Infamous America - BILLY THE KID Ep. 6 | "Lincoln County War, Part 1"

Episode Date: December 11, 2019

Another Regulator captain dies. The Regulators continue their quest for vengeance. Alex McSween assembles his force; Jimmy Dolan assembles his force; and the battle finally arrives in Lincoln. For more details, please visit www.blackbarrelmedia.com. Our social media pages are: @blackbarrelmedia on Facebook and Instagram, and @bbarrelmedia on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ambush was well planned, but the three men who rode into it should have known better. They had been chased by various posseys for more than a month, but now they thought the situation had settled down enough to allow them to run this errand. It hadn't. Around 20 men were hidden at this ranch in a valley near the Hondo River. They waited for the three men to ride closer to the ranch house, allowing them to move into the killing ground. One of the three men was about a hundred yards in front of his two friends, and one of those two friends was the newly elected captain of the regulators.

When the two stragglers reached the right spot, the bushwhackers opened fire. The horses of the two men were killed instantly. One of the men scrambled to his feet and ran for a nearby hill. The other wasn't so lucky. The man who had been out in front galloped away from the ambush. He dashed into the canyon, but his horse was quickly killed as well. Armed with only a pistol, he fled on foot without knowing the fate of his friends. By the end of the attack, two men were prisoners and one was badly wounded.

The third man was dead, and the regulators would need another new captain to lead them through the upcoming Lincoln County War. From Black Barrel Media, this is Season 3 of Infamous America. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of the most notorious outlaw in American history, Billy the Kid. This is Chapter 6, Lincoln County War, Part 1. After the gun battle with Buckshot Roberts at the tiny village of Blazers Mill, the regulators hid in a nearby valley while they took stock of their situation. Dick Brewer, their captain, was dead. John Middleton had been shot in the chest. The wound wasn't as bad as they initially feared, but he was definitely out of action.

George Coe had taken a slug through the right hand, and his trigger finger had to be amputated. And Jim French was still nursing the gunshot wound to the leg that he'd sustained in the ambush of Sheriff Brady. Billy and Charlie Boudry had experienced close calls. All in all, they were in rough shape, and it was time to lay low for a spell. While the regulators rested, the legal wheels spun fast in Lincoln. Judge Bristol from Messia arrived in town to get the ball rolling. He was one of two men whom Governor Axtell had declared to be legal authorities in Lincoln. The other was the now-dead Sheriff Brady.

The judge appointed a new sheriff, John Copeland. Judge Bristol convened a grand jury to hear testimony about the chaos in Lincoln. County. First, the jury gave Alex McSweene the only good news he'd heard in months. He was completely exonerated of the embezzlement charge involving the life insurance money. But ironically, it wasn't the criminal charge of embezzlement that started all the killing. It was the civil lawsuit filed by Emil Fritz's brother and sister that caused the trouble. It had allowed Judge Bristol to issue the writ of attachment that let Jimmy Dolan confiscation. Tunstall and McSween's property. That matter was still pending. Next, the grand jury indicted pretty

much everybody for one murder or another. They indicted outlaw Captain Jesse Evans and three other men for the murder of John Tunstall. They named Jimmy Dolan and Billy Matthews, the leader of the posse, as accessories. They indicted Billy Bonnie, Fred Waite, John Middleton, and Henry Brown for the murder of Sheriff Brady and his deputy. Lastly, the jury indicted nine men for the murder of Buckshot Roberts. Billy, Fred, John, and Henry now had two counts of murder against them.

