July 30, 2025 • 38 mins
Some monsters aren't fiction – they're buried in Dodge City Cemetery beneath stones that read "beloved husband and father."
The story of Print Olive might be the most shocking true tale we've covered on Whiskey and Westerns. While sipping Bullet Bourbon (a fitting choice given Print's remarkable ability to absorb lead throughout his violent career), we unraveled the brutal history of a man whose sadistic tendencies would make even fictional villains seem tame.
Print began as a Texas cattle baron in the post-Civil War era, accumulating wealth by gathering "maverick" cattle – a term derived from Samuel Maverick, who famously refused to brand his herds. But Print's legacy wasn't built on business acumen alone. His reputation for horrific violence preceded him across the frontier. He once tied suspected rustlers to trees, wrapped them in freshly skinned wet cowhides, and watched as the rawhide slowly dried and crushed them to death in the hot Texas sun. Those who crossed the Olives had a tendency to "leave the country" permanently.
When Nebraska farmers Mitchell and Ketchum killed Print's brother Bob in self-defense, Print's revenge was swift and gruesome. After capturing the men through a bounty, Print hanged Ketchum while Mitchell remained handcuffed to him, forcing Mitchell to dangle by his arm while watching his partner strangle. Print then shot both men repeatedly before burning their bodies, earning the nickname "The Man-Burner." This incident forced Print to relocate to Dodge City, where he eventually met his own violent end in a Trail City saloon.
Perhaps most fascinating is how Print's brutal story influenced American literature. Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lonesome Dove" contains characters and scenes directly inspired by Print Olive's life. Jake Spoon, the hanging scene, Dietz and PI – all have roots in the actual history of this forgotten frontier monster.
Want to learn more? Visit our website to download "Ladder of Rivers," the book that chronicles Print's complete story and likely inspired McMurtry's masterpiece. Our next episode will feature the Dora Hand story, another fascinating tale connected to Print's violent web of influence.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here we go again.
I demand more.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I want it, I need it and I'm gonna have it.
This pot show is pleased tobring you Whiskey and Westerns
on Wednesday, direct from DodgeCity, kansas, featuring rich
topics on the legends of the oldwest.
Whiskey to motivate Westerns toinspire.
Get it, play it, drink it.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
My name is Mike.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
King, and I'd like to welcome you to Whiskey and
Westerns on Wednesday.
I'm Brad Smalley and we'regoing to celebrate this
Independence Day by drinking alittle bit of whiskey and
telling some good stories aboutthe American West.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
All right, Brad, what do you have for us tonight as
far as your choice, our choiceof whiskey.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Well, I figure, with all the treason successful
treason, I should add that ledto American independence, there
were a lot of bullets flyingaround, so what better than a
little bit of?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Bullet Bourbon.
Yeah, I would say that'sprobably a good name for Fourth
of July is Bullet Bourbon.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, not his fault.
It's the man's actual name.
But we'll go along with thestory.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Anyway, it is his actual name, mr Bullet.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's relatively modern on the market.
I believe Bullet started in thelate 80s, 1980s, 1980s, yeah.
However, as the story goes,they are using as close to what
they felt that they could of theoriginal Bullitt Augustus,
augustus Bullitt.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Augustus Bullitt.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
His recipe one of the early bourbon makers in the
state of Kentucky.
Today, tom Bullitt is runningthe country Tom Jr I think and
it's one of the more popular,actually great, whiskeys on the
market there as far as kind ofmiddle of the shelf, not really
budget, not very hot, verydrinkable, very approachable
(02:21):
whiskey.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
So the story goes that the whiskey was asked.
The actual recipe for thiswhiskey was created around 1860
by who you mentioned earlier,Augustus Bullock, Augustus, and
one day he was traveling to NewOrleans with his barrels of
whiskey from Kentucky and NewOrleans and he just vanished and
(02:50):
mysteriously was never foundagain but his recipe for good
bourbon was kept alive by hisfamily.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Not the first man hauling whiskey that's ever
probably disappeared, I wouldimagine.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Hard telling.
Just couldn't find a whiskey,couldn't find Augustus.
Well, what do you say aboutthis one?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, the bullet is known for being high rye and,
just on the nose, definitely getthat For being .45 ABV, that's
90 proof.
It doesn't smell hot, mm-hmm,but I definitely get the rye,
the black pepper.
Do you get a little caramel inthere?
I didn't earlier, but I'mgetting it now.
(03:34):
We were drinking this earlier,I am now.
I'm getting Some caramel.
It's a caramel apple soaked inoak, I agree, which, being
bourbon, comes with theterritory.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well, let's have a toast to the 4th of July, to
treason, and take a sip of thisbullet bourbon.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And that's where the black pepper comes in.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, it goes all the way to your nose, doesn't it it
?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
does Not a lot going on in there, and that's where
the black pepper comes in.
Yeah, it goes all the way toyour nose, doesn't it?
It does it just not a lot goingon in there.
But I would say, for being 45%,it's very drinkable.
I agree, it does not taste hotat all.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
No, it goes down real well.
You don't get a little of thatbacklash in your throat.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
at least you do get it in your nose, though I'm
telling you See, I've still gotthe caramel apple on the nose
and I'm getting black pepper andoak on the palate.
It's like two differentexperiences at the same time.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, that's not a bad bourbon at all.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's actually pretty nice.
As you breathe in just a littlebit while you're taking a sip,
you get the full experience.
Not a lot going on, but that'sa damn good whiskey.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, I agree.
What would you rate this one,fred?
Now we're going from one tofive on this.
We're going one to five.
Okay, it's taking you a while,maybe, maybe, maybe I'd give it
a sip and see what you got overthere.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, I wouldn't mind .
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Okay, I gotta give it a 3.7, 3.8.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
3.8.
Okay, that's not bad.
It's reasonably priced too and,oh, very accessible, yeah.
And you can find it on theshelves.
Some of the whiskey that we'vebeen drinking on our show we
couldn't even find on theshelves, but it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You can find that anywhere.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But we're still looking for that rare eagle
Eagle, rare yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's why they call it rare.
Supposedly this month it'ssupposed to be out.
I've been checking.
Pretty good.
I did pick up a couple of otherrare bottles, just because,
well, they like me, out therewe're going to have to try some
of those out here pretty soon.
Stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yep, absolutely.
We've got a couple more showsthat we were going to do in July
that we've had planned out.
One of those is going to tieinto tonight's story about Jim
Kennedy and the Dora Hand storystory about Jim Kennedy and the
Dora Hand story, which we'reactually going to do that story
(06:29):
next week or the week after,with an author who has written
about Dora Hand and we're goingto invite her on the show with
us pretty soon and then we'lltaste out another one of those
rare whiskeys.
I'm excited for that one.
Well, brad, today we're goingto talk a little bit about I
don't know how to describe thisguy.
I mean he's.
(06:51):
He lived in Dodge City for awhile.
He lived in Nebraska, he livedin Texas.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Well, he's one of those characters, that a lot of
people they sort of know hisstory but they don't know that
they know it and we'll get moreinto that later.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
That's true, because there's a lot of literature that
is tied into this story, buthis name is Print Olive Print
Olive and a lot of people don'tknow the story of Print Olive no
not until you start telling thestory and they keep thinking
well, that sounds awfullyfamiliar.
If you were a Western, if youwatched Westerns on TV, you'd
(07:32):
see a lot of similarities.
Oh yeah, you're going torecognize a lot of the story.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So let's talk a little bit about Prince Olive.
Let's talk about some of hisbackground, where he came from
and how he got to Dodge City.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Well, Primm was his nickname.
