Tom Horn was a scout for the U.S. Army, a cowboy, a deputy sheriff, and a private detective for the Pinkerton Agency. But it was his final stint as a hired gun that would lead to his demise.
American Heritage Center , University of WyomingTom Horn was officially a “ cooking stove detective ” but was better roll in the hay as a gunman for hire in the American Old West .
Picture the old American “ Wild West . ” Scenes in all probability do to mind of gas - slinging cowboys and drunken fights in saloons with swinging room access , an effigy that was perpetuate by Western movie .
But while the actual American frontier was surely a bit tamer than Hollywood made it out to be , some elements of Old West history seem wild enough to be fiction — such as the story of Tom Horn , the U.S. Army scout - turned - secret - factor - move around - hitman . Indeed , Horn was ill-famed for telling tall tales , making it difficult to discern how much of his story was on-key and how much he made up .
American Heritage Center, University of WyomingTom Horn was officially a “range detective” but was better known as a gunman for hire in the American Old West.
Many historians consider that Tom Horn was responsible for 17 murder across the westerly United States . But when he was last convicted in the other 20th 100 , he was execute for a slaying he in all likelihood had nothing to do with .
Tom Horn’s Tumultuous Early Years
Thomas Horn Jr. was born in southern Missouri in 1860 . The twenty percent of 12 children , he was frequently physically maltreat by his Father-God , leading him to run aside when he was just 14 old age old .
Horn made his path west , joining the U.S. Army as a spotter at the age of 16 . recognise for his natural aptitude as an interpreter and tracker , he quickly rose through the ranks . Notably , he was part of the unit responsible for for the surrender ofGeronimo , the Apache leader during the 19th - century Apache Wars . But while Horn claimed that he diddle an inherent part in this negotiation , he was likely just an interpreter .
Public domainAs a U.S. Army picket , Horn was part of the unit responsible for the surrender of Geronimo .
Public domainAs a U.S. Army scout, Horn was part of the unit responsible for the surrender of Geronimo.
After the war , Horn continued moving west and took on a variety of unpaired jobs for a few years , working as a ranch hand and competing in rodeo rival . He even advance a tip - roping contest in Globe , Arizona in July 1888 , setting a new world record time .
For a short time period , Horn owned a ranch in Aravaipa Canyon , Arizona . But soon after he purchased it , cattle thieves reportedly steal all of his gillyflower in the midriff of the night . Horn went bankrupt , and the robbery reportedly led him to a pursue a vocation in legal philosophy enforcement . He had a abbreviated stint working as a lieutenant sheriff in Arizona before he was recruit by the infamousPinkerton National Detective Agency .
The Shadowy World Of Private Security
In 1890 , Tom Horn signal on with the Pinkerton Agency to care their investigation in the Rocky Mountains . He essentially worked to give chase down and apprehendWild West outlaws — often through violent means .
The Pinkerton Agency was found in 1850 as a secret detective and security agency , initially focussed on protecting railroad from the terror of train robberies at the sentence . The original Pinkerton building in Chicago featured a logo of a black - and - white heart above the motto “ We never sleep . ” This logo animate the term “ private eye . ”
Prior to the founding of the FBI in 1908 , administration entities and officials often hired private investigator to execute the services now carried out by government agency like the FBI and CIA . In 1861 , for illustration , Pinkerton agents foiled an assassination game against then - president elect Abraham Lincoln . Lincoln also hired Pinkerton agent as secret security during the Civil War .
American Heritage Center, University of WyomingTom Horn went from working in law enforcement to being an outlaw himself.
As such , Pinkerton was the first legitimate private tec agency in the country , and business boomed in the latter part of the nineteenth one C . Detectives were hired to catch high - visibility outlaws likeJesse James , the Reno Brothers , andButch Cassidyand theSundance Kid . By the 1870s , Pinkerton had the world ’s largest compendium of mugshots and a first - of - its - kind vicious database . At its peak , it had more agents than the stomach United States Army of the United States .
Public DomainThe Pinkerton logotype was the inspiration for the term “ individual eye . ”
Tom Horn And The Pinkerton Agency
Being an agent of a quasi - government group did n’t stop over Man like Tom Horn from charge crimes in the name of visualize jurist done .
“ Rumors persisted that investigator in secret worked on both side of the same case , kidnapped witnesses , bribed juries , [ and ] commonly used wildness to break strike and coerce confession , ” write Frank Richard Prassel inThe Western Peace Officer : A Legacy of Law and Order , accord to theAmerican Heritage Center .
Horn denied killing anyone under the orders of the Pinkerton Agency , although he was suspected of several execution during his stint there . Pinkerton reportedly push Horn to free in 1894 .
Public DomainIt is believed that Tom Horn was responsible for as many as 17 murders.
“ William A. Pinkerton told me that Tom Horn was guilty of the criminal offence , but that his people could not let him go to prison while in their employ , ” Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo write in his memoirTwo Evil Isms : Pinkertonism and Anarchism , as reported in Melody Groves ’ bookWhen Outlaws Wore Badges .
