The Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters

by Leon Claire Metz

  King died, and Molly died, and Masterson seemed about to die but did not. There is some argument as to whether the incident even happened, but regardless, King, if indeed Bat shot him, would be Masterson's only shooting victim.

  Bat Masterson moved to Dodge City in 1876. There he opened a saloon, became a deputy city marshal, a year later a deputy sheriff, and then the full-fledged sheriff of Ford County. Some authorities believe this is where the moniker "Bat" came from. He usually carried a cane, perhaps because of the King shooting; he frequently mentioned that the cane was useful for "batting" rowdies over the head.

  In April 1878, his brother Ed-the town marshal-died in a Dodge City gunfight, but Bat continued as a busy and efficient law enforcement officer. A year later Bat Masterson became a U.S. deputy marshal, which primarily meant making additional money by serving papers, rounding up jurors, and arresting fugitives with prices on their head.

  The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad retained him to haul a party of gunmen to enforce the company's right of way through Raton Pass, on the border of Colorado and New Mexico. However, the opposing railroad bought him off. Perhaps because he had ignored and abandoned his job as sheriff while assisting the railroads, Bat was defeated at the polls in the next election.

  The following years found Bat Masterson making his living primarily by gambling and promoting horse races and prize fights. Wandering to Kansas City, drifting over to Ogallala, and involving himself in the essentially nonviolent Dodge City War, he finally made his way to Tombstone, Arizona, and from there up to Denver.

  On November 21, 1891, he married song-anddance performer Emma Walters in Denver. There is some indication, but no proof, of earlier marriages, one perhaps even to Emma. Nevertheless, Bat's real interests remained in sports, especially boxing promotion. The usual sports speculation and controversies surrounded him wherever he went. Somewhere around 1907 he moved to New York City, where he became a sports reporter for the rforrairag He died at his desk on Tuesday, October 25, 1921, and is buried in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery.

  .366 aISo. EARP, WYATT BERRY STAPP; MASTERSON, JAMES

  MATHER, David (a.k.a. Mysterious Dave) (1845-?)

  Mysterious Dave Mather was born in Connecticut; by some accounts he was a lineal descendant of clergyman Cotton Mather. By 1873 he had migrated to Dodge City, Kansas, where he gambled and hunted buffalo. For reasons unknown, someone knifed him in the ribs, but he survived to become a part-time peace officer in Dodge before moving on to places like Mobeetie, Texas. Mather later showed up in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where in 1880 he became a deputy marshal. Here, he and city marshal Joe Carson took on the Henry gang. Carson died in the shootout, but Mather killed one man and wounded two. Two others escaped but were captured in Mora, New Mexico, and returned to Las Vegas. They were jailed along with their partner, the wounded James West, but not for long. Mather led an assault upon the jail, and all three men were dragged out and lynched.

  Mather left Las Vegas shortly afterward. He drifted from town to town, likely serving a brief time as an El Paso deputy marshal before moving on to Dodge City, where he and another assistant marshal, Tom Nixon, quarreled over the affections of Mrs. Nixon. One afternoon Mather walked up behind Nixon and shot him six times in the back. A jury apparently felt Nixon had gotten what he deserved, for it acquitted Mather.

  Lone Pine, Nebraska, in 1887 proved to be Mather's last known stopping place. Whatever happened to him after that is speculation. Folks didn't call him Mysterious Dave for nothing.

  MATHEWS, Jacob Basil (a.k.a. Billy) (1847-1904)

  During the Civil War, J. B. Mathews served in the Fifth Tennessee Cavalry Regiment, enlisting on October 19, 1863. After the war, Mathews briefly returned home to Cannon County and then headed west to the mining camps at Russell Gulch, Colorado, and a few months later to Elizabethtown, New Mexico.

  Mathews, growing tired of searching for gold, decided to raise cattle and moved to eastern Lincoln County. By the fall of 1873, he had acquired a small farm. Still later he moved west to the Rio Penasco and started a ranching operation.

  In April 1877, "Billy" Mathews bought a silent share in the firm of J. J. Dolan & Company, in the village of Lincoln. Mathews also became the company clerk. Connected with the Dolan faction during New Mexico's Lincoln County War, Mathews found himself, probably willingly, embroiled in a conflict with John Tunstall and Alexander McSween. Acting as a deputy sheriff, Matthews was responsible for the posse (to use the word loosely) that murdered Englishman John Tunstall, although Matthews was not at the crime scene. He was later indicted as an accessory to murder for the killing, but he took advantage of the territorial governor's amnesty.

