1
00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,680
Speaker 1: Hey, Happy Saturday, everybody. We have gotten a few requests

2
00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:08,520
Speaker 1: from listeners to do a show on bass Reeves recently,

3
00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:12,039
Speaker 1: but guess what, previous hosts have already got that subject covered,

4
00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:15,240
Speaker 1: So we're gonna share our episode, which is by prior

5
00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:19,239
Speaker 1: hosts Sarah and Deblina. Bass Reeves was a deputy U

6
00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:21,880
Speaker 1: S Marshal in the nineteenth century, so of course this

7
00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,919
Speaker 1: story has its fair share of violence and daring do

8
00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:27,159
Speaker 1: And just a quick note that towards the end of

9
00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:30,280
Speaker 1: the episode there is also a brief description of animal cruelty.

10
00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,520
Speaker 1: So if that's not your thing, it's cool. It's Saturday.

11
00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:39,159
Speaker 1: Do what you want and everybody else listen up. Woo.

12
00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you missed in history class from house

13
00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:52,400
Speaker 1: stop works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast

14
00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:54,440
Speaker 1: Time to blin a checker boardy and I'm fair dowdy.

15
00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,280
Speaker 1: And if you're a fan of the Wild West, or

16
00:00:57,360 --> 00:00:59,400
Speaker 1: maybe if you've just watched a lot of TV as

17
00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:02,360
Speaker 1: a kid, you're probably at least sort of familiar with

18
00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,920
Speaker 1: the character of the Lone Ranger, a fictional renegade lawman

19
00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,800
Speaker 1: who roamed the American West trying to help people fight

20
00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:13,880
Speaker 1: bad guys. And enact justice, and the same character has

21
00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:16,120
Speaker 1: been featured in a number of ways on the radio,

22
00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:19,600
Speaker 1: on TV shows, and in movies, and in all of

23
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,440
Speaker 1: those cases, his overall story has been pretty similar. He's

24
00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:25,920
Speaker 1: a guy named John Reid who's part of a group

25
00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:29,360
Speaker 1: of six Texas Rangers. One day, five of his group

26
00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,600
Speaker 1: are killed by outlaws, and Read survives and is rescued

27
00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:36,080
Speaker 1: by a Native American named Tonto. After Tonto nurses him

28
00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:39,280
Speaker 1: back to health, Read makes himself a black mask and

29
00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:44,479
Speaker 1: becomes the Lone Ranger. Most representations of the Lone Ranger

30
00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:49,720
Speaker 1: also feature that unmistakable theme song of the William tell overture.

31
00:01:49,800 --> 00:02:18,520
Speaker 1: Let's take a listen to that song. So hopefully that

32
00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:21,440
Speaker 1: got you guys in the mood for this podcast. And

33
00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:25,400
Speaker 1: another common point that you'll see in most representations of

34
00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:28,400
Speaker 1: the Lone Ranger is that it's usually played by a

35
00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: white actor, but there are many who believe their inspiration

36
00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:34,480
Speaker 1: for the Lone Ranger character was actually a man named

37
00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,200
Speaker 1: Bass Reeves who was not only black, he was a

38
00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:41,359
Speaker 1: former slave. So Reeves, who became a US Deputy Marshal,

39
00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:44,720
Speaker 1: is known as one of the first black lawmen west

40
00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,440
Speaker 1: of the Mississippi River and also one of the bravest

41
00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,800
Speaker 1: and best lawmen as well. In fact, he's been called

42
00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:53,800
Speaker 1: one of the bravest men this country has ever known,

43
00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:56,880
Speaker 1: So in that sense, it's not too hard to see

44
00:02:56,880 --> 00:03:01,000
Speaker 1: how he would have inspired the Lone Ranger character. However,

45
00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:05,400
Speaker 1: Reeve's life wasn't entirely without controversy. He had more than

46
00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:09,440
Speaker 1: one incident that almost compromised his reputation and his position

47
00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,639
Speaker 1: as an upholder of the law. But it's those sort

48
00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:15,160
Speaker 1: of gray areas that some might say make him all

49
00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:17,600
Speaker 1: the more interesting. So we're going to take a look

50
00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:20,680
Speaker 1: at reeves story and some of his most famous adventures.