Added to the list were most of the surviving regulators, Charlie Bodry, Doc Skirlock, Dirty Steve Stevens, George Coe, and John Scroggins. All the arrest warrants were handed to the brand-new sheriff, John Copeland. It seemed like the toughest way to begin a new job, but it wasn't for Copeland because he made no attempt to serve them. This infuriated Jimmy Dolan. Since he couldn't count on the local sheriff to kill or capture the regulators, he put other plans in motion. But

his time was running out. A special agent from the Justice Department was on his way to Lincoln to investigate the murder of John Tunstall and the Santa Fe Ring. An inspector from the Interior Department was also in route to investigate some of Dolan's other activities. And Alex McSween had just posted a notice in the newspaper offering a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the men who killed John Tunstall. The money was put up by Tunstall's family in London. And if all that wasn't bad enough, the worst-case scenario had just happened to Dolan's business. Despite all his rackets, despite the support of the local legal system, and despite an alliance with the Santa Fe Ring, the James J. Dolan Company declared bankruptcy. Jimmy Dolan and John Riley had mortgaged everything to the leader of the Santa Fe Ring, U.S. Attorney Thomas Katrin, and now he owned it all.

On top of that, the man who had started the operation, Lawrence Murphy, was done. dying of cancer. The house was collapsing and Jimmy Dolan was preparing to leave Lincoln. But not yet. The killing of Buckshot Roberts hurt the cause of the regulators. They began with a purpose that could be viewed as noble and righteous, but then they killed Morton, Baker, and McCloskey under suspicious circumstances. Now they had killed Buckshot Roberts while the man was trying to leave the area and was badly outnumbered. Though Roberts had worked for Jimmy Dolan off and on, and had ridden with the larger posse on the day of Tunstall's murder, he had not been with the smaller sub-possy that had actually done

the killing. He wasn't viewed by the public as being as bad as the others. Even though the regulators had lost some of their favor in Lincoln County, they were not about to quit their mission. They elected Frank McNabb as their new captain, but his captaincy didn't last long. About three weeks after the shootout with Buckshot Roberts at Blazers Mill, the legal back and forth between Dolan and McSween had produced a complicated mess in Lincoln County. Arrest warrants were being sworn out left and right on dubious authority. The regulators had regrouped and now felt more comfortable in Lincoln. McSween was a free man.

He no longer had to hide for fear of being arrested and probably killed, so he moved back into his house in town. When he did, the house became the headquarters for the regulators. The new sheriff John Copeland routinely interacted with them without making any attempt to arrest them, which outraged Jimmy Dolan and the men on his side. 30 to 40 men from seven rivers formed a posse to ride to Lincoln and assist Sheriff Copeland with his duties. If Copeland was hesitant to arrest the men responsible for killing Brady, Morton, and Baker, then these men would give him a little help. News of the posse reached Lincoln several days before the posse arrived, but three regulators decided to leave the safety of their friends to run an errand. Frank Coe, the cousin of George,

decided he needed to check on his ranch. He and his partner left Lincoln, accompanied by the new regulator captain, Frank McNabb. They rode down through a valley and stopped near a ranch to water their horses. Frank Coe was out in front. He was riding a fast horse and he had outdistanced the other two men. Behind him, Frank McNabb and the other man drew within a hundred yards of the ranch house. And then gunshots rang out. About 20 men from the Seven Rivers Posse jumped up from their hiding places and fired at the regulators.

The ambush was perfect. The regulators had no idea they were there. When the gunfire erupted, Frank McNabb's horse bucked him off and raced away from the ranch. The other man's horse was killed instantly. It crashed to the ground, but the man was able to get up and run to a nearby hill.

The possemen chased him and kept up their steady gunfire. They shot him through the hip and then captured him after he collared. collapsed on the other side of the hill. Frank Coe, who had been out in front when the shooting started, had a chance to get away. When he heard the shots, he galloped through the canyon. He tried to hide, but the bushwhackers were on top of him. They shot his horse, and he flew over its head as it dropped dead.

His Winchester rifle was trapped under the dead animal, so he sprinted away with only his pistol for protection. He led them on a chase through the canyon, but eventually he was forced to give up. There was no way he could hold off 30 to 40 men, so he surrendered. Back at the ranch, Frank McNabb was not so lucky. When his horse had bucked him off, he had scrambled to his feet and run a mile through the canyon, but during the pursuit, the posse killed him. The second captain of the regulators was dead less than a month after he assumed leadership. When the Seven Rivers Posse brought their two prisoners into Lincoln, the rest of the regulators were waiting for them.

