September 4, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Bat Masterson’s name still echoes through Wild West history, but unlike most gunfighters, he didn’t meet his end in a dusty street. Born William Barclay Masterson, he earned a reputation as a fearless sheriff, gambler, and occasional gunslinger who refused to kill for sport. To him, outlaw gunmen were thugs; his own weapon was for justice or to defend a friend in need. While many Old West legends died young, Masterson lived long enough to see himself become part of American folklore. Historian Roger McGrath shares the story of the man who survived the frontier and became one of the most famous lawmen of his time.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habee with our American Stories, and for
the hour, we're going to tell a great story about
our past. Old West lawman Bat Masterson was as well
known in his lifetime as celebrities are today. To Bat,
gunslingers were hoodlums who killed for fun. He used guns
to enforce the law or defend a friend. In the end,
he'd achieved defeat. Almost none of the Old West legends
(00:33):
it attained. He lived to see an old age. Here
to tell the story of Bat Masterson is Roger McGrath.
McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Hioman and Vigilantes. A
US marine and former history professor at UCLA, McGrath is
a regular contributor for US Here at our American Stories.
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of the most widely traveled in greatest characters of
the Old West was Bat Masterson. His first taste of
the frontier game as a buffalo winner of the High
Plains in the early eighteen seventies, when he was still
a teenager, he took part in the famous Battle of
Adobie Walls. He served as a scout for the US
(01:14):
Army pursuing Indian War parties. He was a sheriff of
Ford County, which included Dodge City. During the heyday of
the cattle Town. He was with the IRPs and Tombstone
Arizona for a time. He was a gunfighter and professional gambler,
and eventually a sports promoter and journalist. Here's Texas State
(01:36):
historian Bill O'Neill, also Dodge City historian and narrator of
the Wild West podcast Brad Smalley.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
There was a US postal stamp series that was aptly named.
It was called Legends of the West. Twenty of them
in fact, and one of them was Bat Masterson on
a twenty nine cent stamp. Bat Masterson was a day
a legend of the West.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
When you mentioned Bat Masterson, at least to the average
person by and large, the image that comes to mind
is really that of Gene Barry from the nineteen fifties
TV show You Know, Puff tiede Derby Hat, the silver
Tip Caine, just sort of walking the West being Bat
Masterson without really any specifics. Canadian born farmed in New York, Iowa.
(02:30):
He was about seventeen eighteen years old when the family
moved to Kansas. They lived around Wichita, or very near
to Wichita. Kansas for about a year before the two
oldest brothers, Bat and the oldest Masterson. His older brother
Ed headed west really to seek adventure.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Madden ed theyre proficient with firearms before they start buffalo mounting,
but they now become expert marksmen with the sharps rifle.
I be in Buffalo at distances of five hundred yards
or more the town they haul the heights to his
Dodge City, which will be a buffalo town for a
decade before it becomes a cattle town. Dodge City will
(03:13):
be called the Queen of the cattle towns and have
a reputation for gunfights and rough characters, but it is
rougher and more violent in its buffalo days. It's in
Dodge City that Bat begins making his name well known.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
At that time. In the summer of eighteen seventy two,
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was in western Kansas,
and Ed and Batt were hired by subcontractor Raymond Ritter
to help grade four miles of railroad track between Fort
Dodge and the small settlements, a little boomtown that was
(03:52):
to be known as Dodge City. Well, mister Ritter skipped
out on pain, the masters and brothers, and probably the
entire crew.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The dead is nearly a year old. When word reaches
Dodge City that Ridder is a passenger on a train
they will be stopping at Dodge. Bat heads to the
station with a dozen or more men following him, who
are eager to watch what unfolds. Those in the crowds
say Bat's pale blue eyes are ice cold. When the
(04:27):
train crinds to a halt, Bat springs aboard enters the
passenger car. Minutes later, he's holding Ritter at gunpoint on
the train's rear platform. Ridder yells out that he's being robbed.
Bett tells him to produce the money or he's did.
Rider pleads that he doesn't have it on his person,
(04:50):
but that it's in his valise back in the car
in her left to go back to retrieve it. Bet
doesn't fall for the trick, and as Henry Raymond, who
who is standing below in the crowd, get the volice.
Raymond quickly returns with the valice and Bat has Ridder
open it and count out the three hundred dollars owed
(05:11):
them from several thousand dollars in the bag. With that,
Bat allows ridder to go back into the passenger car.
That invites all those in the crowd to follow him
to Kelly's saloon so he can treat them to drinks.
That is only nineteen years old, but his coolness and
(05:31):
determination impresses everyone. Here's the owner of Legends of America,
Kathy Alexander.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Bat Masterson and the other buffalo hunters that were working
in the Dodd City area. It didn't take long for
they pretty much killed all of the buffalo in the area.
But they got when the fact that in the Texas
Panhandle they still roamed large and free. The Texas Panhandle,
it was ruled by the comanches in the kiwan Dans,
(06:02):
so there was a risk that he and several others
just couldn't resist.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
They set up a camp about one hundred and fifty
miles southwest of Dodge City, near are the ruins of
an old trading post known as Adobe Walls. A camp
grows day by day. A big kraal is built with
a storehouse made of sod. Jim Hanrahan, a big, genial
Irish immigrant, builds a saloon out of sod and logs.
(06:32):
Tom O'Keefe, another irishman, fashions a crude blacksmith's shop. Shirley
Rath builds a general store out of sod and logs.
Bill Owles and his wife, Hannah, the only woman in
the camp, opened a restaurant in the rear of Wrath's store.
They are entirely unaware that on the Comanche Reservation in
(06:54):
western Oklahoma, Ishati, a medicine man, is calling for a
war of extermination against the whites. He says he talks
with the Great Spirit, and the Great Spirit tells him
he wire a store dead warriors to life, and that
all warriors will now have magical protection against the bullets
(07:15):
of the whites.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath. The story bat
Masterson's continues here on our American Stories. Folks, if you
love the stories we tell about this great country, and
especially the stories of America's rich past, know that all
of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
(07:39):
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we continue with our American stories
(08:11):
and the story of bat Masterson. Let's return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Ishatai's message spreads to Kaiowa a Rappo in Cheyenne on
nearby reservations, and soon Ishatai has a large following. During June,
warrior bands of Comanche Kaiowa Rappo in Cheyenne both their
reservations and head for the Texas Panhandle. Ishutai is riding
(08:39):
along with them. In Texas, they joined forces with Quana Parker,
the chief of the Kwahadi band of Comanche, which has
never been on a reservation. Quana Parker is the son
of a Comanche chief and a kidnapped White girl, Cynthia
Ann Parker. Barker assumes command of the force of Indian
(09:02):
warriors about seven hundred strong. In mid June. Reports begin
arriving at Deoby Walls Camp that whites here and there
in the panandle have been killed and scalped and their
bodies mutilated. Some of the hunters decide it's time to
pack up their wagons and Edvardde City, but most decide
(09:22):
to stay right At sunrise in the morning of June
twenty seventh, hundreds of Indian warriors sweep down on the camp,
both the Indians and their horses streaked in warpaint. Some
are firing their rifles, others are leveling their lances. The
Whites race inside whichever side structure is nearest. Bat Masterson
(09:47):
and nine others are in hand or hand saloon. A
dozen more are in the storehouse and six in the
general store, including the one woman Anna Holes. Two seamsters
who are sleeping in their wagons are killed in the
initial Indian assault. Since they outnumber the Whites twenty five
(10:10):
to one, the Indians think they will make quick work
on the whites of the camp. However, the Indians have
picked on the wrong guys. Sharps, rifles begin to crack,
and Indians begin to fall from their horses at great distances,
and the two hours of fighting, only one more white,
Billy Tyler, is killed. In addition to the two teamsters
(10:33):
caught on the wagons. In the immediate vicinity of the
camp are the bodies of fifteen Indians. The medicine man
Isshatai wearing nothing but body paint, watched the battle from
a safe distance. The Indians remain in the area for
two more days, but stay out of rifle range. On
(10:54):
the third day, a band of a mistationed on a
rise about a mile away. They are just and taunting
the Whites. Billy Dixon decides to take a shot with
a sharp strifle. He reckons wind in elevation and squeezes
off around. A brief moment later, an Indian tumbles from
(11:22):
his horse. The other end answer so unnerved by the
long distance shot, they whirl their horses about and gallop off.
