Legends of the Old West - TOM HORN Ep. 3 | “The Johnson County War”

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Tom Horn helps recruit a mercenary army on behalf of the cattle barons and they kill two men outside Buffalo, Wyoming. The mercenaries meet their match when the sheriff recruits a posse to oppose the cattle barons. After the war cools down, Tom starts working directly for the cattle barons and begins investigating a prominent cattle rustler in southern Wyoming. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUVRfp5H1frBzTegq9qMNIQ For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Johnson County, Wyoming, the range war was seriously heating up. The big cattle ranchers in the area were mad that homesteaders were moving into the region and fencing off parcels of land. Or, the small ranchers sent their cattle out to graze on the same public land that the big ranchers had used to get rich. For years, the big ranchers had been able to graze their cattle for free on open land that belonged to the federal government. Now, much of the land was being divided up or used by small ranchers, and the big ranchers were fed up. In the summer of 1889, the cattle barons had accused two small ranchers of rustling.

A group of six men kidnapped and hanged those small ranchers, Ella Watson and Jim Averill. Ella and Jim were almost certainly innocent, and no one was arrested or charged with their murders. The cattle barons tried to bring five court cases against people they accused of being rustlers, but juries acquitted the suspects all five times. In 1891, the situation escalated. The cattle barons didn't think they could get help from the law or the courts, so they formed a group that was called an assassination squad. It was led by a former sheriff of Johnson County, Frank Canton. First, the squad hanged a horse trader who was accused of being a thief. Then, in November 1891, a squad of five men burst into a tiny cabin

that was owned by a small rancher named Nate Champion. Nate and another man were inside, but the assassins had terrible aim. They fired at both men, but hit neither. Nate returned fire and wounded two of the assassins, one of whom later died. The assassins fled and wanted no more of Nate Champion, at least for a little while. During the investigation that followed, one of the assassins was forced to identify the other assassins in front of two witnesses. On December 1st, 1891, exactly one month after the attack on Nate Champion, both witnesses

were assassinated. They were two more small ranchers, Orly Jones and John Tisdale. A lone gunman ambushed them and shot and killed them. At the time, the supposed head of the assassination squad, former Johnson County Sheriff Frank Canton, was the chief suspect, but later, many came to believe that the murders might have been the work of Tom Horn. The timeline can work, but it will always be tough to know for sure. Tom was already working for the Pinkertons, and it was at around that time that the cattle barons sent representatives to the Pinkerton office in Denver, Colorado, to ask for help with their range war.

Whether or not Tom was involved in the murders of the two ranchers, he was in Wyoming for the peak of the war when a small army of mercenaries invaded Johnson County. All hell broke loose, and it changed Wyoming forever. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the complex and controversial story of Tom Horn, range detective, Pinkerton agent, and hired gun. This is Episode 3, The Johnson County War. The Pinkertons agreed to send Tom Horn to Wyoming in the guise of a range detective. He used the name Tom Hale, and on the surface, he was supposed to investigate claims of cattle

rustling on behalf of the big ranchers. But below the surface, he was supposed to investigate claims of cattle rustling on behalf of the big ranchers. But below the surface, he was an enforcer. His job was to remove small ranchers who had been targeted by the cattle barons. Some of those small ranchers, or people who were associated with them, were real, genuine cattle rustlers. Wherever there were big cattle operations, there would be thieves. But it was quickly apparent that many, if not most, of the accusations of cattle rustling that were made by the big ranchers were just stories that were used for legal cover. The big ranchers of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association wanted the open range back, plain and simple. The open

range provided free food and water for their enormous cattle herds, and that made the ranchers enormously wealthy. But with the constant arrival of new homesteaders and the falling price of beef, the big ranchers were losing money. They wanted their profits back, and they were prepared to do almost anything to make it happen. and they were prepared to do almost anything to make it happen. According to some historians, and also those who were alive at the time, the Pinkerton agency's role in the Johnson County Range War was covert and unlawful. Many believe that WSGA hired the Pinkertons for one reason only,