That night, a mail carrier brought the news of the ambush to Lincoln. When George Coe found out about his cousin's capture and Frank McNabb's murder, he was enraged. He and Henry Brown grabbed their rifles and climbed up onto the roof of a building that marked the eastern edge of Lincoln. From there, they could watch the road into town. Around dawn, the seven rivers posse slipped into the perimeter of Lincoln. A few of them skirted the main drag and set up at the Dolan store. The rest fanned out along the river opposite the building where George and Henry waited. They hid in the trees as the sun rose.

As strange as it may seem, the battle for Lincoln, as it was called, began with shots fired at a man who was sitting on a cow. George and Henry spotted the cow about 400 yards away. A man whom they judged to be an enemy was sitting on it. They each fired one shot from their rifles. Henry's shot fell short, but George's hit the man. The bullet didn't kill him, but the poor guy toppled off his cow. After that, both sides opened fire.

The regulators stationed themselves on rooftops and behind walls. They fired across the street toward the Seven Riversmen in the trees. More Seven Riversmen poured out of the Dolan store on the other side of town. As they ran down the street toward the firing, the regulators pushed them back with volley after volley. Gunfire gripped the town of Lincoln for four hours. As the two sides traded shots, Sheriff Copeland sent urgent word to Fort Stanton that he needed troops. Late in the afternoon, a detachment thundered into town to act as a barrier between the regulators and the Seven Rivers Posse. The Army's arrival ended the day-long standoff.

Miraculously, no one had been killed, and the only man wounded had been the guy sitting on the cow. But April 30, 1878, showed a dangerous escalation in the Lincoln County War. Prior to this, gunfights and killings had been limited to the lands outside Lincoln. Now, both sides proved they had no problem conducting a battle right in town, and it wouldn't be the last. As the sun set on Lincoln that evening, the army arrested the Seven Rivers men and dragged them to Fort Stanton as it tried to sort out the conflict. In the confusion, the posse left behind Frank Coe, who had been held down. prisoner during the battle. He simply walked away from confinement at the Dolan store and rejoined his buddies. The regulators fled Lincoln County for the sanctuary of San Patricio to the southwest.

There they had a friend in the local constable, Jose Chavez-Evese-E Chavez. They elected Josiah Doz Scurlock as their third captain and went back on the hunt for Dolan men who had killed John Tunstall and Frank McNabb. Exactly two weeks after After the Battle of Lincoln, the regulators rode down the Black River toward a cow camp that belonged to Jimmy Dolan, or at least it used to belong to Jimmy Dolan. Thomas Katrin, the leader of the Santa Fe Ring, now owned everything that had belonged to Dolan. When the regulators stormed the camp in mid-May, they made a direct enemy of arguably the most powerful man in New Mexico territory. By this point, the regulators were almost two possees working together. Doc Scurlock commanded the core group that had been in it since the beginning.

Then a group of Hispanic supporters commanded by Jose Chavez joined in San Patricio. Together they swarmed the cow camp on the Black River. They drove off the cowboys and wounded two men in the process. But the real prize was the capture of Manuel Segovia. Though he'd been described as the camp cook, he also rode with the posse that killed Tunstall and the posse that killed Frank McNabb. The regulators believed he was the man who actually murdered McNabb, and a predictable outcome awaited him.

As the posse rode back up the river, it was said later that Zagovia spurred his horse and tried to escape. Billy and Chavez chased him and killed him. Segovia was yet another prisoner who died while trying to escape from the regulators. It was a common theme. Thus far, they had not delivered a single prisoner for trial, which they likely never intended to do anyway. As it stood, they had killed five men who could be viewed as Dolan supporters, Morton, Baker, McCloskey, Segovia, and Buckshot Roberts. Ancillary losses were outlaw Captain Jesse Evans and his lead.

Lieutenant Tom Hill. Evans had finally been arrested and was being held on a myriad of charges. During the capture, Tom Hill had been killed. With Evans in jail and Baker and Hill dead, the leadership of the outlaw gang was essentially wiped out. If you viewed the situation as a morbid scorecard, the count was six to three. Six Dolan men had died versus three for the Tunstall-McSween side. But the dead men on the Tunstall-McSween side were all leaders, Dick Brewer, Frank McNabb, and John Tunstall himself.