  Jacob B. (Billy) Mathews (Robert G. McCubbin Collection)

  On April Fool's Day of 1878, it was no joke when members of the opposition forces, including Billy the Kid, hid behind an adobe corral wall and waited until Sheriff William Brady and deputies ambled into their rifle sights. The ambush killed Brady and George Hindman. The remaining pedestriansMatthews, George Peppin, and John Long-scattered. Matthews took refuge in a private dwelling, and when "Billy the Kid" dashed out toward the sheriff's body, supposedly to recover a rifle, Matthews levered one round in the chamber of his .44-40 Winchester, took aim, and slipped a bullet through the outlaw's thigh, a serious but not fatal wound.

  Matthews participated during the subsequent "Five-Day Battle" in Lincoln (July 15-19, 1878) and later in Mesilla testified against the "Kid" regarding

  the murder of Sheriff Brady. He was also a member of the armed guard that escorted the defendant to Lincoln from the trial site in Mesilla, New Mexico.

  After the Lincoln County War, Billy Matthews continued in the cattle business while seeking elective office. He became postmaster at Roswell on May 19, 1898, a position he held until his death from natural causes on June 3, 1904.

  .S6e -2S'o BILLY THE KID; LINCOLN COUNTY WAR; GARRETT, PATRICK FLOYD JARVIS

  MAVERICK

  In the word's purest sense, a maverick is a wild, unbranded calf belonging to no one. However, the word goes back to a Texas lawyer named Samuel A. Maverick. One story has it that back in 1845, in accepting payment for a debt, Maverick took possession on Matagorda Island of a herd of Longhorn cattle. Not knowing what to do with them, he simply left them to multiply. Of course, all unbranded calves belonged to Maverick. Even after arriving on the mainland, these unbranded calves remained Maverick's. Cowboys referred to the unbranded calfs as "Maverick's." On the other hand, men who stole or branded these calves differently became "maverickers." Thus the name "maverick" passed into the language.

  With regard to people, the name "maverick" took on a deeper meaning. A maverick had no allegiance. He was different, often temperamental, capable of extremes, frequently a loner, a man not to be trifled with. A maverick person tends to be wild, unsettled, and irresponsible, often an outlaw not bound by the rules and mores of society.

  MEADE, William Kidder (1851-1918)

  A Virginian by birth, William Kidder Meade became an Arizonan and a Democrat. Aside from that, the energetic, opinionated, and ambitious Meade arrived in Arizona during the early 1870s as a mining speculator. He then served two terms in the 10th and 11th Territorial Legislatures. During 1884, he traveled to Chicago as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention. After the election of Grover Cleveland, Meade campaigned for an appointment as governor of Arizona Territory, an unsuccessful effort, although as a reward for his hard work and party loyalty he was appointed as a U.S. marshal for Arizona Territory on July 8, 1885.

  On February 22, 1888, someone robbed a Southern Pacific passenger train near Steins Pass, just across the line in New Mexico Territory. The prime suspects, already headaches for Arizona lawmen, were Larry Sheehan, Tom Johnson, Dick Hart, and Jack Blount. Exactly whose technical jurisdiction these thieves had violated made no difference to Marshal Meade. Accompanied by deputies and lawmen Will Smith, W. G. Whorf, the Pima County undersheriff Charles Shibell, and Sheriff M. F. Shaw, as well as
several Papago Indian trackers, Meade set off in pursuit.

  Shaw and Whorf dropped out of the chase after a couple of days. The remaining cadre of lawmen pressed on across the international border and deep into Mexico. At Janos, in the state of Chihuahua, 65 miles south of the border Marshal Meade contacted a Mexican official, a Lieutenant Martinez, in charge of the customshouse. To Meade's dismay, he and his party were arrested. So after a meandering pursuit of 400 miles the lawmen themselves were now the prisoners, whereas the train robbers, just two hours ahead, kept riding south. Back in the United States, verbal barbs flew back and forth, some people defending Meade's actions, others condemning his incursion onto foreign soil. After protests, diplomatic parlays, and possibly even a bribe, William Kidder Meade and his posse were released after a 14-day ordeal, minus their arms and horses. Adding to Meade's embarrassment, a Southern Pacific Railroad detective named Bob Paul, a former sheriff of Pima County, obtained Mexican permission to continue the chase. At a farmhouse near Cusihuirachic, Paul engaged the outlaws in a peppery gunbattle and killed three of the highwaymen.

