Joe LeFors, U.S. Marshall

Prision Wagon on display at the Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum, Buffalo

This column has looked at Wyoming outlaws in the Sheridan area, Jesse James, Big Nose George Parrot, and the Sundance Kid. This is the third column about the law enforcement officers who worked to bring these men and other outlaws to justice, and who kept the peace in the wild west.

Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum, Buffalo

We have seen a story about Red Angus and Frank Canton. This week we will visit some of the history about Joe LeFors, Stock Inspector and later Deputy U.S. Marshall. He arrived in Wyoming in 1885 with a trail herd of cattle.

The first we see in the old newspapers about LeFors was this item from the The Crook County Monitor, February 12, 1896,

And this from The Peoples Voice, Buffalo Johnson County August 14, 1897 – Joe LeFors said they had a quiet round-up and gathered most of their cattle. The people down there were mistaken about our business in the country. We had no intention of doing other than gathering what cattle belonged to our outfits. On Saturday we ran against four men who pulled their guns but the sheriff straightened that matter out and we got along all right afterwards. The citizens examined their cattle after we had rounded them up. There were only three head of cattle over which we had disputes, and they did not amount to anything.

Joe Lefors was later appointed as U.S. Marshall. This from The Newcastle News-Journal, October 20, 189

In the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the outlaws are being tracked by a posse, and Cassidy sees a sheriff in a white hat, he asked Sundance who the toughest lawman is, and the Kid said, Joe LeFors, and Cassidy adds, he always wears a white hat, that’s how you know its him.

Perhaps that scene in the movie stemmed from this historic train robbery that the Wild Bunch planned and many of the gang carried out.

This account from the Saratoga Sun, September 13, 1900 gives a little background on LeFors as well. Knows The Train Robbers. Deputy U. S. Marshal, Joseph Lefors Acquainted with Men Engaged in The Last U. P. Hold Up and Also at Wilcox. Did Not Get Much in the Last Haul – Joseph Lefors, Deputy U. S Marshall, who has been in this part of the state the past week in search of parties charged with setting forest fires, is well acquainted with some of the men engaged in the Wilcox train robbery as well as some that are believed to have been engaged in the holdup at Tipton in conversation with representative of this paper Mr. Lefors said: “I think I know personally most of the men engaged in the train robbery at Wilcox and also at least three of the four engaged in the Tipton holdup. I came to Johnston County, Wyoming, from Texas when I was but a lad, along with a bunch of cattle driven from that state and I remained there for a number of years. I was riding for the company I worked for early all the time and got acquainted with all the boys engaging in that work and the most of them were pretty tough cases. Of course, I was ‘onto’ all of their crooked work and they knew it and had no great love for me, for kept my employers posted. When the country became too hot or them, they took to the Hole in-the Wall—a country of which I know every foot— and became outlaws. “In the course of time I invested my little savings in a bunch of cattle and those boys didn’t do a thing but just rob me blind — l came out with less than 40 head in the end— and I quit the country for a time.

Afterwards I was appointed brand inspector for that part of the country. Then I went to those boys and said: ‘I am going to do my duty now and if you don’t quit rustling, I will send every last one of you to the pen.”

“Some of them took me at my word, straightened up and were good friends and allies ever afterward. Some are now doing time, the rest are outlaws and are engaged in bank robbing, train robbing or anything that promises danger and booty. “When the bank of Belle Fourche robbery was committed the robbers made straight for the Hole-in the-Wall country. After satisfying myself that they were here I had a man with them all if the time -I wrote (US Marshall) Mr. Hadsell and he came up. As there was ten of them, I advised Hadsell that we could not well handle them with a less number of men, so he went back to Cheyenne to make preparations to go after them in force. In the meantime, they I had holed up in an almost inaccessible place in the-Big Horn mountains and, a very heavy snow having fallen, I wrote Mr. Hadsell not to come, as they could only be reached on snowshoes and as they had, just previous to the storm, driven in six beeves, I was sure they would stay there until spring. I kept a close watch on them, but along in May I suddenly missed them.

n May I suddenly missed them. I rode high and low but could get no trace of them. I notified the B&M road to protect themselves or they would be held up. In a few days the holdup at Wilcox took place.

“No,” he said, in response to a question, they have not gotten all of the men engaged in the Wilcox hold up. They have three – there were six of men engaged in that work – of them. One, Lonnie Currie, (his real name was Lonnie Logan) was killed in Missouri, near Kansas City, George Currie was killed in Utah, and the other one, Bob Lee, who “Who went by the name of Bob Currie, was caught in Cripple creek and is now doing time in Laramie. But there were three of whom we had no description and I think the same three were engaged in the Tipton robbery. They are the Roberts brothers and the other one I do not know.

“What did they get in the Tipton hold up? Well, now I will tell you. I rode back from the west on that same train with a man who was in that car when it was robbed, and I asked him for the truth. He said they only got $50.40 and some jewelry or trinkets. It happened that the express matter for the Oregon Short Line was in a mail sack and lying on the top of the safe. As soon as the messenger realized that the train was being held up, he caught up that sack and threw it into the express car, belonging to the O.S. L., which was the next car ahead, in among the mail sacks.

Thanks to Linda Lovato for the photo

So, the robbers missed that, and they would have gotten considerable if they had gotten it. “The robbery was well planned and very coolly carried out. After they got through, they mounted their horses and rode out seven miles where they stopped and cooked a meal. They were mounted on the very best of horses and led a pack horse. Here they threw away a frying pan and lightened up their pack considerably. Then they started south and rode straight across the sandy desert waste for seventy miles without even halting to water their horses. It was very evident that they did not fear pursuit. They were afraid of running into a posse and used every precaution to avoid running into an ambush. But they had too much advantage. They could ride at night, traveling by compass, but we could only follow during daylight. Then there came a heavy rainstorm and the sand just melted together and obliterated their tracks, and it was simply impossible to follow them. If there had come a heavy wind the result would have been the same. The route was well chosen and was through a country where there were no settlements and when we lost the trail, we were compelled to abandon the pursuit. It is likely they have gone down into Arizona.”

Joe Lefors was best known for as the lawman who obtained Tom Horn’s confession that led to his 1903 conviction for the alleged murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell, but this column will visit that next week.