%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Preston Porter, Jr. http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/preston-porter-jr <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Preston Porter, Jr.</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2022-05-18T11:00:02-06:00" title="Wednesday, May 18, 2022 - 11:00" class="datetime">Wed, 05/18/2022 - 11:00</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/preston-porter-jr" data-a2a-title="Preston Porter, Jr."><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fpreston-porter-jr&amp;title=Preston%20Porter%2C%20Jr."></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>On November 16, 1900, a white mob in <strong>Limon</strong> chained Preston Porter, Jr., a fifteen-year-old Black railroad worker, to a vertical steel rail, slung a rope around his neck, and burned him alive. Porter was accused of raping and murdering a local white girl; he had previously confessed to the crime under extreme coercion from <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> investigators, who told the young man that his father and brother would likely be lynched if he did not confess instead. No evidence directly connected Porter to the crime.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Porter’s burning occurred amid widespread <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lynching-colorado"><strong>lynching</strong></a> of Black people across the nation, especially in the South. In 1900 alone, more than 100 Black people were murdered by lynch mobs. Colorado had a relatively small Black population compared to southern states. Still, the events that led to Porter’s lynching and the fervor of the mob confirm that anti-Black racism was coursing through Colorado in 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Background</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Founded in 1888 by John Limon, a railroad construction foreman, the town of Limon had by 1900 become a minor rail hub that supported a small community of farmers and ranchers. Itinerant workers were drawn to the town’s railyards, ranches, and fields. Preston Porter, Sr., and his two sons, Arthur and Preston, Jr.—who also went by “John” to avoid confusion with his father—were part of a railroad maintenance crew laboring near Lake Station, a rail stop a couple of miles east of Limon. The Porters were temporary residents, with their permanent home in Lawrence, Kansas.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On November 8, 1900, a search party found twelve-year-old Louise Frost, the daughter of prominent local rancher R. W. Frost, dying in a ravine of beating and stab wounds. She had also apparently been raped. She had driven a horse and buggy alone that day to the post office to pick up mail, then began the three-mile return trip to her family’s ranch. Upon its return, her father found the buggy empty and organized the search party. The girl died without saying anything.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>“His Guilt Is Still in Doubt”</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The murder provoked instant outrage across Colorado. The <em>Aspen Democrat </em>called it “the most fiendish assault ever perpetrated.” The case immediately drew the attention of Denver investigators and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lincoln-county"><strong>Lincoln County</strong></a> Sheriff John Freeman. A range of suspects was considered and interrogated, many of them selected from Limon’s small nonwhite population. Eventually, authorities homed in on the Porters, who had suspiciously left town after the murder.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On November 12, after speaking with all three Porters, Freeman announced that he was “absolutely sure” that John Porter was guilty. Freeman’s primary evidence was boot tracks at the crime scene that matched a set of shoes belonging to Porter. The sheriff claimed that when he interviewed Porter, the young man struggled to answer questions and establish his whereabouts at the time of the crime. The sheriff also said a chemist had Porter’s hat and, in his words, “will prove” there was blood on it from the struggle with Frost.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Freeman’s evidence was circumstantial at best. Porter said he had not worn the shoes in question for weeks, and they did not appear to have been worn recently. Porter did have a criminal record back in Lawrence, but authorities there had also found him mentally incompetent—he had suffered a head injury as a child. The slight-framed teenager didn’t have any injuries consistent with a struggle, and the chemist found no blood on Porter’s hat. Unconvinced of the case against him, authorities in Denver refused to turn Porter over to Freeman on November 13.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="/article/denver-police-department-1859%E2%80%931933"><strong>Denver Police</strong></a> weren’t the only ones skeptical of Porter’s guilt. On November 16—the day Porter would be lynched—a headline in the <em>Collbran Oracle </em>from <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mesa-county"><strong>Mesa County</strong></a> proclaimed the evidence against Porter to be “very conflicting.” The article quoted Denver detectives pointing to the state of Louise Frost’s buggy when it returned empty; the story was that Porter had dragged Louise out of it, but the buggy was in excellent condition with no signs of a struggle. “It is my opinion,” a detective told the paper, “that [Frost] was coaxed away by some one whom she knew, and I believe the guilty party is among those who are crying the loudest for vengeance.” After quoting the detective, the reporter opined, “It would be criminal on the part of authorities to permit Porter to be placed in danger of lynching when his guilt is still in doubt.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>None of this helped the young man, who on November 14 was forced into confessing the crime during a series of intense interrogations in Denver. Still, Denver authorities refused to give him up, acknowledging that Porter may have been “driven crazy by his troubles.” But when police confirmed that Frost’s pocketbook was in a vault at the Limon depot—right where Porter said it would be—the young man was turned over to Freeman. Although he was certain “Porter will never live in Limon county more than 24 hours,” Freeman said he would deliver the young man to the Lincoln County jail in Hugo.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Lynching</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Newspapers across Colorado jumped to confirm Porter’s guilt and speculate enthusiastically about a possible lynching. On November 15, Limon-area residents met to decide how to go about the lynching. They agreed that Porter was to be hanged but that there should be “no torture” beforehand. Still in Denver, Preston Porter read the Bible in his cell as Freeman delayed his departure, hoping the mob would “cool down.” At 1:10 pm on November 16, Freeman and Porter boarded a Union Pacific train for Hugo.