Cattle Thief And Assassin-For-Hire
After Tom Horn left the Pinkerton Agency , he do work as a freelance compass detective ( read : hitman ) for various cattle society in northern Colorado and Wyoming .
The cattle companies took consequence with the homesteaders moving to the country under the Homestead Act of 1862 , which appropriate American citizens to move onto unclaimed country surveyed by the U.S. government and naturalize it . kine ranchers view the settlers as encroaching on their kingdom and often hired private detectives to dash the nester off — or , as was often the compositor’s case with Tom Horn , to kill them .
American Heritage Center , University of WyomingTom Horn went from working in jurisprudence enforcement to being an outlaw himself .
Public DomainTom Horn was hanged for the murder of Willie Nickell, though some historians say he may have been innocent.
to boot , the Bos taurus industriousness , which had been flourish just a decade to begin with , was in a spiraling descent . After cattle prices peaked in 1882 , ranchers were the plentiful they had ever been , but they mistakenly buy more cattle and stock their cattle ranch with more livestock than the land could support . This led to an oversupply of squawk , which sank profits . The industry go forward to free fall after a bad drought and a brutal wintertime in 1886 .
Cattle ranchers blamed their problem on everyone and everything except their own poor patronage decisions , round homesteader and blaming kine thieves , also have a go at it as rustlers . Ranchers often complained that the courts were refusing to punish rustlers , leaving them to take issue into their own hands .
“ It is very unmanageable to get an bill of indictment from a grand jury [ even ] with pretty definite evidence as to the guilt of the party bill with steal Bos taurus , ” say Wyoming Stock Growers Association secretary Thomas Sturgis in 1886 , according to theWyoming Historical Society . “ There seems to be a morbid fellow feeling with cattle thieves both on the bench and in the jury room … consideration have forced cattlemen to look to themselves for protection outside of any association . ”
That ’s where Tom Horn came in . Already a gifted tracker , Horn was fuck for his ability to shoot targets from 200 yards away . It ’s believe he killed as many as 17 people as a reach detective .
He was also known for his habit of drunkenly boasting about his many adventure , sometimes exaggerate or even making them up . And it ’s this penchant for narrate tall tales that would finally get Horn into worry .
The Murder Of Willie Nickell
On July 18 , 1901 , 14 - twelvemonth - sure-enough Willie Nickell , the son of a Wyoming sheep rancher , was found deadened outside of his family ’s homestead . He had been shot twice from a foresightful kitchen range .
There were no witnesses to the brutal murder , nor was there any hard grounds . Some suspected that Tom Horn may be responsible , suggesting that the infamous hitman may have been hired to belt down the boy ’s forefather but , mistaking Willie for the older piece , shoot the boy instead .
Public DomainIt is believed that Tom Horn was responsible for as many as 17 murder .
U.S. Deputy Marshal Joe LeFors was tasked with enquire the murder . He had been told by his boss that he would get a promotion if he find Willie ’s Orcinus orca .
“ At the metre the opinion was running high and the demand was for justness , ” LeFors write in his autobiography , allot toCowboys & Indians Magazine . “ I live those Cheyenne politicians were for politics first and judge next . ”
LeFors suspected Horn due to his violent report and decided to stage a trap . He reached out to Horn , inviting him to question for a fake job in Montana .
Horn , who was reportedly inebriated during the audience , readily confessed to killing Willie Nickell .
“ Killing man is my specialty , ” he said proudly , bragging that he had shot Willie from 300 railyard away . “ It was the best barb that I ever made and the dirtiest trick I ever done . ”
But petty did Horn know , a motor inn stenographer was secretly transcribe their conversation in the next elbow room over . Horn was fleetly arrested and charged with the murder of Willie Nickell .
The Death Of Tom Horn
Public DomainTom Horn was pay heed for the murder of Willie Nickell , though some historiographer say he may have been innocent .
After his arrest , Tom Horn retracted his confession , arrogate he ’d just been “ joshing ” and that he was innocent .
Indeed , there was no corporeal evidence tying Horn to the criminal offence . In fact , during his trial , one attestator write up really placed him far from the criminal offense view .
Still , Horn was convict only on the basis of his drunken confession .
Tom Horn was hanged in Cheyenne , Wyoming , on Nov. 20 , 1903 , add his idle drive to an end . To this day , many historians have questioned whether he really committed the slaying of Willie Nickell , noting that his strong belief was based on a dubious confession .
Still , there ’s no denying that Horn had likely gotten away with several other slaying , even if he was n’t guilty of the one he was actually convict of . Today , his legacy stands as one of the Old West ’s most infamous cowpuncher . As he said before his track :
“ If I get killed now I have the atonement of knowing I have lived about 15 ordinary lives . ”
After reading about the life and crime of Tom Horn , see what animation on the American frontier was really like by perusing thesephotos of Wild West saloons . Then , determine about the end of another notorious outlaw , Billy the Kid .
