This Day…

1881-Budd Philpot, a luckless driver, and a passenger, Peter Roerig, were killed in a failed stage robbery outside of Contention City, Arizona, by Jim Crane and others of the “cowboy” stamp.  Robber Luther King was wounded and ratted out the others after he was caught.

1878 – Jesse Evans and Tom Hill were caught plundering a sheep camp at Alamo Springs, New Mexico.  After shooting the hereder, the herder killed Hill with one shot and wounded Evans in the wrist.  Evans then spurred off on a stolen horse.

1878 – Frank Baker and Billy Morton were in the custody of a regulator posse led by Dick Brewer for their participation in the murder of John Tunstall.  In an attempted escape at Steel Springs, New Mexico posseman William McCloskey was killed by Morton, but Morton and Baker  were both quickly shot to pieces by the remaining members of the posse.

1873-Bully Brooks prudently patched up his disputes with Kirk Jordan in Dodge City.

1896-The outlaw Red Buck George Weightman, was surrounded by a posse in a dugout near Cheyenne, Oklahoma.  He tried to shoot his way out and was killed with a rifle shot fired by Chris Madsen.

1898- A posse led by Valentine Hoy cornered escaped convicts Harry Tracy, Dave Lant, and Sweded Johnson in Browns Park, Colorado. As he approached them Hoy was shot through the heart by Tracy.

1871 – Surrounded by a posse in an outhouse in Wichita, Kansas suspected horse thief J.E. Ledford came out with guns blazing and badly wounded Marshal Jack Bridges.  Bridges survived by Ledfrod was killed.  1908 – On February 29 Pat Garrett had stopped to take a leak beside the road outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico.  When Wayne Brazel killed him from behind.

1897 – Respected lawman Les Dow was reading a letter in front of the post office in Carlsbad, New Mexico when Dave Kemp stepped up and shot him in the face.  He died the next morning.

1900 – Three fingered Jack Dunlap and some other desperadoes tried to rob the train in Fairbanks, Arizona.  They opened fire on Jeff Milton, the express messenger, and shattered his arm, but Milton got off a shotgun blast that put 11 buckshop into Dunlap’s side.  The attempted robbery failed.

1885- Red Hall and Sheriff Charlie McKinney met with some Mexican officials at Las Islas crossing on the Rio Grande River to try and bring peace to the troubled region.  The Mexicans lured them to a fiesta but they were attecked by rurales and had to flee for their lives.

1887 – Long Haired Jim Courtright was running a protection scam on the gamblers in Fort Worth, Texas.  Luke Short refused to pay and Long Haired Jim was killed in the ensuring gunplay.