  U.S. Marshall William K. Meade (Arizona Historical Society)

  Not long afterward, on May 11, 1889, a band of American outlaws ambushed U.S. Army paymaster Joseph Wham in Graham County, wounding several soldiers. The thieves escaped with $29,000. Meade directed the investigation. Based on informant information, a number of arrests took place. Several of those jailed were Mormons, and in a climate where the Edmunds Act (outlawing polygamy) was enforced, a perception of persecution permeated the air. However, the jurors refused to convict anyone for simply "robbing the Government and shooting a few black soldiers."

  Under political pressure, much of it from the Mormon community, Meade stepped down from the U.S. marshal's position on March 4, 1890, and became superintendent of the Yuma Territorial Prison on April 24, 1893. Scarcely a month later, however, the 17th Territorial Legislature failed to confirm his appointment. Later in the year, Grover Cleveland reappointed Meade to the position of U.S. marshal for Arizona Territory. During this second posting. Meade arrested individuals earlier involved with the aforementioned Wham payroll heist. Several of those men received prison sentences.

  On June 15, 1897, Meade reluctantly tendered his resignation. He then traveled to Alaska and briefly dabbled in mining interests, then returned to Arizona, where he was a caustic voice in Democratic politics. He died at Tombstone on March 14, 1918.

  .366 490: FEDERAL MARSHALS AND DEPUTY MARSHALS

  MEAGHER, Michael (1843-1881)

  This lawman was born in Ireland but became city marshal of Wichita, Kansas, on April 13, 1871. His brother John, also from Ireland, acted as an assistant, and between the two of them they bounced back and forth, one then the other becoming marshal or assistant marshal. However, during his last term as city marshal in Wichita, Kansas, he shot and killed Sylvester Powell, allegedly in self-defense.

  Meagher then moved to Caldwell, campaigned for mayor, and won the election of April 1880. However, a month later, on June 19, he shot and killed George Flatt. This time the district attorney charged Meagher with complicity in the slaying. A jury freed him. He did not seek reelection; instead, he went to Caldwell, Kansas, and was immediately named city marshal. There he and a man named George Speers were slain by five cowboys, most of whom were never tried, or were tried and acquitted. The stories seemed to revolve around a conspiracy that was never proved.

  MEEKS, Henry (a.k.a. Bub Meeks) (1869?-1903?)

  Bub Meeks, as most folks called this Mormon desperado, was born in Utah near Walesburg. He cared little for ranch life, and as a young man he drifted over to the Lost Cabin area of Wyoming, where he became acquainted with Butch Cassidy. He apparently signed on with the Wild Bunch, with whom he started his training by guarding horses at Montpelier, Idaho, while Cassidy and Elza Lay robbed the bank and customers. All three escaped with a reported $16,500.

  The three outlaws then struck the Castle Gate coal mine on April 21, 1897; this time Meeks cut the telegraph wires as well as held a relay of horses several miles distant from the heist. Cassidy and Lay acquired an estimated $8,000 before barreling away alongside a railroad track. Pursued at first by a locomotive, the two outlaws finally veered from the tracks and met Meeks. All three escaped.

  The three men now split up, Cassidy and Lay riding south and Meeks heading to Wyoming, where he was arrested for robbing a train. The authorities extradited him to Bear Lake County in Idaho, where on September 4, 1897, a jury sentenced him to 35 years in the Idaho State Penitentiary. Prison records described him as five foot eleven inches, with a dark complexion, black hair and mustache, 170 pounds, and green eyes. Four years later the Board of Pardons commuted the sentence to 12 years, but on December 24, 1901, he broke out, only to be recaptured the next day. The authorities attached another 12 years to the sentence.

  On February 2, 1903, he broke loose again, running through the gate. He might have made it had not Deputy Warden R. H. Fulton noticed the attempted break and shot him in the left leg. Doctors had to amputate, and not long after that Meeks attempted suicide by leaping from a 35-foot wall. When that failed, he tried to stab himself with a pair of shears. That wasn't successful either. On April 22, 1903, the authorities transferred him to State Hospital South, the insane asylum at Blackfoot, Idaho. On August 9, 1903, he broke out, and from there the trail vanished. It is generally believed that Bub Meeks went back to Wyoming.

