about 1:10. >> i want to thank thomas and invitation to the speak and i sure appreciate all of you coming out today to hear the remarks i make. this has been a rather long project on my part and i was to finally see it reach print. notablee most personalities to arise on the frontier, tom horn occupies a prominent place. throughout the last quarter of 19th century, he participated in many dangerous miner,ies as a cow hand, indian fighter, law man and toective, and managed survive. aficionados do not consider horn an equal of wyatt earp ands billy the kid, he runs them a second and he has been the subject of numerous articles, books and hollywood movies. even buy tom horn

t-shirts. horn stands out above all other western characters, his controversial by hanging. thomas h. horn jr. was born in scotland county, missouri, in 1860.er, his early years coincided with the civil war and turbulent which hection era recalled were very difficult times. his parents, who were devout followers of the disciples of christ, imposed a strict code in home, prompting young tom to 18 70's.e in the mid he struck westward working at became aand eventually cow puncher on texas cattle trifs to dodge city, kansas. in 1879, he sought his fortune silver camp of leadville, colorado. when he failed to prosper, he

reportedly hired out his gun during a dispute between two forroad companies vying control of the best route into leadville. while there, or from there, he to arizonay territory in 1881, arriving just outbreak of apache disturbances was occurring. in desperate need of employment, on with the u.s. army as a civilian employee. next five years he served as a teamster, packer and civilian chief of scouts. he was present both as a scout and a spanish interpreter during geronimo,ations with negotiations that finally led to this wily old medicine man's surrender in september 1886. now foot loose again, tom horn tried his hand at cow punching mining in ground county, arizona, where he had many friends. accepted the

invitation of friends to assist a rustlersression of outbreak in tonto basin in central arizona. episode actually efewed between the families of james tookbury on one side and thomas graham on the other resulted in 25 deaths. while horn maintained that he mediator in this vendetta and did not take sides, was aknown that he tooksbury partisan. even though he was a deputy sheriff and possibly a range detective at this time, horn joined vigilantes in lynching three suspected thieves. since tom horn had earlier lost cattle herd top mexican wrestlers, he developed inveterate hatred for all thievery. one of his friends, rancher -- burt dunlop in graham

county recalled that horn was down on thieves more than any man he ever knew, and that horn was always ready to assist lawmen in the pursuit of criminals. instance thatsuch he attracted the attention of national detective agency. in 1890, he went to work for branchmous agency's office in denver, colorado. time, newspapers soon began to applaud him for his toing and determined efforts run down train robbers. may 1892, the agency sent him to johnson county, wyoming, war erupteddy range between the big cattle companies ranchersde and small and homesteaders on the other for control of the range. believed horn's experience in the tonto basin arizona fitted

him well for this assignment. after enduring six months of in johnsonous work county, including one shootout wrestlers, horn concluded that the paltry wages of a detective, about $15 a week in expenses, was not worth the effort. soon after completing his johnson county assignment, horn left the pinkertons, declaring that he simply did not like the work. while he maintained that he resigned, however, william pinkerton, one of the owners of later insisted that he had to fire horn because horn heavily.ing very by 1893, tom horn was at work as detective for wyoming cattle companies. eventuallyon proved fatal for tom horn, although several years elapsed before this error became clear. newid not take long for the

range detective to conclude that juries, often consisting of homesteaders and small were prejudiced against the lordly cattle barrons for whom he worked and watched several cattle wereers whom he suspected set free, he vowed to work outside of the law in the future. circulated that he was willing to assassinate cattle rustlers. after two men were murdered in the iron mountain community in 1895, of cheyenne lawmen soon regarded horn as their primary person of interest and he narrowly missed a grand jury indictment for murder by two votes. cattlen's employers, the were concerned at his

vulnerability and under -- urged to leave wyoming. he returned in 1896 in time to participate again as a civilian scout in the last major army campaign against the apaches. he was working as a ranch foreman in graham county when war with spaino in about april 1898. general nelson a. miles, commanding general of the army, and his services in the apache campaigns against sought horn out to manage the pack trains in the against spanish forces in cuba. as the chief packer for the u.s. corps, horn was in charge of eight packed trains which were critical in keeping the front line troops supplied ammunition innd this heavily jungled area. horn should tom

have found his niche in the pack trains. however, when he applied for the position of pack master, in the efforts toes agnado's rebels in the philippine islands, he inexplicably turned down. in a huff, horn refused to make the effort to travel to could havehere he gotten a job with the pack really wantedad to. as a result, he returned to the employ of his cattle baron wyoming.n in 1899, he served as a union pacific railroad detective and deputy u.s. marshal in the notorious band of post office and train robbers oft were allegedly a part butch cassidy's wild bunch. in 1900, horn, who had returned again to the employ of the