51
00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:22,800
Speaker 1: But first we're gonna look at how, as a black

52
00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,400
Speaker 1: man in the eighteen hundreds he became a deputy marshal

53
00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,440
Speaker 1: in the first place, So Bass Reeves was born into

54
00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:32,040
Speaker 1: slavery in around July eight thirty eight in either Texas

55
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,639
Speaker 1: or Arkansas. And we should say here that a lot

56
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,480
Speaker 1: of the deep these details about his life, especially about

57
00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:40,600
Speaker 1: reeves early life, are kind of sketchy. A lot of

58
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,400
Speaker 1: them derived from oral history that's been passed along throughout

59
00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:46,720
Speaker 1: the year. So perhaps it's only fitting that we start

60
00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,200
Speaker 1: out with one of these more debatable facts. Some historians

61
00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:53,120
Speaker 1: believe he was born near Van Buren, Arkansas, while others

62
00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:55,520
Speaker 1: think it's more likely he was born in Paris, Texas.

63
00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,040
Speaker 1: One thing we do know, though, was that Reeves and

64
00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:01,040
Speaker 1: his parents were owned by a man named will Lilliam S. Reeves,

65
00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,040
Speaker 1: who was a farmer and a politician. That's where he

66
00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:06,800
Speaker 1: got his last name from, of course, And according to

67
00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,200
Speaker 1: the Oxford African American Study Center, Reeves worked in the

68
00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:12,760
Speaker 1: cotton fields as a water boy when he was young,

69
00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:16,680
Speaker 1: and that's where he started hearing adventurous stories and these

70
00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,520
Speaker 1: songs about black outlaws. And not too much is known

71
00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:24,000
Speaker 1: about rubs parents, but apparently it really worried his mother

72
00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,840
Speaker 1: that her young son was so enthralled with violence and

73
00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,120
Speaker 1: guns and these less than upstanding men. Maybe a little

74
00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:34,800
Speaker 1: afraid her boy would become an outlaw himself. By the

75
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:37,520
Speaker 1: time the Civil War broke out, though, in eighteen sixty one,

76
00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:41,599
Speaker 1: Reeves was working as the personal servant of William Reeves's son,

77
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,720
Speaker 1: George Reeves, who was a colonel in the Confederate Army

78
00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:48,600
Speaker 1: and organized the eleventh Cavalry Regiment for Grayson County, Texas.

79
00:04:49,120 --> 00:04:52,080
Speaker 1: What exactly happened to Bass Reads during the war is

80
00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,640
Speaker 1: a little bit sketchy, though according to Encyclopedia Britannica, Reeves

81
00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:59,160
Speaker 1: claimed to have served in the battles of p Ridge, Chickamaugua,

82
00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:04,400
Speaker 1: and Missionary Ridge under Colonel George Reeves, but the Reeves

83
00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,560
Speaker 1: family the slave owner Reeves that is claimed, and many

84
00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,080
Speaker 1: historians believe that Bass Reeves actually ran away fairly early

85
00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,360
Speaker 1: on in the war. Supposedly, Bass and George got into

86
00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:18,039
Speaker 1: an argument while they were playing cards, and Bass attacked George,

87
00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,440
Speaker 1: knocking him unconscious. But by Texas law at that time,

88
00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:23,960
Speaker 1: Bass Reeves could have been killed for attacking his master

89
00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:27,400
Speaker 1: like that, so he took off for Indian Territory. And

90
00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:29,760
Speaker 1: we talked a little bit about Indian Territory in a

91
00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:33,320
Speaker 1: podcast we did last February called Who Was America's First

92
00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:36,120
Speaker 1: Black Millionaires, which was about a woman named Sarah Rector.

93
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:39,080
Speaker 1: In that episode, we learned that Indian Territory in the

94
00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:41,719
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds was basically in the area that would later

95
00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,680
Speaker 1: become the state of Oklahoma. In the early nineteen hundreds,

96
00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:47,640
Speaker 1: black people who lived there were in kind of an

97
00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:52,040
Speaker 1: interesting position. Initially, Indian tribes kept them as slaves just

98
00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:55,200
Speaker 1: as white people did elsewhere in North America. But after

99
00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,039
Speaker 1: something called the Treaty of eighteen sixty six between the

100
00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:01,240
Speaker 1: US government and the five civil i tribes, which included

