Robert K. Dearment

Our story (if not DeArment’s book) opens on March 25, 1877 with a shotgun blast to the chest of Deadwood stage driver Johnny Slaughter delivered, witnesses said, almost simultaneous with the command to halt the stage. The shot was fired by “Reddy” McKinnie, a trigger-happy member of the Saul Bass gang who, up from Texas, embarked on a short and largely unprofitable career in stage robbery. McKinnie disappeared from history and never did stand trial.

It was the start of a war between highwaymen and the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage, Mail, and Express line that was to last through 1878. On August 25, 1876, the first stage made the trip from Cheynne to Deadwood. It took six-and-a-half days though, by February 1877 the trip was shortened to four-and-a-half days.

There were four ways to reach Deadwood by stage. The Cheyenne company ran routes from Cheyenne and Sidney, Nebraska. Another company ran routes from Bismarck and Pierre, but those routes were never as popular for passengers or transporting gold since Sidney and Cheyenne were both on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Robbers operated in gangs and, when one would dissolve because of internal feuds or heat from the law, other gangs might incorporate some of its members. There were favored spots for robbery, usually outside the Black Hills (though Slaughter was killed just two-and-a-half miles outside of Deadwood) or on their edge including the notorious Red Canyon. Robberies were often at night and involved several men.

The stages were protected by a shotgun messengers, and often the passengers were armed, but that did little good. Nor were the strong boxes used to store valuables much of a deterrent and could be busted into in about an hour. The one time a passenger tried to fight back, he ended up accidentally discharging his gun into the stagecoach roof.

And most of the robberies were non-violent. Sometimes there would be banter between masked robbers and victims. The robbers would berate passengers for having so little money. On some occasions, after the passengers complained they were left with no money to eat, the robbers would give back a bit. Watches were frequently stolen. Passengers were sometimes relieved of clothing that caught a robber’s eye. Weapons were often stolen but, sometimes, robbers would leave them “further down the trail” for the passengers to collect.

The first robberies left mail sacks untouched, but, after latter robberies didn’t, it provided a justification for federal law enforcement, particularly the United States Post Office, to become involved. To round up bandits, the U.S. Army was enlisted with mixed results, but that option was off the table after June 16, 1878 when the Posse Comitatus Act was passed by Congress. It forbid the use of the military in law enforcement.

DeArmant is thorough in his coverage, pointing out the faults of some his primary sources and their contradictions with accounts from other newspapers and memoirists. His style is tinged with the colorful prose found in the newspapers of the era but without their hyperbole and inaccuracies.

He doesn’t cover the history chronologically but with an account of the major stage robbing gangs, one per chapter. We get background on the shotgun messengers and the robbers as well as the law enforcement officers, private detectives, and bounty hunter that reined them in.

The messengers included Boone May mentioned in Ambrose Bierce’s “Sole Survivor” and who worked for Bierce as a guard during his days in the Black Hills, memorably listed in the company ledger as “May, Boone, murderer” since Boone had been indicted, along with a special agent of the Department of Justice, William Llewellyn, with the killing of “Curly” Grimes. They were eventually found not guilty. Incidentally, contrary to what Bierce said, May did not kill another man while awaiting trial on the Grimes matter, and DeArmant suspects “Sole Survivor” might have other fictional embellishments.

May is infamous for the matter of Frank Towle’s head. Towle was a member of a gang that killed two sheriff’s deputies sent after them.in August 1878. On the night of September 13, 1878, Boone May and another shotgun messengers were riding about 100 yards behind the stage, hoping to surprise any would-be robbers. When a robbery was attempted, the messengers got within fifteen yards of the robbers before a firefight started. In the morning, signs of one bleeding robber were found.

However, it wasn’t until a posse captured a band of stage robbers on December 23, 1878, that the identity of the wounded robber, Frank Towle, was known. He had died of his wounds and was buried by his fellow criminals. Boone found the grave and dug up the body. Not wanting to ride 175 miles with a several months old dead body, he simply cut Towle’s head off. Alas for May, he never did collect his reward. No one disputed Towle had been one of the robbers back in September or that the head was his. They disputed May’s claim he was the man who killed him. Disgusted, May buried the head outside of Cheyenne – where it was dug up by scavengers. The local newspaper thought the whole matter rather cast a bad light on the city.

Passengers adapted to the robberies. Surprisingly few seem to take advantage of the ability to pay the stage company for a draft they could redeem at their destination. One clever stagecoach company employee, carrying payroll, bought an obsolete and huge-bored shotgun and stuffed several hundred dollars down its barrels. When some robbers saw this, they mocked the gun and tossed it. And the man went back the next day to get his money. Some passengers would, on the spur of the moment, hide their belongings in the upholstery of the stage. One managed to protect his money by simply clinching it in his upraised fists when the “gentlemen of the road” asked him to raise his arms.