to help them stand up an army of mercenaries to wage all-out war against homesteaders, small ranchers, and many of the residents of the frontier town of Buffalo, Wyoming, the county seat of Johnson County. Sometime in early 1892, the cattle barons made a hit list. The WSGA compiled a list of 70 people whom they claimed were either known cattle rustlers or suspected cattle rustlers. All the suspects lived in or around the town of Buffalo. Most were civilians, small ranchers, or homesteaders, but there were also members of local law enforcement on the list. The plan seemed to be simple and ruthless. The WSGA expected their hired guns to kill everyone on the list. And most believe that Tom Horn's first job in the conflict was to go undercover and hire as many of those guns as he could. The most reliable evidence of

Tom's involvement came from a South Dakota rancher named Bruce Seibertz. Seibertz came forward and stated that Tom Horn, who introduced himself as Tom Hale, approached Seibertz and his neighbor about joining the mercenary army. Tom tried to recruit them for the price of $150 per month, plus a bonus for every homesteader they killed. Seibert said the three of them drank a jug of whiskey and got pretty drunk while they discussed the proposition. Then, Seibert's neighbor told Tom that he was on the side of the homesteaders, even if some of them were actually rustling a few head of cattle. Tom became so enraged that someone would take the side of the thieves that Seibert was afraid that the men would draw their pistols.

They didn't, luckily, and the men parted ways without any killing. But it was only a matter of time before the killing started, and first on the list was Nate Champion. Nate survived an assassination attempt six months earlier, and he gave dramatic testimony about his ordeal during a preliminary hearing. One of the suspected assassins was due to stand trial very soon, and if Nate told his story in open court, the cattle barons could be in serious trouble. So, Nate Champion had to die. On April 9, 1892, at least 50 men rode toward Buffalo.

Most were hired guns who were likely recruited by Tom Horn. A few cattle barons rode with the posse in one of the rare times where they decided to get their hands dirty. The mercenary army surrounded Nate's property. Nate was inside with his friend, Nick Ray. Nick unwisely stepped outside. When he did, the posse shot him dead. Nate holed up in his cabin and held out for hours. He wounded three of his attackers, but the posse eventually set his cabin on fire.

The smoke forced him to run outside, and when he did, the posse killed him. Smoke forced him to run outside, and when he did, the posse killed him. There were multiple reports that Tom Horn was with the mercenary army for the attack on the cabin, and some said he was the one who fired the shot that killed Nate Champion. Again, it's hard to know for sure, but the circumstantial evidence is starting to mount. And the event that would be called the Invasion of Johnson County was far from done. In reality, it was just getting started. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify.

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in the U.S. Shopify is also the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash r e a l m now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Realm. During the siege of Nate Champion's house, a witness was able to ride to the town of Buffalo and tell the Johnson County Sheriff what was happening. to ride to the town of Buffalo and tell the Johnson County Sheriff what was happening. The posse of mercenaries was about to be confronted by a much larger posse that was rallied by the Sheriff. The Johnson County Sheriff formed a posse of somewhere between 200 and 300

men, and he led his small army toward Nate Champion's ranch to confront the mercenaries. The cattle barons had no idea what was about to hit them. They had never faced a challenge like this, 200 to 300 men who were supported by local law enforcement. As the cattle barons and their 50 men rode toward the town of Buffalo, the sheriff's posse thundered toward them. The cattle barons quickly realized that they were badly outnumbered. They turned off the trail and hurried toward the T.A. Ranch, 14 miles south of Buffalo. They holed up in a barn and fortified themselves against the oncoming army. The fight at Nate Champion's house had been a mini-siege, but this would be a real siege.