cattle companies, while suspected of assassinating two livestock thieves in northwestern colorado, and finally in july of the following year he was the primary suspect in the murder of a 14-year-old boy, willie nickell, in the iron mountain community. and convicted in a wyoming district court sitting cheyenne and eventually hanged on 20 november, 1903. interest in tom horn stemmed from reading about the american west as a young boy. growing up in a small timber cutting village of perhaps 250 people in eastern arkansas, there was not a lot for me to do. i became an avid reader and my grandfather who was the local school teacher also stimulated my interest in history. family saturday visits to the nearest town of any size, my

was always the book and magazine racks at the local store. given tom horn's controversial career, he was a favorite of western writers at this time in the early 1950's. popular western nov novels and magazines, i found a paper back biography of a frontier such as wyatt earp or billy the kid. although the authors of these biographies took liberties with the truth, they encouraged me to factualknow more information about various frontier percentage. inspied -- in spite of having encountered various sources of information about tom horn in my research, i did not ever contemplate writing a biography horn. but i eventually found myself without an immediate subject for agreed to write a

short biography for a western series at the university of press.a after some preliminary research, it became apparent that a full-scale biography of tom horn would be a much larger project. suddenly i confronted the prospects of a very detailed work which eventually ended up over 500 pages. had i known how much work was involved, i might not have undertaken the project at all. as i began to look into what had been written about tom horn, i were at least three tom horns. first, the tom horn in his autobiography entitled "life of tom horn government scout and interpreter" which was published humeuously just after his exexecution. secondly, there was the legend

horn inspired by his autobiography and third, there limited number of documented research of his life. first twoyond the obstacles proved to be a challenge. his autobiography while languishing in jail prior had his execution. horn's book is well written and proven extremely popular to this day. it is presently available in at seven separate paperback printings. however, he was an accomplished of tall tales. in fact, one acquaintance accused him of being a frontier romancer. since he was facing the wrote, henoose, as he felt no compunctuation about the truth. fact, he seems to have been more interested in telling and lies than the truth. he said little about the early his career on the

frontier but devoted most of the in the his experiences apache campaigns in arizona and 1880's. mexico in the he recounted a meeting with sieber, the most famous civilian chief of scouts in arizona at that time and how taught him the arts of scouting. horn also maintained that he met the most notable apache war leader of that day, geronimo, and that this noted warrior took a liking to him. sieber also arranged for horn to live with the apaches and learn lightning -- language and customs. had aaintained that he very good ear for languages and veryed the apache tongue quickly and in fact the apaches gave him an apache name, talking boy. horn maintained that this name talking boy was a consequence of

languages.y with the truth is, a contrary tradition exists in the apache community today and they say he got the name talking boy because he was boastful and talkative. couldn't keep his mouth shut. futureso says that in negotiations between the apaches geronimo.s. army, insisted that only he, tom horn, do the interpreting. that, horn then devotes ast of his autobiography to narration of various battles in which he claimed to play the primary or at least a role. horn concluded his book with a few guarded references to the tonto basin rustlers war and as a pinkerton operative. he stopped abruptly with his arrival in wyoming in 1892 the newspapers had covered his life since that time. secondrd to the obstacle, finding the real tom that has grownd

up around him, i found almost impenetrable sometimes. horn, of course, was partly responsible for this. before his book was published after his death, he every opportunity when he confronted a newspaper reporter to regale them with all of his heroics. he was very he was very good at this, incidentally. while he was still alive, fictional pieces using him as a character appeared in such magazines as "cosmopolitan" and "mcclure's." forest dean hooker included him as a character in her novel --en geronimo roade." forestine hooker.

arthur chapman, a denver newspaper man, inevitably gave in suchrominent place stories. in 1910, john lloyd, a novelist, published a novel titled "the horn asrs" and included a character. 's pinkertonorn wrote theiro recollections about tom horne, and they were not always very complementary. ads soonsly written ballot began to appear about this mysterious range writer, and a pioneer wyoming movie maker produced a film about the wyoming range wars entitled "pirates of the planes" and it

includes a tom-horn-like character as an assassin. the market for any wild west material just boomed. there was an insatiable demand for thrilling adventure stories about any frontier character. among the most popular werements of tom horn chapters in books by dane coolidge entitled "fighting men of the west" and eugene 's "trigonometry," which incidentally is still in print. the wyoming sheriff who presided at tom horn's exultation publishes recollections in a -- the wyoming sheriff who presided at tom horn's execution.

retired army officers and old pioneers who had known him were provoked to try to correct this exaggerated image that was floating around. fact, under the leadership of charles gatewood junior, the son of the army officer who was responsible for negotiating geronimo's surrender, charles gatewood junior organized the circle of correspondence to try to fight the exaggerations and embellishments about tom horn, but alas, they were unsuccessful. in spite or perhaps because of the popularity of this well-known and controversial frontiersman, my efforts to reach the third tom on, the documented one, proved much more difficult than anticipated, and my research for previous books concerning u.s. marshals and

county sheriff's on the southwestern frontier, i had occasionally accounted its of new material about corn -- horn. at the arizona historical society, i happened upon a letter written by tom horn to u.s. marshal william kidder 1896.in november, the letter was a reply to meade's request that horn join a posse that marshall had in the field in pursuit of bank robbers at that time, november 1896. in his reply, he apologizes that he cannot join the posse. he was busy at the time as a foreman of a ranch, but he did promise that in the future it he could break free, he would try to assist the marshal.