We probably ought to startthere.
His full name was Isom PrentissIP Olive.
He occasionally went by.
I suppose if my name was IsomPrentiss I'd probably go by
Prentiss as well.
Part of a big family, theOlives were, after the Civil War
, big ranchers, cattlemen in thestate of Texas.
(08:07):
Prince himself and one of hisbrothers also served in the
Civil War, though I'm not sureif they were regular army.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
That's always a question.
But we do know that he was in.
He tested his iron first in theCivil War.
He did, and his bullet he didout of Texas, out of Texas.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Returned home and got into the cattle business which,
of course, after the Civil Warthe South was destitute.
There was very little going oneconomically.
As far as the railroad'sconcerned, there weren't any,
and where they were there was nostandard gauge.
You couldn't set one locomotivefrom one railway and put it on
(08:50):
another one because it didn'tfit.
But the railroads wereexpanding, of course, in the
north, as they were, which thenorth was known for with their
industry.
But what the south did have,especially in Texas, was a lot
of cattle.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Cattle.
I think we need to talk alittle bit about the cattle
ranges back in that time,because around 1869, 1870, right
in there, those cattle werejust wild.
They just were on the rangeseverywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
They're completely feral cattle, descendants of the
Spanish cattle that theconquistadors and the Spanish
settlers had brought over in the14, 1500s and back.
In those days the ranchersreally didn't like to brand
their cattle.
Generally, there was no reasonto until after on it, when they
(09:47):
started forming ranches anddriving their cattle to the
market.
It became more of an issue, butthey called them Mavericks.
That's right.
And certainly the acceptancestory is after Samuel Maverick,
who was known for even after thepractice of branding had taken
over, he refused to brand hiscattle.
That that's how you will knowthey're mined because they're
(10:10):
not branded Well.
That created a whole other setof issues.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
That's right.
So the name Maverick comesafter Samuel Maverick and it was
a name that was created becausethere was just no branding of
cattle and people just gatheredcattle anytime, even if it was
on your land or somebody else'sland, they would just round them
up and they'd call them theirs.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And of course we use the word still today maverick.
Anyone who defies the acceptedconventions or the rules.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Okay, so we actually get a new word, created in 1869,
a word called maverick.
Now, one of the things that theOllie's were good about well,
of course they didn't likecattle thieves.
That's what I understand.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Does anyone?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
No, no, but if you did, I mean they were really
upset.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Oh, they were ruthless about it, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Matter of fact, they were pretty harsh about it Very.
I think ruthless is the mostappropriate term for the Olive
family.
And the leader of that, ofcourse, was Pratt, was Pratt,
and he just didn't take muchliking to the cattle fee?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Not at all.
On one hand it was theirlivelihood.
Stolen cattle is just one stepdown from a stolen horse.
That's right.
If that, of course, printprobably put it on an even
higher level because that wastheir business.
It was cattle Rounding upcattle mostly their own,
sometimes other people's.
(11:36):
Those mavericks Bringing themin the Olive family grew quite
wealthy in Texas, had a lot ofproperty they were good at
rounding up cattle.
They were fantastic at roundingup cattle.
They were fantastic at roundingup cattle.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Matter of fact, their herd started expanding a lot
during that time.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
About the same rate that everyone else has started
decreasing De-illusion cattle,Yep, yep.
Well, they of course,eventually, like everyone else,
they had to sell them, otherwisethey're not worth nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
So they got to move down the trail, move them up to
Kansas, yep, sell them,otherwise they're not worth
nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So they got to move down the trail.
Move them up to Kansas Yep, Getthem up there.
Move them into places like ParkCity, Ellsworth, eventually
Dodge and uh, Of course, themore cattle you get there, the
more money you're making, which,especially when you start
having cattle disappear.
Rustlers, that's an issue, andI think that the olives
(12:27):
especially print.
Oh, the squeaky wheel gets thegrease sort of thing.
The louder you accuse others ofrustling, the less they'll
notice that you're wrestlingalso.
Wrestling also, and I thinkthat was the case.
He was probably.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Well, he was probably noted for wrestling cattle as
much as anybody else.
No one dared accuse him of it,but you know one of the stories
about and a lot of people don'tknow this but when you're
droving these cattle across theland, there's these farmers.
Oh sure, and these farmers.
(13:03):
They started charging tolls forthese cattle to cross their
land and to water their cattle,and usually a farmer gets $25
for watering and crossing theirland.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The water rights have always been a huge issue.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But Prent didn't like the old idea of tolls.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Oh, he's not about to pay somebody else for the
privilege of taking his cattletrucks.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
There's no fences, of course, but people had staked
out their land.
No fences, of course, butpeople had staked out their land
, but Prent, he refused andsometimes sent.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
He wasn't about to pay.
He had lackeys.
Well, thugs might be a moreappropriate word.
I agree, most famous one beingJim Kelly.
Just a big, big black man,apparently quite the gunfighter,
very intimidating and pretty,used him like a bulldog.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And you know a lot of people back in those days.
They weren't familiar withblack people in the first place.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Especially the further north.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
You got Right and he was big, and what they said is
when he rolled his eyes back inthe back of his head and then
spit out between his teeth somethings that he desired, he'd get
it for $5.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Oh, yeah, prince, standing there talking to their
landowner or whatever, yeah, I'dsay $25, pick a a number Across
the land, water your cattle.
Well, I don't like $25, saysPrint Hollers back at Jim.
Jim, come talk to these folks.
Jim comes around the corner.
Sanjur rolls his eyes back inhis head and just Well, yeah,
(14:54):
you did what Print wanted.
Jim is not above using his gun.
And well, yeah, he did whatprint wanted after that and
Joe's not above using his gun.
By this time, the Olives arealready starting to rack up a
body count.
A lot of folks that the Oliveshad dealings with that were not
(15:16):
necessarily in the Olives' favor.
Well, they sort of left thecountry.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
They say they left the country.
Well, they probably had somesand in the dirt.
They disappeared.
Maybe that's what happened toAugustus Bullock.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
He may have ran across.
That's entirely possible.
I never put that intoperspective.
That may be.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
In a particular story that we're going to tell later
on.
You're talking about theKennedy incident.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, he goes to Ellsworth, he's driving his
cattle to Ellsworth At this time.
Yeah, Dodge City is not therailhead anymore.
Ellsworth has taken over thecattle drives from Wichita Park
City, who in turn took it overfrom Abilene.
So Ellsworth is the end of thetrail.
That's the end of the cattledrives.
(16:04):
It's Dodge City.
Before Dodge City was DodgeCity and Print runs a foul, as
he often did with folks insaloons.
Print liked to drink Yep, hewas a violent drunk.
I think he liked both he mayhave.
Yep, he was a violent drunk.
I think he liked both he mayhave.
They certainly flew whenever hewas drunk.
Well, he ran afoul of a youngTexas cattleman by the name of
(16:29):
Jim Kennedy, who was the son ofMifflin Kennedy, one of the
wealthiest ranchers, landownersin the state of Texas, Partners
with Prince King, of whom KingCounty is named after Kingsville
.
And of course, as you alludedto, the Kennedy, especially Jim
(16:50):
will feature in the Dora Handstory later on.
But Prince and Jim got into anargument.
I think they were even callinghim Spike Kennedy already at
this point, as the story goes.
And young Mr Kennedy put abullet in print, I think he shot
him in his hip, Shot him in hiship leg groin.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Shot him in the hand In the hand that's right Shot
him in the leg and shot him inthe hip.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
He shot him three times before, before print even
hit the floor, and print wasknown for his ability to absorb
lead.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
That's why we're calling tonight bullet.