The distance of the shot is later measured at one thousand,
five hundred and thirty eight yards, about nine tenths of
a mile. Here again is brad Smally.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
People still talking about that for years years to come.
Really cemented Billy Dixon's fame on the frontier, as if
he wasn't already famous enough by that point.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Dickson becomes famous for the shot, but he himself is
effusive in his praise of the youngest of the buffalo
hunters in the fight. Bat Masterson should be remembered for
the valor that marked his conduct, says Dixon. He was
a good shot and not afraid. Following the Battle of
(12:19):
Adobe Walls, Bat serves as US Army scout with Colonel
Nelson Miles, tracking down Indian war parties. Here's Tom Claven,
the author of Dodge City, Wyatt, Bat Masterson, and the
Wickedest Town in the American West.
Speaker 6 (12:37):
His most famous adventure as a scout later became a basis,
not the only one, but a basis for the famous
film and Searchers, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne,
Jeffrey Hunter, and a young Natalie Wood. There was a
German family that was crossing Kansas heading for Colorado, and
they were attacked by Indians. Of the parents were killed.
(13:01):
There were four daughters who were kidnapped, and soon after
the kidnapping, the Indians divided into two separate bands, each
taking two daughters, and off they went. Bat was one
of the more prominent and eventually was the leader of
a contingent of Army scouts who vowed to get these
girls back. And they tracked down one of the bands
(13:21):
and without too much trouble, found the girls and returned
them to family members. But the other band was really
hard to find. It took months and months and months
of bat searching and all kinds of weather, until he
finally found the Indians, who by then were rather starving
and the girls themselves and almost starved to death. Bat
wrote into camp. He wrote in unarmed, because his goal
(13:42):
was to not put the girls in danger, even though
he himself was in great danger. But he went and
unarmed and told he worked out a deal with the
Indians to provide them food in exchange for the girls,
which was what was negotiated and successfully concluded. Bat retrieved
the girls, return them to their family, and it was
(14:02):
one of his more well known adventures, and like I say,
it became one basis for the film The Searches, which
is the story of Ethan Edwards and his search for
his niece who had been kidnapped by Indians after a
family had been killed.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Let's Go Home, Debby.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
The army's relentless pursuit of the Indians during the summer
and fall of eighteen seventy four puts an end to
Indian depredations for the time being.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Throughout this time he learned just about every trail hide
away in the entire southern Plains from the panel of
Texas all the way up through Southwest Kansas. He knew
his way around, which would serve him very well in
later years as a lawman, in which he became very
adepts at tracking down horse thieves. He knew all the
(14:48):
heidi holes and places that they could gather, mostly because
of this time.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's first recorded gunfight occurs in the Lady Gay Dance
Hall in Sweetwater, Texas, on a night late in January
eighteen seventy six. Bat is with Molly Brennan when a
soldier from a nearby post, Corporal Milvin King, confronts them
in a rage.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
King was not only wounded by his loss to Bat
at the poker table, he was severely wounded by his
jealousy when he saw the girl that did he was.
After hanging on to his new found rival, jealousy overtook him.
He's torn through the door, pulled his gun and started firing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
The bullet goes through Molly and into Bat, lodging in
his pelvis. As Beat is falling to the dance hall floor,
he draws his six shooter and fires Bat's bullet, drills
King in the hearty and he collapses dead. Molly soon dies,
(15:58):
but Bet hangs on the night and then recovers enough
to have the bullet removed.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
His wound was such that it actually punctured his intestine,
and the doctor who examined him said that the only
thing that saved his life was the fact that he
hadn't eaten anything because of that puncture. If any food
was in his tract, he actually would have scume to
an infection and most likely killed.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Although he needs a cane to walk. Two months later,
Bet is on the back of a horse riding for
Dodge City. In Dodge Bet joins his younger brother Jim,
as one of the city's deputies. They're both hired by
Wyatt Earp, who is chief Deputy under Marshall Larry Deeger.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Now, in all fairness, you can tell the story of
Dodge City without Wyatt earth It's not nearly as good
of a story, but it can be done. You cannot, however,
tell the story of Dodge City without Bat Masterson. And
starting in the spring of eighteen seventy six, when Bat
first pinned on a badge in Dodge City, that's where
(17:12):
the story really takes off.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
A three hundred pound Nager, the owner of a saloon,
was appointed marshall by the City Council principally for political reasons,
and most law enforcement is left to IRB, the Mastersons
and other deputies.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And you're listening to the story of Bat Masterson, and
you're listening to Roger McGrath, who's the author of Gunfighters,
High Women and Vigilantes, and what a storyteller he is.
When we come back more of this remarkable story, Bat
Masterson's story here on our American Stories, and we continue
(18:09):
with our American stories and the story of Bat Masterson.
Let's pick up where we last left off with Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
They try to avoid shooting and prefer to use their
heavy revolvers. The club lawbreakers into submission for clubbing. Matt
uses the kene he is relied on while recovering from
his gunshot wound. Here's Bob Bow's Bill, executive editor of
True West magazine, and Tom Claven and.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
The cowboys coming out from Texas who had been on
the trail for three months.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
They all got paid and they were going to spend
it all in one night, which they usually did.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And so for Bat Masterson and Wider to be essentially
bouncers in a biker bar, it was really intense go
bump up and sleep it all.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
So Bat's first job was at City, and it was
a really daunting challenge for a white erb Bat Masterson,
because Dodge City had gotten a reputation as the wickedest
town in the American West. I mean, one example of
the reputation it had was there was a story that
went around that a very depressed man was sitting on
a train and a conductor was concerned about it and went
(19:19):
over and said, so, buddy, what's the matter, And morosely
the man said, I'm going to Hell, And after a pause,
the conductor said, that'll be two dollars and get off
at Dodge City. That's the kind of reputation it had.