Stage robbers usually succeeded in their robberies. It was afterwards that the law ran them to ground. The methods used were many: informants, the recognition of some robbers by their victims, plea deals, a knowledge of where some might flee after robberies, and “the Montana argument” which involved threatening to hang a man on the spot or in jail if they didn’t reveal the location of stolen money or the names of their confederates. A bounty hunter from Nebraska tracked men to Iowa and Ohio (where, jailed, the robber wanted to be taken back to Wyoming rather than face his substantially heavier charges in Ohio). One lawman pursued a robber 375 miles and through two snowstorms to make his capture.

The depredations of the road agents reached a violent crescendo on September 26, 1878 in the Battle of Canyon Springs.

By this time, two “treasure coaches” had been built to transport gold from Deadwood to Cheyenne. They were armored on the inside with steel plates sufficient to stop the most powerful rifle bullet. There were two portholes to fire from within the coach. And a “salamander safe” was bolted to the floor. Its manufacturer claimed it would take bandits six days to open it.

The coach that pulled into the Canyon Springs stage station that night for a switch of horses had "$27,000 in valuables, $9,500 in gold bullion, $14,500 in gold dust, and some $1,000 in currency and jewelry."

A shotgun messenger sat beside the driver and two inside the coach, and, against normal procedure on treasure coach runs, there was a passenger, a telegraph operator who was going to a nearby telegraph station.

When the coach arrived at the station, they did not find the stock-tender there to help replace the horses. Instead, the coach found a gang waiting. In the resulting gun battle, the passenger was fatally shot as was a robber. The man riding shotgun on the stage coach was severely wounded and lost conscious. Another messenger, was shot in the head and, profusely bleeding, passed out. His companion left the coach and, under fire, retreated into the woods, walking backwards and returning fire.

It was the biggest robbery ever from the Deadwood stage. But, in the ensuing months, most of the money was recovered and the robbers apprehended (though one escaped custody under questionable circumstances).

But things quieted down. The treasure coach trips were modified. After never finding a safe that could resist a sledgehammer and chisel for more than three hours, the stage company gave up on them and used the saved weight to transport more gold. Each trip with the bullion was accompanied by six shotgun messengers, four inside the coach with carbines and revolvers nearby, another beside the driver, and one trailing the coach on a horse.

The procedures worked. The gold runs switched to Sidney which was a shorter route, and more than $12 million in gold was transported without incident. Sidney is largely omitted from memory as a notorious Western town, but, at the time, it was considered worse than Cheyenne. On March 9, 1890, a treasure coach arrived there without incident with $119,040 in gold bricks. The stage was late and the rail agent refused to load the train which was ready to leave. Receipts were signed relieving the messengers of their responsibility. They found a place to stay in town and planned to leave in the morning.

Except, in the morning, the gold was gone from the railroad station. It was the messengers themselves who found out how the robbery was done and recovered most of the gold. It turned out to be a scheme cooked up by a criminal gang that included the county’s former sheriff.

In later years, after the railroad arrived at Pierre, it became the preferred destination for gold shipments. In 1880, the railroad arrived at Deadwood itself, and the days of the treasure coaches were done.

DeArment’s concluding chapter provides biographical epilogues for his cast of the preceding chapters.

Most the lawmen involved in the story ended up leaving the Black Hills and starting successful business ventures and lived long lives. The shotgun messengers were, on the whole, not so lucky. Boone May died under mysterious circumstances in Bolivia, either in violent circumstances or from yellow fever.

And the outlaws? Many died violently. Several were lynched. On two occasions, coaches with robbers in the custody of law enforcement, were stopped by masked men. The suspects were taken out and hanged. (According to a claim by the Cheyenne stage company’s manager years later, the masked men were shotgun messengers in one incident.) A few did their time in jail and became respectable citizens. The fate of others is unknown.

I was quite happy to read this one, and, even if you’re not from Deadwood, you’ll like it too if you’re interested in the real history of the American West.… (more)

Deadly Dozen provides 12 mini-biographies of "forgotten gunfighters of the old west." While the writing style is rather bland and the prose a bit tedious, it provides the reader insight into 12 rather interesting characters and insight into gunfighters in the old west.

Several themes emerge through these biographies. First is the borderline morality of all these men. Some were clearly evil criminals, a few of which would be considered serial killers in modern times. Others, even those working as marshals or in law enforcement, often straddled or even cross the line into criminality. There are plenty of gray areas in the lives these men lived. A second theme is the extreme violence of these men. They were often considered gunfighters because of their proclivity to resort to extreme violence to settle disputes, disputes for which most rational people may have used other means to resolve. Third is alcoholism. Many of the most violent episodes in these men's lives were often fueled by copious amounts of booze, which of course makes one lose their inhibitions and fear. Fourth, these men did not seem to fear death. Whether one wants to consider it bravery or stupidity, these men had the nerve to face ultimate violence, where others would shirk. Finally, it didn't take being a great shooter or being the quickest on the draw to be considered a deadly gunfighter. It was more the willingness to resort to gunplay and lack of fear more so than proficiency with a gun that made these men so deadly.

Overall this book really is rather a tedious read in some ways, but the fascinating subject matter and insights it gives into what it might have been like to live in the untamed American West saves the rather tedious prose and leaves the reader with a lot of think about.… (more)