It becomes more appropriateTalking about print and getting
shot three times bullet isprobably the best.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Well the thing is that probably would have been
the end of Print Olive's life,had it not been for Big Jim
Kelly Right, who essentiallyscared him off, fired off a
couple shots and Kennedy wasgone.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He didn't want to stay around to see the results
of only to resurface in Don.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
City several years later.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, so anyway, that's the story of Jim Kennedy,
which we'll tell in the storyof Dorahan later.
Another bad seed print.
(18:25):
Olive didn't stay in texas toolong, but he moved to nebraska
he kept moving his money and hiscattle further north.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
And well, when you do that, the money itself winds up
further north.
Why waste time driving all yourcattle from texas when you can
just have the rangeland here soclose to the railroad?
And, of course, the ChisholmTrail, the western trail, the
western branch of the Chisholmdidn't stop in Dodge Right.
It continued on throughOgallala all the way up into
(18:57):
Montana really Eventually IntoMontana, really Eventually
Montana right.
So he got himself a bunch ofrangeland in Nebraska, bought
some land along Plum Creek andstarted his ranching operation
up there, brought up hisbrothers, ira and Bob, and of
course these brothers were justlike him, if not worse.
(19:18):
The print just called the restand of course these brothers
were just like him, if not worse.
Print just called the shots.
Ira and Bob were sort ofPrint's enforcers.
Jim Kelly is gone by this point.
He must have stayed in Texaswhere he belonged.
But Print already has areputation again by this point,
(19:40):
like we alluded to the folksthat he disagreed with sort of
disappeared.
One thing we didn't talk aboutis the incident with those folks
that he I'll say he accused ofbeing rustlers.
Certainly no evidence.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Now this is back in Texas.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
This is still back in texas.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Even before he he got to nebraska, there were a
couple of fellas that he accusedof being rustlers, caught up
with him and tied him, tied themtogether to a big tree and the
cattle that he accused them ofrustling.
He skinned the cow and wrappedthat wet hide around their torso
(20:20):
.
While they were tied to thetree and sat back, and once that
sun came out, that hide startedto dry and shrink and he just
sat there and watched it crushhim to death.
This is the kind of man we'redealing with.
He took glory in other people's.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah.
He enjoyed killing people,suffering, yeah, suffering, and
watching them suffer.
Wow, that's a mean hombre, thatis something Mean, mean, that's
a mean dude, I'll tell you.
So you know, he does end uphere in Dodge City.
(21:03):
There is some stories about it,in fact.
But you know, one of the mostfamous Western writers of all
time, mcmurtry right, larryMcMurtry?
Yeah, lonesome Dove, lonesomeDove.
Yeah, larry Murtry, lonesomeDove.
There is some parallelismbetween what he writes in
(21:26):
Lonesome Dove and what occurs insome of the Olive stories.
So let's make a tie betweenthose characters and how all of
that comes about well, to dothat, we need to back up just a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Ok, we're still in Nebraska.
A tie between those charactersand how all of that comes about.
Well, to do that, we need toback up just a little bit.
Okay, all right.
Now we're still in Nebraska,all right.
Harry Prenton hasn't moved downto Kansas, trying to make his
home base in Dodge City yet.
Well, nebraska is known morefor farmers than it is for
ranchers.
Well, farmers control land thatis better suited as cattle
(22:04):
ranch, at least in the eyes ofthe Brent and the Olive family.
And he was again known fordoing whatever he could to
convince these farmers that theywere not welcome anywhere near
Olive land.
And it worked.
They weren't afraid of it, justdeathly terrified of Prince
(22:28):
Olive.
Knowing his reputation, knowing, if you get crossways with
Prince Olive, you'll be likeyour neighbor who just left the
country, right.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Unexpectedly never to be seen or heard from again,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Well, eventually it got so bad that there were a
couple of farmers by the namesof Mitchell and Ketchum Ketchum
Mitchell, ketchum Mitchell.
They were a co-business owner.
They farmed together.
They were families-businessowners.
They farmed together, right,their families, joint farmers,
(23:04):
and their homestead and theirfamilies kind of became the home
base for all the people, allthe farmers who were in the area
, who were trying to resist theall of violence.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
And eventually it just it got too much Print got
his brother, Bob, who wasactually wanted for murder by
this point, with, I think, a$400 prize on his head.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And always getting off too.
I mean those guys, they.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Of course they got off.
Even the wall was afraid of theodds.
Yeah, they got caught, they'dget off.
But anyway, go afraid of theodds.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, they got caught , they get off.
But anyway, go ahead with yourstory.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Well, brent got his brother Bob appointed stock
examiner, I believe, at agovernment job.
That's a good one.
So that he could— Examine thebrand Right exactly.
And they wanted these farmersgone and the farmers weren't
(24:03):
leaving.
So finally, bob and some of theother olive outfit, while these
two farmers, mitchell andKetchum, and their families were
going into town to just conductsome city business, bob Olive
wrote down on them and startedshooting, and Ketchum and
Mitchell.
They started shooting back.
One of them got shot, I thinkit was.
(24:26):
Ketchum got shot in the arm andMitchell actually shot Bob with
a rifle, knocked him off hishorse and didn't kill him
instantly, but he died shortlythereafter His 24th birthday.
It was Pretty young to be a warsoldier Well, even on his nicest
(24:47):
days, print is a mean SOB,right, yeah Well, they just
killed his brother.
Oh, that could be bad Well.
Mitchell was terrified becausehe had just killed Bob Olive.
He'd been wounded in the arm.
(25:08):
Didn't dare go to see a doctorbecause he knew that the doctors
, any doctor in the area wouldbe watched.
They'd catch him, they'd killhim, and they were on the run
for a while, knowing that assoon as they were found.
They were dead men.
They were dead men walking, kindof like gangsters, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Oh, absolutely, the Olives was a mob.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
They really were.
Well, they eventually theKetchum, mitchell and Ketchum
and Mitchell, mitchell andKetchum.
They put their women andchildren, put them in a safe
spot and they took off, hopingfor the best.
Well, they were caught Becausethe print had put a price on
(25:52):
their heads.
They were caught by a bountyhunter, turned in, went to the
sheriff Well, the sheriff was.
Went to the sheriff Well, thesheriff was in the olive pocket.
Even the law was completelybuffaloed by a parade of olive,
kind of like the Dodge.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
City Gang in a way, but yeah, If not worse, far more
violent.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, certainly.
I guess the Dodge City Gangnever really had to back it up,
right?
But yeah, print wasn't afraidof them.
He paid Sheriff $700, andCatchum and Mitchell turned them
over to Print.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
But they weren't going to pay the bounty until
they handed them over.
Until they got them over Right.
So he had the bounty and thebounty hunter said I want my
money.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And he says no, you can't have your money until you
give them over to me.
And so, when they gave themover to him, yep, they paid the
bounty and $700 was a sizablechunk of change.
Oh, man, yeah, and if thatdoesn't convince you to turn
people over on, I'd take $700for about anything now, but in
the 1880s that was a big sum.
That was a chunk of change.
Well, this is where BrentOlive's evil reputation was
(27:12):
forever submitted.
You remember back in Texaswhere they took those guys and
let them?
Let that rawhide squeeze themto death?
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Squeeze them to death .
Speaker 1 (27:21):
yeah, pop them in my house.
They took Ketchum and they hunghim.
Just wrapped a lariat aroundhis neck, threw it around the
end of a tree, hauled him up andhung him.
