Coughlin had a choice regarding his method of execution: hanging or firing squad. Coughlin said, "I'll take lead." However, he did (unconvincingly) appeal his conviction through the courts. To avoid crowds, on December 15 Coughlin was slipped by wagon to a remote outdoor location in Rich County. There the prisoner, dressed in dark clothes, was seated, hooded and bound, in an ordinary straight chair fastened securely to the snow-covered ground. At least 200 onlookers watched. In a few minutes, a tent flap opened perhaps 50 yards in front of the condemned. Five riflemen cocked their weapons. One of them had a blank. At the count of three, they all fired into a piece of white paper pinned over Coughlin's heart. The execution went off without a hitch.
COURTRIGHT, Timothy Isaiah (a.k.a. Longhaired Jim Courtright) (1848-1887)
Jim Courtright was born in Iowa, scouted for the Union army, then moved to Texas and became the Fort Worth city marshal in 1876. Hints of corruption seemed to follow him around, however, so he drifted west to New Mexico, where some stories claim he killed two men, then fled to South America for two years. Upon returning during the mid-1880s, he again showed up in Fort Worth, this time opening the Commercial Detective Agency, and began a career of shaking down business establishments. On February 8, 1887, he clashed with Luke Short, the gambler owner of the White Elephant. The two men shot it out; Short, who should have died, got lucky and put two bullets in Courtright. A rather sleazy David had slain Goliath.
co SHORT, LUKE
COWBOYS
"Cowboy" is a generic term generally taken to mean a western American male who spends considerable time in the saddle and works with livestock. A cattleman can also be a cowboy, but "cattleman" generally connotes extensive ranch and livestock ownership.
However, the term "Cowboys" (frequently spelled with a capital C, although often with a lowercased "c" or hyphenated, "cow-boys") in southern Arizona during the 1870s and 1880s meant "rustlers." John Ringo epitomized the Cowboy, as did Curly Bill Brocius, Ike Clanton, and the McLaury brothers. Of course, they were cowboys too in the accepted sense of the word; "Cowboys" were considered riders who made their living by stealing cattle. Over time many of these Cowboys had drifted in from Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and they each had long histories of participation in feuds and range wars. They were as good with the gun as they were with the rope, and they liked southern Arizona primarily because of the nearby refuge of the Mexican border.
In modern times, the cowboy image has been blurred in with the gunfighter images, but in most parts of the American West, the two were not the same. Lawmen came far closer to fulfilling the term "gunfighter" than did cowboys. Most American cowboys carried weapons to shoot snakes or to shoot "Old Paint" should the horse fall on the rider and the rider not be able to get up. The image of the ordinary Western cowboy as a fast and accurate gunfighter has practically no validity.
.Sr'+' BROCIUS, WILLIAM; EARP, WYATT BERRY STAPP; GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL; RINGO, JOHN PETERS
COX, William Webb (a.k.a. W. W. Cox) (1854-1923)
William Cox's father, James W. "Captain Jim" Cox, a recognized leader of the Sutton faction in Texas's Sutton-Taylor troubles, succumbed to 19 buckshot and a slashed throat, all of it inflicted by members of the Taylor faction.
On September 19, 1876, the Sutton followers killed Dr. Philip Brassell and his son, James W. Bras
sell, at their home in Shiloh Mills, DeWitt County. A 23-year-old William Webb Cox, along with other partisans, was arrested for the murder and then released on bond. Murder indictments were returned in December, and papers were placed in the hands of Texas Ranger Lee Hall. He and a posse surrounded the Cox home just as a wedding commencedMelissa Cox, W. W.'s sister, was getting married. Hall demanded the immediate surrender of those seven defendants formally charged with homicide. A discussion took place, and everyone agreed that insistence would cast a pall over the festivities. So the wedding ceremony continued, the Texas Rangers maintained vigilance, and the next morning the wanted men surrendered. Taken before a judge, expecting to post a nominal bond, the defendants were stunned by being remanded to jail pending trial. Ultimately, after convictions, appeals, new trials, and administrative errors, William Webb Cox, was allowed to post bail. Cox fled to the Big Bend of Texas.
Oliver Milton Lee, Cox's brother-in-law, urged Bill to relocate to New Mexico Territory. Stepping across the line and out of Texas jurisdiction seemed like good advice to Bill Cox. Although characterized as an "expert cusser," a tobacco-chewing connoisseur, and a man with a fiery temper, Cox, at least in New Mexico, seemed a changed man, developing an enviable reputation for public service and sound business investments. The Texas criminal charges, worrisome but not now aggressively pursued, were ultimately dismissed.
