Black Outlaws of the West...

5fish

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I thought we need to learn about the west... Black outlaws... I did a thread once on the Black U S Marshall of the old west working for Judge Parker...

Link:https://owlcation.com/humanities/Black-Outlaws-Cowboys-And-Lawmen-Of-The-Old-West


Isom Dart | Source
Ned Huddleston AKA Isom Dart
Another famous black outlaw and rustler was Ned Huddleston (also known as Isom Dart) who was born a slave in Arkansas in 1849. He earned a reputation as a rider, roper, and bronco-buster and was called the “Black Fox” and the “Calico Cowboy.” He was also a notorious Wyoming Territory outlaw.

In 1861 twelve-year-old, Huddleston accompanied his owner, a Confederate officer, to Texas during the Civil War. Huddleston was freed at the end of the war and took off for the Southern Texas/Mexico border region where he found work at a rodeo as a stunt rider and became a master horseman.

He joined a notorious band of rustlers called The Tip Gualt Gang, and changed his name to Isom Dart. He trained horses for the Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s gang, and was a successful rustler.

He tried many times to give up his rustler’s life and go straight, but the call of the wild was too strong for him, and he kept going back to it. This would be his downfall. On August 3, 1900, as he came out of the front door of his ranch, the notorious range detective Tom Horn, who had been hired by local ranchers to rid the area of rustlers, shot him dead.


Cherokee Bill (Crawford Goldsby) | Source
Cherokee Bill
Cherokee Bill's real name was Crawford Goldsby, and his father was black and served with the Buffalo Soldiers. His mother was part black and Native American. He was born on February 8, 1876, in Fort Concho, Texas, one of St. George and Ellen Goldsby's four children.

In July 1894 Cherokee Bill was involved in a host of robberies and murders as part of the notorious Cook gang headed up by brothers, Bill, and Jim Cook. He and the Cook gang ran havoc over the Indian Territory for over two years.

On November 8, 1894, Cherokee Bill and the cook gang robbed the Shufeldt & Son General Store, during the robbery Cherokee shot and killed Ernest Melton, an innocent bystander, who had the misfortune of entering the store as it was being robbed.

Cherokee was said to have such a bad temper that when he and his brother-in-law, Mose Brown, got in a dispute about some hogs. Cherokee shot and killed him. Cherokee Bill was responsible for the murders of at least seven men during his lifetime.

Cherokee Bill's career as an outlaw come to an end in 1896, when he was captured, tried, and sentenced to hang for the murders he committed by the so-called "hanging judge" Isaac Parker.

When the noose was placed around his neck he was asked if he had any last words, he said, "I came here to die, not make a speech." And the notorious career of Crawford "Cherokee Bill" Goldsby, had come to an end.






 
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5fish

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I found an outlaw gang looking for social justice... https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rel...o-life-in-leonce-gaiters-novel-300280841.html

The famous "Hanging Judge" Isaac Parker oversaw the Buck Gang's capture and condemned them to death. They were associated with the infamous half-black, half-Cherokee outlaw Cherokee Bill. Their crimes were motivated by the U.S. annexation of "Indian Territory" (today's Oklahoma). The socio-politics surrounding the Buck Gang rampage clearly heralded the emergence of the 20th century United States.

The Rufus Buck Gang weren't gunslingers like Billy the Kid, or thieves like the James-Younger gang. They wanted justice, and they sought it with the same violence that had marked their histories as blacks and Indians in America.

July 6th, 2016 marks the 120th anniversary of the hanging of the Rufus Buck Gangfour black and Indian teens who tried to singlehandedly, violently halt the expansion of the burgeoning United States. You've never heard of them, but they stand among the most notorious and politically significant outlaws of the Old West. Leonce Gaiter's novel, "I Dreamt I Was in Heaven – The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang" from Legba Books brings this fascinating, too-long forgotten
history to brilliant life.


A photo...



Names: The Rufus Buck Gang after their capture, from L to R: Maoma July, Sam Sampson, Rufus Buck, Lucky Davis, Lewis Davis (Legba Books)

If you other accounts they were just thugs on the loss...
Rufus Buck Gang - Wikipedia



 

5fish

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You know there was a Black member of the Jesse James Gang written out of the books and movies... details at the link

Link:https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-05-15-9305150022-story.html

His name was John Trammell, and he rode with Jesse James. For nearly two decades, he cooked for James and his outlaw crew, participated in the occasional train robbery and even conspired in the 1882 murder of gang turncoat Charlie Bigelow, which the killers attempted to pass off as the death of old Jesse himself.