Cowboy justice.
Except Mitchell was stillhandcuffed to Ketchum and they
(27:41):
hung.
They hung Ketchum, they hauledMitchell up.
He's sitting there hanging byhis arm while Ketchum is being
throttled to death.
So they shot him.
They just shot Mitchell andKetchum, shot their, shot their
dead bodies full of holes andthen they set him on fire more
(28:02):
of that bullet, yep.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
And they said what just?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
shooting him wasn't bad enough, shot their dead
bodies full of holes, and thenthey set them on fire.
More than a bullet Mm-hmm Yep.
And they did what?
Just shooting them wasn't badenough, and then they set them
on fire.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Wow, you know that reminds me of a scene, mm-hmm,
lonesome Dove.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Mm-hmm.
Exactly, they called it.
Thereafter, a print was knownas the man Burger, man Burger,
wow.
Well, so back to your LonesomeDove allusion.
You remember Jake Spoon?
I do the former Texas RangerRight.
And of course, two majorRangers in the story were
(28:43):
themselves based on CharlesGoodknock and Oliver Loving.
I mean, their story is almostparallel.
Well, jake Spoon is essentiallyPrince Olive in his hatred for
farmers and his violent attackson them.
Enough that they put it down.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
That scene in the Lonesome Dove of the two farmers
crossing land.
Of course they were stealinghorses at that time and running
those horses.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
It goes beyond that, dietz and PI.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Oh yeah, dietz Dietz and PI.
Dietz, the man that crosses thedesert barefooted, right.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well, that's in the story.
Of course, the names werechanged to protect the innocent.
As far as largened mercury isconcerned, dietz and PI were
real men.
In fact it was Ira, another oneof the Olive brothers, who had
essentially murdered anothercattleman by the name of Dietz,
(29:45):
who in real life was a white man.
And by the time he went tocourt, there was a witness, an
old man known as PI PI PI, whowas a witness for the
prosecution.
Well, pi, before the trial wasover, wound up dead in his wagon
(30:10):
.
His wagon rolled into town andthey found PI's dead body in the
back of his wagon.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
So he wasn't driving the wagon, ira, essentially got
off on lack of evidence.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I got you, got you.
It's easy when you kill thewitnesses.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Right, this is the family we're dealing with.
Yeah, the All In family, rightyeah?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
So we've got Dietz, we've got PI, we've got Jake
Spoon, who was essentially printalt Right.
Now I think this is just mytheory now, but I think where
all of this came from is thereis a book called the Ladder of
Rivers that was published in1962.
Martin I just lost his name,the author's name, christian
(30:53):
Chrism Chrism, chrism ChrismMartin, chrism Right, who is
actually a member of the KansasCowboy Hall of Fame, despite
being a native Nebraskan Right,where Printol has spent a lot of
his career.
Ladder of Rivers, 1962, aboutthe time that Larry McMurtry was
(31:14):
starting his literary career.
I think Molson Dove came out in1982, 83, thereabouts.
So I firmly believe that thatbook was fresh on McMurtry's
mind.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
I agree when he wrote Lonesome Duck.
And one of the things I couldmention if you go to our website
, which is World FamousGunfighters of Boot Hill you go
to Whiskey and Westerns onWednesday you're going to find a
copy of that book that you candownload.
If you're interested infollowing the story of Prince
(31:49):
Ali and his life entirety, youcan download that book off our
website.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It is available for free online.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I had to pay $80 for my hard time several years ago,
but that's it.
You can get it in PDF formatand you actually download it off
our website.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
It is a fantastic read and, beyond that,
absolutely check out theauthor's other works Lost Trails
of the Cimarron.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Right and the.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Cattleman by Murray Zandos yeah, who also wrote the
Buffalo Hunters Cheyenne, autumnRight.
A fantastic historian in herown right.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
The Cattleman, yes, has a wonderful section on print
olive, and then also Shooters,Shooters which I'm not familiar
with, but you were telling meabout it.
Right, that's also anotherresource that you can read in
order to get the history ofprint olive and some of his
corrupt beings.
Do we have all of the links forthese books.
Yeah, we'll have all of them onthe website, especially go to
(32:48):
Whiskey and Westerns onWednesday, and you'll see all of
the links along with thisprogram itself.
But let's go back now to thedemise.
The demise when the end of thestory ends up here in Dodge City
and the grave and the memorialis actually here in Dodge City.
(33:11):
But let's take it from the timewhere he was challenged in a
saloon.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, after the man-burning incident Nebraska
was getting a little hot forPrint Olive, his brother Bob was
dead was getting financiallystrapped making sure, had
internally paid out all thebribe money just that $700 alone
to the sheriff for the.
(33:39):
During that incident he movedhis family Brent did moved his
family back to Kansas to DodgeCity, got some land along Saw
Log Creek and just made DodgeCity his home base.
Right Planned on retiring there.
Much smaller operation thanhe'd had in the past.
I think honestly he was justafter a life of violence.
(34:06):
He might have been a little bitdone.
I think his wife and familywere starting to.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Maybe curve off the rough edges a little bit.
They wanted to settle in.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
By this time, Dodge is becoming more metropolitan,
even cultured 80s.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
It's a great place.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, at this point, to run a business, raise your
family Right.
Except for Prince never gotover his love of drinking and
gambling, and gambling, and nordid his constitution change once
he'd been drinking.
(34:41):
He was still an idiotic,violent drunk, liked to make
threats and while he was out ona trip to Trail.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
City Right.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Trail City, which at the time was right on the border
, like border town.
Half the town was in Kansas,half the town was in Colorado.
Right town Half the town was inKansas, half the town was in
Colorado.
He was at a saloon there andgot in a scuffle.
Nobody really knows orunderstands what started it.
Lots of stories.
(35:13):
Pick a story of what startedthe fight.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
One story is that Jake owed him $3.50 and he was
going to be forgiven for that.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Irregardless.
Print was running off with themouth, drunk as usual, and
Swallow, Swallow yeah, swallowwas his name Shot him dead, took
a couple of shots at him and bythis point in his life and
career, print olive had simplyabsorbed too much lead and lead
(35:45):
poisoning took its fatal effect.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Well, that's those bullets.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
He was on the ground Just like this, by all reports
he actually begged the man, notto kill him, but he shot him
dead.
The saloon itself actuallystill stands.
It was moved into, if I havethe correct building, it was
moved into Coolidge.
It was in Coolidge, kansas,okay, which in itself was quite
(36:13):
the wild little border townafter the.
What was the name of thatsaloon, do you?
Speaker 3 (36:17):
remember.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I have no idea what the name of it was.
It's been breakfast now.
You can absolutely go and staythere.
Built in 1887.
Okay, I believe.
But after his death, becauseDodge City had become their home
base, his wife, whose nameescapes me, do you remember?
It starts with an L, louisa,louisa, that sounds right.
(36:40):
Louisa had his.
What wrong with that?
His wife moved, brought hisbody back home to Dodge City.
He was buried in Prairie GroveCemetery Right, which only
existed for a short period oftime, and eventually, after
Prairie Grove was closed, theymoved Prince into Maple Grove,
(37:00):
the current Dodge City CemeteryRight.
They moved print into MapleGrove, the current Dock City
City Cemetery, erected a verynice tall spire tombstone.
Beloved husband and father, youwill be missed.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Me.
I'll miss In looking at thatyou missed by whom?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
He was a wonderful.
The Olives were a wonderfulfamily.
Well, they were a great familyyeah, they loved it.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Family Anything outside their family.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Well, they were a great family, yeah, and they
loved it Family.