So with Batmasterson and white erp this is where they
really solidified, becoming best friends. Their job was to try
(19:40):
and clean up Dodge City, but do it in a
way that they were peace officers, not outgunned the bad guys.
They had Dodge City. You know, lawmakers had tried that
they'd hired a man as to be Marshall who just
started shooting everything that everybody didn't like, and they quickly
realized that was not a way to have a civilized town.
That people could raise their families. So, with Wyatt and
(20:03):
bat Masterson leading the way, they started to tame Dodge City.
They started to arrest people. And one of the things
that they can credit themselves with is taking the most
wicked town in the American West and turning it into
a place that people felt they could raise their families.
What the wide Urb and bat Masterson generation represented was
(20:24):
a peace officer, and they took the word peace very seriously.
And what was happening with these peace officers. They were
forming police departments, They were forming ways of administering a
law and order system that didn't include shoot first and
ask questions later.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
In July eighteen seventy seven, Masterson is appointed under sheriff
of Ford County, Kansas. The county's principal town is Dodge City.
Sheriff Charlie Bassett's second term is up in November, and
the state's constitution prohibits him from running for a third
conxecutive term. That decides to run for sheriff, His opponent
(21:04):
is Marshall Larry Dieger, who is supported by much of
Dodge City's business community. On November sixth, bat ekes out
of narrow victory to become Sheriff of Ford County. Batt
is only twenty three years old. Here again is Bill O'Neill.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Goodness. He he was elected by three votes, but he
got after it. He was arresting trained robbers and horse
they using jail escapees and confidence man to sheriff. He
was responsible for the whole county.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
In December, Batchel of brother Ed is appointed Marshal of
Dodge City. The one two Masterson punch is hard on outlaws.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
The country was just rife with horse thieves at this point,
and that became very well known as the bane of
horse thieves across the West.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
In February eighteen seventy eight, bat sure's two notorious train robbers,
and in March bat and Ed together capture two more.
The Mastersons are taming county in city, but in April
Ed is shot and mortally wounded by an inebriated cowboy
(22:17):
he's trying to subdue. Before Ed goes down, he is
able to draw as a revolver and mortally wound the cowboy,
as well as wounding the cowboys trail boss. In October
eighteen seventy eight, bat leads a posse whose members make
it legendary. It all starts when Jim Kennedy, the wild
(22:40):
son of powerful Texas cattleman Mifflin Kennedy, makes a nuisance
of himself again and again in Dodge City. After being
roughed up by deputies for the third or fourth time,
Kennedy goes to Dodge Mayor Jim Kelly to complain. Kelly
sales Kennedy only what he deserved. Kennedy explodes and attacks Kelly,
(23:05):
but the mayor thoroughly pummels the young cowboy. Battered and bruised,
Kennedy leaves town swearing vengeance. Several weeks later, in the
middle of the night, Kennedy returns to Dodge City riding
a race horse. He streaks by Miryor Kelly's house, firing
(23:25):
a six shooter into Kelly's bedroom, and the cowboy gallops
out of Dodge. Unbeknownst to Kennedy, Kelly is out of
town and he's allowing two actresses to use his house.
Kennedy's bullets hit Dora Hand, who is sleeping in Kelly's bed.
She dies instantly. Words spreads quickly, and dozens of men
(23:50):
volunteer for posse duties. Matt Masterson, as County sheriff, is
responsible for organizing the posse. He decides the situation calls
for quality, not quantity. He picks former Ford County Sheriff
Charlie Bassett and Dodge City Deputies Wie Bill Duffy and
(24:12):
Bill Tillman. The local newspaper calls it as intrepid a
posse as ever pulled a trigger.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Here's Brad Smally, Legends of the American West, all of them,
and all of them tracking down one man. I would
not want to be in his shoes with names like
that tracking down after me. I can tell you that by.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The time the posse leaves Dodge, Kennedy has a nearly
ten hour hit start. Bat reckons that Kennedy will be
racing home to his father's ranch in Texas, but will
be taking a circuitous route to avoid detection. This means
the posse can catch up with Kennedy at the Cimarron
River crossing that Bat thinks the cowboy will take. The
(25:00):
chase unfolds as Bad anticipates, and the posse is waiting
at the crossing. When Kennedy arrives, Bat shouts at him
to surrender. Instead, Kennedy takes off at a gallop. A
bullet from Bat's sharp trifle shatters Kennedy's arm, and the
(25:20):
bullets from the posse men slam into the horse. Horse
and rider crashed to the earth. When Bat and the
others reached Kennedy, the first words out of his mouth are,
did I get that best killing?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
When they told him that it was, in fact Dora
that he had killed, his remorse was so great that
he told Bat, you should have just killed me bad
then replied, well, I was doing the best that I could.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
With the days of the buffalo hunt are over and
need for army scouts, Matt decides to try his luck
at gambling for a living. He's successful at his new
profession in Dodge City, in Kansas City, and by eighteen
eighty one and Tombstone, Arizona.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath and a whole
posse of storyteller's talking about an incredible posse. Roger McGrath
and Greg Hangler, who does such great production work here
always give you the best of all the historians in
the time period. And this American Western life, the frontier life.
(26:36):
My goodness, you can paint the picture in your head.
It's different than just the movies, right. It's what life
looked like without rule of law, folks, And my goodness,
to have lived like this and to try and turn
a town like this into a place where you can
raise a family, that's no small task. And this was
the commission, this was the purpose, but bat Masterson's actual
(27:01):
appearance on the scene, to make this a place where
families could live as opposed to the stop closest to
Hell in America. When we come back more of this
remarkable life story, bat Masterson's story here on our American stories,
(27:37):
and we continue with our American stories in bat Masterson's story,
and my goodness, what a story it is. Let's return
to Roger McGrath for the final portion.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
That's arrival in Tombstone is celebrated by their brothers, Doc
Holiday and other old friends from Dodge City that immediately
goes to work as a pharaoh dealer at the Oriental Saloon.
Here again are Kathy, Alexander, Bill O'Neill, and Breath Smally.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
That received a telegram from an unsigned person that told
him that his brother Jim was in great danger.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
At this point, Jim Masterson and Aj Peacock are partners
in the Lady Gay Dance Hall and Saloon in Dodge City,
and they got crossways, particularly over a bartender that was
hired by a Peacock named al Updegraph. And Updegraph well,
he didn't like Masterson either, and they traded shots. And
(28:37):
after that, that's when Jim Masterson telegraphed bat and said, Hey,
come join me, man, I'm having trouble out here.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
That received that telegram immediately hopped on a train and
traveled about eleven hundred miles back to Dodge City. He
had already lost one brother in Dodge City, and despite
the fact that he and Jim were not generally on
the best of terms by this point they were somewhat
estranged from each other, that was not about to lose
(29:07):
another brother.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
He arrived on the noon train April sixteenth, eighteen eighty one,
at Dodge City. He stepped off the train and he
immediately spied Peacock and up the Graph walking together. The
street was crowded, but Bat Boy he went battling. Bat
(29:29):
He said, I have come over a thousand miles to
settle this. I know you're healed. Now fight well. All
three men drew guns and opened fire, and everybody scattered,
and in fact, one by standerd caught a bullet ricochet
in the back. Bat hides out on that rail bed,
uses that for a kind of a trench, and the
(29:50):
two opponents they took cover behind the jail and then
joining in the fight or two guys on Bat's site,
Jim Masterson and then a friend of his, and they
opened fire too, and all Updegraph caught a bullet in
the right lung and he did not die. But nobody
knows who if Bat shot him or what he but
(30:13):
he did survive. After three or four minutes of this firefight, mayor,
the mayor of God's City, and the county sheriff marched
onto the scene brandishing shotguns. That stopped the fight. Bat
paid a fine of exalting the peace for carrying weapon,
and he caught training left town and that was his last.