101
00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,840
Speaker 1: the Creek, the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and the Seminole,

102
00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,560
Speaker 1: these tribes had to abolish slavery and make the former

103
00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:12,520
Speaker 1: slaves thereafter known as freedman full members of their tribes

104
00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,320
Speaker 1: that had quote equal interest in the soil. So basically

105
00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,280
Speaker 1: former slaves could own land, and some even served as

106
00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:22,599
Speaker 1: Indian policemen. So Indian Territory was a great place for

107
00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:27,080
Speaker 1: Reeves to escape to after supposedly attacking his master, probably

108
00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:29,000
Speaker 1: for a lot of the same reasons. It was a

109
00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:32,080
Speaker 1: popular place for outlaws to go and hide out in

110
00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:35,000
Speaker 1: even after the war. There just weren't a lot of

111
00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:39,400
Speaker 1: towns and villages, and the Indians there had jurisdiction over themselves.

112
00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,240
Speaker 1: They weren't really subject to US laws. They're so good

113
00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:46,640
Speaker 1: place to go. So Reeves went to Indian Territory, found

114
00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:50,440
Speaker 1: refuge with the Creek and Seminole Indians, and while he

115
00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:53,520
Speaker 1: lived among them, he really picked up their customs, became

116
00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:55,880
Speaker 1: fluent in the languages that's been a theme of our

117
00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:59,840
Speaker 1: recent podcast today. And besides that, though, besides going in

118
00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:03,520
Speaker 1: and living with Indians in Indian Territory, it's sort of

119
00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:07,400
Speaker 1: unclear what exactly Reeves did during the war. According to

120
00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:11,080
Speaker 1: an article by Art T. Burton in Wild West, Reeves

121
00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:13,320
Speaker 1: could have been part of the Union's first Indian Home

122
00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:16,720
Speaker 1: Guard Regiment under an Indian name, or he might have

123
00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:28,040
Speaker 1: even served with one of the guerrilla Union Indian vans sometimes.

124
00:07:28,080 --> 00:07:32,160
Speaker 1: Following the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, Reeves left

125
00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:36,120
Speaker 1: Indian Territory and settled in Van Buren, Arkansas. By this

126
00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:39,080
Speaker 1: time he had married a woman named Nellie Jenny, who

127
00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:41,600
Speaker 1: he ended up having ten kids, with five girls and

128
00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:44,800
Speaker 1: five boys. By the eighteen seventies, he was earning a

129
00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,560
Speaker 1: living as a farmer and a rancher, and also occasionally

130
00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:49,880
Speaker 1: served as a guide for a deputy U S Marshals

131
00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:53,240
Speaker 1: who were going into Indian Territory to hunt for outlaws,

132
00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,120
Speaker 1: so his knowledge really came in handy there. Then, in

133
00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,040
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy five, Judge Isaac C. Parker took a for

134
00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:03,480
Speaker 1: the Fort Smith Federal Court in Arkansas, and Parker became

135
00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:06,560
Speaker 1: known as the Hanging judge for all the death sentences

136
00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:09,320
Speaker 1: that he handed down in his court. When he took over,

137
00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,560
Speaker 1: his court had jurisdiction over all of western Arkansas and

138
00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,240
Speaker 1: Indian Territory, which was an area of about seventy five

139
00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:21,440
Speaker 1: thousand square miles in size, and it was the largest

140
00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:23,720
Speaker 1: federal court in U. S history just in terms of

141
00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:27,040
Speaker 1: its size. So, as we mentioned, Indian Territory was a

142
00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:29,280
Speaker 1: popular place for outlaws to hide out, and it was

143
00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,760
Speaker 1: considered the most dangerous area in the country. So it's

144
00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:35,720
Speaker 1: gonna be tough going for Judge Parker. So when he

145
00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:38,160
Speaker 1: came on board, he decided pretty much right away that

146
00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:40,440
Speaker 1: he wanted to crack down on criminals in that area

147
00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:42,880
Speaker 1: in particular. So one of the first things he did

148
00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:46,800
Speaker 1: was ordered that two hundred new US Deputy Marshals be hired.