however, he insisted he would not serve with a posse that the marshall had in the field. posses were normally saloon outups or amateurs who were possibly for reward money. they were unreliable. ton insisted he would have go by himself. "i can stand a better show to get those outlaws by going , "and willremarked get some of them and dry the rest out of the country you are co--- out of the country are co--- out of the country." he went on to say to the marshall, "i will get these men, but what is in it for me?" not get them,did meaning killing some of them, it would cost nobody a cent. one of the most revealing thatrs i have ever found

in a sense confirmed a lot of the rumors that were trickling , int horn later on undertaking serious research for the horn biography, the record of the u.s. army was a logical place to begin. in the 19th century, the u.s. congress kept very tight control thatevery federal agency spent public moneys. all federal agencies were required to account for every .xpenditure army quartermaster officers who had the job of employing civilians show that tom horn was employed first at whipple barracks near prescott, arizona, in september 1881. he began as a teamster and mule packer, not as a chief of scouts, as he later claimed. not until 1885 is there evidence that he began to serve as a chief of scouts, and he did so for the full following year in the pursuit of geronimo.

were pertinent army records have not been found for his employment in arizona, there are other records that have helped. for instance, for six months in 1884, the records of the bureau of indian affairs reveal that he in theloyed as a clerk settler store at san carlos, arizona, the headquarters of the apache reservation. one of the puzzling aspects about his autobiography is why he refused to tell the truth about his military service. apparently, he felt that the jobs of a teamster -- that is, driving a wagon -- a meal packer, or settlers clerk were beneath his dignity. such an attitude, especially toward the job of packer, is difficult to comprehend since the packers constituted an elite and skilled guild in the service of the u.s. army. brigadier general george cook,

commander of the military department of arizona during tom horn's residents, considered the packers and their mules as the key players in pursuit of renegade apaches. since the mountain ranges of southeast arizona and northern mexico were largely roadless, only the surefooted mules could keep troop supplies and such campaigns. furthermore, since many packers were hispanics or mexicans, tom horn had the opportunity to learn their language, and eventually, he qualified to serve as a spanish interpreter but never as an apache interpreter as he claimed. equally puzzling about his constant embellishments and sometimes outright lies and his are in regard to his participation in various battles with the apache renegades. again, he did not have to exaggerate his part since

documentary sources show that he was present and performed his duties in a respectable manner. the civilian chief of scouts -- and there were many besides horn -- occupied a critical position in the front your army. during the campaigns against renegade apaches, the army also -- often in listed friendly apaches into the army. while these apache units enjoyed the same rights and privileges of white enlisted men, they normally served as separate civilianpanies, and a chief of scouts was assigned to guide each company. these white chiefs of scouts were required to be familiar with the apache people and often had navy wives, and there's some indication that horn lived with an apache girl and fathered at least one child by her. scouts were inan the middle serving as mediators

between army officers who were seldom acquainted with apache customs and the apaches who served in the army, tom horn was assigned to companies of apache scouts on several occasions. while he could not speak fluent apache, he managed a pigeon that was common to all at that time in their circumstances, and he was able to converse with his scouts. the chief of scouts lived with the apache scouts in the field and was expected to keep them in line. not so much through harsh discipline, but through a deft hand. the members of the apache scout companies who were generally on theirt name basis with chief regarded him as one of them. ton the apaches asked, horn drink and gamble with them, he wisely consented. first reachede

the nationwide press while serving as a chief of scouts in pursuit of renegade apaches in sonora. of 1885-18 86, captain emmet crawford led an expedition in pursuit of the fugitive apaches into northern mexico. tom horn was one of two civilian chiefs of scouts accompanying this party. unfortunately, this campaign ended in tragedy when mexican militiamen blundered into the american force, apparently mistaking crawford's apache scouts for hostile apaches, the mexicans opened fire, mortally wounding crawford and giving tom horn a flesh wound. at great risk to his own life, out into the mexicans' line of fire and ordered them to identify themselves as americans -- in order to identify themselves as americans. lieutenant moss, who assumed command, later phrase -- later

praised tom horn for his bravery and recommended him for some sort of army recognition or meritorious service. this recognition neighbor came -- and never came, incidentally. tom horn's services as a scout culminated in his search for geronimo and his following in sonora in 1886. brigadier general nelson miles, who had just succeeded george crook as department commander, ordered lawton to stay on the trail of the elusive apaches until they were run down, killed, or captured. when geronimo was finally in august of 1886, tom horn and his scouts were present. when first lieutenant charles gatewood who conducted the negotiations with geronimo, assembled interpreter's for these talks, he borrowed chief of scouts, horn to serve as an

