding Lusk in the wrist and forearm, Deputy John D. Cantrell in the left shoulder and arm, before being clubbed into submission by the revolver of Sheriff Miles Stewart ... tried and convicted, Lay will receive a life sentence in the New Mexico Territorial Prison, but keeping his nose clean, he is released in 1906 after helping stop an escape in which the warden's wife and daughter are taken hostage, and goes on to be an upstanding citizen, marrying and siring a family, and working a variety of jobs that include running a ranch, working as an oil-field scout, running several saloons, serving as a payroll guard, and at the time of his death on November 10, 1934, at the age of 65, he supervises the building on the All America Canal in Southern California ... he is also thought to have dug up the Ketchum Gang's hidden loot to his post outlaw wanderings).  Wilier than Lay on the morning of the 16th, Carver watches his confederate's capture through field glasses from a nearby hill before waving his hat and yelling "adios" to his partner and Sheriff Stewart, before riding off to the northwest.     

Dead Sam

Convict Lay

Black Jack Gets Ready To Go

Experience verified, introductions previously made, with the Ketchum Gang destroyed, Carver is almost immediately welcomed into an even more dangerous conglomeration of robbers and killers, the Wild Bunch of Butch Cassidy, Harvey Logan, and the Sundance Kid.  When four other members of the gang (Tom Capehart, Thomas C. Hilliard, Ben Kilpatrick, and Logan) leave their cowboying jobs with the WS cattle and horse ranch of New Mexico ride away from the area due to posse pressure and new northern heists, Carver is purported to ride with the men and takes part in the series of events events that result in the murders (mostly attributed to Logan)of amateur deputies Andrew A. Gibbons and Frank LeSueur out of Springerville, Arizona, Grant County Cattlemen's Association bounty hunter George Scarborough (the former deputy marshal and sheriff responsible for killing John Selman, the man who murdered gunfighter John Wesley Hardin in 1896, he leaves behind a widow and seven children), and there are rumors that he participates in the gang's 1899 robbery of the Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. 1 outside of Wilcox, Wyoming (the infamous job in which express car messenger, Charles Woodcock, has to be dynamited out of car he is protecting, a heist that gains the bandits unsigned bank notes, nineteen scarf pins, twenty-nine gold plated cuff links, for Elgin watches, and over $50,000 in cash).  There is nothing purported however about the role Carver plays in the bank robbery that takes place in Winnemucca, Nevada on the Wednesday morning of September 19, 1900.

Scarborough

The No. 1 After The Wild Bunch

Refusing to break his word to the governor of Wyoming that he will commit no further crimes in the state (instead, most of the rest of the gang hits the Union Pacific railroad at Wilcox, Wyoming), Butch Cassidy gets together with the Sundance Kid, and Carver, to plan a Wild Bunch job for Nevada that will confuse the authorities as to which outlaws are where (a plot that is still working to this day!).  Chosen for a Wild Bunch visit is the town of Winnemucca (named for a Northern Paiute Indian chief that once called the area home, the actual word means "one moccasin"), a small town the sprouts out of the Nevada desert along the Humboldt River when the transcontinental railroad, mining interests, and the sheep-herding of Basque immigrants all come together in the Silver State after the American Civil War ends in 1865.  Selected as the target of the trio's lawlessness is the town's First National Bank located at the corner of Bridge and Fourth streets.  The heist planned and scouted (Sundance will evaluate the town and bank over several days while working there as a member of a road repair team), extra horses are procured for the outlaws' escape after the robbery and placed with friends along the men's escape route into Idaho, the Three Creek Store of James and Elizabeth Duncan is robbed for supplies (friends of Carver, it is cover for if the authorities get curious as to the source of the outlaw's groceries ... after the robbery, the Duncan's will secretly be paid in full).  Shortly after noon on the 19th, with Cassidy and Sundance armed with Colt .45s, and Carver covering the proceedings with a Winchester (inside the bank are part owner and head cashier, George Nixon, three assistant cashiers, and a single customer, horse buyer W.S. Johnson), helped along by Cassidy holding a Bowie knife to the throat of Nixon so the banker opens the vault, the bandits spend five short minutes transferring 125 pounds of gold coins worth $32,640 into ore sacks, then gallop out of town (the posse that follows the bandits towards Idaho gives up after a single day), but stop briefly when a sharp turn in their route out of town causes a bag of gold to fall into the street (shots are exchanged with a couple of citizens, including the town's Deputy Rose, who fires at the men from the front of a locomotive he has commandeered, no one however on either side is hit).  In, out, and away, what makes the robbery special in Wild Bunch lore are two incidents that take place before and after the heist.  Making his way into town by himself so as to not raise any suspicions that the bank might be raided, Carver encounters and kills an angry skunk that doesn't leave peacefully, covering the outlaw in a stench that lasts for days, and causes his companions to ban him from the warmth of their campfire (and causing his horse to balk each time he tries to mount the animal) ... and provides the outlaws with something to tease Carver about on future endeavors (the Pinkertons will even mention his foul smell on the wanted poster that comes out afterwards, and hostages inside the bank will hold their noses until the robbery is over, and sets off Carver temper so that he eventually yells, "Damnit, I can't help it.  He got me first!").  The other incident involves a local 10-year-old youth named Vic Button, who rides to school in Winnemucca for his education from his parent's nearby CS ranch.  Passing the camp of three cowboys outside the town, the boy falls in love with the magnificent white horse of one of the men and offers to swap rides, an offer that the cowboy refuses, saying he still needs the animal for some upcoming work.  Not dissuaded, each day for a week the youngster rides by the cowboy camp on a different horse, and continues to offer the horse's owner a swap, much to the amusement of the men.  Cowboys gone after the robbery takes place, the boy is surprised when he finds the stallion picketed on his parents, property with a note saying the horse did its jobs and now is a gift to the youngster from Butch Cassidy (later, Button will also receive a personal copy of the Wild Bunch's Fort Worth visit, sent personally through the mail by Cassidy).  Not caring the gift is from a notorious outlaw, Button will name the horse Patsy and ride her for years and years.

