| Tom Horn Mercenary |
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| Horn was hanged using his own rope that he made while in jail on November 20, 1903, |
| After quitting his post as chief of scouts, Horn became a ranch hand and proved himself to be a great cowboy. The now broad shouldered cowboy joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1890 and used his gun with lethal effectiveness. He worked out of the agency's Denver offices, chasing bank robbers and train thieves throughout Colorado and Wyoming. It was said that he was fearless and would face any outlaw or gunman. Although he denied it Tom was said to have sent seventeen men to meet their maker before leaving the Pinkerton firm to ply his trade as a hired gunman for some of the wealthiest and most influential cattlemen in the country. Tom was even called on to perform work for the then Governor of Wyoming W. A. Richard's who owned a large ranch in the Big Horn Mountains. A prominent stockman was present during the conversation Horn had with the Governor and later stated" The governor and I were nervous, but Horn was perfectly cool as he told Richard's that he would either drive all the rustlers out of Big Horn County or take no pay other than an advance payment of 350.00 to purchase horses and gear. When the job is finished I will expect to be paid 5,000.00 for my services, because he said "When everything else fails I have a system which never does." The Governor later got cold feet and was said to have backed out of the deal, but who knows for sure. Despite wide spread knowledge of Horns death dealing activities he was highly respected. As one rancher recalled "Tom Horn had the honorable trait never to peach on accomplices or employers. He classed cattle thieves with wolves an coyotes, and looked upon himself as a benefactor of society in destroying them, killing without feeling or compunction when certain he was after a guilty man." Tom would spend several days tracking or watching a rustler, to be sure of his guilt and to learn the man's habits. Finally, using a high-powered, long-distance rifle Horn would lay ambush and kill his man with a single, well-placed bullet. Horn did not face his adversaries in a fair fight from what we know. He killed from hiding and he killed often. Rustlers, where found laying dead all over the country. Beneath each man's head Tom would place a rock to let the rancher know that he had completed his assignment and that his fee was due which was usually the sum of 500.00 depending on how dangerous his victim was. "Killing men is my specialty he once said and I think I have a corner on the market." Whether Tom cornered the market or not he did in fact kill his fair share of the rustlers. Know one knows for sure how many men Horn actually did kill but some estimates as many as a 100 or more. Tom roamed the country until 1901 when he was said to have killed Willie Nickell a 14 year old boy from ambush. The victim was the son of a small rancher who had introduced sheep to the cattlemen's grazing range. If Horn did in fact kill the boy it was probably by accident. The boy was wearing his fathers coat and was large for his age. Tom in my mind would not have shot a fourteen year old kid even as ruthless as he was, but mistook the boy for his father whom he had been hired to dispose of. Although the killing was immediately attributed to Horn because of its method, no real proof could link him to the murder so he could not be arrested. Joe Lefors, a US Deputy Marshal in Cheyenne, believed Horn was the guilty party and resolved to uncover the truth and bring Horn to justice. Lefors rode to Denver, got Horn drunk in a small saloon, and had deputies hidden where they could write down anything Horn said. Although Horn did not directly admit to the killing, he did describe it in such detail that Lefors arrested him and returned him to Cheyenne where he was later tried by a jury of 11 whites and one black, Charles Tolson, found Horn guilty on October 23, 1902, on the sixth ballot. At the end of the fifth ballot, two jurors voted for acquittal. The jury then examined all of the testimony. After re-examination, the two hold-out jurors voted guilty. Each later made statements to the effect that although they liked Horn, they had no choice but to find him guilty. He was condemned to death by hanging. The wealthy cattleman, Coble, along with Glendolene Kimmel, a schoolteacher whose father was also a cattle baron and who was Horn's sweetheart, attempted to obtain a commutation for Horn, but public resentment against the hired killer was so intense that none was forthcoming. Horn, realized that he would soon face the hangman, broke out of the Cheyenne Jail with another prisoner, Jim McCloud. They over powered Deputy Sheriff Richard Proctor, taking his gun in a hallway of the jail, but not before Proctor squeezed off four shots, wounding McCloud, in the process. McCloud ran outside and leaped on the only available horse, and rode out of town. Horn fled on foot, followed by O.M. Eldrich, a citizen. Eldrich fired several shots at Horn, one of these grazing his head. Horn struggled to work the gun he had taken from Proctor, but it was reported to be a new automatic pistol and Horn was not familiar with the safety on the gun. Eldrich and other residents caught up with Horn and knocked him to the ground where he was given a pretty good beating before Proctor arrived and stopped them. Horn was restrained and returned to his cell, and McCloud was also recaptured and taken back to the Cheyenne Jail. Horn resigned himself to his death, spending his last months writing his memoirs which contained over 222 pages and weaving a rope that was later used to hang him. The hired killer mounted the gallows in Cheyenne on Nov. 20, 1903. His sweetheart, Kimmel, and his employer John Coble stood by as witnesses. Tom Horn looked down at them and then turned to the executioner, telling him to "hurry it up. I got nothing more to say." He was promptly hanged. |
| When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Horn left the West and joined the cavalry. He served with distinction in Cuba but saw little action, being in charge of Teddy Roosevelt's pack trains. The debate still goes on today as to whether Tom Horn was Willie Nickell's killer. In 1993 the issue became so heated that descendants of Tom staged a mock trial in Cheyenne, Wyoming where Tom was found not guilty, hoping to have Tom pardoned of the guilty verdict of 1902 and his subsequent hanging. To this the Nickells in the area petitioned Wyoming Govenor Mike Sullivan pleading that Tom Horn not be pardoned. Horn was represented by the general counsel for the Union Pacific, John W. Lacey, formerly a Wyoming Supreme Court justice. Horn went into the occupation of mining in the vicinity of Tombstone, Arizona. However, he soon grew tired of the business and managed to sell his mining rights to a party from New York for $8,000. As a bronco buster Horn was paid $125.00 a month, from various ranches along the upper Chugwater. Miss Kimmell, who stuck by Horn to the end and never married. She allegedly wrote a manuscript, The True Life of Tom Horn, portraying Horn as a knight errant caught between two conflicting worlds. It was never published. Miss Kimmell died at age 70 in Los Angeles, California, on September 12, 1949. Rumor had it he slipped two small rocks under each victim's head as a sort of a trademark. A detailed search of old coroner's reports failed to substantiate the claim. |
| Tom Horn Facts |
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| In the 1880s men of wealth seeking to protect their private interest sought the help of what was called Range Detectives. Neither outlaw nor lawmen these men were hired for one thing and that was to rid the land of rustlers, small farmers and sheep herders. Most of these men were simply gunfighters turned mercenaries and would dispose of anyone for a fee. Of all these men one man who won national fame was Tom Horn. Born November 21, 1860 Tom grew up on a farm in Memphis Missouri. As a youth he loved the outdoors, but hated school and was often absent. Tom and his father did not get along very well so after a brutal beating by his father Tom at fourteen left home taking on various jobs such as a track layer, a wagon freighter, a stage driver, a night herder in the heart of Indian country in Arizona, and later a scout under Al Sieber. In 1885, Horn replaced the celebrated Al Sieber as chief of scouts in the Southwest and he was involved in the historic Geronimo campaign in 1886. It was Horn who, as chief of scouts, who tracked Geronimo and his band to the Sierra Gordo outside of Sonora, Mexico, where he alone negotiated Geronimo's surrender. Geronimo, with Horn guiding him and his tribe, crossed the border, officially surrendering, and ending the last great Indian war in America. |
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| To The Gunfighters |
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