(30:34):
That was his last gun fight.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Jim I said, it's about time we get the hell
out of dodge.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Bat took that very hard because of his code of conduct.
It was important to him that people that respected him,
and they respected him for the right reasons, not so
much because he was a good gunfighter. But because he
was not honest men.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That spends most through the next decade as a professional
gambler in Denver. It's in Denver in eighteen eighty eight
that Bat buys the Palace Theater, which features a variety
of acts in high stakes gambling. Well. The performers at
the Palace is singer and dancer Emma Walters. After many girlfriends,
(31:16):
Bat ties the knot with Emma and remains married to
her for the rest of his life. Here's Bill O'Neill.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
About a decade or so later, he's getting his reputation
has become unsavory in Denver, and he decides in nineteen
two to move to New York City. He had already
visited their time or two long enough to get arrested
for Canada can see a weapon. You know, he was
looked on with a sharp eye by law enforcement officials.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
That's almost fifty years old, and the Old West is gone.
He goes to work writing a column called Masterson's Views
on Timely Topics for the New York Morning Telegram.
Speaker 6 (32:00):
Here again it is Tom Cleven hearing the rest of
Bat Masterson's story. Many people wonder how in the world
did he end up in New York City as a
reporter of the last fifteen years of his life. What
happened was during the eighteen eighties, while Bat was a
federal marshal, he had encountered a young man named Theodore
Roosevelt who was trying to be a cowboy in the Dakotas,
(32:23):
and during the two years that Roosevelt was there, unsuccessfully
being a rancher, he and Bat Masterson became friends. Years later,
Bat Masson was turning fifty and Theodore Roosevelt was in
the White House as President of the United States, and
Masterson wrote to Roosevelt expressing his concerns that somebody might
come along who's only half his age and with a
(32:44):
gun and decide I'm going to make my reputation as
a gun fighter by killing one of the most legendary
figures of the wild West. So Bat said, basically, I've
got to find a new line of work. Roosevelt suggested,
why don't you come to New York. I'll make you
the deputy US marshal for Manhatt. Bat packed up his
wife and his other belongings, got on a train, and
off they went to New York City, where he was
(33:06):
a gun toting Federal marshal in New York. While Batt
was in New York as a US Deputy Marshall, he
was contributing to some of the local newspapers there, and
one publisher of the New York Tribune came to Bat
and said, you're so good at this, why don't you
write for me on a regular basis? So Bat Masterson
became a New York City journalist, a newspaper reporter and columnist.
(33:29):
He wrote about the three things he cared about the
most in New York, boxing, baseball, and Broadway. He wrote
his columns that became very popular. I mean, Bat Masterson
had a whole second life and fame as a newspaper
columnist in New York City. And he was quite the
ball vivant man about town too, because he liked to
go to the ballgames New York Giants baseball, see a
(33:50):
Broadway play, go to the horse track, cover a boxing match,
and then he would bang out his column and then
hold court one of his favorite saloons, which was on
forty fourth Street and Broadway. And by holding court, I
mean people enjoyed asking him questions, buying him drinks. He
would tell stories now of course, by this point in
(34:12):
his life. Now we're talking about the period essentially nineteen
six seven to nineteen twenty one, and by that point
in his life, many of the stories about Bat had
been fictionalized, embellished, exaggerated. For example, the gun he carried
supposedly had somewhere between twenty two and twenty six notches
on it, each one representing an outlaw he had dispatched. Inevitably,
(34:36):
every so often, when Bat was holding court at his
favorite saloon, some out of town rube would show up.
He'd encounter Oh, my goodness, it's the famous legendary Bat
Masters from the wild West. Anyway, as can I see
your gun? And Bat would reluctantly produce the gun. Sure enough,
there's a whole bunch of notches in it, and almost
without fail, the topic would turn to can I buy
(34:58):
the gun, mister Masterson? If I headed back to where
I came from in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, wherever, and I
had the gun that helped him the West, I would
become the big man in my town. I would become famous.
And Bat would say, no, no, of course, not this gun.
You know, obviously, it's a very important gun. I can't
just give it away, even for a few dollars. But
(35:21):
negotiations would take place, and eventually the price got to
one that Bat would approve of, and he would sell
the gun. But he would tell the guy, listen, you
have to leave town right away. Whatever the first train
is out of New York, you take it and go home,
because it would get me in a lot of trouble
if you're staying around here telling people you bought my gun.
All right, I wouldn't sell it to anybody else. I
(35:42):
sold it to you. Be happy, leave town. And the
guy would leave town and then back the next day
would go to his favorite pawn shop, buy a similar gun,
cut some notches in it, put it back in his holster,
and he's ready for the next fellow from out of
town to come to a saloon. He became a father
figure to some of the young reporters, some of the
up and coming people. Damon Runyon, he was a young
(36:03):
man who was a reporter for the New York Tribune,
and he really worshiped Bat Masterson. And years later he
paid homage to Bat when he wrote a series of
stories about New York life and characters and show business
and Broadway and Gamblers, and eventually became guys and dolls.
(36:24):
And some people might recall that of the two main characters,
one of them is called Sky Masterson, and that was
a direct tribute to his mentor, Bat Masterson.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Late in October nineteen twenty one, that is, at his
desk writing his newspaper column when he dies of a
heart attack. He's a month shy of his sixtieth birthday.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
He died a journalist's death, or what maybe a kind
of death many journalists would like to have. It was
in nineteen twenty one and he was sitting at his
desk at the New York Tribune building. He banged out
his last column and he typed thirty at the bottom, which,
for those not in the journalism of business, thirty means
you're done. That's it, and he was indeed done. Bet
had a sudden massive heart attack, slumped over his typewriter
(37:12):
and died at his desk.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
More than five hundred people attend his funeral. One of
those eulogizing Bat is Damon Runyon, who says he was
a one twenty two curate real man. Bet was a
good hater and a wonderful friend. He was always stretching
(37:35):
out his hand to some down an outer and was
one of the most entertaining companions we have ever known.