149
00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:51,080
Speaker 1: So these marshals could arrest blacks and whites who weren't

150
00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,520
Speaker 1: members of the tribes in Indian Territory. That's what they

151
00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:56,360
Speaker 1: had power to do. The Indians, of course, had their

152
00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,719
Speaker 1: own law enforcement and courts for their people, so they

153
00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:04,760
Speaker 1: were outside of Parker's jurisdiction. Parker also decided that black

154
00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:09,160
Speaker 1: men would be perfect for these new deputy marshal positions

155
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,960
Speaker 1: because a lot of Indians didn't trust white deputies. Some

156
00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:16,200
Speaker 1: white deputies hadn't always treated them so well. No surprised there,

157
00:09:16,559 --> 00:09:20,040
Speaker 1: but there were. There was this precedent of black freedmen

158
00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:23,120
Speaker 1: who were kind of part of the tribes, part of

159
00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,920
Speaker 1: the community, so Indians tended to trust black people a

160
00:09:26,920 --> 00:09:31,160
Speaker 1: little more. Therefore they'd make good potential marshals. Reeves in

161
00:09:31,160 --> 00:09:34,679
Speaker 1: particular was just perfect for one of these positions. After all,

162
00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:38,200
Speaker 1: as we mentioned, he knew Indian territory well. He once

163
00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:41,160
Speaker 1: said that he knows the area like quote a cook

164
00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:44,640
Speaker 1: knows her kitchen. His knowledge of Indian languages and customs

165
00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:46,920
Speaker 1: was a huge plus two, because Parker really wanted to

166
00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,439
Speaker 1: keep good relations with the tribes. That close relationship with

167
00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:53,439
Speaker 1: the Indians actually might have influenced the Lone Ranger story

168
00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:56,680
Speaker 1: to some extent through the character of Tonto. So Reeves

169
00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:00,000
Speaker 1: was commissioned a Deputy U s Marshal in eighteen seven

170
00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:04,240
Speaker 1: five went to work. Incidentally, you just mentioned his his

171
00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:07,320
Speaker 1: close relationship with Indians that came in part because of

172
00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:11,520
Speaker 1: his mastery of their some of their languages. That mastery

173
00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:14,720
Speaker 1: of languages is even more impressive when you consider that

174
00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:18,880
Speaker 1: Reeves was illiterate. So um, I mean that sounds difficult

175
00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,040
Speaker 1: enough to have several languages in your head and not

176
00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:23,320
Speaker 1: know how to read or write them, but in your

177
00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:26,200
Speaker 1: own language and your own language. But for his martial work,

178
00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:30,480
Speaker 1: he'd have to get somebody to read arrest warrants and subpoenas,

179
00:10:30,559 --> 00:10:33,280
Speaker 1: and then he'd memorized the names of the outlaws any

180
00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,520
Speaker 1: other details and head out from there. So now we're

181
00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:39,359
Speaker 1: getting a little bit into his work, which is really interesting.

182
00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:41,640
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of details about his work as

183
00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:44,520
Speaker 1: a martial kind of border on legend, which is why

184
00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:46,960
Speaker 1: his adventures make for such good stories, I think. But

185
00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:49,600
Speaker 1: what we know for sure is that he was a

186
00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:51,600
Speaker 1: natural at what he did, or he seemed to be.

187
00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:54,640
Speaker 1: He was physically well suited for for one thing, he

188
00:10:54,679 --> 00:10:57,679
Speaker 1: was about six ft two and anywhere from one hundred

189
00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:01,400
Speaker 1: eighty two hundred pounds. According to another article of Burton's

190
00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:06,080
Speaker 1: in New Crisis, Reeves personally like to dress that intimidating

191
00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:09,080
Speaker 1: frame of his and snazzy clothes. He always had his

192
00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:11,679
Speaker 1: boots polished, for example, and he liked to wear a

193
00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,280
Speaker 1: big black hat that was slightly upturned in the front

194
00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:17,200
Speaker 1: more often than not, though, especially when he was after

195
00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:20,320
Speaker 1: an outlaw, Reeves would wear disguises, and that was kind

196
00:11:20,360 --> 00:11:24,120
Speaker 1: of his trademark. He disguised himself as a cowboy or

197
00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:27,800
Speaker 1: a preacher, or a farmer, or even an outlaw. So

198
00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:31,400
Speaker 1: this is also kind of a lone ranger ish element