And the ratio was about to change dramatically. The Tunstall-Mexswain faction and the regulators would suffer terrible losses when the war returned to Lincoln. But in the immediate aftermath of Zagovia's murder, ringleader Thomas Katrin made his presence felt. He wrote a letter to Governor Axtel, about the lack of law enforcement in Lincoln County. In response, Axtel delivered his second public proclamation about law in Lincoln.

This time, he removed Sheriff Copeland from office and replaced him with George Pepin, a loyal Dolan man who had been present at Sheriff Brady's assassination. Then the governor commanded all men underarms in Lincoln County to give up their weapons and stop fighting. He said, as long as the sheriff was able to call on the army for help, the sheriff didn't need citizen possees to assist him, meaning the regulators and the Seven Rivers Men. The second part of the proclamation had no effect,

which was probably to be expected. Within two weeks, yet another posse had been added to the mix. This one called itself the Rio Grande Posse, and it was led by smuggling kingpin, John Kinney. While the regulators hunted Zagovia and the governor issued proclamations and John Kinney's gang rode up from the south, the special agent from the Justice Department conducted his investigation in Lincoln. He heard testimony about the death of John Tunstall and the various illegal activities of Jimmy Dolan in the Santa Fe Ring. Numerous Tunstall supporters, including McSween and the Kid, once he'd returned from killing Zagovia,

gave depositions about all the nefarious happenings over the last few months. By early June 1878, the agent had wrapped up his investigation and traveled back to Washington to make his recommendation. McSween would rejoice in the outcome, but it would be too little, too late. As soon as the agent left Lincoln County, Jimmy Dolan marshalled his resources for one big push against McSween and the regulators. Dolan's loyal sheriff, George Pepin, raised a posse from the Lincoln area. He was assisted by soldiers from Fort Stanton. With John Kenny's gang and some men from Seven Rivers, there were three possees hunting for the regulators. Over the next month, the posseys chased McSween and the regulators around Lincoln County.

The regulators camped in fields and in the mountains. They lived off the land, and they dodged possees at every. return. When they needed supplies or information, they went to the little village of San Patricio southwest of Lincoln, so the posseys ravaged the tiny town. Pepin's men and Kinney's men took turns terrorizing the community in an effort to lure the regulators into a fight or to ruin their base of operations. Several times the regulators exchanged shots with the posse's, but neither side suffered losses. Then, in early early, July, the regulators sought shelter at John Chisholm's ranch.

The Seven Rivers Posse cornered them there and laid siege to the ranch. But the Seven Rivers mob was on its own when it came to the blockade. John Kinney's gang was still scouring the hills around Lincoln. Sheriff Pepin's posse was supposed to be on its way to reinforce the Seven Rivers men, but it had recently lost its army escort. The United States Congress had passed the Posse Comitatis Act, which prohibited the military from participating in civilian law enforcement matters unless specifically ordered to do so by the president. Colonel Nathan Dudley, commander at Fort Stanton, had withdrawn his troops from the hunt for the regulators. But as McSween and the boys would learn soon enough, Dudley was inconsistent in his application of the new law.

After several days trapped at the Chisholm Ranch, McSween and the regulators slipped through the Seven Rivers blockade and headed for Lincoln. McSween was done running. He wanted to go home, and he had received encouraging news that may have given him a false sense of security. He heard from the Justice Department's special agent that real action was about to be taken in New Mexico. Governor Axtell and U.S. Attorney Thomas Katrin

were about to be removed from office. In mid-July, McSween and the regulators quietly moved back into Lincoln. They were now the size of a small army. They had nearly 60 men after picking up some new Hispanic recruits on the way into town. Most of Dolan's men were out in the countryside