There are only two few men in the world like
Bat Masterson, and his death is a genuine loss and.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
A special thanks to Greg Hangler for the production on
that piece, and I think always to Roger McGrath the
unique and excellent work he does for us the remarkable
story of Bat Masterson, the man who forever changed the
American West. Here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habee with our American Stories, and for
the hour, we're going to tell a great story about
our past. Old West lawman Bat Masterson was as well
known in his lifetime as celebrities are today. To Bat,
gunslingers were hoodlums who killed for fun. He used guns
to enforce the law or defend a friend. In the end,
he'd achieved defeat. Almost none of the Old West legends
(00:33):
it attained. He lived to see an old age. Here
to tell the story of Bat Masterson is Roger McGrath.
McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Hioman and Vigilantes. A
US marine and former history professor at UCLA, McGrath is
a regular contributor for US Here at our American Stories.
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of the most widely traveled in greatest characters of
the Old West was Bat Masterson. His first taste of
the frontier game as a buffalo winner of the High
Plains in the early eighteen seventies, when he was still
a teenager, he took part in the famous Battle of
Adobie Walls. He served as a scout for the US
(01:14):
Army pursuing Indian War parties. He was a sheriff of
Ford County, which included Dodge City. During the heyday of
the cattle Town. He was with the IRPs and Tombstone
Arizona for a time. He was a gunfighter and professional gambler,
and eventually a sports promoter and journalist. Here's Texas State
(01:36):
historian Bill O'Neill, also Dodge City historian and narrator of
the Wild West podcast Brad Smalley.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
There was a US postal stamp series that was aptly named.
It was called Legends of the West. Twenty of them
in fact, and one of them was Bat Masterson on
a twenty nine cent stamp. Bat Masterson was a day
a legend of the West.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
When you mentioned Bat Masterson, at least to the average
person by and large, the image that comes to mind
is really that of Gene Barry from the nineteen fifties
TV show You Know, Puff tiede Derby Hat, the silver
Tip Caine, just sort of walking the West being Bat
Masterson without really any specifics. Canadian born farmed in New York, Iowa.
(02:30):
He was about seventeen eighteen years old when the family
moved to Kansas. They lived around Wichita, or very near
to Wichita. Kansas for about a year before the two
oldest brothers, Bat and the oldest Masterson. His older brother
Ed headed west really to seek adventure.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Madden ed theyre proficient with firearms before they start buffalo mounting,
but they now become expert marksmen with the sharps rifle.
I be in Buffalo at distances of five hundred yards
or more the town they haul the heights to his
Dodge City, which will be a buffalo town for a
decade before it becomes a cattle town. Dodge City will
(03:13):
be called the Queen of the cattle towns and have
a reputation for gunfights and rough characters, but it is
rougher and more violent in its buffalo days. It's in
Dodge City that Bat begins making his name well known.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
At that time. In the summer of eighteen seventy two,
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was in western Kansas,
and Ed and Batt were hired by subcontractor Raymond Ritter
to help grade four miles of railroad track between Fort
Dodge and the small settlements, a little boomtown that was
(03:52):
to be known as Dodge City. Well, mister Ritter skipped
out on pain, the masters and brothers, and probably the
entire crew.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The dead is nearly a year old. When word reaches
Dodge City that Ridder is a passenger on a train
they will be stopping at Dodge. Bat heads to the
station with a dozen or more men following him, who
are eager to watch what unfolds. Those in the crowds
say Bat's pale blue eyes are ice cold. When the
(04:27):
train crinds to a halt, Bat springs aboard enters the
passenger car. Minutes later, he's holding Ritter at gunpoint on
the train's rear platform. Ridder yells out that he's being robbed.
Bett tells him to produce the money or he's did.
Rider pleads that he doesn't have it on his person,
(04:50):
but that it's in his valise back in the car
in her left to go back to retrieve it. Bet
doesn't fall for the trick, and as Henry Raymond, who
who is standing below in the crowd, get the volice.
Raymond quickly returns with the valice and Bat has Ridder
open it and count out the three hundred dollars owed
(05:11):
them from several thousand dollars in the bag. With that,
Bat allows ridder to go back into the passenger car.
That invites all those in the crowd to follow him
to Kelly's saloon so he can treat them to drinks.
That is only nineteen years old, but his coolness and
(05:31):
determination impresses everyone. Here's the owner of Legends of America,
Kathy Alexander.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Bat Masterson and the other buffalo hunters that were working
in the Dodd City area. It didn't take long for
they pretty much killed all of the buffalo in the area.
But they got when the fact that in the Texas
Panhandle they still roamed large and free. The Texas Panhandle,
it was ruled by the comanches in the kiwan Dans,
(06:02):
so there was a risk that he and several others
just couldn't resist.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
They set up a camp about one hundred and fifty
miles southwest of Dodge City, near are the ruins of
an old trading post known as Adobe Walls. A camp
grows day by day. A big kraal is built with
a storehouse made of sod. Jim Hanrahan, a big, genial
Irish immigrant, builds a saloon out of sod and logs.
(06:32):
Tom O'Keefe, another irishman, fashions a crude blacksmith's shop. Shirley
Rath builds a general store out of sod and logs.
Bill Owles and his wife, Hannah, the only woman in
the camp, opened a restaurant in the rear of Wrath's store.
They are entirely unaware that on the Comanche Reservation in
(06:54):
western Oklahoma, Ishati, a medicine man, is calling for a
war of extermination against the whites. He says he talks
with the Great Spirit, and the Great Spirit tells him
he wire a store dead warriors to life, and that
all warriors will now have magical protection against the bullets
(07:15):
of the whites.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath. The story bat
Masterson's continues here on our American Stories. Folks, if you
love the stories we tell about this great country, and
especially the stories of America's rich past, know that all
of our stories about American history, from war to innovation,
(07:39):
culture and faith, are brought to us by the great
folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all
the things that are beautiful in life and all the
things that are good in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we continue with our American stories
(08:11):
and the story of bat Masterson. Let's return to Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Ishatai's message spreads to Kaiowa a Rappo in Cheyenne on
nearby reservations, and soon Ishatai has a large following. During June,
warrior bands of Comanche Kaiowa Rappo in Cheyenne both their
reservations and head for the Texas Panhandle. Ishutai is riding
(08:39):
along with them. In Texas, they joined forces with Quana Parker,
the chief of the Kwahadi band of Comanche, which has
never been on a reservation. Quana Parker is the son
of a Comanche chief and a kidnapped White girl, Cynthia
Ann Parker. Barker assumes command of the force of Indian
(09:02):
warriors about seven hundred strong. In mid June. Reports begin
arriving at Deoby Walls Camp that whites here and there
in the panandle have been killed and scalped and their
bodies mutilated. Some of the hunters decide it's time to
pack up their wagons and Edvardde City, but most decide
(09:22):
to stay right At sunrise in the morning of June
twenty seventh, hundreds of Indian warriors sweep down on the camp,
both the Indians and their horses streaked in warpaint. Some
are firing their rifles, others are leveling their lances. The
Whites race inside whichever side structure is nearest. Bat Masterson
(09:47):
and nine others are in hand or hand saloon. A
dozen more are in the storehouse and six in the
general store, including the one woman Anna Holes. Two seamsters
who are sleeping in their wagons are killed in the
initial Indian assault. Since they outnumber the Whites twenty five
(10:10):
to one, the Indians think they will make quick work
on the whites of the camp. However, the Indians have
picked on the wrong guys. Sharps, rifles begin to crack,
and Indians begin to fall from their horses at great distances,
and the two hours of fighting, only one more white,
Billy Tyler, is killed. In addition to the two teamsters
(10:33):
caught on the wagons. In the immediate vicinity of the
camp are the bodies of fifteen Indians. The medicine man
Isshatai wearing nothing but body paint, watched the battle from
a safe distance. The Indians remain in the area for
two more days, but stay out of rifle range. On
(10:54):
the third day, a band of a mistationed on a
rise about a mile away. They are just and taunting
the Whites. Billy Dixon decides to take a shot with
a sharp strifle. He reckons wind in elevation and squeezes
off around. A brief moment later, an Indian tumbles from
(11:22):
his horse. The other end answer so unnerved by the
long distance shot, they whirl their horses about and gallop off.