Winnemucca - Bank Is Building On The Left At

The End Of The Street

George Nixon

Sundance And Etta Place

Next Day Headlines

Button And Patsy Ten Years Later

Phones and telegraphs making the West a smaller and more dangerous place for the mounted outlaw, despite the outlaw band successfully robbing a train and a bank within three weeks of each other, Cassidy and Sundance decide that they will pack of their plunder and become gentlemen ranchers in South America (Carver is invited to come along with his bride, but states he'd rather "die on dirt I know than live in some jungle."), and with all the outlaws having money in their pockets, using the outlaw mail system of cryptic notes being left in specific hollow tree stumps, Logan, Kilpatrick, and Carver agree to meet Sundance and Cassidy in Fort Worth, Texas (a town of roughly 27,000 people, there will also be playful jaunts to San Antonio and Houston, and Carver and Logan also make a quick tip to Shoshone, Idaho to dig up some of the gang's gold before returning to Texas by way of Salt Lake City and Denver), for a multiple day celebration (there will be lots of drinking, gambling, and bedroom carousing to go with buggy rides and picnics) of the two men leaving the states, and to wish Carver and the lady he plans to wed, prostitute Callie May Hunt, aka Lillie Davis, a long and happy wedding.  On December 1, 1900, Carver, using the alias William Casey and Hunt are married by Tarrant County Justice of the Peace, John P. Terrell.  Commemorating the entire Texas reunion and their comradery for each other, on Wednesday, November 21, 1900, the men congregate in their go to church Sunday best clothing (top hats, neckware, vests, white shirts, ironed patches and gold watch chains exposed), dressed like wealthy businessmen and ranchers  at the Swartz View Company owned by photographer John Swartz for a photo that becomes one of the most famous ever taken during America's Wild West days (the idea is either Cassidy's or that of the Sundance Kid) ... a picture capturing the nucleus of the Wild Bunch in their prime, Carver, Logan, Cassidy, Sundance and Kilpatrick, called The Fort Worth Five.  A beautiful portrait photo, but a stupid idea, because it gives the authorities a solid view of what the outlaws really look like that soon is used on thousands of dead-or-alive wanted posters that flood the west; a shot that plays a part in the violent fates each of the bandits will experience.  Hubris and ego overflowing from his many escapes from justice while riding with the Ketchums, his transition into a leadership role with the Wild Bunch, and his recent twin triumphs of planning and pulling off the gang's Winnemucca raid and finding love again, the first to go will be the skunk man, Carver (Logan breaks out of a Nashville, Tennessee jail in 1903, and running from a posse after a failed train robbery, commits suicide after being wounded near Parachute, Colorado in 1904, Cassidy and Sundance are thought to be killed in San Vincente, Bolivia in 1908, and after spending time in prison, Kilpatrick is clubbed to death by an express messenger after attempting to rob a train near Sanderson, Texas, in 1912).