Trammell may fit the profile of a rootin,' tootin' outlaw legend, but don't be surprised if his name or face rarely pops up in the films and TV shows about the James gang. That's because Trammell was black, and for many years blacks were written out of Western history and pop culture.


It's estimated that in the 30 years after the Civil War, nearly a million blacks crossed the Mississippi River looking for new opportunities. But the passage of Jim Crow laws at the turn of the century not only doomed blacks to legally inferior status, but also effectively cut them off from their history.


Snip... only one good flim about the black cowboys... did you see the film...

Ask Western history experts to name a film that most accurately portrays the black experience west of the Alleghenies, and what you usually wind up with is a few seconds of dead air, and then a half-hearted "Buck and the Preacher." The reference is to a 1972 picture starring Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte, about freed slaves heading West, and the bounty hunters trying to force them into unofficial slavery back in the South.

Time to correct history...
 

5fish

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I did find this letter about Trammell/Jesse... it's about a ditch... more details at the link...

Link: https://www.genealogy.com/forum/general/topics/outlaws/7987/

Snip...

My Friend,
About the Negro cook named John, that's me. Where the James gang was on or about June 11, 1879...Listen Mister:
If my mind serves me right we were near a little town in Wyoming. There was a big ditch near there, and I spent so much time along the ditch I believe they called it "The ------John Ditch."
This has been a long time ago, but if my mind serves me right this is the information you are seeking.
Yours truly,
JohnTrammell


Snip...

Breihan's remark:
Trammell had no way of knowing that I had learned of the crossing or of the ditch being named after him.
In fact, John trammell sent me another letter at a later date, and part of that letter read,
"It sure surprised me how you found this out about the wagon train and the Big Horn."
Another old timer Archie Nash of Sherida, Wyo, has verified this story as well.

Before Trammell had died Breihan had contacted him at the home of James Ellis in Choctaw, OK and he asked the minister to write the above letter, as he could not write.
(Breihan states he had said nothing when he contacted Trammell about the creek crossing incident and had not mentioned The ------ John Ditch.)


Snip...

So, now you know where the james gang was in 1879...rustling heads of horses, at the time Breihan writes of, they were camped on Little Goose Creek. A wagon train had came through with the family of William F. Davis, if you check you'll find he was born and raised just a few miles from the James Farm in Kearney,MO.
Trammell had been a slave on the plantation home of Davis's
Uncle REDMOND WILFREY.
Trammell recognized him, and he and Frank recognized each other and talked.
Frank and Trammell both warned him that some of the band had their eyes on mule teams, and they were in danger.
SO< here's your connection to Jesse, Frank, Davis, Trammell...and it came straight from Carl Breihan.

So, where was Courtney in 1879?
 

5fish

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It's not easy finding these Black outlaws... notice the 10th Cavalry get around...

Link: https://listverse.com/2016/04/04/10-african-american-cowboys-who-shaped-the-old-west/

Here are two outlaws that fought segregation in the old west cute stories...

Not much is known about John “The Texas Kid” Hayes, but he has remained in the popular imagination for his dramatic way of opposing segregation. Born in Waco, Texas, the outlaw always kept an eye out for “Whites Only” signs on drinking establishments in towns he passed through. When he spotted one, he would enter and ask for a drink. If the bartender refused, he got his revenge by riding his horse into the bar and shooting out all the lights before hightailing it out of town.

Another black cowboy who refused to respect segregated saloons was Jess Crumbly of Cheyenne. He was reported to stand 193 centimeters (6’4″) tall and weigh 110 kilograms (245 lb) and was known as “Flip” because anyone he hit would virtually flip backward. Unsurprisingly, he drank where he wanted.

The spread of segregation in the West sparked a number of such attempts to fight back by African-Americans, culminating in 1878, when “Buffalo Soldiers” from the 10th Cavalry shot up a saloon where locals had attacked their sergeant in San Angelo, Texas.
 

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You know could not find any Black Gunslingers yet but I found a Mexican American outlaw/lawman/politician? ect. OH! there is a monument to him...

Link: https://www.cracked.com/article_18607_6-real-life-gunslingers-who-put-billy-kid-to-shame.htm

Cornering Baca in a tiny adobe shack, the veritable army of cowboys laid siege to the building overnight, firing somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000 rounds through the shack's flimsy walls. They even tried to burn the place down and almost blasted it from the face of the Earth with a stick of dynamite, collapsing most of the roof on top of Baca. Essentially, it was the scene from Die Hard 2 when the bad guys trap Bruce Willis in a plane, riddle the fuselage with bullets, and toss in some grenades for good measure.
But Baca never took a single hit, and during the 33-hour ordeal actually managed to kill four of the cowboys and wound 10 others. Ever the iron-scrotumed lawman, Baca turned himself in after it was all over to face down possible murder charges, of which he was acquitted.