The distance of the shot is later measured at one thousand,
five hundred and thirty eight yards, about nine tenths of
a mile. Here again is brad Smally.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
People still talking about that for years years to come.
Really cemented Billy Dixon's fame on the frontier, as if
he wasn't already famous enough by that point.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Dickson becomes famous for the shot, but he himself is
effusive in his praise of the youngest of the buffalo
hunters in the fight. Bat Masterson should be remembered for
the valor that marked his conduct, says Dixon. He was
a good shot and not afraid. Following the Battle of
(12:19):
Adobe Walls, Bat serves as US Army scout with Colonel
Nelson Miles, tracking down Indian war parties. Here's Tom Claven,
the author of Dodge City, Wyatt, Bat Masterson, and the
Wickedest Town in the American West.
Speaker 6 (12:37):
His most famous adventure as a scout later became a basis,
not the only one, but a basis for the famous
film and Searchers, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne,
Jeffrey Hunter, and a young Natalie Wood. There was a
German family that was crossing Kansas heading for Colorado, and
they were attacked by Indians. Of the parents were killed.
(13:01):
There were four daughters who were kidnapped, and soon after
the kidnapping, the Indians divided into two separate bands, each
taking two daughters, and off they went. Bat was one
of the more prominent and eventually was the leader of
a contingent of Army scouts who vowed to get these
girls back. And they tracked down one of the bands
(13:21):
and without too much trouble, found the girls and returned
them to family members. But the other band was really
hard to find. It took months and months and months
of bat searching and all kinds of weather, until he
finally found the Indians, who by then were rather starving
and the girls themselves and almost starved to death. Bat
wrote into camp. He wrote in unarmed, because his goal
(13:42):
was to not put the girls in danger, even though
he himself was in great danger. But he went and
unarmed and told he worked out a deal with the
Indians to provide them food in exchange for the girls,
which was what was negotiated and successfully concluded. Bat retrieved
the girls, return them to their family, and it was
(14:02):
one of his more well known adventures, and like I say,
it became one basis for the film The Searches, which
is the story of Ethan Edwards and his search for
his niece who had been kidnapped by Indians after a
family had been killed.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Let's Go Home, Debby.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
The army's relentless pursuit of the Indians during the summer
and fall of eighteen seventy four puts an end to
Indian depredations for the time being.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Throughout this time he learned just about every trail hide
away in the entire southern Plains from the panel of
Texas all the way up through Southwest Kansas. He knew
his way around, which would serve him very well in
later years as a lawman, in which he became very
adepts at tracking down horse thieves. He knew all the
(14:48):
heidi holes and places that they could gather, mostly because
of this time.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's first recorded gunfight occurs in the Lady Gay Dance
Hall in Sweetwater, Texas, on a night late in January
eighteen seventy six. Bat is with Molly Brennan when a
soldier from a nearby post, Corporal Milvin King, confronts them
in a rage.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
King was not only wounded by his loss to Bat
at the poker table, he was severely wounded by his
jealousy when he saw the girl that did he was.
After hanging on to his new found rival, jealousy overtook him.
He's torn through the door, pulled his gun and started firing.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
The bullet goes through Molly and into Bat, lodging in
his pelvis. As Beat is falling to the dance hall floor,
he draws his six shooter and fires Bat's bullet, drills
King in the hearty and he collapses dead. Molly soon dies,
(15:58):
but Bet hangs on the night and then recovers enough
to have the bullet removed.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
His wound was such that it actually punctured his intestine,
and the doctor who examined him said that the only
thing that saved his life was the fact that he
hadn't eaten anything because of that puncture. If any food
was in his tract, he actually would have scume to
an infection and most likely killed.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Although he needs a cane to walk. Two months later,
Bet is on the back of a horse riding for
Dodge City. In Dodge Bet joins his younger brother Jim,
as one of the city's deputies. They're both hired by
Wyatt Earp, who is chief Deputy under Marshall Larry Deeger.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Now, in all fairness, you can tell the story of
Dodge City without Wyatt earth It's not nearly as good
of a story, but it can be done. You cannot, however,
tell the story of Dodge City without Bat Masterson. And
starting in the spring of eighteen seventy six, when Bat
first pinned on a badge in Dodge City, that's where
(17:12):
the story really takes off.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
A three hundred pound Nager, the owner of a saloon,
was appointed marshall by the City Council principally for political reasons,
and most law enforcement is left to IRB, the Mastersons
and other deputies.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And you're listening to the story of Bat Masterson, and
you're listening to Roger McGrath, who's the author of Gunfighters,
High Women and Vigilantes, and what a storyteller he is.
When we come back more of this remarkable story, Bat
Masterson's story here on our American Stories, and we continue
(18:09):
with our American stories and the story of Bat Masterson.
Let's pick up where we last left off with Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
They try to avoid shooting and prefer to use their
heavy revolvers. The club lawbreakers into submission for clubbing. Matt
uses the kene he is relied on while recovering from
his gunshot wound. Here's Bob Bow's Bill, executive editor of
True West magazine, and Tom Claven and.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
The cowboys coming out from Texas who had been on
the trail for three months.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
They all got paid and they were going to spend
it all in one night, which they usually did.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And so for Bat Masterson and Wider to be essentially
bouncers in a biker bar, it was really intense go
bump up and sleep it all.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
So Bat's first job was at City, and it was
a really daunting challenge for a white erb Bat Masterson,
because Dodge City had gotten a reputation as the wickedest
town in the American West. I mean, one example of
the reputation it had was there was a story that
went around that a very depressed man was sitting on
a train and a conductor was concerned about it and went
(19:19):
over and said, so, buddy, what's the matter, And morosely
the man said, I'm going to Hell, And after a pause,
the conductor said, that'll be two dollars and get off
at Dodge City. That's the kind of reputation it had.