The cattle baron's posse was trapped in the barn, and that's where it stayed for three long days. The posse from Buffalo fired at the barn with rifles and pistols in an attempt to force the mercenaries to come out, but the mercenaries held their ground. Then both sides settled in for a longer campaign. Some of the men in the Buffalo Posse had fought for the Union during the Civil War, so they had experience in battle and some tactical expertise. One tactic, which is always painful to talk about and all too common in the Old West, was to shoot all the mercenaries' horses that were left outside the barn in order to prevent escape. When that grim work was done,

the men of the Buffalo Posse built shelters around the perimeter of the barn that they could use to conceal their best shooters. These men were like cowboy snipers who were ready to pick off anyone who tried to make a break for it. After that, they got really creative. They built some sort of cannon that was intended to fire at the barn, but there isn't much detail about how exactly they built it, or what it looked like, or how it worked. And that's probably because it didn't work. Apparently, it blew up before it was operational.

But the next plan was even better. The men built what they referred to as the Ark of Safety. The men built what they referred to as the Ark of Safety. The name came from the Bible, Noah's Ark. And the creation was an Old West version of something that our listeners in the military might be familiar with. An APC, an Armored Personnel Carrier. This was like a small fort on wagon wheels. The guys grabbed a wagon and then secured logs or fence posts around the side to act as barricades. A few men would crawl into the back of the wagon, and then the posse would start moving it toward the barn.

The men in the wagon would be shielded from gunfire, and the goal was to get close enough to throw sticks of dynamite at the barn. The explosions would either kill the mercenaries or force them to come out. Either way was fine. But unfortunately for the sake of a good story, the Buffalo posse wasn't able to use the arc of safety. The mercenaries caught a break because word of the battles had reached the governor, and he didn't want his second year in office to be highlighted by this kind of vigilante craziness. Wyoming had been granted statehood just a year earlier, and the governor sent a telegram to President Benjamin Harrison asking him to send in the cavalry. On April 13, 1892, four days after the murder of Nate Champion, troops from nearby Fort McKinney arrived at the T.A. Ranch and took control of the situation.

They arrested the mercenaries, including the cattle barons, and took them into custody, all of them except Tom Horn, who was either able to identify himself as a Pinkerton agent and was released, or was able to escape on his own. The cavalry escorted the men to Fort Russell in Cheyenne, where they were held until someone could decide what to charge them with. There was no question they were accessories to murder, but there were probably a number of other crimes committed as well. And beyond that, they had to figure out how they were going to put 50 men on trial. In the end, it wouldn't matter. Justice was a fickle thing in Johnson County.

After months of legal wrangling, lawyers who were paid by the WSGA to defend the mercenaries prevailed. There's actually a photograph of all 52 men who were arrested and detained at Fort Russell, and in January of 1893, nine months after the murders and the standoff between the two posses, all 52 walked free. Residents of Johnson County were outraged all over again. After the dust settled, the press caught wind of the Pinkertons' possible involvement in helping the WSGA assemble their mercenary army. The Pinkerton agency, of course, vehemently denied accusations of wrongdoing. The problem, as always, was that there was no hard evidence to link the Pinkerton agency to any criminal activity, so charges were never brought against the agency or its operatives, including Tom Horn.

But rumors hurt the agency almost as much as proven facts would have. Despite the agency's public denials, most people believed the Pinkertons did play a role in helping the WSGA put together their mercenary army. People believed that the Pinkertons knew about the planned invasion of Buffalo and the existence of a hit list. Even though the agency's reputation was tarnished, its operatives stayed in Johnson County, though the times were definitely changing.

The invasion of Johnson County was so brash and bold, and the outrage over it was so loud, that the Wyoming Stock Growers Association never tried anything like it again. In fact, the association was forced to make a big and permanent change. In 1893, the rich cattle barons opened the doors of the association to small ranchers. Now, in theory, they were all on the same team and working toward the same goal. For some people, that was probably the case. For others, the change in the association only meant that the war on small ranchers

had to be more subtle. It couldn't be an army of invaders riding across the countryside and attacking cabins. It had to be more surgical, maybe back to the earlier idea of a squad of assassins, or even just one lone assassin. And by 1894, Tom Horn was free to take on that role. Tom bragged about lots of things, especially toward the end of his life. But he was uncharacteristically silent about his involvement in the Johnson County War and the stuff that happened afterward. At the end of his autobiography, he only makes a passing reference to leaving the Pinkertons, an organization which he referred to as one of the greatest institutions of the kind in existence. Then he went on to say that he never liked the work, and he quit the institution in 1894. He did leave the Pinkertons in 1894, but it doesn't sound like he quit. The head of the agency,

