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Texas John(John Slaughter)
By Tom S. Coke Ó 2001 Early on John Slaughter determined never to let any get the best of him. Maybe it was his size. He was pushing it to reach five-foot-six. Or maybe it was just him. The Louisiana born youngster was raised in Texas where his father George Webb Slaughter broke him into ranching when he was too young to remember. By 1858 when John was 17 he was helping his father and older brother C.C. as a trail hand. His father gave him cattle to raise which he let multiply in Palo Pinto County. But for awhile the Civil War interrupted his ranching. While ranching he had also learned how to defend himself and use a gun. He used these skills to fight for the Confederacy as a "Minute Man of the Texas Rangers." This meant he was fighting Indians more than the Union. During the war years he began to build his no-nonsense reputation as a survivor. Others including those toughened by the war began to give him his ground when the little man asked for it. After the war, in 1866 he registered his own brand, U Lazy S (U for United States and lazy S in imitation of his brother's Lazy S brand) and continued ranching. In 1876 the little rancher was involved in his first killing (not counting the Civil War). While herding cattle on John Chisum's ranch in New Mexico, Slaughter crossed a drunken rustler named Barney Gallagher who challenged him. The rustler carried a shotgun. This didn't intimidate Texas John. He whipped out a pistol, rode toward Gallagher, and shot him in the thigh before Gallagher could take aim. The rustler died that night from loss of blood. By 1877 John had gone into business with his younger brotherWilliam and drove cattle to Kansas for the next three years, making a profit each year. In these drives his name and fame spread among the cowboys that worked for him, among them youngsters such as William Claiborne, who later wanted to be known as Billy the Kid. Claiborne was one of those present when the Earps fought the Clanton cowboys near the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. By the 1880's Slaughter had repeatedly trailed rustlers and recovered stolen cattle and horses as part of his work running his ranch. Those who knew him noticed one thing about those episodes, though. While he always brought back the stolen animals, he never brought back the thief. That's one reason he has been credited with killing no less than 20 men. By this time he had located in the Arizona and New Mexico area. Arizona was still having trouble with outlaw bands of cowboys around Tombstone. People were desperate for better law enforcement. The answer increasingly pointed to John Slaughter. In 1886 he became the Cochise County, Arizona sheriff. He soon hired several efficient deputies, perhaps the best one being Burt Alvord. Alvord also had witnessed the Earp-Clanton shootout while working as a stable hand at the OK Corral. Now Alvord would find himself beside John Slaughter in a number of scrapes. It wasn't long before Slaughter and his deputies had cleaned up the Tombstone area in a way that eluded even the Earps. In 1887 Slaughter, Alvord, and another deputy Doc Hall tracked down Geronimo Baltierrez, a bandit also wanted for murder. They followed him to Fairbank, Arizona, where they surrounded the tent he was in outside of town. Baltierrez bolted and ran as far as a nearby fence before Slaughter blasted him twice with a shotgun, killing him in his tracks. In May, 1888, Slaughter, Alvord, and another deputy Cesario Lucero followed three Mexicans who had robbed a train in Cochise County, Arizona. The outlaws made it to the Whetstone Mountains before the sheriff and his men found them. The three lawmen surprised them while they were sleeping and after a brief gun battle with one of them being shot, they surrendered. Again on June 7, 1888 Slaughter and Alvord caught up with two Mexican bandits in the Whetstone Mountains. Again they surprised them while they were sleeping. They still tried to escape. Slaughter shot one of them before the leader, Guadalupe Robles, jumped up with a six gun in his hand. Slaughter then shot Robles dead. Still another of the outlaws, one named Manuel, dashed away but not before being hit with another Slaughter bullet. Manuel somehow escaped. A decade later, on September 19, 1898, Texas John spied a man sneaking on his property at his San Bernardino, Arizona, ranch early that morning. He figured out it was Peg-Leg Finney, a wanted thief. Slaughter carefully got together a posse and tracked the man. About a mile later the outlaw bedded down for a nap. John waited, then snuck up to the bedroll, picked up the man's rifle and tossed it away. Finney sat up and pointed a cocked pistol at Slaughter. Somehow Slaughter still got off a rifle shot before Finney could fire. Two other deputies then fired, killing Finney instantly. The stories could go on. Around 1900 Slaughter trailed Gambler Little Bob Stevens from Tombstone toward the San Bernardino Ranch, caught up with him, and shot him dead. In 1901 Slaughter and a posse hunted down a man who had killed a mother, son, and daughter for $300. Again the man ended up dead. Texas John Slaughter would live till 1922 when he was 80. With his well-deserved reputation, it was little wonder that fictionalized accounts would follow. They did. Besides books and articles written about him, the boom time of TV Westerns would feature the series "Texas John Slaughter" which would run from 1958 till 1961. This time there would be little need of exaggeration. Sources:
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