  CASSIDY, BUTCH; LAY, WILLIAM ELLSWORTH; WILD BUNCH

  MILLER, Clell (1849-1876)

  The desperado Clell Miller started life in Kentucky but moved to Missouri and fought alongside Bloody Bill Anderson as a guerrilla during the Civil War. Union forces wounded and captured him near Albany, Missouri, and he spent the remaining war years in captivity. In 1871, he rode with the James gang at Corydon, Iowa, when it struck the bank. There he was caught and tried. Acquitted, he rejoined the gang and was slain during a subsequent James gang job at a bank in Northfield, Minnesota. The University of Michigan medical school claimed the body and returned it for burial in Missouri.

  See ANDERSON, WILLIAM C.; JAMES BROTHERS; YOUNGER BROTHERS

  MILLER, James (a.k.a. Killin' Jim; Deacon Jim) (1861-1909)

  Jim Miller was born in Van Buren, Arkansas, and lived to raise the art of bushwhacking and ambush practically to a science. His tools were a shotgun and occasionally a rifle. By some accounts, he killed between 20 and 50 men, although such figures defy documentation. Jim Miller was literally a shotgun for hire, his first two victims being his grandparents. He went to live with his sister and her husband, Jim Coop, but Coop proved to be troublesome. So Miller killed him too.

  Miller became a town marshal in Pecos, Texas, as well as a deputy sheriff, a likable figure who never smoked, drank, or swore. He spoke softly and politely to women, loved old hymns, and could always be counted on to be in church, ever active in the Amen Corner. Otherwise, he had just one noticeable idiosyncrasy: he wore a heavy black frock coat. Folks did not pay much attention to it in winter, but some did consider it strange in July.

  James Brown Miller, better known as "Killin' Jim Miller" (Bill James Collection)

  Miller had his ups and downs with Sheriff Bud Frazer, one reason being that Frazer-who had gone to El Paso, Texas, on business-learned in his absence that Miller had more or less turned the town over to thugs. Frazer therefore brought the noted Texas Ranger John R. Hughes back to Pecos with him. Within hours Miller was in jail, charged with attempted murder. A jury set him free.

  On April 12, 1894, Frazer walked up behind Miller and fired his revolver. The bullet bounded off Miller's black coat, courtesy of an iron plate sewn there. The sheriff fired again and disabled Miller's right arm. Miller also began shooting but only wounded a bystander. Frazer fired again, hitting Miller in the groin, and that ended the fight. Miller recovered.

  Frazer lost his reelection bid and left town for Eddy (Carlsbad), New Mexico, only to return a few months later and encounter Miller on the street. B
oth men drew weapons, and Frazer shot Miller in the arm and leg-then rushed in to kill him with a bullet to the heart. However, Miller now had an iron plate sewn in the coat front, and the bullet bounced.

  Miller swore out a charge of attempted murder against Frazer. The case, tried in El Paso, ended in a hung jury. On September 13, 1896, the feud reached its conclusion at a gambling table in Toyah, Texas. Miller laid a shotgun across the top of the saloon door and with one blast killed Frazer, who was dealing. A jury forgave him. However, a Joe Earp testified against Miller; three weeks after the trial, someone killed Earp with a shotgun.

  In Ward County, Texas, during the summer of 1902, Miller claimed to have caught three men rustling cattle. He killed two; the other one escaped. In 1904, he killed Lubbock attorney James Jarrott, a successful lawyer fighting for nesters (farmers who raised fences unpopular with cattlemen) against big ranchers. The big ranchers paid Miller to kill him. Later that year at Fort Worth, Texas, Miller fulfilled a contract on Frank Fore, killing him in the restroom of a local hotel. On August 1, 1906, Miller murdered U.S. deputy marshal Ben Collins near Emet, Oklahoma. The Pruitt family paid for that one, although the authorities caught and indicted Miller.

  Out in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on February 29, 1908, someone shot the famed New Mexico sheriff Pat Garrett. A popular myth had it that Killin' Jim Miller was the actual slayer; however, local cowboy Wayne Brazel confessed, went to trial, and was acquitted.

  Of course, Miller's luck finally ran out. On February 26, 1909, three of rancher Gus Bobbitt's neighbors paid Jim Miller to kill him. Miller complied, killing Bobbitt with a double-barreled shotgun near Ada, Oklahoma. However, someone talked. Miller hid out in Fort Worth, but authorities caught him and sent him back to Ada for trial. On the night of April 19, 1909, a mob broke Miller and the three accomplices out of jail and lynched all four in a nearby barn.