199
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:35,400
Speaker 1: to his mask, except maybe even a little more interesting. Yeah,

200
00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:38,920
Speaker 1: I think so, because he went to some serious trouble

201
00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:42,200
Speaker 1: in these disguises, I think, and one really authentic because

202
00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:45,280
Speaker 1: in one really well known mission, Reeves was pursuing two

203
00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:48,320
Speaker 1: outlaws in the Red River Valley of the Chickasaw Nation

204
00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:51,120
Speaker 1: and he heard that they were hiding out somewhere near

205
00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:53,840
Speaker 1: the Texas border. So he wrote out that way with

206
00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:56,959
Speaker 1: his posse. By the way, at this time, Deputy Marshalls

207
00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,719
Speaker 1: would travel around Indian Territory with a few possemen a

208
00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,120
Speaker 1: in a wagon just because the area they were patrolling

209
00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,040
Speaker 1: and hunting for outlaws and was so vast, I mean,

210
00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,120
Speaker 1: a typical loop was around A typical loop that they

211
00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:12,679
Speaker 1: would travel was around eight hundred miles. Trip would be

212
00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:14,640
Speaker 1: eight hundred miles, right, So they'd be out there for

213
00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:17,760
Speaker 1: a while. So the posse set up camp about twenty

214
00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:20,160
Speaker 1: eight miles from where these two outlaws they were pursuing

215
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,560
Speaker 1: were supposed to be hiding out at their mother's house.

216
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:27,040
Speaker 1: So then Reeves disguised himself as a tramp. He really

217
00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:30,680
Speaker 1: paid attention to every detail too. He removed the heels

218
00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,840
Speaker 1: from an old pair of shoes, He carried a cane

219
00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:36,480
Speaker 1: with him, and then he put on a floppy hat

220
00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:38,679
Speaker 1: that he had shot with a few bullet holes to

221
00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,560
Speaker 1: look all roughed up. He also, of course concealed the

222
00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:45,000
Speaker 1: handcuffs and the pistol and the badge that he was

223
00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:49,320
Speaker 1: carrying underneath his clothes. Then he started walking twenty eight

224
00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:53,040
Speaker 1: miles traveling on foot to the mother's house. When he

225
00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:55,400
Speaker 1: got there, he asked her for some food, you know,

226
00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:58,040
Speaker 1: complaining that his feet really hurt because he'd been walking

227
00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:01,840
Speaker 1: and trying to escape from this posse that was pursuing him.

228
00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:04,880
Speaker 1: The mother really sympathized with him. She let him in,

229
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:07,559
Speaker 1: she fed him. She told him that her sons were

230
00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:10,839
Speaker 1: running away from the law to She even suggested that

231
00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:14,040
Speaker 1: maybe he should hang out with her and team up

232
00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:16,360
Speaker 1: with her own son so they could protect each other.

233
00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,000
Speaker 1: When the sons came home, they agreed to this plan,

234
00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:22,640
Speaker 1: this deal that mom has set up for them, and

235
00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:25,640
Speaker 1: then that night they set up a separate room for

236
00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,600
Speaker 1: Reeves to sleep in. He insisted that no, we should

237
00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:31,040
Speaker 1: all sleep in the same room in case something happens.

238
00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:33,880
Speaker 1: That way we can protect each other. When the outlaws

239
00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:37,520
Speaker 1: were asleep, though, he handcuffed them without them waking up.

240
00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:40,840
Speaker 1: And when morning came, they realized what had happened, and

241
00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:44,160
Speaker 1: Reeves had a march right on back to his camp,

242
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,680
Speaker 1: all twenty eight miles, and apparently the mom followed them

243
00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:51,280
Speaker 1: for at least three of those miles, cursing Reeves the

244
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:54,000
Speaker 1: entire way. I have to imagine she would be pretty

245
00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,840
Speaker 1: upset about the whole thing. He was pretty happy about it.

246
00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:59,520
Speaker 1: There The reward of returning those guys in was five

247
00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:03,240
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Typically these marshals got paid when they brought

248
00:14:03,240 --> 00:14:06,440
Speaker 1: the outlaws back to court to be tried. So that

249
00:14:06,559 --> 00:14:10,200
Speaker 1: story is pretty amusing, but it doesn't totally illustrate how

250
00:14:10,280 --> 00:14:13,480
Speaker 1: dangerous this job really was cuffing outlaws in their sleep.