But anything outside theirfamily they'd probably just kill
you, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Don't talk outside their family.
Yeah, so Prince, his wife,their children, all buried in
Dodge City and I don't know howmany people I've told that story
to come up looking and theymake that Lonesome Dove
connection.
You know, jake Spoon was buriedin Dock City, right, right.
And then they learn the realstory behind Prince Olive.
That didn't even scratch thesurface.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Well, what a great story.
Prince Olive a lot of peopledon't know or didn't know about
Prince Olive.
He's not really truly one ofthose legends that a lot of
people talk about.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
But for such a violent evil man that he was, I
don't understand actually whyhe's not more popular.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
But he is the basis of a lot of Westerns.
So let's take a toast to the4th of July and to Brent Olive,
brent Olive, a toast to the 4thof July, and to print out.
Print out Western legends ofthe legends of the old west.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
God bless America.
God bless America, thank you.
Here we go again.
I demand more.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I want it, I need it and I'm gonna have it.
This pot show is pleased tobring you Whiskey and Westerns
on Wednesday, direct from DodgeCity, kansas, featuring rich
topics on the legends of the oldwest.
Whiskey to motivate Westerns toinspire.
Get it, play it, drink it.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
My name is Mike.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
King, and I'd like to welcome you to Whiskey and
Westerns on Wednesday.
I'm Brad Smalley and we'regoing to celebrate this
Independence Day by drinking alittle bit of whiskey and
telling some good stories aboutthe American West.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
All right, Brad, what do you have for us tonight as
far as your choice, our choiceof whiskey.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Well, I figure, with all the treason successful
treason, I should add that ledto American independence, there
were a lot of bullets flyingaround, so what better than a
little bit of?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Bullet Bourbon.
Yeah, I would say that'sprobably a good name for Fourth
of July is Bullet Bourbon.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Well, not his fault.
It's the man's actual name.
But we'll go along with thestory.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Anyway, it is his actual name, mr Bullet.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's relatively modern on the market.
I believe Bullet started in thelate 80s, 1980s, 1980s, yeah.
However, as the story goes,they are using as close to what
they felt that they could of theoriginal Bullitt Augustus,
augustus Bullitt.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Augustus Bullitt.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
His recipe one of the early bourbon makers in the
state of Kentucky.
Today, tom Bullitt is runningthe country Tom Jr I think and
it's one of the more popular,actually great, whiskeys on the
market there as far as kind ofmiddle of the shelf, not really
budget, not very hot, verydrinkable, very approachable
(02:21):
whiskey.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
So the story goes that the whiskey was asked.
The actual recipe for thiswhiskey was created around 1860
by who you mentioned earlier,Augustus Bullock, Augustus, and
one day he was traveling to NewOrleans with his barrels of
whiskey from Kentucky and NewOrleans and he just vanished and
(02:50):
mysteriously was never foundagain but his recipe for good
bourbon was kept alive by hisfamily.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Not the first man hauling whiskey that's ever
probably disappeared, I wouldimagine.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Hard telling.
Just couldn't find a whiskey,couldn't find Augustus.
Well, what do you say aboutthis one?
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, the bullet is known for being high rye and,
just on the nose, definitely getthat For being .45 ABV, that's
90 proof.
It doesn't smell hot, mm-hmm,but I definitely get the rye,
the black pepper.
Do you get a little caramel inthere?
I didn't earlier, but I'mgetting it now.
(03:34):
We were drinking this earlier,I am now.
I'm getting Some caramel.
It's a caramel apple soaked inoak, I agree, which, being
bourbon, comes with theterritory.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Well, let's have a toast to the 4th of July, to
treason, and take a sip of thisbullet bourbon.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And that's where the black pepper comes in.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, it goes all the way to your nose, doesn't it it
?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
does Not a lot going on in there, and that's where
the black pepper comes in.
Yeah, it goes all the way toyour nose, doesn't it?
It does it just not a lot goingon in there.
But I would say, for being 45%,it's very drinkable.
I agree, it does not taste hotat all.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
No, it goes down real well.
You don't get a little of thatbacklash in your throat.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
at least you do get it in your nose, though I'm
telling you See, I've still gotthe caramel apple on the nose
and I'm getting black pepper andoak on the palate.
It's like two differentexperiences at the same time.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well, that's not a bad bourbon at all.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's actually pretty nice.
As you breathe in just a littlebit while you're taking a sip,
you get the full experience.
Not a lot going on, but that'sa damn good whiskey.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, I agree.
What would you rate this one,fred?
Now we're going from one tofive on this.
We're going one to five.
Okay, it's taking you a while,maybe, maybe, maybe I'd give it
a sip and see what you got overthere.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, I wouldn't mind .
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Okay, I gotta give it a 3.7, 3.8.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
3.8.
Okay, that's not bad.
It's reasonably priced too and,oh, very accessible, yeah.
And you can find it on theshelves.
Some of the whiskey that we'vebeen drinking on our show we
couldn't even find on theshelves, but it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
You can find that anywhere.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
But we're still looking for that rare eagle
Eagle, rare yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's why they call it rare.
Supposedly this month it'ssupposed to be out.
I've been checking.
Pretty good.
I did pick up a couple of otherrare bottles, just because,
well, they like me, out therewe're going to have to try some
of those out here pretty soon.
Stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yep, absolutely.
We've got a couple more showsthat we were going to do in July
that we've had planned out.
One of those is going to tieinto tonight's story about Jim
Kennedy and the Dora Hand storystory about Jim Kennedy and the
Dora Hand story, which we'reactually going to do that story
(06:29):
next week or the week after,with an author who has written
about Dora Hand and we're goingto invite her on the show with
us pretty soon and then we'lltaste out another one of those
rare whiskeys.
I'm excited for that one.
Well, brad, today we're goingto talk a little bit about I
don't know how to describe thisguy.
I mean he's.
(06:51):
He lived in Dodge City for awhile.
He lived in Nebraska, he livedin Texas.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Well, he's one of those characters, that a lot of
people they sort of know hisstory but they don't know that
they know it and we'll get moreinto that later.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
That's true, because there's a lot of literature that
is tied into this story, buthis name is Print Olive Print
Olive and a lot of people don'tknow the story of Print Olive no
not until you start telling thestory and they keep thinking
well, that sounds awfullyfamiliar.
If you were a Western, if youwatched Westerns on TV, you'd
(07:32):
see a lot of similarities.
Oh yeah, you're going torecognize a lot of the story.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
So let's talk a little bit about Prince Olive.
Let's talk about some of hisbackground, where he came from
and how he got to Dodge City.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Well, Primm was his nickname.
We probably ought to startthere.
His full name was Isom PrentissIP Olive.
He occasionally went by.
I suppose if my name was IsomPrentiss I'd probably go by
Prentiss as well.
Part of a big family, theOlives were, after the Civil War
, big ranchers, cattlemen in thestate of Texas.
(08:07):
Prince himself and one of hisbrothers also served in the
Civil War, though I'm not sureif they were regular army.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
That's always a question.
But we do know that he was in.
He tested his iron first in theCivil War.
He did, and his bullet he didout of Texas, out of Texas.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Returned home and got into the cattle business which,
of course, after the Civil Warthe South was destitute.
There was very little going oneconomically.
As far as the railroad'sconcerned, there weren't any,
and where they were there was nostandard gauge.
You couldn't set one locomotivefrom one railway and put it on
(08:50):
another one because it didn'tfit.
But the railroads wereexpanding, of course, in the
north, as they were, which thenorth was known for with their
industry.
