Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. He stood six ft two inches
Speaker 1: tall or nearly two meters, weighed a hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: pounds or about eighty kilos, and could reportedly two men
Speaker 1: at a time with his bare hands. He was as
Speaker 1: quick on the draw as he was deadly accurate with
Speaker 1: his Winchester rifle, capable of taking down a running target
Speaker 1: at a quarter mile that's four d. He wore a
Speaker 1: thick handlebar mustache, and spit shined boots unless he was
Speaker 1: in one of his clever disguises. In the storied American
Speaker 1: West of the late eighteen hundreds, where lawmen pursued outlaws
Speaker 1: for high priced bounties, none deserved their fame as much
Speaker 1: as Bass Reeves. Born into slavery in eight Reeves escaped
Speaker 1: to what was then called Indian Territory during the Civil
Speaker 1: War and emerged as a skilled marksman and track who
Speaker 1: could speak multiple Native American languages. Reeves was hired as
Speaker 1: a deputy U S Marshal, one of several black or
Speaker 1: Native American lawmen to patrol the hard scrabbled territory on
Speaker 1: behalf of the federal government. It was a notoriously hazardous profession.
Speaker 1: At least a hundred and fourteen Deputy u s Marshals
Speaker 1: were killed on duty in the territory before it became
Speaker 1: the state of Oklahoma in nineteen o seven, but Reeves
Speaker 1: was no ordinary officer of the law. Over his three
Speaker 1: decade career, Reeves arrested more than three thousand individuals, survived
Speaker 1: countless skirmishes with armed outlaws, and only killed fourteen men
Speaker 1: while defending his life and others. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on how Stuff Works, spoke with Art Burton,
Speaker 1: former history professor and author of the book Black Gun,
Speaker 1: Silver Star, The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reads.
Speaker 1: He said bass Reeves was the greatest frontier hero in
Speaker 1: American history. He walked into the Valley of Death every
Speaker 1: day for thirty two years. He helped people regardless of
Speaker 1: their race, their religion, or their background his entire life.
Speaker 1: Not much is known about reeves early life, other than
Speaker 1: that he was born in Arkansas into an enslaved family
Speaker 1: owned by Arkansas state legislator William Reeves and then his
Speaker 1: son George Reeves, and the family was moved to Texas
Speaker 1: where George organized and led a cavalry regiment for the Confederacy.
Speaker 1: Bass served alongside George in the Civil War as his servant,
Speaker 1: and the two men formed a close bond, but that
Speaker 1: bond was broken when they got to arguing over a
Speaker 1: card game and Bass punched the colonel out cold. Burton
Speaker 1: explained for a slave to hit his master in Texas
Speaker 1: was punishable by death, so Bass didn't wait around to
Speaker 1: see what the consequences might be. Reeves spent the next
Speaker 1: few years living among the Creek, Cherokee, and Seminal people's,
Speaker 1: learning their languages, studying their hunting and tracking techniques, and,
Speaker 1: according to some accounts, fighting for the Union in guerilla regiments.
Speaker 1: After the war and emancipation, Reeves returned to Arkansas a freeman,
Speaker 1: got married and started working as a scout for federal lawmen.
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy five, a new judge took over the
Speaker 1: Fort Smith Federal Courthouse in Arkansas and called for the
Speaker 1: hiring of two hundred more Deputy U S Marshals to
Speaker 1: chase down lawbreakers who escaped into the unincorporated territory. Reeves
Speaker 1: was one of them. He had arresting authority over fellow
Speaker 1: freedmen and women, Native Americans and white people. Rare for
Speaker 1: a black man at the time, He even arrested some
Speaker 1: white men for lynchings. Crimes committed by Native Americans against
Speaker 1: other Native Americans were handled in separate courts, but Reeves
Speaker 1: and his fellow deputy U. S. Marshals handled all other
Speaker 1: crimes committed in the territory, from theft to arson, to
Speaker 1: murder to the illegal trade of whiskey. Like many other
Speaker 1: formerly enslaved people, Reeves had never been taught to read
Speaker 1: or write, but he developed the uncanny ability to memorize
Speaker 1: a pile of arrest warrants. The system worked. While other
Speaker 1: deputies would return to Fort Smith with three or four
Speaker 1: captured fugitives at a time, Reeves routinely delivered a dozen
Speaker 1: or more wanted men. The tales of Bass reeves bravery
Speaker 1: and cunning are legendary and legion. There was the time
Speaker 1: when Reeves was in pursuit of a band of outlaw
Speaker 1: brothers laying low at their mother's house in Chickasaw Territory.