In 1893, Cox purchased the Shedd Ranch (later called the San Augustin Ranch) at San Augustin Springs on the east side of the Organ Mountains, one of the largest ranches in that part of New Mexico. (The Union's Fort Fillmore had surrendered at this site to Confederate forces in July 1861.) With the communities of Mesilla and Las Cruces just over the Organ Mountains to the west, and Oliver Lee's huge Circle Cross Ranch across the Tularosa Basin to the east, William Webb Cox became a political and economic powerhouse in the region, developing relationships with a number of the Southwest's famous, and infamous, characters.
One of the former was Col. Albert Jennings Fountain, whose strange disappearance in February 1896, along with his eight-year-old son Henry, is still hotly argued today. Rumors cast suspicions on Oliver Lee and, by implication, on his brother-in-law, W. W. Cox.
The tall Patrick Floyd Garrett was another of these infamous characters, a former Lincoln County, New Mexico, sheriff and the well-known slayer of "Billy the Kid." Garrett became a rancher, a neighbor of Cox, and as sheriff of Dona Ana County once helped kill a wanted outlaw in Cox's house. But Pat hadn't drawn a financially solvent breath in years. W. W. Cox held the mortgage on the ex-lawmen's real estate. When Garrett was murdered in 1908 on the western slope of the Organs by Cox's employee Wayne Brazel, inevitable rumors of conspiracy and intrigue arose and persisted. Some tales even had Cox himself rising up out of the sand hills and murdering Garrett.
Cox served two terms as Dona Ana County treasurer and collector (1911-13), and after failed ventures at wildcat oil drilling in the Jornada del Muerto and the Tularosa Basin, he divided much of his time between his Elk and Masonic Lodge associations. In particular, Bill Cox concentrated his activities on his renowned ranch holdings. The Cox Ranch house still stands and can be easily seen from the nearby White Sands Missile Range headquarters complex. On December 23, 1923, William Webb Cox died a natural death. He is buried not far from Pat Garrett in the Masonic Cemetery at Las Cruces, New Mexico.
S66 40Ro; LEE, OLIVER MILTON; GARRETT, PATRICK FLOYD JARVIS; SUTTON-TAYLOR FEUD
CRABTREE, William (a.k.a. Bill) (1853-1878)
Bill Crabtree, like so many youths of the frontier West, simply got in over his head. The McLennan County (Waco), Texas, cowboy wanted to be a desperado. Reports indicate he was tried and acquitted for one murder and arrested by noted Texas Ranger Jim Gillett for unlawfully carrying a six-shooter. Ranger lieutenant N. O. Reynolds arrested him for suspected crimes in Navarro County (Corsicana). Sheriff Groesbeck arrested him for stealing a horse. Furthermore, when he married a Dixon girl in 1878, Bill Crabtree forevermore aligned himself with the Horrell faction of the bloody Horrell-Higgins feud.
On May 28, 1878, Bill Crabtree, in the company of John Dixon, John Holt, and Tom Bowen, set off to execute a high-dollar robbery plan in Bosque County (Meridian), Texas. The masterminds, Mart and Tom Horrell, established an alibi elsewhere.
Meanwhile, at his place on Hog Creek in the southern portion of the county, James Theodore
"Dorrie" Vaughn, who sometimes acted as a local banker, had no idea that trouble was riding his way. At half-past eight o'clock in the evening, Dorrie opened his store to accommodate four rough-looking travelers. For this courtesy he was mercilessly gunned down by Tom Bowen,
who operated under the theory that "dead men tell no tales." Exchanging a few shots with neighbors, all the outlaws got away, even though about a mile from the store Bill Crabtree's horse collapsed, the result of a bullet wound.
The posse cut off one foot of the dead horse, shopped it around to area blacksmiths, and discovered the horseshoe nailed to the hoof could be positively identified as one put on Crabtree's mount. Bill Crabtree was arrested and turned over to Bosque County sheriff Jack J. Cureton, a former Texas Ranger and well-known Indian fighter. Crabtree talked. As a result, Mart and Tom Horrell were arrested as accessories in Dorrie Vaughn's death and were later jailed at Meridian. Wanted fugitives, the other participants splashed across the Rio Grande and forever faded away.