So with Batmasterson and white erp this is where they
really solidified, becoming best friends. Their job was to try
(19:40):
and clean up Dodge City, but do it in a
way that they were peace officers, not outgunned the bad guys.
They had Dodge City. You know, lawmakers had tried that
they'd hired a man as to be Marshall who just
started shooting everything that everybody didn't like, and they quickly
realized that was not a way to have a civilized town.
That people could raise their families. So, with Wyatt and
(20:03):
bat Masterson leading the way, they started to tame Dodge City.
They started to arrest people. And one of the things
that they can credit themselves with is taking the most
wicked town in the American West and turning it into
a place that people felt they could raise their families.
What the wide Urb and bat Masterson generation represented was
(20:24):
a peace officer, and they took the word peace very seriously.
And what was happening with these peace officers. They were
forming police departments, They were forming ways of administering a
law and order system that didn't include shoot first and
ask questions later.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
In July eighteen seventy seven, Masterson is appointed under sheriff
of Ford County, Kansas. The county's principal town is Dodge City.
Sheriff Charlie Bassett's second term is up in November, and
the state's constitution prohibits him from running for a third
conxecutive term. That decides to run for sheriff, His opponent
(21:04):
is Marshall Larry Dieger, who is supported by much of
Dodge City's business community. On November sixth, bat ekes out
of narrow victory to become Sheriff of Ford County. Batt
is only twenty three years old. Here again is Bill O'Neill.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Goodness. He he was elected by three votes, but he
got after it. He was arresting trained robbers and horse
they using jail escapees and confidence man to sheriff. He
was responsible for the whole county.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
In December, Batchel of brother Ed is appointed Marshal of
Dodge City. The one two Masterson punch is hard on outlaws.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
The country was just rife with horse thieves at this point,
and that became very well known as the bane of
horse thieves across the West.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
In February eighteen seventy eight, bat sure's two notorious train robbers,
and in March bat and Ed together capture two more.
The Mastersons are taming county in city, but in April
Ed is shot and mortally wounded by an inebriated cowboy
(22:17):
he's trying to subdue. Before Ed goes down, he is
able to draw as a revolver and mortally wound the cowboy,
as well as wounding the cowboys trail boss. In October
eighteen seventy eight, bat leads a posse whose members make
it legendary. It all starts when Jim Kennedy, the wild
(22:40):
son of powerful Texas cattleman Mifflin Kennedy, makes a nuisance
of himself again and again in Dodge City. After being
roughed up by deputies for the third or fourth time,
Kennedy goes to Dodge Mayor Jim Kelly to complain. Kelly
sales Kennedy only what he deserved. Kennedy explodes and attacks Kelly,
(23:05):
but the mayor thoroughly pummels the young cowboy. Battered and bruised,
Kennedy leaves town swearing vengeance. Several weeks later, in the
middle of the night, Kennedy returns to Dodge City riding
a race horse. He streaks by Miryor Kelly's house, firing
(23:25):
a six shooter into Kelly's bedroom, and the cowboy gallops
out of Dodge. Unbeknownst to Kennedy, Kelly is out of
town and he's allowing two actresses to use his house.
Kennedy's bullets hit Dora Hand, who is sleeping in Kelly's bed.
She dies instantly. Words spreads quickly, and dozens of men
(23:50):
volunteer for posse duties. Matt Masterson, as County sheriff, is
responsible for organizing the posse. He decides the situation calls
for quality, not quantity. He picks former Ford County Sheriff
Charlie Bassett and Dodge City Deputies Wie Bill Duffy and
(24:12):
Bill Tillman. The local newspaper calls it as intrepid a
posse as ever pulled a trigger.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Here's Brad Smally, Legends of the American West, all of them,
and all of them tracking down one man. I would
not want to be in his shoes with names like
that tracking down after me. I can tell you that by.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The time the posse leaves Dodge, Kennedy has a nearly
ten hour hit start. Bat reckons that Kennedy will be
racing home to his father's ranch in Texas, but will
be taking a circuitous route to avoid detection. This means
the posse can catch up with Kennedy at the Cimarron
River crossing that Bat thinks the cowboy will take. The
(25:00):
chase unfolds as Bad anticipates, and the posse is waiting
at the crossing. When Kennedy arrives, Bat shouts at him
to surrender. Instead, Kennedy takes off at a gallop. A
bullet from Bat's sharp trifle shatters Kennedy's arm, and the
(25:20):
bullets from the posse men slam into the horse. Horse
and rider crashed to the earth. When Bat and the
others reached Kennedy, the first words out of his mouth are,
did I get that best killing?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
When they told him that it was, in fact Dora
that he had killed, his remorse was so great that
he told Bat, you should have just killed me bad
then replied, well, I was doing the best that I could.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
With the days of the buffalo hunt are over and
need for army scouts, Matt decides to try his luck
at gambling for a living. He's successful at his new
profession in Dodge City, in Kansas City, and by eighteen
eighty one and Tombstone, Arizona.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath and a whole
posse of storyteller's talking about an incredible posse. Roger McGrath
and Greg Hangler, who does such great production work here
always give you the best of all the historians in
the time period. And this American Western life, the frontier life.
(26:36):
My goodness, you can paint the picture in your head.
It's different than just the movies, right. It's what life
looked like without rule of law, folks, And my goodness,
to have lived like this and to try and turn
a town like this into a place where you can
raise a family, that's no small task. And this was
the commission, this was the purpose, but bat Masterson's actual
(27:01):
appearance on the scene, to make this a place where
families could live as opposed to the stop closest to
Hell in America. When we come back more of this
remarkable life story, bat Masterson's story here on our American stories,
(27:37):
and we continue with our American stories in bat Masterson's story,
and my goodness, what a story it is. Let's return
to Roger McGrath for the final portion.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
That's arrival in Tombstone is celebrated by their brothers, Doc
Holiday and other old friends from Dodge City that immediately
goes to work as a pharaoh dealer at the Oriental Saloon.
Here again are Kathy, Alexander, Bill O'Neill, and Breath Smally.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
That received a telegram from an unsigned person that told
him that his brother Jim was in great danger.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
At this point, Jim Masterson and Aj Peacock are partners
in the Lady Gay Dance Hall and Saloon in Dodge City,
and they got crossways, particularly over a bartender that was
hired by a Peacock named al Updegraph. And Updegraph well,
he didn't like Masterson either, and they traded shots. And
(28:37):
after that, that's when Jim Masterson telegraphed bat and said, Hey,
come join me, man, I'm having trouble out here.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
That received that telegram immediately hopped on a train and
traveled about eleven hundred miles back to Dodge City. He
had already lost one brother in Dodge City, and despite
the fact that he and Jim were not generally on
the best of terms by this point they were somewhat
estranged from each other, that was not about to lose
(29:07):
another brother.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
He arrived on the noon train April sixteenth, eighteen eighty one,
at Dodge City. He stepped off the train and he
immediately spied Peacock and up the Graph walking together. The
street was crowded, but Bat Boy he went battling. Bat
(29:29):
He said, I have come over a thousand miles to
settle this. I know you're healed. Now fight well. All
three men drew guns and opened fire, and everybody scattered,
and in fact, one by standerd caught a bullet ricochet
in the back. Bat hides out on that rail bed,
uses that for a kind of a trench, and the
(29:50):
two opponents they took cover behind the jail and then
joining in the fight or two guys on Bat's site,
Jim Masterson and then a friend of his, and they
opened fire too, and all Updegraph caught a bullet in
the right lung and he did not die. But nobody
knows who if Bat shot him or what he but
(30:13):
he did survive. After three or four minutes of this firefight, mayor,
the mayor of God's City, and the county sheriff marched
onto the scene brandishing shotguns. That stopped the fight. Bat
paid a fine of exalting the peace for carrying weapon,
and he caught training left town and that was his last.