with one of the three posseys, but Dolan and Sheriff Pepin himself were in Lincoln at the time. They only had a small contingent. in town, and they quickly found themselves outnumbered by the regulators. Dolan was about to get what he wanted, one last fight to end at all, but he desperately needed reinforcements. When they arrived, the final phase of the Lincoln County War would begin. In the space of one evening, Dolan and Pepin went from believing it was just a matter

of time until they wiped out the regulators to being trapped in Lincoln by them. Pepin dispatched a messenger to track down John Kinney's posse and bring it back to town at a gallop. The messenger warned Kenny that the regulators had 60 men fortified in three main strongholds. It would be unwise to charge straight into town, but that's exactly what Kenny's men did. They rode into town with guns blazing to relieve Dolan and Pepin. The regulators fired at the posse, but then both sides retreated to their side. safe houses to plan their next move. Dolan and Pepin had about 40 men, including Billy Matthews, who had led the posse that killed John Tunstall and outlaw Captain Jesse Evans. Jesse had been

rotting in jail while he waited for his trial for John Tunstall's murder. The corrupt judge down in Messia had conveniently granted him bail, and he had ridden to Lincoln to take part in the war. Dolan's men occupied positions on one end of town and McSween's men occupied positions on the other. McSween had returned to his home with Billy, Chavez, and more than a dozen other men, who now included Billy's new best friend, Tom O'Folliard. Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bodry,

dirty Steve Stevens, and many more regulators stationed themselves at a building on the east end of town. A third group hold up in Juan Patron's store. The battle lines had been drawn, and the two sides settled in for a fight. The first day, Monday, saw sporadic firing all day long, but both sides knew a full assault would be suicide. When darkness fell, the town grew quiet. The next day, Tuesday, Dolan and Pepin sent a note to Fort Stanton,

asking Colonel Dudley if they could borrow his cannons. Thankfully, he said no, but he sent a soldier to Lincoln to see what was going on. Late in the evening, the soldier rode into town, and the regulators at McSweene's house fired on him. He turned around and galloped back to the fort. This action would prove to be the fatal mistake by the regulators, and the first fatality would happen the next morning.

On Wednesday, the third day of what was called the five-day battle, the first man was shot. Two of Sheriff Pepin's men had been posted in the hills south of town. They decided to leave their hiding spot. As they walked down the hill, a shot was fired from one of the regulator's strongholds. It punched into one of the men, Charlie Crawford, cutting through his body from one hip to the other. The other man scrambled away to safety, but Charlie Crawford lay on the hill all morning and into the afternoon, roasting under the July sun. At about noon, five officers from Fort Stanton arrived to investigate the shots fired at the soldier the previous day. They had no idea Charlie Crawford was dying on the hill outside of town.

When they rode into Lincoln, they found an eerie sight. The main street was completely empty. Every home was closed. Every business was closed. Large groups of men were stationed at either end of town, and they fired at each other continuously. The officers questioned Dolan and Pepin about the shots fired at the soldier. The two men obviously said the shots had come from McSween's crew,

so the officers interrogated McSween. McSweene. McSween denied the action, but the officers determined that the officers determined that the men's crew. the shots had, in fact, come from his house. At that point, the officers learned about Charlie Crawford up on the hill. They were able to bring him down and take him to the military hospital at Fort Stanton, but he died a week later.

He was the first man grievously wounded in the siege of Lincoln, but he was not the first to die. The first men killed in the five-day battle would die in Alex McSween's yard. His house would become a kind of alamo, with similar results. Next time on infamous America, the five-day battle reaches its deadly climax and the war for Lincoln County ends. But the fighting doesn't stop. Despite suffering more losses, the regulators remain intact, and they elect a new captain,

a skinny kid who impressed them with his bravery and leadership. The war may be over, but Billy's outlaw years are just beginning. That's next week on season three, Billy the Kid. Research assistance for this season was provided by Aaron Ailsworth, original music by Rob Valier, editing and sound design by Dave Harrison. I'm your writer and host, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. please visit our website blackbarrelmedia.com for more details and join us on social media. We're blackbarrel media on Facebook and Instagram and B-Barrell media on Twitter.

Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.