apache interpreter. negotiations were conducted from apache to spanish to english and vice versa. after geronimo and his party surrendered at skeleton canyon, arizona, in early september, general miles escorted this small band of about 20 apaches -- that's all that were left -- where he prepared them for exile in the east. tom horn had one last duty to .erform in this regard as the convoy was organized to go to the railroad station in arizona, tom horn was given the assignment of personally escorting geronimo. he wrote in the buggy with geronimo to the railroad station and saw him off in a file to the east. frontier, time on the tom horn encountered moments when his life could have taken a

very different turn. one such moment occurred at the end of his service as chief packer for the army and the cuban campaign in 1898. where returned to arizona he had friends, he could always have found employment there, but instead, he made no release and seer ever to stand pat trains or to go to arizona, either one. instead, he stayed in wyoming where in september 1898, he returned to the employment of .is old cattle baron friend from this point on, his life began to take a downward spiral. when the 14-year-old son of a homesteader at the iron mountain community was assassinated on july 18, 19 01, a public outcry .mmediately hollowed

this outcry only increased when a few days later, and a separate, unrelated case, a young boy was found murdered near casper, wyoming. first, laramie county sheriff's offices in cheyenne were inclined to suspect that the murderer of willie nickell was a near neighbor or possibly one of his two teenage sons. d been quarreling for some time. juryer, as a coroner's conducted an unusually lengthy -- and theon transcript of some 400 pages is still available -- suspicion began to point toward range detective tom horn, who had been -millering me nickell neighborhood at the time of the assassination.

there was much speculation as to what motive he could have had for such a killing. bigtheory held that cattlemen in the area hired him kels nickell but that horn had accidentally shoot that shot the boy. one of the rumors that floated was that the boy was wearing his father's coat and hat that turned out to be erroneous. that would explain why juan made the mistake. 'sfew days after willie murder, an attempt was made against his father's life. he was shot and wounded three times, and especially brutal affair, because he had his three-year-old daughter with him at the time. sort of incredible. however, he did survive. another version of a possible motive pointed to a long-standing personal feud

between him and the cattle baron. had inflicted a life-threatening knife wound on john coble. while coble survived, many people assumed that this cattle baron never forgave nickell, a lowly homesteader, for an attack better.ocial it logically follow that tom horn was carrying out his boss toss wishes when he shot in 's son, the idea being that it would persuade him to leave the country -- it logically followed that horn was carrying out his boss' wishes. another legend was that he killed willie on john coble's order with the purpose of to vacate.nickell

if so, he was successful. he moved to cheyenne. some speculated that willie nickell somehow spotted tom horn as he lay in ambush. the young son of his victim had spied the assassin in the vicinity. later, during a grand jury investigation in cheyenne, this young boy had spotted horn at the courthouse. seeing his father's suspected .iller, the boy cried out recalling this very embarrassing moment as he lay in wait, horn was determined not to make the same mistake twice. he shot willie. it was also pointed out that tells nickell had recently

committed and unpardonable sin in that region, especially in the eyes of the cattle barons, by bringing sheep onto traditional cattle range. as lonmin continued to investigate the murder of willie nickell, laramie county board of commissioners resolved to get to the bottom of this brutal killing. the northwestern part of the county, especially part of it, had been the scene of many violent episodes. it was time to incorporate this isolated and lawless region into the law-abiding part of laramie county. thecommissioners authorized public prosecutor to employ a special investigator with the sole assignment of finding the murderer of willie nickell. lefors, onejoseph

of the martial's deputies. he had a reputation for doggedness on the job, and he had also served as a range detective earlier. he was given the assignment to get that necessary evidence against tom horn. tom horn was targeted almost from the start. in january 1902, lefors manipulated an unsuspecting tom horn into a compromising conversation in the privacy of the marshal's office. in a carefully planned secreted a court stenographer and an adjoining room and instructed him to take down the conversation between the deputy marshal and tom horn. horn, who believed that the former range detective was like-minded and sympathized with him, made a series of incriminating admissions, not only to the murder of willie to earliert

assassinations. he was immediately arrested and in cheyenne. to this day, the trial in a secure and remains one of the most controversial events in wyoming history. the trial in the laramie county took place in october 1902 and was a media event for that day. much prequel to listen to have taken place. characterizing the case as a sort of showdown the lordly cattle companies and common people of wyoming predicted that the livestock lobby would spend whatever amount of money was necessary to save their hirelings. john coble did retain a battery byhigh paid attorneys led one of the most influential .ttorneys in the state

the prosecution, consisting of one man, public prosecutor walter stall, with some assistance from an attorney , appearedels nickell truly outgunned in the trial, but the proceedings were filled with unexpected turns, the most surprising being that the trial lasted only two weeks instead of .n anticipated six weeks furthermore, the trial did not end in a hung jury, as was widely expected. short,liberations were and a verdict of guilty was returned, and tom horn was sentenced to hang. apparently, big changes were taking place in wyoming in 1902 and 1903. the cattlemen's lobby, which was expected to provide in list financing for tom horn's defense, provided little or no money. john coble was forced to borrow $5,000 from his ranch in partner

in order to put down a retainer. several years after horn's execution, newspapers reported coble was still making futile efforts to persuade other for the to pony up attorney fees. during the trial, the cattlemen thatd through newspapers they had disavowed the use of violence as represented by tom horn, leaving john coble to carry the burden. to add to coble's woes, he had lost his influential position as manager of the iron mountain land and cattle company. feared, asonger earlier, by the homesteaders. wasas no wonder that coble the only cattle baron to attend the trial, and he did so only sporadically. not one other cattle baron attended the proceedings for even one session.