251
00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:16,760
Speaker 1: Reeves was shot at several times during his career as

252
00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:20,320
Speaker 1: a marshal. His belt was shot into two onnths. Another time,

253
00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,160
Speaker 1: his hat brim was shot off, and still another time

254
00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:25,680
Speaker 1: his bridal rein was cut by a bullet, but it

255
00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,760
Speaker 1: said that he himself was never actually wounded, which I

256
00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:31,560
Speaker 1: think is just fascinating. Well, he was a real gun

257
00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:35,240
Speaker 1: expert to His weapon of choice was a Winchester rifle,

258
00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,080
Speaker 1: but he was also known to carry around two cult

259
00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:42,240
Speaker 1: revolvers that were positioned but forward on his belt for

260
00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:48,320
Speaker 1: easy access and conveniently for a ranger a lawman. He

261
00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:52,480
Speaker 1: was ambidextrous, so pretty much equally good no matter which

262
00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:55,040
Speaker 1: hand he was shooting with, probably especially handy when you're

263
00:14:55,120 --> 00:15:06,280
Speaker 1: shooting on horseback. Reeves was still really careful even though

264
00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:08,840
Speaker 1: he was heavily armed. Though It said that he rode

265
00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:12,360
Speaker 1: a big red stallion with a white blaze on its face,

266
00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:16,000
Speaker 1: so just like the lone ranger. He has his signature horse,

267
00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,640
Speaker 1: Trusty Steed. Yep, he's a flyery horse with a speed

268
00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,040
Speaker 1: of light, a cloud of dust party Ohio silver. But

269
00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:27,360
Speaker 1: he also kept some other horses around for his undercover work. Apparently,

270
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:30,120
Speaker 1: if you rode a horse that was too fancy, that

271
00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:32,400
Speaker 1: would tip off the outlaws that you were marshal, no

272
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:35,600
Speaker 1: matter what kind of disguise or outfit you were wearing,

273
00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:38,320
Speaker 1: so he couldn't just ride his red horse around. Well,

274
00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:40,240
Speaker 1: I have to imagine too, if you had such a

275
00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,440
Speaker 1: distinctive horse to a red stallion with a white blaze,

276
00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:47,640
Speaker 1: people would begin to recognize that pretty easily. Very true.

277
00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:51,840
Speaker 1: Most of all, though, Reeves was just unbelievably brave. He

278
00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:55,680
Speaker 1: really didn't seem to be afraid of anything. For one example,

279
00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:58,920
Speaker 1: there was a place eighty miles west of Fort Smith

280
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,160
Speaker 1: that was known as the deadline, sort of the end

281
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:06,520
Speaker 1: of civilization, and when deputy marshals crossed that line, they

282
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:08,600
Speaker 1: were thought to be as good as dead. You know,

283
00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:11,200
Speaker 1: you're taking your life into your own hands by crossing

284
00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,360
Speaker 1: the deadline. But Reeves really just thought as a challenge.

285
00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:18,000
Speaker 1: He would go riding across the deadline several times just

286
00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:21,400
Speaker 1: to just to do it. But his bravery is maybe

287
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:24,560
Speaker 1: most evident in the encounter where he comes as close

288
00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:26,680
Speaker 1: as he ever did to losing his life, and that

289
00:16:26,720 --> 00:16:30,320
Speaker 1: happened in four when he got ambushed by three outlaws,

290
00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:34,120
Speaker 1: the Brunch Brothers, and they were wanted for horse stealing, robbery,

291
00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:37,280
Speaker 1: and murder. When they ambushed him, they told him to

292
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:39,640
Speaker 1: get off his horse and to keep his hands away

293
00:16:39,640 --> 00:16:43,280
Speaker 1: from his gun. But Reeves did not follow their instructions

294
00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,640
Speaker 1: at all. He stayed really calm and showed them warrants

295
00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:49,200
Speaker 1: he had for their arrest, and he just asked them,

296
00:16:49,320 --> 00:16:51,280
Speaker 1: you know what day is it, so I can make

297
00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:53,320
Speaker 1: a note of this for the government. I want to

298
00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:56,720
Speaker 1: make sure my paperwork is good. At that point, the

299
00:16:56,760 --> 00:17:00,800
Speaker 1: outlaws just thought he was crazy and started laughing at him.

