Cowboys and Gangsters: Stories of an Untamed Southwest

353 Pages·2016·3.926 MB·English

by  Samuel K. Dolan

COWBOYS AND GANGSTERS

COWBOYS AND
GANGSTERS
Stories of an Untamed Southwest
SAMUEL K. DOLAN
An imprint and registered trademark of Rowman & Littlefield
Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK
Copyright © 2016 Samuel K. Dolan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,
including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Available
ISBN 978-1-4422-4669-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4422-4670-6 (e- book)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for
Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
In loving memory of
Representative John F. Dolan
Ipswich, Massachusetts
1922–2013
And for Jack and Suzie
Most of these men have passed on. In the hills and vales of
Arizona they sleep the sleep eternal. Yet sometimes when
my night campfire burns low on the moonlit desert or in the
forested solitude of the mountains, methinks my eyes see
passing by shadowlike, a phantom rider with wide- brimmed
hat, belted six- shooter and carbine, and that my ears hear
the faint tinkle of spur chains on rowels. But ’tis only the
form of the night hawk sweeping low on his evening flight
and the night wind rustling the leaves of the trees.
—Jem McKem, Mohave County Miner and
Our Mineral Wealth, May 12, 1922
Contents
Introduction: Six- Guns and Automobiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter One: The Wail of the Bootlegger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter Two: Cold in Death. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter Three: The Toughest Town on the Santa Fe. . . . . . . . . 40
Chapter Four: The Purity Squad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter Five: Manhunt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Chapter Six: Dry Agents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118
Chapter Seven: Liquor War on the Rio Grande . . . . . . . . . . . .139
Chapter Eight: Where Rough Necks Are Needed. . . . . . . . . . . 156
Chapter Nine: “Honor First” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
Chapter Ten: “You Were Looking for Me Last Night” . . . . . . . .201
Chapter Eleven: Contrabandistas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Chapter Twelve: Brave Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
Author’s Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .264
Endnotes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
miles

n
o
Rat Las Vegas Pecos Riverort Sumner ICO Roswell HopeCarlsbad TEXAS  kilometers
DODO aos F EX 
AA T e M o
RR u r
COLOCOLO Santa FeSanta Fe Albuquerq NEW Las Cruces Anthony El PasoletaSocorzario 
Ysli
E
gton Socorro ednarG oiR ty ming San  
Farmin ren vRi Wingate Silver Ci De
n Jua Ft.
Sa
St. Johns Clifton Tombstone BisbeeDouglasacoAgua Prieta
aff Ri vetrlaS Globe Superior ence Tucson Benson NogalesN
UTAH Colorad or eRvi Williams Flagst JeromeClarkdaletonwood cott ARIZONAARIZONA hoenixhoenixTempeGila River Flor Ruby MEXICO
Cot Pres PP
rreevviiRR nniiggrriiVV DA Kingman reviR odaroloC reviR aliG YumaCalexico
A AINROFILAC lili
V aa
cc
E xixi
N ee
MM
INTRODUCTION
Six- Guns and
Automobiles
They live—and succeed—though the instrumentality of the
mechanical successor of the cow pony of their earlier days,
and of their big .45 calibre pistols, which nothing has yet
succeeded.
—Major Grover Sexton, “The Arizona Sheriff”
On the morning of June 21, 1928, sixty- nine- year- old Yavapai County
Deputy Sheriff James Franklin Roberts prepared to leave his house in
Clarkdale, Arizona. Stuffing his .45 caliber Colt single-a ction revolver in his
pocket, Roberts, who was known locally as “Uncle Jim,” bid his wife Jennie
farewell and walked into town. By that summer morning, Roberts could look
back on a law enforcement career that stretched back nearly forty years. The
Missouri native had been raising horses in the Arizona Territory’s Tonto Basin
when the Pleasant Valley Feud erupted in the late 1880s. As an ally of the
faction headed up by brothers James, John, and Edwin Tewksbury, Roberts
would participate in a number of bloody gun battles in what would become
the deadliest range war in Arizona’s history. During one particularly violent
incident in August of 1887, Roberts is alleged to have shot a gunman for the
rival faction through the head with his big .45-90 caliber Winchester.1
By the early 1890s, Roberts had left the Tonto Basin and had accepted a
deputy’s commission under Yavapai County Sheriff William “Buckey” O’Neill,
in the mining camp of Congress. “Jim Roberts works in the mine nights and by
day keeps peace in the village, he being deputy sheriff,” the Arizona Republican
reported in the summer of 1891. It was also while living in Congress that same
year that Roberts married Amelia “Jennie” Kirkland. In January of 1893, Rob-
erts was assigned to the mining town of Jerome by O’Neill’s successor, Sheriff
James Lowry.2
Roberts established himself as “one of the most efficient and fearless offi-
cers in Arizona,” and after serving as a deputy sheriff and precinct constable,
ix