The Posse After Tom Bell

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Principles of Posse Management: Lessons From the Old West for Today’s Leaders

Tom Brown was nearly where Buck’s Creek poured out into the open plains when he came upon the posse.  The sturdy and tenacious group of lawmen had been waiting for days for one of the members of the Bell gang to ride through the Northern California range.  A couple of placer miners working a claim on the American River told Sacramento County detective Robert Harrison that Bell’s men rode through the area between holdups.  Tom Brown, alias Sam Woodruff, didn’t fight the unfortunate situation he found himself.  Without saying a word he stepped off his horse and surrendered his six-shooters.  Detective Harrison was happy to relieve the bandit of his weapons.

Tom Bell, also known as the “gentlemen highway man”, was second only in notoriety to the cruel and bloodthirsty Joaquin Murrieta.  His true name was Thomas J. Hodges, a native of Rome, Tennessee, where he was born in 1826.  His parents were respected people and made sure he had a thorough education.  He graduated from a medical institution, and shortly after receiving his diploma, joined a military regiment and proceeded to the seat of war in Mexico, where he served honorably as a non-commissioned officer until the close of the struggle.

Like thousands of others he was attracted to California by its golden allurements and began life as a miner.  The hard work and privations of a miner’s life, coupled with a lack of success, caused him to follow in the footsteps of many, whose loose moral ideas led them into gambling as a means of making ends meet.  Soon tiring of this, he took to the road, where he continued his games of chance, simply staking his revolver against whatever loose coin his victims had about them.

He was convicted of grand larceny in 1855 and sentenced to five years in the state prison at Angel Island.

In May 1855, he made his escape with half a dozen other prisoners, among whom were Bill Gristy, alias Bill White, James Webster, Ned Conners, and Jim Smith.  These four remained together and formed the nucleus of the celebrated and notorious “Tom Bell gang,” that for nearly two years kept the state in a fever of excitement.

Management Principle Learned from the Posse After Tom Bell

Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes

Various members of the posse disguised themselves as outlaws and saloon patrons in order to collect the information needed to apprehend the criminals. Instead of figuratively walking in someone else’s shoes, posse members made it experiential. By doing this they were in a better position to propose solutions to potential problems and learned how to best achieve their objective.

To learn more about Tom Bell and the posse who tracked him and his gang read

Principles of Posse Management: Lessons from the Old West for Today’s Leader