Speaker 1: Reeves had a whole posse with him, but he knew
Speaker 1: they would be spotted miles away, so Reeves disguised himself
Speaker 1: as a beggar with holes in his shoes, a big
Speaker 1: floppy hat, and a cane. He walked some thirty miles
Speaker 1: or forty five kilometers across the parched plains and arrived
Speaker 1: on the mother's porch asking for some food and water.
Speaker 1: She took him in. When her sons came home, the
Speaker 1: mother introduced Reeves like an old friend, and the group
Speaker 1: started scheming up a crime I could all pull off together.
Speaker 1: The outlaw brothers awoke the next day handcuffed to their beds,
Speaker 1: and Reeves marched them all the way back to his
Speaker 1: camp on foot. Burton said, Mama was hot. I think
Speaker 1: she followed Bass for about ten miles, cursing at him.
Speaker 1: Then there was the time that Bass was ambushed by
Speaker 1: the three Brunter brothers, each wanted for multiple counts of
Speaker 1: horse theft, robbery, and unsolved murders. The brothers told Reeves
Speaker 1: to drop his weapons, but he played it cool and
Speaker 1: calmly asked the men for the day's date. When asked why,
Speaker 1: Reeves said so he could market down on their arrest warrants.
Speaker 1: When he brought them the court, the Bruner brothers almost
Speaker 1: fell over laughing and Reeves seized the opportunity and outgunned
Speaker 1: them in that moment despite the odds. And there was
Speaker 1: the time that Reeves was called in by his fellow
Speaker 1: Deputy U. S. Marshals to help smoke out a stubborn fugitive.
Speaker 1: After an hour's long shootout, the outlaw made a run
Speaker 1: for it at a quarter of a mile away. Reeves
Speaker 1: was the one who brought him down. In Burton's book,
Speaker 1: he makes the bold yet believable claim that Bass Reeves
Speaker 1: was the real life inspiration for the Lone Ranger, masked
Speaker 1: hero first created for radio in the nineteen thirties before
Speaker 1: becoming a movie and TV character. Burton said Bass is
Speaker 1: the closest thing to the Lone Ranger to exist in reality.
Speaker 1: The Lone Ranger handed out silver bullets, Bass handed out
Speaker 1: silver dollars. Bass worked with the sidekick and rode a
Speaker 1: white horse. Bass worked in disguise throughout his career. The
Speaker 1: Lone Ranger's last name is Read, which is very close
Speaker 1: to Reeves. Also, like the Lone Ranger, Reeves was known
Speaker 1: for his strong moral compass and dedication to justice. When
Speaker 1: Reeves's own son was wanted for the murder of his wife.
Speaker 1: He solemnly requested the warrant and brought his boy in
Speaker 1: for trial. Reeves also wound up arresting the preacher who
Speaker 1: had baptized him. In need of money, The congregation had
Speaker 1: convinced the preacher to run bootleg whiskey, but Reeves wouldn't
Speaker 1: have it. Burton believes that the city of Detroit might
Speaker 1: provide the connection between Reeves and The Lone Ranger. The
Speaker 1: original radio program was created at a Detroit radio station
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty three, and most of the outlaws that
Speaker 1: Reeves arrested in the eighteen eighties and eighteen nineties were
Speaker 1: sent to the Detroit House of Corrections to serve out
Speaker 1: their sentences. Did the writers of The White Lone Ranger
Speaker 1: take inspiration from local legends of this morally upright black
Speaker 1: lawman who patrolled the wild west of Burton thinks so,
Speaker 1: although he admits there's no conclusive proof. By the time
Speaker 1: Reeves retired from his long career as a federal lawman,
Speaker 1: he was famous throughout the territories. There were folk songs
Speaker 1: written about his heroics, and he could nab a fugitive
Speaker 1: by the power of his reputational loan. The story goes
Speaker 1: that bell Star, an outlaw known as the Female Jesse James,
Speaker 1: turned herself in at Fort Smith when she heard that
Speaker 1: Reeves had her warrant. Despite being hunted by aggrieved outlaws
Speaker 1: for most of his life, Reeves died of natural causes
Speaker 1: at the age of seventy two. One obituary published at
Speaker 1: the time wrote, no history of Frontier days would be
Speaker 1: complete no mention of Bass Reeves, and no tale of
Speaker 1: the old days of hell on the Border could be
Speaker 1: told without the old Deputy Marshal as a prominent character.
Speaker 1: A TV series based on Burton's book is currently in development.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Bass Reeves Baddest
Speaker 1: Marshal in the Old West original Lone Ranger on how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com, written by Dave Ruves. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is production of I Heart Radio and partnership with how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com, and is produced by Tyler Clang
Speaker 1: and Ramsey count four. More podcasts from my heart Radio
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