300
00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:03,760
Speaker 1: And while they were distracted, while they were so amused,

301
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,600
Speaker 1: Reeves shot two of them dead, diverted the gun barrel

302
00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:11,000
Speaker 1: of the third, and then killed him. And Reeves actually

303
00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,280
Speaker 1: killed quite a few outlaws during his career, even white ones,

304
00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:16,639
Speaker 1: which might have gotten him lynched in other areas of

305
00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:20,000
Speaker 1: the country. And I'm not sure on this point if

306
00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:21,960
Speaker 1: he actually got paid for the ones that he killed.

307
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:25,280
Speaker 1: I've seen sort of differing opinions and various sources out there.

308
00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:27,560
Speaker 1: So if anyone out there knows if you get paid

309
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,840
Speaker 1: for the ones that you killed to please let us know.

310
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:34,119
Speaker 1: We're not sure how this whole deputy marshal thing worked

311
00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:37,840
Speaker 1: in that respect. But of course, as we hinted at earlier,

312
00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:41,160
Speaker 1: there's more to the story than just Reeves Winds. As

313
00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:43,600
Speaker 1: you might imagine, with the line of work he was in.

314
00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,120
Speaker 1: His life was tainted a little bit with scandal too.

315
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:49,359
Speaker 1: The biggest one had to do with the death in

316
00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:54,200
Speaker 1: four of his black cook, William Leach. So early that April,

317
00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,400
Speaker 1: when Reeves Posse was camping out near the Canadian River,

318
00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:01,400
Speaker 1: Leech and Reeves got into an argument that supposedly started

319
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:06,000
Speaker 1: when Reeves was dissing Leeches cooking not a bad or

320
00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:09,840
Speaker 1: not a good idea. Rather, things escalated though, and according

321
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,760
Speaker 1: to some accounts, Leech poured some hot grease down the

322
00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,240
Speaker 1: throat of this puppy that Reeves had their in camp

323
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:22,200
Speaker 1: with them. After that, Reeves furious shot Leech. So nothing

324
00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:24,879
Speaker 1: came of this incident for a while, But then in

325
00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:31,000
Speaker 1: January eighty six, Reeves was indicted for first degree murder, arrested,

326
00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:33,560
Speaker 1: and held in jail for six months until he could

327
00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,159
Speaker 1: make bond. Kind of shocking that this famous lawman couldn't

328
00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:39,560
Speaker 1: make bond for six months, but apparently he made it

329
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:43,600
Speaker 1: quite a bit of cash to in criminals. So his trial, though,

330
00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:49,040
Speaker 1: started October seven, and Reeves hired really great attorneys who

331
00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:52,280
Speaker 1: brought in ten witnesses for his defense. He testified that

332
00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:55,639
Speaker 1: he had argued with Leech, but it wasn't really that

333
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:59,119
Speaker 1: big of a deal. And then later, while trying to

334
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:02,840
Speaker 1: dislodge a bullet from his Winchester rifle, the gun had

335
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:08,280
Speaker 1: accidentally mispired and happened to hit and kill Leach. Reeves

336
00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:11,200
Speaker 1: was acquitted, but the trial depleted his savings and he

337
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:13,400
Speaker 1: had to move his family to a different home outside

338
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:16,560
Speaker 1: of Van Buren. And after that, Reeves went back to

339
00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:20,640
Speaker 1: catching outlaws, but he was eventually stationed in different areas.

340
00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:24,359
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty three, he'd already transferred from Fort Smith

341
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,199
Speaker 1: to the Federal Court at Paris, Texas, and then in

342
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:31,879
Speaker 1: he transferred again to Muskogee, which was where he was

343
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,960
Speaker 1: until Oklahoma became a state in nineteen o seven. But

344
00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:38,359
Speaker 1: Reeves had one more brush with scandal later in his career.