But what the south did have,especially in Texas, was a lot
of cattle.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Cattle.
I think we need to talk alittle bit about the cattle
ranges back in that time,because around 1869, 1870, right
in there, those cattle werejust wild.
They just were on the rangeseverywhere.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
They're completely feral cattle, descendants of the
Spanish cattle that theconquistadors and the Spanish
settlers had brought over in the14, 1500s and back.
In those days the ranchersreally didn't like to brand
their cattle.
Generally, there was no reasonto until after on it, when they
(09:47):
started forming ranches anddriving their cattle to the
market.
It became more of an issue, butthey called them Mavericks.
That's right.
And certainly the acceptancestory is after Samuel Maverick,
who was known for even after thepractice of branding had taken
over, he refused to brand hiscattle.
That that's how you will knowthey're mined because they're
(10:10):
not branded Well.
That created a whole other setof issues.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
That's right.
So the name Maverick comesafter Samuel Maverick and it was
a name that was created becausethere was just no branding of
cattle and people just gatheredcattle anytime, even if it was
on your land or somebody else'sland, they would just round them
up and they'd call them theirs.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
And of course we use the word still today maverick.
Anyone who defies the acceptedconventions or the rules.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Okay, so we actually get a new word, created in 1869,
a word called maverick.
Now, one of the things that theOllie's were good about well,
of course they didn't likecattle thieves.
That's what I understand.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Does anyone?
Speaker 3 (10:54):
No, no, but if you did, I mean they were really
upset.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Oh, they were ruthless about it, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Matter of fact, they were pretty harsh about it Very.
I think ruthless is the mostappropriate term for the Olive
family.
And the leader of that, ofcourse, was Pratt, was Pratt,
and he just didn't take muchliking to the cattle fee?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Not at all.
On one hand it was theirlivelihood.
Stolen cattle is just one stepdown from a stolen horse.
That's right.
If that, of course, printprobably put it on an even
higher level because that wastheir business.
It was cattle Rounding upcattle mostly their own,
sometimes other people's.
(11:36):
Those mavericks Bringing themin the Olive family grew quite
wealthy in Texas, had a lot ofproperty they were good at
rounding up cattle.
They were fantastic at roundingup cattle.
They were fantastic at roundingup cattle.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Matter of fact, their herd started expanding a lot
during that time.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
About the same rate that everyone else has started
decreasing De-illusion cattle,Yep, yep.
Well, they of course,eventually, like everyone else,
they had to sell them, otherwisethey're not worth nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
So they got to move down the trail, move them up to
Kansas, yep, sell them,otherwise they're not worth
nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
So they got to move down the trail.
Move them up to Kansas Yep, Getthem up there.
Move them into places like ParkCity, Ellsworth, eventually
Dodge and uh, Of course, themore cattle you get there, the
more money you're making, which,especially when you start
having cattle disappear.
Rustlers, that's an issue, andI think that the olives
(12:27):
especially print.
Oh, the squeaky wheel gets thegrease sort of thing.
The louder you accuse others ofrustling, the less they'll
notice that you're wrestlingalso.
Wrestling also, and I thinkthat was the case.
He was probably.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Well, he was probably noted for wrestling cattle as
much as anybody else.
No one dared accuse him of it,but you know one of the stories
about and a lot of people don'tknow this but when you're
droving these cattle across theland, there's these farmers.
Oh sure, and these farmers.
(13:03):
They started charging tolls forthese cattle to cross their
land and to water their cattle,and usually a farmer gets $25
for watering and crossing theirland.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The water rights have always been a huge issue.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But Prent didn't like the old idea of tolls.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Oh, he's not about to pay somebody else for the
privilege of taking his cattletrucks.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
There's no fences, of course, but people had staked
out their land.
No fences, of course, butpeople had staked out their land
, but Prent, he refused andsometimes sent.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
He wasn't about to pay.
He had lackeys.
Well, thugs might be a moreappropriate word.
I agree, most famous one beingJim Kelly.
Just a big, big black man,apparently quite the gunfighter,
very intimidating and pretty,used him like a bulldog.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
And you know a lot of people back in those days.
They weren't familiar withblack people in the first place.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Especially the further north.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
You got Right and he was big, and what they said is
when he rolled his eyes back inthe back of his head and then
spit out between his teeth somethings that he desired, he'd get
it for $5.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Oh, yeah, prince, standing there talking to their
landowner or whatever, yeah, I'dsay $25, pick a a number Across
the land, water your cattle.
Well, I don't like $25, saysPrint Hollers back at Jim.
Jim, come talk to these folks.
Jim comes around the corner.
Sanjur rolls his eyes back inhis head and just Well, yeah,
(14:54):
you did what Print wanted.
Jim is not above using his gun.
And well, yeah, he did whatprint wanted after that and
Joe's not above using his gun.
By this time, the Olives arealready starting to rack up a
body count.
A lot of folks that the Oliveshad dealings with that were not
(15:16):
necessarily in the Olives' favor.
Well, they sort of left thecountry.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
They say they left the country.
Well, they probably had somesand in the dirt.
They disappeared.
Maybe that's what happened toAugustus Bullock.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
He may have ran across.
That's entirely possible.
I never put that intoperspective.
That may be.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
In a particular story that we're going to tell later
on.
You're talking about theKennedy incident.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Yeah, he goes to Ellsworth, he's driving his
cattle to Ellsworth At this time.
Yeah, Dodge City is not therailhead anymore.
Ellsworth has taken over thecattle drives from Wichita Park
City, who in turn took it overfrom Abilene.
So Ellsworth is the end of thetrail.
That's the end of the cattledrives.
(16:04):
It's Dodge City.
Before Dodge City was DodgeCity and Print runs a foul, as
he often did with folks insaloons.
Print liked to drink Yep, hewas a violent drunk.
I think he liked both he mayhave.
Yep, he was a violent drunk.
I think he liked both he mayhave.
They certainly flew whenever hewas drunk.
Well, he ran afoul of a youngTexas cattleman by the name of
(16:29):
Jim Kennedy, who was the son ofMifflin Kennedy, one of the
wealthiest ranchers, landownersin the state of Texas, Partners
with Prince King, of whom KingCounty is named after Kingsville
.
And of course, as you alludedto, the Kennedy, especially Jim
(16:50):
will feature in the Dora Handstory later on.
But Prince and Jim got into anargument.
I think they were even callinghim Spike Kennedy already at
this point, as the story goes.
And young Mr Kennedy put abullet in print, I think he shot
him in his hip, Shot him in hiship leg groin.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Shot him in the hand In the hand that's right Shot
him in the leg and shot him inthe hip.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
He shot him three times before, before print even
hit the floor, and print wasknown for his ability to absorb
lead.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
That's why we're calling tonight bullet.
It becomes more appropriateTalking about print and getting
shot three times bullet isprobably the best.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Well the thing is that probably would have been
the end of Print Olive's life,had it not been for Big Jim
Kelly Right, who essentiallyscared him off, fired off a
couple shots and Kennedy wasgone.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He didn't want to stay around to see the results
of only to resurface in Don.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
City several years later.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Yeah, so anyway, that's the story of Jim Kennedy,
which we'll tell in the storyof Dorahan later.
Another bad seed print.
(18:25):
Olive didn't stay in texas toolong, but he moved to nebraska
he kept moving his money and hiscattle further north.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
And well, when you do that, the money itself winds up
further north.
Why waste time driving all yourcattle from texas when you can
just have the rangeland here soclose to the railroad?
And, of course, the ChisholmTrail, the western trail, the
western branch of the Chisholmdidn't stop in Dodge Right.