William Pinkerton, told a San Francisco newspaper that he was forced to let Tom go because Tom had become a drunk, and he had been drinking on the job. Pinkerton claimed he told Tom to get off the whiskey or he'd be fired. Tom kept drinking and Pinkerton fired him as promised. Maybe Tom was a drunk, but it seems doubtful that that was the reason why he was fired. Drinking in general, drinking during the day, drinking on the job, all of that was much more common and acceptable in the Old West than it is today. And Pinkerton agents weren't known for being choir boys, so it's hard to imagine how much a person would have to drink and how badly they would have to screw up to get fired for being drunk.

So if the drinking thing was just a cover story, what was the real reason? So if the drinking thing was just a cover story, what was the real reason? A reason that might make more sense was put forward by a former Pinkerton agent named Charlie Saringo. Saringo was a character in his own right, and he worked with Tom. He claimed the real reason Tom was fired was because word had reached William Pinkerton that Tom was responsible for assassinating the two ranchers in Johnson County back in 1891. Ranchers John Tisdale and Orly Jones acted as witnesses in the aftermath of the first attack on Nate Champion, and they were murdered on December 1, 1891. In a memoir that Charlie Seringo wrote after he retired, he said the following,

William A. Pinkerton told me that Tom Horn was guilty of the crime, but that his people could not allow him to go to prison while in their employ. According to Seringo, Pinkerton knew Tom was guilty of the murders, but Pinkerton had to keep Tom out of a courtroom and out of a prison cell so that the agency's reputation wouldn't suffer. Regardless of the reason, Tom Horn was done as a Pinkerton. But in the grand scheme of things, it didn't really change anything. Many of the big cattle ranchers were still fighting their own private wars with smaller ranchers,

and they were impressed with Tom. So, Tom went to work directly for the ranchers. He couldn't stay in Johnson County because there was still too much heat from the fallout of the invasion. So, he moved from northern Wyoming to southern Wyoming and went to work for the Swan Land and Cattle Company. and went to work for the Swan Land and Cattle Company. John Clay was the ranch manager for the Swan Land and Cattle Company, which was then based in Laramie County. Laramie County is in the southeast corner of Wyoming and it's home to the city of Cheyenne.

Clay was overseeing an operation that covered 600,000 acres with 40,000 head of cattle and 500 horses. He needed a range detective who could learn the lay of the land quickly and monitor the activities of homesteaders or small-time ranchers. The company owned multiple ranches, and Tom went to work at the company's base ranch called the Two Bar. Ironically, it sounds like this job started out as legitimate. By all accounts, John Clay, at least at that time, was an honest ranch manager and was not looking for a range detective who was basically a hired killer.

Tom's job was to quietly investigate and identify possible rustlers, then try to gather enough evidence for the company to take the suspect to court. According to those who knew Tom at the time, he seemed content with his new job at Swan Land and Cattle, and the company seemed happy with him. Tom's typical approach was to go undercover at the ranch of a suspected rustler

so that he could gather evidence. He would use the name Tom Hale, just as he did up in Johnson County, and he would work as a horse breaker for the targeted ranch. Tom was genuinely good at breaking horses, so it was a good cover for his true identity. His first big covert investigation began in September 1893. covert investigation began in September 1893. Tom's boss suspected that a man named Ferdinand Langhoff was the ringleader of a gang of cattle rustlers who had been stealing cattle from the Swan Land and Cattle Company. Langhoff owned a small ranch in the Laramie Mountains, and the ranch was the suspected headquarters of the rustling operation. Langhoff was arrested, but the county prosecutor failed