On November 28, 1878, Bill Crabtree testified against the Horrells. That night, as he walked alongside the Bosque River (by some accounts he was leaving town), Crabtree was nearly cut in half by shotgun blasts from the underbrush. No official investigation was deemed necessary. On November 30, in a new suit of clothes, the wannabe badman was laid to rest. Vigilante justice later dealt the Horrells-Mart and Tom were gunned down while still behind bars.
-S6e [9iSo! GILLETT, JAMES BUCHANAN; HORRELL BROTHERS; HORRELL-HIGGINS FEUD
CROCKETT, David (1853-1876)
Davy Crockett, named after his grandfather-the famous frontiersman-was born in Tennessee but spent much of his youth in central Texas, where his father operated a toll bridge across the Brazos River. As a young man in the company of Peter Burleson, Davy moved to the vicinity of Cimarron, New Mexico, where he engaged in small-scale ranching before selling out to devote his attention to more pleasurable pursuits. Crockett maintained a reasonably good relationship with Cimarron townsmen, but his sidekick and former business associate, a quarrelsome Gus Heffron, did not.
Local folklore placed Davy Crockett in the company of Clay Allison, a member of the party that lynched Elizabethtown serial killer Charles Kennedy and then decapitated the scoundrel. They placed his head on a corral fence post as a warning to others contemplating such behavior. Whether the aforementioned actually took place remains debatable, but beyond dispute is the fact that all three-Davy Crockett, Robert Clay Allison, and the murderous Charles Kennedy-were cut from rough cloth.
On March 24, 1876, at Cimarron's St. James Hotel, Crockett in a drunken rage shot and killed three black soldiers and wounded another, all of them on leave from Fort Union. Crockett fled the scene and hid near a local ranch until arrangements were made for a favorable hearing before a sympathetic justice of the peace. Ultimately, Crockett's crime was excused because he was inebriated during its commission. He was admonished with a small fine for unlawfully carrying firearms.
Later, and usually in the company of Heffron, Davy Crockett terrorized Cimarron's peaceful population with sporadic gunshots, rambunctious behavior, and brazen threats. He cowed the local sheriff, Isaiah Rinehart, on one occasion ordering himself a new suit of clothes and sending the bill to the lawman. Another account claimed Crockett once stuck his six-shooter in the sheriff's face and forced him to guzzle drinks until he was stupefied. A humiliated Rinehart finally sought assistance from area rancher Joseph Holbrook as well as the Cimarron postmaster, John McCullough. On September 30, 1876, the sheriff and his two deputies armed themselves with shotguns and challenged Crockett and Heffron, who, just finishing up a spree, were mounted and leaving town. Deputy Holbrook called on them to halt; mockingly and mistakenly, Crockett challenged Holbrook to shoot. Holbrook did! So did the sheriff and McCullough. Crockett's frightened horse broke into a gallop that didn't end short of the Cimarron River. When the lawmen approached, they found Davy Crockett slumped dead in the saddle. As for Heffron, the lawmen arrested him, but he later broke jail and disappeared into the vastness of Colorado's snow-capped Rockies. The sheriff and his two "deputies" were acquitted of causing Crockett's death.
See akGi! ALLISON, ROBERT A.
CRUGER, William R. (a.k.a. Bill) (1840-1882)
In 1874, Bill Cruger migrated to the "Clear Fork Country," in what would later be organized as
Shackelford County, Texas. It was the site of Fort Griffin and a nearby ramshackle civilian community officially named Albany but better known as "The Flat." Albany became the Shackelford county seat, Cruger naming it in honor of his birthplace in Georgia.
Serving as a deputy under Sheriff John Larn, Cruger was involved in a horrific shootout at the Bee Hive Saloon. On January 17, 1877, gunmen Billy Bland and Charlie Reed drunkenly galloped into The Flat amid yells and popping six-shooters. Pulling back hard on their reins, the pair made a sliding stop in front of the saloon, jumped down, and vanished inside. Although the saloon was a roisterous dive at best, patrons in the Bee Hive were rightfully alarmed when Bland and Reed began shooting out the lamps. Taking note of the disturbance, Deputy Sheriff Bill Cruger, accompanied by the county attorney and two Shackelford County officials, entered the bar. Cruger hollered "hands up!" Bland whirled and fired at the deputy. Cruger fired back, joined by his cohort, William (Robert?) Jefferies. Bland's buddy Reed chimed in with his six-gun. Unfortunately, the quarters were close, and the barroom full. Bystanders Dan Barron, who had just been married, and a Lieutenant Myres, recently discharged from the army at Fort Griffin, attempted to retreat from the blistering melee-but not quickly enough. Barron caught a bullet in the forehead. Myres suffered a mortal wound in the back. Cruger was slightly wounded, and Jefferies received a wound through a lung, but survived. What of the instigator, Billy Bland? One of Cruger's bullets knocked him to the floor, where he painfully lingered, begging for someone to put him out of his misery. They didn't, so he died on his own within minutes. Charlie Reed disappeared during the excitement and wisely quit the area.