It continued on throughOgallala all the way up into
(18:57):
Montana really Eventually IntoMontana, really Eventually
Montana right.
So he got himself a bunch ofrangeland in Nebraska, bought
some land along Plum Creek andstarted his ranching operation
up there, brought up hisbrothers, ira and Bob, and of
course these brothers were justlike him, if not worse.
(19:18):
The print just called the restand of course these brothers
were just like him, if not worse.
Print just called the shots.
Ira and Bob were sort ofPrint's enforcers.
Jim Kelly is gone by this point.
He must have stayed in Texaswhere he belonged.
But Print already has areputation again by this point,
(19:40):
like we alluded to the folksthat he disagreed with sort of
disappeared.
One thing we didn't talk aboutis the incident with those folks
that he I'll say he accused ofbeing rustlers.
Certainly no evidence.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Now this is back in Texas.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
This is still back in texas.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Even before he he got to nebraska, there were a
couple of fellas that he accusedof being rustlers, caught up
with him and tied him, tied themtogether to a big tree and the
cattle that he accused them ofrustling.
He skinned the cow and wrappedthat wet hide around their torso
(20:20):
.
While they were tied to thetree and sat back, and once that
sun came out, that hide startedto dry and shrink and he just
sat there and watched it crushhim to death.
This is the kind of man we'redealing with.
He took glory in other people's.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah.
He enjoyed killing people,suffering, yeah, suffering, and
watching them suffer.
Wow, that's a mean hombre, thatis something Mean, mean, that's
a mean dude, I'll tell you.
So you know, he does end uphere in Dodge City.
(21:03):
There is some stories about it,in fact.
But you know, one of the mostfamous Western writers of all
time, mcmurtry right, larryMcMurtry?
Yeah, lonesome Dove, lonesomeDove.
Yeah, larry Murtry, lonesomeDove.
There is some parallelismbetween what he writes in
(21:26):
Lonesome Dove and what occurs insome of the Olive stories.
So let's make a tie betweenthose characters and how all of
that comes about well, to dothat, we need to back up just a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Ok, we're still in Nebraska.
A tie between those charactersand how all of that comes about.
Well, to do that, we need toback up just a little bit.
Okay, all right.
Now we're still in Nebraska,all right.
Harry Prenton hasn't moved downto Kansas, trying to make his
home base in Dodge City yet.
Well, nebraska is known morefor farmers than it is for
ranchers.
Well, farmers control land thatis better suited as cattle
(22:04):
ranch, at least in the eyes ofthe Brent and the Olive family.
And he was again known fordoing whatever he could to
convince these farmers that theywere not welcome anywhere near
Olive land.
And it worked.
They weren't afraid of it, justdeathly terrified of Prince
(22:28):
Olive.
Knowing his reputation, knowing, if you get crossways with
Prince Olive, you'll be likeyour neighbor who just left the
country, right.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Unexpectedly never to be seen or heard from again,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Well, eventually it got so bad that there were a
couple of farmers by the namesof Mitchell and Ketchum Ketchum
Mitchell, ketchum Mitchell.
They were a co-business owner.
They farmed together.
They were families-businessowners.
They farmed together, right,their families, joint farmers,
(23:04):
and their homestead and theirfamilies kind of became the home
base for all the people, allthe farmers who were in the area
, who were trying to resist theall of violence.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Right.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
And eventually it just it got too much Print got
his brother, Bob, who wasactually wanted for murder by
this point, with, I think, a$400 prize on his head.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
And always getting off too.
I mean those guys, they.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Of course they got off.
Even the wall was afraid of theodds.
Yeah, they got caught, they'dget off.
But anyway, go afraid of theodds.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, they got caught , they get off.
But anyway, go ahead with yourstory.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
Well, brent got his brother Bob appointed stock
examiner, I believe, at agovernment job.
That's a good one.
So that he could— Examine thebrand Right exactly.
And they wanted these farmersgone and the farmers weren't
(24:03):
leaving.
So finally, bob and some of theother olive outfit, while these
two farmers, mitchell andKetchum, and their families were
going into town to just conductsome city business, bob Olive
wrote down on them and startedshooting, and Ketchum and
Mitchell.
They started shooting back.
One of them got shot, I thinkit was.
(24:26):
Ketchum got shot in the arm andMitchell actually shot Bob with
a rifle, knocked him off hishorse and didn't kill him
instantly, but he died shortlythereafter His 24th birthday.
It was Pretty young to be a warsoldier Well, even on his nicest
(24:47):
days, print is a mean SOB,right, yeah Well, they just
killed his brother.
Oh, that could be bad Well.
Mitchell was terrified becausehe had just killed Bob Olive.
He'd been wounded in the arm.
(25:08):
Didn't dare go to see a doctorbecause he knew that the doctors
, any doctor in the area wouldbe watched.
They'd catch him, they'd killhim, and they were on the run
for a while, knowing that assoon as they were found.
They were dead men.
They were dead men walking, kindof like gangsters, you know.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Oh, absolutely, the Olives was a mob.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
They really were.
Well, they eventually theKetchum, mitchell and Ketchum
and Mitchell, mitchell andKetchum.
They put their women andchildren, put them in a safe
spot and they took off, hopingfor the best.
Well, they were caught Becausethe print had put a price on
(25:52):
their heads.
They were caught by a bountyhunter, turned in, went to the
sheriff Well, the sheriff was.
Went to the sheriff Well, thesheriff was in the olive pocket.
Even the law was completelybuffaloed by a parade of olive,
kind of like the Dodge.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
City Gang in a way, but yeah, If not worse, far more
violent.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yeah, certainly.
I guess the Dodge City Gangnever really had to back it up,
right?
But yeah, print wasn't afraidof them.
He paid Sheriff $700, andCatchum and Mitchell turned them
over to Print.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
But they weren't going to pay the bounty until
they handed them over.
Until they got them over Right.
So he had the bounty and thebounty hunter said I want my
money.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And he says no, you can't have your money until you
give them over to me.
And so, when they gave themover to him, yep, they paid the
bounty and $700 was a sizablechunk of change.
Oh, man, yeah, and if thatdoesn't convince you to turn
people over on, I'd take $700for about anything now, but in
the 1880s that was a big sum.
That was a chunk of change.
Well, this is where BrentOlive's evil reputation was
(27:12):
forever submitted.
You remember back in Texaswhere they took those guys and
let them?
Let that rawhide squeeze themto death?
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Squeeze them to death .
Speaker 1 (27:21):
yeah, pop them in my house.
They took Ketchum and they hunghim.
Just wrapped a lariat aroundhis neck, threw it around the
end of a tree, hauled him up andhung him.
Cowboy justice.
Except Mitchell was stillhandcuffed to Ketchum and they
(27:41):
hung.
They hung Ketchum, they hauledMitchell up.
He's sitting there hanging byhis arm while Ketchum is being
throttled to death.
So they shot him.
They just shot Mitchell andKetchum, shot their, shot their
dead bodies full of holes andthen they set him on fire more
(28:02):
of that bullet, yep.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
And they said what just?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
shooting him wasn't bad enough, shot their dead
bodies full of holes, and thenthey set them on fire.
More than a bullet Mm-hmm Yep.
And they did what?
Just shooting them wasn't badenough, and then they set them
on fire.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Wow, you know that reminds me of a scene, mm-hmm,
lonesome Dove.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Mm-hmm.
Exactly, they called it.
Thereafter, a print was knownas the man Burger, man Burger,
wow.
Well, so back to your LonesomeDove allusion.