.om horn literally stood alone since tom horn's demise, as partisans of maintained he was railroaded for the murder of willie nickell in order to punish him for his earlier assassinations. as partisans assert that the jury consisted of small ranches who hated horn's employers, the big cattle company, and they were ready to convict even if the evidence did not warrant it. after much study, my position is probably committed the murder. the transcript of the coroner's inquest, four hundred pages, the trial transcript of 700 pages are all available today in the wyoming state archives. newspaper coverage was very though it's inclined a bit toward the yellow journalism of that day. while i am aware that the miscarriages of justice do occur

and our judicial system, john coble ensured that horn received the best possible defense. the problem was that the defense had at best a very weak case. first of all, horn's confession was devastating to the defense. while this confession would be considered in troutman today in our judicial segment -- considered entrapment today in thejudicial system, presiding judge accepted the confession without question, and there were precedents for it. these precedents still exist. the u.s. marshal's precaution of having an accredited court stenographer to take down this conversation, even if the defendant had been drinking and was unaware of the madegrapher's presence, this part of the prosecution

difficult to attack. while i cannot go into all the details of this remarkable case, the defense was able to present only one hour by witness for tom horn. that heness testified had seen the defendant many miles away from the murder scene on the morning of the murder. he said horn was riding at a casual pace and seemed to be some play minding his own business. however, the prosecution showed and he was a friend of horn an admirer of tom horn and wanted to be a range detective just like horn. in the legal profession, there is an aphorism which holds that one eyewitness is no eyewitness. you must have at least two eyewitnesses to have a case. in a retrial of the tom on case in 1993, the presiding judge, as

you might expect, throughout the confession, and tom horn was acquitted of the murder of willie nickell. during the trial proceedings in 1902, there was speculation concerning tom horn's state of mind. a wyoming cow hand who work around ups with horn expressed the opinion that the defendant .ight be insane he had observed a dramatic change in tom horn's conduct since he returned from cuba. horn had suffered a severe attack of yellow fever and had begun to drink even more heavily , apparently in order to try to fight the ailment. he observed that during ,oundups, horn was often moody would not talk to anybody, appeared out of sorts, and would inexplicably jump on his horse and ride over the country without food or rest for two or

three days. he expressed the opinion that horn'storneys -- attorneys would probably plead insanity as a last card, but they did not. when a reporter raised the question of horn's mental state with the chief defense attorney, he admitted that there had been hence all along that tom horn might have been partially insane . he also agreed that horn had not been of sound mind since he returned from cuba. the reason for this conclusion was that horn failed to fully inform the defense attorneys of important matters bearing on his case and left out important facts, which, according to him, would have been materially case had they known them in time. if he had been of sound mind, he would have mentioned the things and benefited his case, he remarked to a newspaper man. 's mind was unsteady, it

is a testament to the degree of desperation felt among the defense attorneys that they permitted him to take the .itness stand certainly, horn did himself no favors as a witness, arguing that his so-called confession was merely josh between two men of like minds. the fact that these two men discussed killing people in such a casual manner in this conversation did not seem to register with anyone. thisg my research into aspect of tom horn's life, i confess that i did not find any thatnd wonderful material would decisively support either side of the case. however, a few points of the circumstantial nature did arise -- while in jail, tom horn's conduct toward other inmates was

sometimes very offensive, and he often acted like a criminal. ,fter the execution of tom horn the single eyewitness for the defense reportedly admitted to reality, when he saw tom horn on the morning of in hisder, tom horn, words, was "writing like hell to get away." as fast words, riding as he could to laramie, wyoming, to try to establish an alibi. 's the day of willie nickell funeral, according to the reverend benjamin young, who provided at these services, jenn miller approached him with the question -- should miller attend the funeral services of willie? miller admitted that he and kels nickell have had their

differences in the past but there was no way he would stoop to such a crime as killing young boy. he protested that he had boys of his own and while he was hasty tempered, he could not do anything like that, that issued 14-year-old willie. while reverend young was sympathetic, he reluctantly advised miller to stay away. nonetheless, two of miller's daughters did attend, and all the while the women in both families had maintained cordial relations. while it can be argued that jim miller was merely feigning a feeling of sympathy, his actions do not appear, to me at least, to be those of a guilty man. while considering the various aspects of the case, a new wrinkle recently appeared in this already complex story. in 2012, a resident of colorado informed claudia williams of the

american heritage center at the university of wyoming that his declared that john coble may have been personally involved in the death of willie nickell and the subsequent 's life.on kels nickell according to the story which was family,own through the john coble wrote perry williams a letter shortly after nickell's murder and confessed to parry williams that he was responsible for the death. unfortunately, it appears unclear from this tradition in the family whether coble meant he personally was present at the orling of willie nickell that he was responsible for willie's death by proxy, perhaps .hrough tom horn

