Story: Indians and Cowboys

One last story from the old blog. This one was posted in 2000 there, and I'm resisting the urge to edit it now. You'll tell me if it needs anything, right?

He was clad only in a deerskin breechclout and moccasins, and he was hanging from a thick limb of an old oak tree a long way from town. His brown body twisted slowly in the light summer breeze that also blew through his long dark hair. His wrists were bound with rawhide behind his back, and his fingers were now curled and stiff above his ass.

The posse who lynched this Indian rode off a short while ago. I was watching them from a nearby ridge. I don't know any more about why they strung him up, except that he was Indian and the posse had it in for Indians. They stuck around long enough to make sure he was dead, then took off for town. I waited until I knew they were at least a quarter mile away before I made my way down to the hanging tree.

It was eerie quiet, which made the creaking of the noose-rope even louder. The toes of the Indian's moccasins pointed almost straight down to the ground that was about 3 feet away. He was a good-looking guy, with long straight black hair and a slender, sinewy brown body that was a little dirty from the roughing-up he got from the posse before they strung him up. His head was cocked to one side by the knot in the noose, and he was slack-jawed and staring with blank eyes at the ground. I dunno why, but it was exciting to be there, this close to the dead Indian, even though I was afraid the posse would come back, or worse, the Indian's friends maybe.

You can find anything in Wikipedia, right? This one is described there as "Hanging of a Horse Thief," in 1900 in Oregon. This horse thief still has a bit of life left in him, apparently, but that probably didn't last long.

Noosed-up cowboy

Usually I want to post photos here with some of the story behind them. This one's story has eluded me so far. In fact, I can't really be certain it's historical. Maybe it's from a TV documentary. The little camera logo in the corner gives me pause too; I don't know if this is a photo from a stock agency, or rather which one. I've had some photos in my computer collection for years, and as I've commented before details are hard to come by with Internet photos. Having said that, though, this is a pretty good Western-looking photo. I've run into a few guys on IRC who would like to be noosed up and geared up like this guy.

Anyway, if you happen to know anything about this photo, please drop me a line in the comments. Or if you have anything else to say, for that matter.

Unknown rope stretcher

My source for this image claims that nothing is known about this former rope-dancer. (But then it claimed that the image of the guy strung up in the photos I posted on March 8 is of Big Jim Long, and it's not.)

I just realized that the Killin' Jim Miller image I posted last month was already posted before, dammit. I probably deserve a flogging; hangin's too good for me. (Oh wait, I'd probably like that, too.)

Killin' Jim Miller et al.

Left to right: Jim Miller, Joe Allen, Berry Burrell, and Jesse West, hanged by vigilantes in Ada, Oklahoma, April 19, 1909.

Killin' Jim Miller didn't drink or smoke. He just liked killing people. He was alternately a murderer, a sheriff, and a hired killer. But he was caught, and when it looked like he might find a way to get off, good citizens took the law into their own hands. The other three lynched with Miller had hired him to dispose of a rival of theirs. (Some info from here and here.)

The real Big Steve Long

As promised, here's Big Steve Long, strung up in Laramie, Wyoming with two half-brothers in 1868. This image is from a carte de visite and on the back was scrawled the following legend:

L to R
1) Gunfighter - Big Steve Long
2) Con Moyer.
3) Ace Moyer.

A lynching in Laramie, Wyo.
- 1868 -
Con & Ace were Founders of Laramie, Wyoming!

Two views and a check-in

Dunno who this guy was; the filename on the .jpg said it was Big Steve Long, but apparently that monicker belongs to another unfortunate hombre (maybe I'll post that pic next, though I never liked the quality of the copy I had). Whoever he was, he sure had a lot of folks present to wish him well on his journey....


Although, as is often the case, they were just fair-weather friends, and they left him to continue on alone.

***
Sorry for the silence here in the last couple of months. My mind has been wandering elsewhere, though I've had this blog (and its inspirations) in the back of my mind all along. There may be a new story at some point, if I can get it out of my pen.

Shasta, California, 1892

John and Charles Ruggles were lynched in 1892 for stagecoach robbery and murder in Shasta County, California. They were hanged from a harness; the method by which the harness was hoisted is not immediately apparent, unfortunately.

Telephone poles work, too

George Witherill ran afoul of the good citizens of Canon City, Colorado, in 1888, and wound up decorating a telegraph pole. I'm kind of surprised at how well-dressed the mob is here.

Photo: Say cheese! Uh, maybe not...

Damn paparazzi....
(Kansas, 1894)

A more formal hanging

Another hanging from the nineteenth century, but one planned out in advance unlike the other photos I've posted. My guess is that the drop this gentleman took probably did not break his neck, since he only dropped three feet or so. (Wish I had more information on some of these pics, but when you get them from the Internet you can't ask for a full bibliography.)

Nooses and horses

Too bad Killin' Jim Miller is cut off in this pic, since the caption indicates he's the star here.

I'll probably post a story in a day or two.

Another historical pic

Someone actually posted this image to a bear newsgroup once years ago. Well, he is bearded.... It also appears in The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers & Cowboys 1800–1899 (Smithmark, 1992), along with a few other photos of strung-up desperadoes and lots of other words and pictures about the West in general.

Frontier justice

Wish I could give more information about this scene. I first saw this photo in a book at the local library back in the early 1980s. The title of the book was Frontier Justice but I don't remember the author or any other details other than it was about keeping the peace in the early days of the American West. I eventually got the digital version of the image from somewhere on the Internet.

From the photo archive

I found this photo on a postcard in a card shop years ago. On the back was this caption:
"A Well-Hung Dude
After his girlfriend ran off with an aluminum siding salesman, Butch just hung around the cabin listlessly."