You remember Jake Spoon?
I do the former Texas RangerRight.
And of course, two majorRangers in the story were
(28:43):
themselves based on CharlesGoodknock and Oliver Loving.
I mean, their story is almostparallel.
Well, jake Spoon is essentiallyPrince Olive in his hatred for
farmers and his violent attackson them.
Enough that they put it down.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
That scene in the Lonesome Dove of the two farmers
crossing land.
Of course they were stealinghorses at that time and running
those horses.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
It goes beyond that, dietz and PI.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Oh yeah, dietz Dietz and PI.
Dietz, the man that crosses thedesert barefooted, right.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well, that's in the story.
Of course, the names werechanged to protect the innocent.
As far as largened mercury isconcerned, dietz and PI were
real men.
In fact it was Ira, another oneof the Olive brothers, who had
essentially murdered anothercattleman by the name of Dietz,
(29:45):
who in real life was a white man.
And by the time he went tocourt, there was a witness, an
old man known as PI PI PI, whowas a witness for the
prosecution.
Well, pi, before the trial wasover, wound up dead in his wagon
(30:10):
.
His wagon rolled into town andthey found PI's dead body in the
back of his wagon.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
So he wasn't driving the wagon, ira, essentially got
off on lack of evidence.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
I got you, got you.
It's easy when you kill thewitnesses.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Right, this is the family we're dealing with.
Yeah, the All In family, rightyeah?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
So we've got Dietz, we've got PI, we've got Jake
Spoon, who was essentially printalt Right.
Now I think this is just mytheory now, but I think where
all of this came from is thereis a book called the Ladder of
Rivers that was published in1962.
Martin I just lost his name,the author's name, christian
(30:53):
Chrism Chrism, chrism ChrismMartin, chrism Right, who is
actually a member of the KansasCowboy Hall of Fame, despite
being a native Nebraskan Right,where Printol has spent a lot of
his career.
Ladder of Rivers, 1962, aboutthe time that Larry McMurtry was
(31:14):
starting his literary career.
I think Molson Dove came out in1982, 83, thereabouts.
So I firmly believe that thatbook was fresh on McMurtry's
mind.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
I agree when he wrote Lonesome Duck.
And one of the things I couldmention if you go to our website
, which is World FamousGunfighters of Boot Hill you go
to Whiskey and Westerns onWednesday you're going to find a
copy of that book that you candownload.
If you're interested infollowing the story of Prince
(31:49):
Ali and his life entirety, youcan download that book off our
website.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
It is available for free online.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
I had to pay $80 for my hard time several years ago,
but that's it.
You can get it in PDF formatand you actually download it off
our website.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
It is a fantastic read and, beyond that,
absolutely check out theauthor's other works Lost Trails
of the Cimarron.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Right and the.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
Cattleman by Murray Zandos yeah, who also wrote the
Buffalo Hunters Cheyenne, autumnRight.
A fantastic historian in herown right.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
The Cattleman, yes, has a wonderful section on print
olive, and then also Shooters,Shooters which I'm not familiar
with, but you were telling meabout it.
Right, that's also anotherresource that you can read in
order to get the history ofprint olive and some of his
corrupt beings.
Do we have all of the links forthese books.
Yeah, we'll have all of them onthe website, especially go to
(32:48):
Whiskey and Westerns onWednesday, and you'll see all of
the links along with thisprogram itself.
But let's go back now to thedemise.
The demise when the end of thestory ends up here in Dodge City
and the grave and the memorialis actually here in Dodge City.
(33:11):
But let's take it from the timewhere he was challenged in a
saloon.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, after the man-burning incident Nebraska
was getting a little hot forPrint Olive, his brother Bob was
dead was getting financiallystrapped making sure, had
internally paid out all thebribe money just that $700 alone
to the sheriff for the.
(33:39):
During that incident he movedhis family Brent did moved his
family back to Kansas to DodgeCity, got some land along Saw
Log Creek and just made DodgeCity his home base.
Right Planned on retiring there.
Much smaller operation thanhe'd had in the past.
I think honestly he was justafter a life of violence.
(34:06):
He might have been a little bitdone.
I think his wife and familywere starting to.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Maybe curve off the rough edges a little bit.
They wanted to settle in.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
By this time, Dodge is becoming more metropolitan,
even cultured 80s.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
It's a great place.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, at this point, to run a business, raise your
family Right.
Except for Prince never gotover his love of drinking and
gambling, and gambling, and nordid his constitution change once
he'd been drinking.
(34:41):
He was still an idiotic,violent drunk, liked to make
threats and while he was out ona trip to Trail.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
City Right.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Trail City, which at the time was right on the border
, like border town.
Half the town was in Kansas,half the town was in Colorado.
Right town Half the town was inKansas, half the town was in
Colorado.
He was at a saloon there andgot in a scuffle.
Nobody really knows orunderstands what started it.
Lots of stories.
(35:13):
Pick a story of what startedthe fight.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
One story is that Jake owed him $3.50 and he was
going to be forgiven for that.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Irregardless.
Print was running off with themouth, drunk as usual, and
Swallow, Swallow yeah, swallowwas his name Shot him dead, took
a couple of shots at him and bythis point in his life and
career, print olive had simplyabsorbed too much lead and lead
(35:45):
poisoning took its fatal effect.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Well, that's those bullets.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
He was on the ground Just like this, by all reports
he actually begged the man, notto kill him, but he shot him
dead.
The saloon itself actuallystill stands.
It was moved into, if I havethe correct building, it was
moved into Coolidge.
It was in Coolidge, kansas,okay, which in itself was quite
(36:13):
the wild little border townafter the.
What was the name of thatsaloon, do you?
Speaker 3 (36:17):
remember.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
I have no idea what the name of it was.
It's been breakfast now.
You can absolutely go and staythere.
Built in 1887.
Okay, I believe.
But after his death, becauseDodge City had become their home
base, his wife, whose nameescapes me, do you remember?
It starts with an L, louisa,louisa, that sounds right.
(36:40):
Louisa had his.
What wrong with that?
His wife moved, brought hisbody back home to Dodge City.
He was buried in Prairie GroveCemetery Right, which only
existed for a short period oftime, and eventually, after
Prairie Grove was closed, theymoved Prince into Maple Grove,
(37:00):
the current Dodge City CemeteryRight.
They moved print into MapleGrove, the current Dock City
City Cemetery, erected a verynice tall spire tombstone.
Beloved husband and father, youwill be missed.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Me.
I'll miss In looking at thatyou missed by whom?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
He was a wonderful.
The Olives were a wonderfulfamily.
Well, they were a great familyyeah, they loved it.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Family Anything outside their family.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Well, they were a great family, yeah, and they
loved it Family.
But anything outside theirfamily they'd probably just kill
you, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Don't talk outside their family.
Yeah, so Prince, his wife,their children, all buried in
Dodge City and I don't know howmany people I've told that story
to come up looking and theymake that Lonesome Dove
connection.
You know, jake Spoon was buriedin Dock City, right, right.
And then they learn the realstory behind Prince Olive.
That didn't even scratch thesurface.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Well, what a great story.
Prince Olive a lot of peopledon't know or didn't know about
Prince Olive.
He's not really truly one ofthose legends that a lot of
people talk about.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
But for such a violent evil man that he was, I
don't understand actually whyhe's not more popular.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
But he is the basis of a lot of Westerns.
So let's take a toast to the4th of July and to Brent Olive,
brent Olive, a toast to the 4thof July, and to print out.
Print out Western legends ofthe legends of the old west.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
God bless America.
God bless America, thank you.
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