it's also unfortunate that this increment in letter was lost in williamsen the parry ranch house burned, so it is simply a tradition not supported by a document. of tomewing the life horn, it should be noted that there was always a shadowy side to his activities. he was reportedly involved in a shooting incidents . in colorado, he sold his gun to a railroad company. rustlers andg arizona, he rode with vigilantes. one of the most bizarre events in his life took face while he was serving as a pinkerton detective. in 1891, while on a case on the west coast, he was arrested in reno, nevada, and accused of robbing a casino. agency camenkerton to his defense and succeeded in

getting him off after two trials, many citizens of reno continue to believe that his guilt was overwhelming. as a union pacific railroad detective in pursuit of butch cassidy's gang, tom horn twotted to killing suspected train robbers only to find out that he had killed the wrong men -- they were simply rustlers. even more fantastic -- and this is very difficult to believe but apparently there is some truth to it -- there was a second incident in which one participated in killing two men in wyoming, and again, by mistake. .ery confusing by 1900, the people of wyoming were sick and tired of the antics of this loose cannon in wyoming. for the first time, wyoming newspapers, which had been reluctant to connect his name in print with various crimes, now

openly criticized him for such callous behavior. in this sense, if there was ever a conspiracy against tom horn, .t was wide in the popular conception of tom horn, this controversial scouting detective is often viewed as in effect, two men. in this schizoid interpretation, the first tom horn is the chief of scouts and pinkerton detective who stood on the side of law and order. the second is the cattle detective who terrorized and even assassinated grangers -- rangers and small cattle operators. the usual justification for this dramatic personality change is that he felt forced to adopt to the direct actions of a frontier regulator when juries in wyoming refused to convict rustlers. the evidence contradicts this interpretation. was brutalized in the

no holds barred atmosphere of the apache campaigns. in which even apache women and children were callously murdered. infact, tom horn admitted one instance where he shot a little baby in the arms of an apache woman who had been killed. she was still clutching the little baby. one of the surprising things to me in these apache campaigns is that the army assumes direction of the apache reservation at the height of the hostilities, and the army officers in charge of the reservation actually meted out summary justice to apache troublemakers, and horn was clearly aware of this, although there's no evidence that he participated in the summary execution of an apache. but his leader, his guide, was known to have shot or killed at least two apache alleged

troublemakers and a summary execution. horn must have been aware of all .f this when horn into the employ of the wyoming, thein cattle barons of course andnated wyoming politics, horn assumed that he would be protected by these cattle barons just as he had been protected by apachey in the campaigns. i don't see any difference, really, between the two heiress -- heiress -- between the two eras. i don't think people really comprehend well just how vicious the apache campaigns were. the u.s. army was just as vicious on its side. one of the biggest difficulties in writing a biography of such a controversial frontiersman is to arrive at some sort of

assessment of his personality. admittedly, tom horn was a complex person. the word enigmatic is often used to cover it. he possessed certain talents. literate enough to write an autobiography. he was a top cow hand, a recognized horse breaker. he broke the most famous cutting horse in all of wyoming's history. while living with the apaches, apachened -- learned horsehair braiding. .e learned to use leather examples of his work are in museums, not just in wyoming but all across the west. some examples are also in private hands. he was very good at such an art. he was, in his prime, a good marksman, although later in life, by the time he killed , he was not that

good a shot. and target practice, he often missed the birds they were shooting at. incidentally, he was wearing reading glasses by this time. reminiscent a bit of wild bill hickok. remember he was also going blind by the end of his life. a result of exposure to the planes and desert environment. one of the pioneer rodeo stars. he held the record for spear arizona many years and territory. if he had stuck with animals -- he loved animals -- he apparently hated people, but he loved animals. career. have made it a some of his contemporaries did make it a career and retired from the army with rank as pack s.ster' at the same time, even his

friends admitted he was egotistical and full of himself. in his autobiography, he writes as though he fulfilled in the apache campaign the role that the it or roosevelt claimed to have fulfilled in the campaigns against the spaniards in cuba. enemies of teddy roosevelt, incident, accused him in his memoirs of writing as though he was alone in cuba. tom horn wrote as though he was alone in arizona in fighting the apaches. brief critical that tom hornd suffered from an inferiority complex. this was a consequence of him having served west point trained officers and serving the lordly cattle barons who were so wealthy, and horn never amassed wealth himself. feel that his did

services were underappreciated, and he went out of his way to try to impress people. he would even quote shakespeare just to impress people. some have concluded that tom horn's primary problem was that he outlived his time, that he was in his element in the 1880's and 1890's when the institutions of frontier law enforcement were very weak and frontiersman were forced to result to vigilante justice. it was horn's misfortune to live into the 20th century, according to the scenario, when public opinion no longer condone his whichtor methods, included assassinations for money. if one subscribes to this interpretation, we are forced to conclude that tom horn was merely a tragic character in the mold of ancient greek mythological characters who were ponds in the hands of fickle and arbitrary gods. however, while american frontiersman might resort to

vigilante justice in emergencies, they never condoned assassinations for money. if tom horn did kill for money, he did so willfully and with the full knowledge that he was contravening the rules of society around him. thank you very much. [applause] >> are there any questions? >> i would be happy to entertain any questions. >> yes. >> [inaudible] before he was employed by the cattlemen's association? >> i don't have any documented reference to him having shot and personalmebody in a dispute, for instance.