John Larn, Cruger's boss, resigned, and Cruger was appointed sheriff on March 20, 1877. Later, previous criminal misdoings by Larn came to light, and he was assassinated by vigilantes while a prisoner in the county jail. Cruger's involvement in the mob justice remains speculative. His name appeared on the vigilante list.
Although later elected to the position of Shackelford County sheriff, Cruger resigned on July 20, 1880, and with his wife and son moved to Princeton, Tennessee. There, while serving as city marshal, on May 29, 1882, just one day before his 42nd birthday, Bill Cruger was fatally gunned down while attempt ing to overpower a drunken prisoner who had secreted a revolver.
.S66aISO: FORT GRIFFIN, TEXAS, VIGILANTES; LARN, JOHN; SELMAN, JOHN HENRY
CURLY Wolf
A dangerous individual known to have a short temper and a quick fuse. While the term sometimes applied to lawmen, it primarily applied to outlaws and gunmen known to be constantly on the prowl, seeking trouble.
CURRIE, James (?-?)
This obscure Irish-born desperado, whose real last name might have been Curry, had found work in Marshall, Texas, as a detective for the Texas & Pacific Railroad. At about midnight on March 19, 1879, Currie, full of liquor, wandered into Marshall's White House lunchroom, where he encountered three New York show personalities-Miss Nellie Cummins, Benjamin C. Porter, and Maurice Barrymore, having an evening meal prior to catching the train to Hot Springs (later Truth or Consequences), New Mexico, for a performance. Back in New York, Barrymore and a Frederick Warde had formed a road company called the Warde-Barrymore Combination; Cummins, Barrymore, and Porter were taking a play called care Tour across the West. They had just finished a performance in Marshall.
During this meal, James Currie strolled through the room, pausing by the Barrymore table to make an insulting reference to the sexuality of Miss Cummins. Porter took offense and asked Currie to leave, which he did, going to a nearby table. Later, upon finishing his own meal, he passed by again, making more crude remarks regarding Miss Cummins. This prompted Barrymore, who had been a well-known middleweight boxer in England, to jump up and start removing his coat.
Currie glanced at him, drew two pistols, fired one and missed, then fired the other, and shot Barrymore in the left shoulder. The actor ra
n out of the room, through the kitchen, and into the backyard.
Porter now leaped to his feet, only to be shot in the stomach. Clutching his stomach, he staggered out the front door and collapsed on the sidewalk, where he died less than an hour later. Shortly after that, Sheriff Arch Adams arrested Currie and without inci
dent locked him in jail. As for Porter, his body was shipped back to New York.
Barrymore, with a bullet lodged near his spine, was placed in the Marshall, Texas, Pacific Hotel, where Miss Cummins nursed him until Mrs. Barrymore arrived. Oddly, one of Barrymore's frequent visitors turned out to be Currie's brother, Andrew, the mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana. He offered to help Barrymore in any way possible, while insisting that his brother deserved to be freed.
The case went to trial in June 1879. Currie swore that he, Barrymore, and Porter had been gambling with others that afternoon, and the three men had won $30. The three then went to dinner where an argument started, and he shot Barrymore in selfdefense. However, since none of Currie's "witnesses" showed up at the trial, the case was continued until November 26, by which time both Barrymore and Miss Cummins were on the stage back east. Subsequently, no trial occurred until June 10, 1880. This time Currie took the stand and claimed temporary insanity, swearing he had been drinking heavily on the evening of the shooting and that his delirium tremens had unbalanced him. The jury thus brought in a verdict of not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
Currie thereafter wandered over to Lincoln County, New Mexico, where during a spree in White Oaks he stabbed and killed his roommate. A New Mexico jury gave him six years, although the governor soon pardoned him. After that, he dropped from sight.
The Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters Page 13