From that day forward, Baca rode the crest of his fame as an unkillable justice machine to become one of the most feared lawmen of his time. His reputation became so great that he was eventually able to serve warrants just by sending the following letter, politely requesting that his quarry turn themselves in:

"I have a warrant here for your arrest. Please ... give yourself up. If you don't, I'll know you intend to resist arrest, and I will feel justified in shooting you on sight when I come after you. Very truly yours, Elfego Baca, sheriff."

From wiki...

Link: the more details on his life he kept getting in trouble but always beat the charges: Elfego Baca - Wikipedia


Frisco shootout
In October 1884, in the town of Middle San Francisco Plaza (now Reserve, New Mexico), Elfego Baca arrested a drunk cowboy named Charlie McCarty. Baca flashed his badge at McCarty and took Charlie's gun. McCarty's fellow cowboys tried to take him by force, but Baca resisted and opened fire on the cowboys, killing the horse of John Slaughter's foreman, which fell on him and killed him. Baca shot another cowboy in the knee. Subsequently, Justice of the Peace Ted White granted Charlie's freedom and summoned Bert Hearne, a rancher from Spur Lake Ranch, to bring Baca back to the Justice for questioning relating to what the Justice considered murder. After Baca refused to come out of the adobe jail, Hearne broke down the door and ordered Baca to come out with his hands up. Soon after that, shots volleyed from the jail and hit Hearne in the stomach, resulting in his death.

A standoff with the cowboys ensued. The number of cowboys that gathered has been disputed, with villagers at the scene reporting about forty present while Elfego himself later claimed there had been at least eighty. Allegedly, the cowboys fired more than 4,000 shots into the house, until the adobe building was full of holes. Incredibly, not one of the bullets struck Baca. (The floor of the home is said to have been slightly lower than ground level; thus Baca was able to escape injury.)

During the siege, Baca shot and killed four of his attackers and wounded eight others. After about 33 hours and roughly 4,000 rounds of open fire, the battle ended when Francisquito Naranjo persuaded Baca to surrender. In May 1885, Baca was charged with murder for the death of John Slaughter's foreman and Bert Hearne and was jailed awaiting trial. In August 1885, Baca was acquitted after the door of Armijo’s house was entered as evidence. It had more than 400 bullet holes in it. The incident became known as the Frisco shootout. Purportedly, Baca's defense attorney had false documentation to prove Baca's legal deputization because Baca's biography suggests he deputized himself just before the arrest of Charlie McCarty.[1]




 

5fish

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Think... All those Black Cowboys in the Old West and I can only find less than a handful of semi-famous black outlaws... There are some more Mexican outlaws and what about famous Indian outlaws... Something is amiss...
 

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I bet if you check court records from the Old West there was a mixture of White, Black, Indian and Mexican outlaws. I figure the minority group of outlaws got less print space in the local papers so their stories were not told and did not survive to become folklore. Who knows why...? Heck, maybe the White outlaw gangs hunted down the Black outlaw gangs to eliminate the competition... There only so many trains and banks to rob and other crimes to do...
 

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An outlaw of the... Medieval ages... https://www.howitworksdaily.com/what-was-a-medieval-outlaw/

Outlaws in medieval England were quite literally criminals who were declared to be living outside the protection of the law. If a man accused of murder, for instance, failed to attend his court proceeding and face trial, the county sheriff would be tasked with finding him.

The sheriff would then make appeals at several other courts, to give the fugitive a chance to hand himself in. However, if he still evaded capture, the court would declare him an outlaw. The Latin legal term ‘caput lupinum’ (‘wolf’s head’) was used at court to label the criminal as no better than an animal to be hunted. Only males over the age of 14 could be declared outlaws (women were declared ‘waived’), and depending on the severity of their crime they could expect to lose all of their possessions, money, and any land they owned.

As well as murderers; traitors, rebels or even debtors could be declared outlaws if they failed to appear at court. Anyone could steal from, assault or even kill an outlaw and not face criminal justice themselves, as the outlaw was beyond the protection of the law. This meant that life could be incredibly harsh for an outlaw, and is why the ‘writ of outlawry’ was among the severest punishments of the time.
 
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