there is one tradition that he was in a shooting in southern arizona and killed someone over a girl, but i was never able to document that. i don't think there's any doubt, though, that he did participate in these battles with the apaches. he certainly was shooting at apaches and probably did kill some or wound some. >> [inaudible] >> yes. in wyoming, he was, yes. but he was never convicted in court for any of those suspected assassinations. have evidence, for instance, from some of his friends -- at least two of his friends who worked with him on john coble's cattle ranch in the 1920's. they admitted that they were at the time of the two killings in 1895 syria they

admitted that they saw horn riding away from these shooting scenes -- they admitted that they were eyewitnesses at the time of the two killings in 1895. it became common knowledge on the streets of cheyenne and on that horn was instrumental in these killings. the two killings in northwestern colorado in 1900 are in a sense even better documented in a way because newspapers, in describing these events, practically named tom horn as the assassin because he was boastful. light district of laramie and cheyenne, he would and het stone drunk, would apparently feel compelled to tell it all, so he would tell these people around him what he had done.

it's amazing that he was able to get us far as he did without being indicted. but in 1895, when the grand jury investigated those first two killings, the cattle barons were ,till pretty much in control but by 19 oh 1, 1902, there had been a big change. the big change i find is in newspaper coverage. the denver newspapers covered all of this very closely and sympathized with the common folk, the rocky mountain news editorialized against the cattle condemned alley of these assassinations that were going on. it just seems that public opinion grew up. , so horn was really condemned when the cattlemen themselves just backed away, not a casethis was of hiring some of to kill cattle

rustlers, the murder of this boy had nothing to do with the range wars, this was a personal thing. at least that is my reading of it. transcriptographer's is available, is that correct? >> yes, i have not been able to see it. >> what statement did he make in that transcript that would have believe he was guilty? >> all i have is the transcript , and was done in shorthand i have been told that an attorney in wyoming who is a collector of americana has these notes, and i tried to get in touch with him, but i was unable to do so. it would be really interesting shorthand notes

and have a stenographer transcribed them again today to see just how accurate the transcription was. course of the testimony of the prosecution, they submitted the entire transcription of the shorthand notes. forsne instance where le asks -- or makes the outright statement that in your shooting thatllie nickell, how did come about, and his reply was that if he had done that, it was the dirtiest deed he'd ever done in his life or something to that effect. when the deputy marshal brought up the subject of the 1895 killings, horn just admitted he hadd admitted that received his money -- like 600 dollars ahead, something like this -- he received his money on

a train going from cheyenne to denver. lo and behold, deputy marshal lefors was able -- he got in touch with this payoff man who was, of all things, the son of a scottish cattle investor. lots of scots and englishmen and irishmen had invested in wyoming .attle land the payoff man was the son of one of these scottish investors, and he admitted -- and this is autobiography. he later wrote his own autobiography, and he has a chapter devoted to this. you have to be careful, and i admit this right up front because he did not have the best reputation for the truth either. but he stood on the side of law and order his entire career, whereas horn did not. but, nonetheless, a enough evidence was amassed by lefors

to convince him that he was definitely on the right track. yes? >> [inaudible] >> you know, some of those records are being digitized, but the ones i use were not. i had to go to the national archives. you, itfe can assure was almost annual trips to the national archives in washington or the library of congress to run down material. horn was very hard to document, legend abouthe him. at first, he was simply an obscure character, a teamster and packer. it was not until 1885 that he began to really appear in records, and then to continue to find evidence of his actual activities in the apache campaigns, i finally had to get into the army post records, which are also available in the

national archives. the army never lost a record, as near as i can figure. it's the biggest bureaucracy in the world. it's incredible. >> [inaudible] .> tom horn is in the census i could not find him in the 1900 census. i was not surprised because we know he was in wyoming at the time, but apparently, he was in the field chasing train robbers or something and was not available. in any taxfound him records, and i'm not sure he ever paid taxes to anybody. overall,ther poor although he did amass some mining property in arizona. we know the name of the mine, and we know when he sold the

mine. he had several partners. i don't think he ever accumulated much money from his mining activity, but he would not stick with anything. stuck with mining, he would have probably died a natural death. he admits in his book that he did not like mining, although he was noted as a hard worker in the mines. he was noted as a hard worker in whatever he did, even shooting people, apparently. [laughter] >> in the 1930's, did any of the interviewers talk with people who had -- >> yes. in wyoming, that's where i found some good material, good reminiscences about him. interviews -- a lot of those i think her digitized by library of congress. i'm not sure about this, but, yes, i found some very good anecdotal material about horn.