345
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:41,640
Speaker 1: After returning from one of his trips to deliver prisoners

346
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:44,960
Speaker 1: to federal jail in Muskogee, he learned that his own

347
00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:48,480
Speaker 1: son had been charged with murdering his wife and was

348
00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:52,520
Speaker 1: somewhere hiding out in Indian Territory. So, of course, knowing

349
00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:55,400
Speaker 1: whose son this is, none of the other deputies wanted

350
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:59,159
Speaker 1: the job of bringing the kid in. Reeves, of course,

351
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:01,680
Speaker 1: was adamant about doing it himself. I mean, I have

352
00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,119
Speaker 1: to imagine partly just because he didn't want something to

353
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,640
Speaker 1: happen to his son. Um. It took him two weeks

354
00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,960
Speaker 1: to get him, but Reeves returned with his son, whom

355
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,000
Speaker 1: he later turned over to the court. His son ended

356
00:20:14,080 --> 00:20:18,159
Speaker 1: up in Leavenworth Prison, another place where our podcast subjects

357
00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:21,720
Speaker 1: seemed to be going lately, um, but was eventually pardoned

358
00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:26,080
Speaker 1: and apparently never got into any more trouble. Reeves served

359
00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:28,600
Speaker 1: as a Deputy U. S Marshal in Indian Territory for

360
00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,600
Speaker 1: a total of thirty two years, and was the only

361
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:35,800
Speaker 1: one who did so from Judge Parker's appointment until Oklahoma statehood.

362
00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:39,320
Speaker 1: All told, he said to have arrested more than three

363
00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:43,560
Speaker 1: thousand outlaws and killed about fourteen, though it's very likely

364
00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:47,200
Speaker 1: there may have been more than fourteen killed. His work

365
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:50,320
Speaker 1: ended after Oklahoma became a state, and after that he

366
00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:53,320
Speaker 1: walked a downtown beat for the Muskogee Police Department for

367
00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 1: two years, and there was apparently never a crime on

368
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:59,119
Speaker 1: his beat, So this was kind of a relaxing retirement

369
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:02,280
Speaker 1: job almost for him. Commit your crimes on on Reeves

370
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:05,520
Speaker 1: this day off maybe right, but it didn't last too long.

371
00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:09,480
Speaker 1: Reeves died at home January twelfth, nineteen ten, after being

372
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 1: diagnosed with Bright's disease. So was he the real Lone Ranger?

373
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:15,639
Speaker 1: We have to go back to that question we posed

374
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:18,879
Speaker 1: in the title of this podcast. Well, as we mentioned,

375
00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:22,680
Speaker 1: he said to have influenced or inspired the character. Obviously,

376
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:24,560
Speaker 1: some details of his life are quite different from the

377
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,639
Speaker 1: Lone Rangers, but it's easy to see how his brave

378
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,960
Speaker 1: personality and his wild adventures would have influenced a tail

379
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,560
Speaker 1: about a hero of the Wild West. Yeah. I mean,

380
00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:36,000
Speaker 1: after all, he's been called quote one of the most

381
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:39,840
Speaker 1: successful lawman in American history. That sounds like somebody worth

382
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:42,679
Speaker 1: making a TV show on. He was also the first

383
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:47,480
Speaker 1: African American inducted into the Great Westerners Hall of the

384
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:50,479
Speaker 1: National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in nineteen

385
00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:54,520
Speaker 1: ninety two, and then on December five, he was inducted

386
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 1: into the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Hall of Fame, and in November,

387
00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:03,240
Speaker 1: these awards has kept on being heaped on him. Oklahoma

388
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,919
Speaker 1: State Legislature passed an act officially declaring the bridge that

389
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,920
Speaker 1: passes over the Arkansas River between Muscogee and Fort Gibson

390
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:21,520
Speaker 1: Oklahoma as bath reads Memorial Bridge. Thank you so much

391
00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,919
Speaker 1: for joining us for this Saturday classic. Since this is

392
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:27,440
Speaker 1: out of the archive, if you heard an email address

393
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,119
Speaker 1: or a Facebook U r L or something similar during

394
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:32,840
Speaker 1: the course of the show, that may be obsolete now,

395
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:36,360
Speaker 1: so here's our current contact information. We are at History

396
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:38,800
Speaker 1: Podcast at how stuff works dot com, and then we're

397
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:42,240
Speaker 1: at Missed in the History. All over social media that

398
00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:46,720
Speaker 1: is our name on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Pinterest, and Instagram.

399
00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:51,160
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. For more on this and thousands

400
00:22:51,160 --> 00:23:00,240
Speaker 1: of other topics, stuff works dot com