to get a conviction. Langhoff fled the area, but his wife, Eva, stayed behind to run the ranch. It turned out that Tom's boss was half right. There was a cattle rustling operation going on at the Langhoff ranch, but Eva was the real ringleader. In addition to stealing cattle and unbranded calves, she was suspected of running a butchering operation out of her barn. Tom's bosses were convinced the stolen cattle were being brought to her at night, she and her men butchered them in her barn, and then the next morning, she loaded the meat onto her wagon and took it to market. she loaded the meat onto her wagon and took it to market. The foreman of the ranch where Tom was based convinced the Laramie County Sheriff to temporarily deputize Tom

so that if and when Tom found the proof he needed, he could make an arrest. The sheriff agreed, and Tom Horn became Deputy Tom Hale. He made arrangements to stay with the owners of a neighboring farm, and he began surveillance of Eva Langhoff. It took a while, but his commitment paid off. Tom watched Eva Langhoff's ranch for two months before he finally saw something that could prompt action. One morning, he watched her lift three calves into her wagon, calves Tom had been able to identify as belonging to his home

base, the Two Bar Ranch. Deputy Tom Hale followed her into town and watched her sell the stolen calves at market. Later that same night, he snuck into the Langhoff's barn and saw the illegal butchering operation. The next night, Tom and his ranch foreman recruited two local men to serve as witnesses for the arrest. Those men would testify that everything was done properly. The four men entered the barn and caught Eva Langhoff literally red-handed. She and three other men were butchering cattle that had been stolen from the Tubar Ranch. Tom arrested the whole crew, and that was the last bright spot for Tom and his employers. The trial of Eva Langhoff did not go well.

The problems actually started before the trial. Tom arrested five people, Eva, her three assistants, and a woman who held a lantern while the others worked. The prosecutor released two of the assistants and the woman with the lantern. Only Eva and one of her assistants went to trial. went to trial. The trial happened in January 1894 and featured testimony from Deputy Tom Hale, his ranch foreman, and the two men who acted as witnesses to the arrest. Despite the testimony, the jury acquitted Eva Langhoff. It delivered a guilty verdict for her assistant, but he only received 18 months in state prison. Tom apparently kept his cool in the courtroom, but he and his employer, the Swan Land and Cattle Company, were furious about the verdicts.

To Tom, it was just more proof that the legal system, or at least the jury, wasn't trustworthy. He'd spent months working on the case, only to watch four of the five people he'd arrested walk free. In Tom's mind, it was time to go back to the old ways. The only way to punish rustlers and discourage others was to use force. He decided that if he were going to continue to work for the Swan Company as a range detective, he was going to put the suspects on notice. He would intimidate them, harass them, and threaten them. If he had sufficient proof of a rustler's guilt, he was happy to shoot the thief or hang him from the nearest tree, if the price was right. And the right price for Tom was $500 for each dead rustler. When word got out that the range detective for the Two Bar Ranch of the Swan Land and Cattle Company

was taking a revised approach to dealing with cattle rustlers, it did have a somewhat chilling effect. Rustlers decided there might be other, less risky places to steal cattle. And word of this change in policy was put out by Tom Horn himself. The Wyoming State Journal later wrote that Tom, quote, caused the rumor to be circulated that he was through

trying to protect the interests of his employers through the medium of the law and would, thereafter, take things into his own hands. According to many, the next year, in 1895, Tom stayed true to his word

and two more ranchers died. Next time on Legends of the Old West, a new employer comes calling. The ranch manager of the Swan Land and Cattle Company didn't want to fight rustlers with a gun. But the manager of the Iron Mountain Ranch Company had no problem with it, and Tom starts hunting rustlers in Laramie County. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. And members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com.

Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Michael Byrne. Original music by Rob Valliere. Copy editing by me, Chris Wimmer, and I'm your host and producer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details, and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Thanks for listening. Merci d'avoir écouté. Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada