1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,320 Speaker 1: All right, you like a story that's part Western, part 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: political intrigue, part horror, and it's all true. This is 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:10,800 Speaker 1: a story about an outlaw who pulled off some pretty 4 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: awful murders and then was gruesomely murdered himself, and the 5 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: bizarre aftermath of that killing. I'm Patty Steele. The wild 6 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:25,920 Speaker 1: West was wilder than you thought. Next on the backstory. 7 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: We're back with the backstory sounding more like a mobster 8 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:35,160 Speaker 1: than a gunslinger. Outlaw George Parrot was known as Big 9 00:00:35,200 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: Nose George, and you can probably guess why. George is 10 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: a cattle rustler and highwaymen robbing stage coaches in the 11 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:46,519 Speaker 1: eighteen seventies in Wyoming. But he wants more money and 12 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: more notoriety, and in the wild West the best way 13 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:55,480 Speaker 1: to get both at the same time was a train robbery. 14 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: It's eighteen seventy eight. George and his cohorts try to 15 00:00:59,720 --> 00:01:03,440 Speaker 1: hold up a train, but they bungle the heist. They escape, 16 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: but a local deputy and a detective with the Union 17 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: Pacific Railroad managed to track them down at their campsite 18 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: in the wilderness. A gun battle ensues and the deputy 19 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 1: and the detective are shot to death. George and his 20 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,360 Speaker 1: men cover the bodies and they take off, but the 21 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:24,319 Speaker 1: bodies are found and a ten thousand dollars reward is 22 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:28,040 Speaker 1: offered for their capture. George and the others head next 23 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: to Montana looking for their next victim. This time they're 24 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:35,720 Speaker 1: looking for a wagon train loaded with money. In a saloon, 25 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 1: they hear about a wealthy local merchant who's about to 26 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:41,720 Speaker 1: head back east to buy tons of goods for his store. 27 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:45,759 Speaker 1: Joining that caravan are wagons sent by the local army 28 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: detachment to pick up their payroll. It would be the 29 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: perfect payday, or so George thought. He manages to get 30 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: a hold of the route the caravan is planning to take. 31 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: He sets up his ambush. Now it's February of eighteen 32 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: seventy nine. George has just three men with him and 33 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: they pick an area on the route where the wagons 34 00:02:09,480 --> 00:02:11,919 Speaker 1: will be forced to separate as they have to come 35 00:02:11,919 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: over a steep ravine and then round a bend in 36 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: the trail. As each group emerged, George and his men 37 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: rob each group of riders. Word is they walked away 38 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:26,359 Speaker 1: with as much as fourteen thousand dollars, which, in case 39 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,360 Speaker 1: you're wondering, would be about a half a million dollars 40 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: at today's rate. They thought they got away with it, 41 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: that they were invincible, But what did a man booze 42 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 1: and big mouths. Sitting in a saloon Not long after 43 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: the robbery, they bragged about what they'd done with two 44 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 1: local deputies overhearing the whole story, the deputies nabbed them 45 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: and sent George back to Wyoming to face murder charges. Now, 46 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: believe it or not, the story just gets weirder. George 47 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:58,679 Speaker 1: is convicted and the night before his execution, he decides 48 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,760 Speaker 1: to make an escape. He manages to get his shackles 49 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:05,160 Speaker 1: off and then smashes his jailer over the head with 50 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,840 Speaker 1: those shackles, cracking his skull, But the guard yells to 51 00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: his wife. She pops out and pulls a pistol, forcing 52 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:16,480 Speaker 1: George back into his cell. Yeah, gotta love a tough woman, right, 53 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: But that did it for George. Local townspeople turn into vigilantes. 54 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: They storm the jail, They grab George, and they string 55 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:29,040 Speaker 1: him up. Immediately, two doctors, Thomas McGee and John Osborne, 56 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:32,960 Speaker 1: take George's body. They want to study his brain, basically, 57 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,120 Speaker 1: to figure out what made him such a bad guy. 58 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:38,240 Speaker 1: They saw off the top of his skull to help 59 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: themselves to the brain. Oh weirdly, they give the top 60 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: of the skull to McGee's medical assistant, Lillian Heath, who's 61 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: just sixteen years old, and they also removed the skin 62 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:53,280 Speaker 1: from George's chest and thighs. The rest of his body 63 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:56,440 Speaker 1: was stored in a whiskey barrel filled with a salt 64 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: solution for somewhere around a year while they did their experiments. 65 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:05,160 Speaker 1: After that, they buried him in the yard behind McGee's office. 66 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:09,080 Speaker 1: But it seems the wild West got even wilder. Lilian, 67 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: doctor McGee's assistant, went on to become the first female 68 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: doctor in Wyoming, and she used the top of George 69 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 1: Parrott's skull as everything from an ash tray to a 70 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: pen holder, to a flower pot to a door stop 71 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:27,120 Speaker 1: over the years. Meantime, the other doctor, John Osborne, sent 72 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,200 Speaker 1: the skin from George's body to a tannery and had 73 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: it made into a pair of shoes and a briefcase. 74 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,200 Speaker 1: But he then went on to have a glittering career 75 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:39,359 Speaker 1: in politics. In fact, he wore those shoes to his 76 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:43,600 Speaker 1: inaugural ball after being elected as the first Democratic governor 77 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:47,080 Speaker 1: of the state of Wyoming. Later he was a US Congressman, 78 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,240 Speaker 1: and finally he became the Assistant US Secretary of State 79 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: under President Woodrow Wilson. Over the years, the story of 80 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:58,680 Speaker 1: the death of Big Nose George Parrott just faded away 81 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: until nineteen fifty when the whiskey barrel with his remains 82 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: was found by construction workers digging near what had been 83 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,279 Speaker 1: doctor McGee's office. In order to prove it was George 84 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:13,840 Speaker 1: Parrot in the barrel, investigators got in touch with doctor 85 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,440 Speaker 1: Lillian Heath, by then eighty six years old, and had 86 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:21,160 Speaker 1: her send her skull ashtray to them. They found the 87 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: ashtray to be a perfect match for the rest of 88 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: George's skull. Now it sounds kind of creepy, but you 89 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:32,280 Speaker 1: can actually see on display the shoes that Governor Osborne 90 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: had made out of George Parrott's skin and then wore 91 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:39,080 Speaker 1: to his inaugural ball. They're in the Carbon County Museum 92 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: in Rawlins, Wyoming, tucked right next to the skull that 93 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:56,920 Speaker 1: was an ashtray. I'm Patty Steel The Backstories, a production 94 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia Premier Networks. The Elvis Durret and Steel Trap Productions. 95 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:06,039 Speaker 1: Our producer is Doug Fraser, Our writer Jay Kushner. We 96 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,520 Speaker 1: have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to 97 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 1: reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions 98 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,040 Speaker 1: on Instagram at real Patty Steele and on Facebook at 99 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, 100 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: the pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.