Business Card

The Fort Worth Five

Carver

Foolishly remaining in Texas after Carver gives his new bride $167 and tells her to visit her parents until he comes to get her (an event which will never take place), Carver, Logan, and Kilpatrick rent a buggy and beginning touring the region for their next mark, make visits to the homes of Carver's and Kilpatrick's parents, recruit Kilpatrick's younger brother, George, into their new band, and seek vengeance against the rancher that betrayed Elsy Lay in New Mexico back in 1899, Rufus Thomas (living in San Angelo, Texas, Thomas narrowly misses two assassination attempts on his life by Carver in the spring of 1891).  And as often happens when Logan is around with his hair-trigger temper and quick shooting marksmanship, there will be yet another Wild Bunch murder to aggravate the authorities when farmer Oliver C. Thornton is shot to death after arguing with the Kilpatricks over the brothers' failure to stop their swine from wandering on to Thornton's property (a crime that will never be fully solved as most of it's principles end up dead themselves in the next few years).  With many folks reporting spottings of Caver and Ben Kilpatrick to the authorities, tensions grow as the day the men have selected to rob the First National Bank of Sonora, Texas, on Wednesday, April 3, 1901 gets closer.  As if announcing their presence in the area, the outlaw's camp is established on the range of the T Half-Circle near a waterhole between the towns of Ozons and Sonora, the bandits foolishly steal oats for their horses and a quarter of beef for themselves from the headquarters of Sol Mayer's ranch.  Horses ready and a relay established to swaps mounts outside of town while escaping any posses the law might set in motion, weapons cleaned and loaded, the foursome of Caver, Ben and George Kilpatrick, and Harvey Logan ride into town at dusk the day before the planned robbery and check out the town and bank one final time (mostly for George Kilpatrick who claims to have never been within the town's limits).  Posing as buyer/sellers of polo ponies (an odd choice in cattle country), the gang inquires after baking powder, flour, and oats at the Castillo store on Plum Street, but move on when the oats are not available, with Ben Kilpatrick and Logan tying up their mounts in a sparsely populated part of town away from prying eyes, awaiting their partners, while Carver and George Kilpatrick first visit a stable across the street from the bank, before tying up at the nearby bakery and grocery store of W.J. Owens, and go in to buy the grain they've been seeking.

Ben Kilpatrick

Sonora, Texas

Unbeknownst to the outlaws, alerted days before that Wild Bunch bandits might be in the area, the outlaws movements have been tracked by Boosie Sharp, a bartender at the town's Maude S saloon.  Hurrying to the sheriff's office in the local courthouse, Sharp passes his information on to Sheriff Elijah Briant, and Briant in turn quickly puts together a small group of deputies (former sheriff J.L. Davis, the brother of the bartender, Henry P. Sharp, and Constable W.D. Thomason) and takes the group to the Owens store.  Not leaving George outside as a lookout, in the store, Kilpatrick is standing next to the front door while Carver is at the counter finishing filling a sack with grain and tying it closed (both men are armed only with their pistols), when with guns already pulled (the previous year Briant had been shot and almost killed when he tried to arrest a local rowdy without first drawing his revolver), the lawmen enter the business and demand the two men's surrender at roughly 9:00 in the evening.  Rattlesnake swift, Carver goes for his Colt .45, but the weapon gets entangled in his suspenders as he is drawing, and the lawmen do not wait for the weapon to be cleared before opening fire on both men.  Bullets flying, Carver is partially unarmed by a Briant bullet that hits the outlaw in the right forearm and causes him to drop his revolver.  Attempting to pull his other weapon left handed (a .38 Army revolver), Deputy Davis puts Carver on the floor with a round that hits the desperado in the chest.  Down, but still game, Carver gropes along the floor for his Colt (Deputy Sharp kicks it away before the bandit can reach it), but takes even more hits groping for his weapon before going still.  Not forgotten, the totally surprised Kilpatrick is not fast enough to even get his revolver out of his holster, and he too is sent to the floor, compliments of the marksmanship of Constable Thomason (Kilpatrick has a round enter his left breast and come out below his shoulder, and is also hit twice in his left arm, is shot on the left knee, and a glancing bullet also hits him in the forehead ... thought to be dying from fourteen wounds, the young outlaw will rally and survive his wounds).  Gunfight over in seconds (thankfully, one of the lawmen's misses also misses Owens' wife and daughter, who are in the next room baking bread), the Tall Texan and Kid Curry hear the noise coming from the store, instantly comprehend its meaning, mount up, and ride out of Sonora, never to be seen within the city limits again.  Taken to the courthouse on doors taken off their hinges, Carver has a slug go through his right lung before coming to rest near his spine, is hit twice in the right arm, causing two fractures to the limb, twice in the right leg, also causing two fractures to limb, once in the left arm, and once in the left temple (the bandit's personal inventory consists of a silver-mounted, ivory handle Colt .45, a hammerless Smith & Wesson pistol, a beltful of gun cartridges, a gold Elgin watch, a small compass, a diamond ring, two $20 gold certificates, and thin gold wedding ring, and two small photographs, one of his wife Viana, and one of his girlfriend, Viana's niece, Laura Bullion). 

Briant

The Sonora Courthouse

Carver In Death

A valued outlaw of the Ketchum Gang and The Wild Bunch, "News" Carver's criminal career comes to a savagely swift and blood conclusion in Sonora, Texas on Tuesday, April 2, 1901 (unattended by members of his family, Carver has his funeral paid for by his rancher friend of years, George Hamilton, and he is buried under the rites of the Methodist Church in an unmarked grave that a mysterious veiled woman has a stone placed over reading simply, April 2, 1901), the hard cowboy and gunslinger is thirty-two at the time of his leaving.

Carver's Nameless Final Resting Place

 

 

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