Mob Violence and a Rope

What did the bad man of the Old West most fear? Mob violence and a rope. The desperado was not afraid of tarantulas, centipedes, or rattlesnakes, but he was in common with many other Westerners, in constant fear or hydrophobia skunks at night, while sleeping on the ground. Fatalities from the bite of such an animal were certain and not uncommon among cowboys, and there was no known anecdote for the infection. According to a report in a Southern Arizona newspaper in 1897 an outlaw named Graham Devine noted that weather was a significant worry to bad guys as well. “Now, here’s a funny thing,” he said. “I never saw a man I was afraid of, no matter whether he was drunk and shooting or cold sober and ready to kill. But I did fear fire, high water, earthquakes and cyclones. It was cyclones that drove me out of Oklahoma. They was too much for me…so I sold out for only $3,500 and left. The one other thing I was afraid of was rope. I have been mobbed twice, and the idea of dying by a rope is one I never liked to think about.” Notable peach officers were daring and faithful in protecting their bad-men captives from mobs. In 1881, Texas Ranger Captain Jim Gillett could find no leader in the mob threatening to lynch his prisoner, Enofore Baca. The mob seemed to act as an individual when it overcame Gillett and hanged Baca. Wyatt Earp could find no apparent leader in the mob of five-hundred angry Tombstone miners coming after Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce, in Earp’s custody in January of 1881. But Wyatt invented a leader, as he oscillated the muzzle do his Wells Fargo shotgun across the first twenty mobsters. He picked out a wealthy owner of one of the mines at Tombstone, who was in front, and told him he would be the first to “get it” if the mob advanced. At that, the mine owner retired and the mob dispersed slowly, one by one. Sheriff Pat Garrett faced an angry mob which closed in his railway coach and which threatened to lynch Billy the Kid, in Pat’s custody. Pat yelled at the top of his voice that if they made a rush, he would give the Kid two six-shooters and they would both open up on the crowd. The mob lost it enthusiasm immediately, and the train finally pulled out. Billy the Kid was one of the very few exceptions among bad men who seemed not to fear mob violence. He looked out his coach window at the crowd with a smiling, calmly interested expression. A lot has changed since the Earps and Pat Garrett had the nerve to stand up against a mob and hold the bad guys responsible for what they did. Bad guys aren’t afraid of anything anymore and that goes particularly for the bad guys I know personally. I have great hope that they will be very soon.