again, he was not well-liked, necessarily, although the children did. it strikes me that he's one of these persons who knew that he was in kind of a treacherous situation. he was not liked. he knew he was not liked. even the cowboys he worked with on the roundups did not like him. and act, one of the best anecdotes i found about horn was by one of the men who later admitted that he saw horn riding away from the murder scene in 1895. this old cow hand recalls that mp withrn was in ca other cow hands, the working cow hands would joke with each other and pull jokes on each other, but never on tom horn. tom horn always slept by himself. he usually worked at night. he wrote at night. seemed to enjoy it.

he was regarded as a loner. even though some people like him -- a few people liked him, but it seemed to me they were propertied people. even his friends in arizona owned ranches, and he worked for them on their ranches. my conclusion is overall, tom horn was not a very likable character. it just took me over 500 pages to say that. [laughter] yes? >> [inaudible] >> yes, he did. even as a scout in the apache campaigns in the 1880's, he was downin the boot hill area on the border. that was a big army supply base, so he worked that region, but then as a pinkerton, he was assigned to a case of railroad theft out at coolidge, which was , andknown as train station

in 1891 -- in fact, in between his two trials in reno, nevada, for robbing the casino, the pinkerton's sent him to coolidge to work there to try to find out who was stealing property from the railroad. he did not do a very good job, incidentally. he blew all of his expense money on gambling. that was part of his job. base of -- they were supposed to what they call make the rounds. pinkerton operatives had to make the rounds through the saloons, wherever they were working. you had to know how to drink, but tom horn, i think, learned to well. i think he came close to being an alcoholic. but he did not do a very good job there. he was relieved because his second trial was coming up in reno, so he had to go back for the second trial. but that is the only case i'm aware of that he worked here -- well, he did in pursuing the train robbers out of colorado.

the vicinityown in of house in pursuit of train robbers on one occasion. any other questions? yes? >> [inaudible] >> it was very difficult. i was always tickled when i found a document, you know, that i could actually conclude i could rely on, but, yes, you are right. in fact, some people in cheyenne thatuded after the trial he literally talked himself into the gallows. when he testified, the prosecutor was able just to turn everything around. horn -- the one thing and steve that is sorttrayal

of accurate to me if any of you have seen the movie is they portray him as slightly dumb or slightly impervious to what is going on around him. the word stupid is not correct here, but he just simply did not calm for hint what was going on around him. he was sort of insulated in his own little world. but thank you very much. i really appreciate the opportunity. [applause] >> you are watching american history tv. audio hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter @cs onhistory for information our schedule, upcoming programs, and to keep up with the latest history news. a" each week, "reel americ

brings you archival films that help tell the story of the 21st century. -- of the 20th century. >> war in the middle east. israeli forces sure i've spit him's across the sinai peninsula, west to the suez canal, breaking the blockade, capturing the west bank of the jordan river and occupying the old city of jerusalem. blow camecrippling early in the four-day war when the arab air force was destroyed on the ground in an rates on 25 bases in three countries -- egypt, jordan, syria. israel's new defense minister, hero of the 1956 sinai command, was instrumental in mapping his nation's battle plan. israeli army crushed ua are forces with a combined air and ground 1-2 punch. egypt's charges that british and u.s. air units aided israel are vigorously denied while diplomatic relations are broken.

goldbergssador arthur in theces the peace plan security council representing 15 nations. states andnited russia disagree on the wording of a resolution over troop withdrawals, israel's foreign minister charges the ua our president plotted the murder of a state. vote is finally taken and a resolution adopted unanimously. word continues to come from the battles on telling of sweeping israeli victories. next the day, joining jordan, leaving syria facing israeli forces alone. the united nations mains in the world spotlight because of the many questions raised by the short but decisive middle east war. with israel now controlling the sinai peninsula, all approaches to the suez canal, jerusalem,

bethlehem, a diplomatic struggle now begins. >> on sunday night at 6:30 p.m. eastern, from the american bar association's annual meeting, supreme court chief justice john roberts discusses the magna carta on its 800th anniversary. he on why there was a need for the magna carta, however helped shape a young and growing america, and it significant today. watching american history tv all weekend every .eekend on c-span3 >> next on the civil war, university of west georgia professor keith o hannan discusses general william tecumseh sherman's 1864 atlanta campaign. in the summer of 18 six e4, general sherman marched south from chattanooga into georgia with the goal of capturing atlanta. after a series of battles and a siege of the city, atlanta l to the union on september 2, 1864, setting up sherman's march to

the see later in the year. this was part of the gettysburg civil war institute. it's about an hour. >> before we get started, the map you >> before we get started, the map you see up here is a campaign map. the smaller map indicates the main battle. i know it is probably difficult for those of you in the back of the room to see the small details and maybe read the print , so what we did -- or actually, what pete's staff did, was actually include this in your book.nd handbooks if you turn to page nine, you will see this map in their. you might want to refer t