(30:34):
That was his last gun fight.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Jim I said, it's about time we get the hell
out of dodge.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Bat took that very hard because of his code of conduct.
It was important to him that people that respected him,
and they respected him for the right reasons, not so
much because he was a good gunfighter. But because he
was not honest men.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That spends most through the next decade as a professional
gambler in Denver. It's in Denver in eighteen eighty eight
that Bat buys the Palace Theater, which features a variety
of acts in high stakes gambling. Well. The performers at
the Palace is singer and dancer Emma Walters. After many girlfriends,
(31:16):
Bat ties the knot with Emma and remains married to
her for the rest of his life. Here's Bill O'Neill.
Speaker 3 (31:24):
About a decade or so later, he's getting his reputation
has become unsavory in Denver, and he decides in nineteen
two to move to New York City. He had already
visited their time or two long enough to get arrested
for Canada can see a weapon. You know, he was
looked on with a sharp eye by law enforcement officials.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
That's almost fifty years old, and the Old West is gone.
He goes to work writing a column called Masterson's Views
on Timely Topics for the New York Morning Telegram.
Speaker 6 (32:00):
Here again it is Tom Cleven hearing the rest of
Bat Masterson's story. Many people wonder how in the world
did he end up in New York City as a
reporter of the last fifteen years of his life. What
happened was during the eighteen eighties, while Bat was a
federal marshal, he had encountered a young man named Theodore
Roosevelt who was trying to be a cowboy in the Dakotas,
(32:23):
and during the two years that Roosevelt was there, unsuccessfully
being a rancher, he and Bat Masterson became friends. Years later,
Bat Masson was turning fifty and Theodore Roosevelt was in
the White House as President of the United States, and
Masterson wrote to Roosevelt expressing his concerns that somebody might
come along who's only half his age and with a
(32:44):
gun and decide I'm going to make my reputation as
a gun fighter by killing one of the most legendary
figures of the wild West. So Bat said, basically, I've
got to find a new line of work. Roosevelt suggested,
why don't you come to New York. I'll make you
the deputy US marshal for Manhatt. Bat packed up his
wife and his other belongings, got on a train, and
off they went to New York City, where he was
(33:06):
a gun toting Federal marshal in New York. While Batt
was in New York as a US Deputy Marshall, he
was contributing to some of the local newspapers there, and
one publisher of the New York Tribune came to Bat
and said, you're so good at this, why don't you
write for me on a regular basis? So Bat Masterson
became a New York City journalist, a newspaper reporter and columnist.
(33:29):
He wrote about the three things he cared about the
most in New York, boxing, baseball, and Broadway. He wrote
his columns that became very popular. I mean, Bat Masterson
had a whole second life and fame as a newspaper
columnist in New York City. And he was quite the
ball vivant man about town too, because he liked to
go to the ballgames New York Giants baseball, see a
(33:50):
Broadway play, go to the horse track, cover a boxing match,
and then he would bang out his column and then
hold court one of his favorite saloons, which was on
forty fourth Street and Broadway. And by holding court, I
mean people enjoyed asking him questions, buying him drinks. He
would tell stories now of course, by this point in
(34:12):
his life. Now we're talking about the period essentially nineteen
six seven to nineteen twenty one, and by that point
in his life, many of the stories about Bat had
been fictionalized, embellished, exaggerated. For example, the gun he carried
supposedly had somewhere between twenty two and twenty six notches
on it, each one representing an outlaw he had dispatched. Inevitably,
(34:36):
every so often, when Bat was holding court at his
favorite saloon, some out of town rube would show up.
He'd encounter Oh, my goodness, it's the famous legendary Bat
Masters from the wild West. Anyway, as can I see
your gun? And Bat would reluctantly produce the gun. Sure enough,
there's a whole bunch of notches in it, and almost
without fail, the topic would turn to can I buy
(34:58):
the gun, mister Masterson? If I headed back to where
I came from in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, wherever, and I
had the gun that helped him the West, I would
become the big man in my town. I would become famous.
And Bat would say, no, no, of course, not this gun.
You know, obviously, it's a very important gun. I can't
just give it away, even for a few dollars. But
(35:21):
negotiations would take place, and eventually the price got to
one that Bat would approve of, and he would sell
the gun. But he would tell the guy, listen, you
have to leave town right away. Whatever the first train
is out of New York, you take it and go home,
because it would get me in a lot of trouble
if you're staying around here telling people you bought my gun.
All right, I wouldn't sell it to anybody else. I
(35:42):
sold it to you. Be happy, leave town. And the
guy would leave town and then back the next day
would go to his favorite pawn shop, buy a similar gun,
cut some notches in it, put it back in his holster,
and he's ready for the next fellow from out of
town to come to a saloon. He became a father
figure to some of the young reporters, some of the
up and coming people. Damon Runyon, he was a young
(36:03):
man who was a reporter for the New York Tribune,
and he really worshiped Bat Masterson. And years later he
paid homage to Bat when he wrote a series of
stories about New York life and characters and show business
and Broadway and Gamblers, and eventually became guys and dolls.
(36:24):
And some people might recall that of the two main characters,
one of them is called Sky Masterson, and that was
a direct tribute to his mentor, Bat Masterson.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Late in October nineteen twenty one, that is, at his
desk writing his newspaper column when he dies of a
heart attack. He's a month shy of his sixtieth birthday.
Speaker 6 (36:49):
He died a journalist's death, or what maybe a kind
of death many journalists would like to have. It was
in nineteen twenty one and he was sitting at his
desk at the New York Tribune building. He banged out
his last column and he typed thirty at the bottom, which,
for those not in the journalism of business, thirty means
you're done. That's it, and he was indeed done. Bet
had a sudden massive heart attack, slumped over his typewriter
(37:12):
and died at his desk.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
More than five hundred people attend his funeral. One of
those eulogizing Bat is Damon Runyon, who says he was
a one twenty two curate real man. Bet was a
good hater and a wonderful friend. He was always stretching
(37:35):
out his hand to some down an outer and was
one of the most entertaining companions we have ever known.
There are only two few men in the world like
Bat Masterson, and his death is a genuine loss and.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
A special thanks to Greg Hangler for the production on
that piece, and I think always to Roger McGrath the
unique and excellent work he does for us the remarkable
story of Bat Masterson, the man who forever changed the
American West. Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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