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The train was not supposed to stop at Limon, but a group of revolver-toting men there halted and boarded the train. Over the protests of Freeman, the men removed Porter and delivered him to a waiting crowd of more than 500 men, women, and children. When the crowd “saw the face and cowering form of the black demon,” as the<em> Aspen Daily Times</em> put it, a rage swept over them. Abandoning their plan to hang Porter, they took him to the place where Frost’s body was found, tied him to a stake, and burned him alive. As the flames neared his body, Porter begged to be shot. Of Porter’s final moments, the <em>Aspen Daily Times</em> wrote, “There was a moment of silence broken only by the hissing and crackling of the fire. Then an indefinable, hideous, awful shriek, such as will ring in the ears of the listeners for many a day.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Aftermath</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Newspaper accounts of Porter’s lynching reveled in its brutality while depicting the barbaric incident as one of orderly vengeance. One Associated Press report insisted the crowd was “orderly and deliberate” and “not like a mob.” “No official execution of any enemy to society was ever conducted with better organization,” crowed Trinidad’s <em>Chronicle-News</em>. Before the execution, Governor <strong>Charles Thomas</strong>, who had fought for the Confederacy in the <strong>Civil War</strong>, implicitly endorsed torture (“hanging was too good for Porter”); when asked his opinion after the lynching, Thomas replied, “There is one less negro in the world.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>These reports reflect a cruel indifference toward Black humanity, as the emotional trigger of Frost’s murder led many white Coloradans to ignore facts and act out their deepest prejudices.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Still, some Coloradans spoke out against Porter’s murder. On November 19, 1900, a large group met in Denver to denounce the lynching, adopting a resolution that declared in part, “no such crime can justify recourse to barbaric methods of punishment.” The group did not contest Porter’s guilt, only the manner of his punishment.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Similarly, a widely circulated column written by a “woman in the Denver News” accepted Porter’s guilt but noted that whites who committed such crimes never saw the same punishment. Meanwhile, the lynching began to attract attention and condemnation from the national press, which helped inspire attempts to bring the mob to justice.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On November 22, in an apparent response to public pressure, Governor Thomas moved to have Sheriff Freeman “arrest the members of the mob who took [Porter] from him.” In a mix of defiance and realism, Freeman refused to arrest anyone involved in the lynching, claiming that a local jury would never convict them. He blamed the lynching on Colorado’s lack of a death penalty.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Authorities never determined who actually killed Louise Frost.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the decades after the atrocity happened, historians and journalists occasionally reminded Coloradans of Porter’s lynching. Most people, however, were generally unaware of it until the second decade of the twenty-first century, when ongoing murder of Black citizens by police conjured memories of high-profile lynchings. Many recent police murders, such as the case of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elijah-mcclain"><strong>Elijah McClain</strong></a> in 2019, reflect the same assumption of Black guilt that killed Porter more than a century earlier.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 2018 the Denver City Council issued an official apology for Porter’s lynching. That year a group of some ninety Coloradans, with the support of local and national civil rights organizations, trekked to the site of Porter’s lynching and collected soil for two glass jars. One jar is slated for placement in the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. At the memorial, jars of soil from lynching sites all over the nation are displayed along with narratives of the victims. The second jar of soil is intended for display in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rekindled awareness of the incident inspired the creation of the Colorado Lynching Memorial Project. On November 21, 2020, the project unveiled a historical marker in downtown Denver memorializing Porter’s murder. There is no memorial in Limon, and even though it hosted the group that collected the soil, the Limon Heritage Museum does not mention Porter on its website or in exhibits.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/preston-porter" hreflang="en">preston porter</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jr-0" hreflang="en">jr</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/preston-porter-lynching" hreflang="en">preston porter lynching</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/preston-porter-lynched" hreflang="en">preston porter lynched</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-lynching" hreflang="en">colorado lynching</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lynching-colorado" hreflang="en">lynching in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/limon" hreflang="en">limon</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/limon-history" hreflang="en">limon history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lincoln-county" hreflang="en">lincoln county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lincoln-county-history" hreflang="en">lincoln county history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/racism-colorado" hreflang="en">racism in colorado</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradolynchingmemorial.org/about">About</a>,” Colorado Lynching Memorial, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=SDM19001120-01.2.7&amp;srpos=120&amp;e=-------en-20--101-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Louise+Frost%22-------0------">Burned at the Stake</a>,” <em>Salida Mail</em>, November 20, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=GTC19001124-01.2.13&amp;srpos=8&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22governor+thomas%22+%22preston+porter%22-------0------">Civilization of Crime</a>,” <em>Georgetown Courier</em>, November 24, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=TAD19001110.2.1&amp;srpos=3&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Crime Runs Rampant: The Most Fiendish Assault Ever Perpetrated in This State Was on the Person of Pretty Louise Frost</a>,” <em>Aspen Democrat</em>, November 10, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Equal Justice Initiative, “<a href="https://eji.org/news/historical-marker-in-denver-memorializes-racial-terror-lynching-of-15-year-old-boy/">Historical Marker in Denver Memorializes Racial Terror Lynching of 15-Year-Old Boy</a>,” November 28, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=COO19001116.2.10&amp;srpos=3&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-preston+porter----1900---0------">The Evidence in the Porter Case Is Very Conflicting</a>,” <em>Collbran Oracle</em>, November 16, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=DSL19001110-01.2.2&amp;srpos=4&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Girl Cruelly Murdered</a>,” <em>Daily Sentinel </em>(Grand Junction), November 10, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=LMR19001121-01.2.10&amp;srpos=75&amp;e=16-11-1900-30-11-1900--en-20--61-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22-------0------">Great Denver Mass-Meeting Condemns Burning of Porter</a>,” <em>Lamar Register</em>, November 21, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=THD19001118-01.2.53&amp;srpos=118&amp;e=-------en-20--101-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Louise+Frost%22-------0------">Horror over Now Repentance: Denver Proposes to Be Shocked at Limon Affair</a>,” <em>Herald Democrat</em>, November 18, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Haley Gray, “<a href="https://www.5280.com/118-years-ago-a-denver-teen-was-publicly-and-brutally-murdered/">118 Years Ago, a Denver Teen Was Publicly and Brutally Murdered</a>,” <em>5280</em>, November 16, 2018.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=ADT19001115.2.1&amp;srpos=31&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">John Porter Has Confessed</a>,” <em>Aspen Daily Times</em>, November 15, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=TDD19001113.2.1&amp;srpos=1&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22+%22lucky+for+porter%22----1900---0------\">Lucky for Porter</a>,” <em>Durango Democrat</em>, November 13, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT19001116-01.2.3&amp;srpos=53&amp;e=-------en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Mass Meeting at Limon</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, November 16, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CRN19001115-01.2.3&amp;srpos=36&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Negro May Be Taken to Hugo Tonight</a>,” <em>Chronicle-News</em>, November 15, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT19001117-01.2.3&amp;srpos=91&amp;e=-------en-20--81-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Louise+Frost%22-------0------">Not Like a Mob</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, November 17, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=ADT19001117.2.1&amp;srpos=88&amp;e=-------en-20--81-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Louise+Frost%22-------0------">Porter Burned at Stake</a>,” <em>Aspen Daily Times</em>, November 17, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CRN19001117-01.2.2&amp;srpos=92&amp;e=-------en-20--81-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Louise+Frost%22-------0------">Porter Burned at the Stake</a>,” <em>Chronicle-News</em>, November 17, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT19001116-01.2.2&amp;srpos=52&amp;e=-------en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Porter on Way to Hugo</a>,” <em>Chronicle-News</em>, November 16, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT19001116-01.2.2&amp;srpos=52&amp;e=-------en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Porter Still in Denver</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, November 16, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alan Prendergast, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/colorado-lynching-victim-preston-porter-jr-will-be-commemorated-in-limon-november-17-2018-10970108">The Murder of Preston Porter Jr. and Colorado’s Grim History of Lynchings</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, November 6, 2018.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hayley Sanchez, “<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/08/17/colorado-lynching-site-history-markers-monuments/">In An Era of Tearing Down Monuments, Colorado Lynching Sites May Gain Historical Markers</a>,” <em>CPR</em>, August 17, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=PCB19001130&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-preston+porter----1900---0------">Sheriff Freeman’s Emphatic Answer</a>,” <em>Park County Bulletin</em>, November 30, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=ADT19001112.2.1&amp;srpos=7&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Sheriff Is Sure John Porter Is the Guilty Party</a>,” <em>Aspen Daily Times</em>, November 12, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CRN19001116-01.2.3&amp;srpos=57&amp;e=-------en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Louise+Frost%22-------0------">Taken From the Train</a>,” <em>Chronicle-News</em>, November 16, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=THD19001116-01.2.2&amp;srpos=1&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22governor+thomas%22+%22preston+porter%22-------0------">They Are Ready With Rope</a>,” <em>Herald Democrat</em>, November 16, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT19001112-01.2.24&amp;srpos=1&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22they+worked+at+limon%22-------0------">They Worked at Limon</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, November 12, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=THD19001123-01.2.16&amp;srpos=7&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22governor+thomas%22+%22preston+porter%22-------0------">Thomas Indignant</a>,” <em>Herald Democrat</em>, November 23, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=TAD19001113&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">To Be Burnt at the Stake</a>,” <em>Aspen Democrat</em>, November 13, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tuskegee University, “<a href="http://archive.tuskegee.edu/repository/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Lynchings-Stats-Year-Dates-Causes.pdf">Lynchings: By Year and Race</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=DJT19001116.2.3&amp;srpos=59&amp;e=-------en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Louise+Frost%22-------0------">An Awful Death Awaits the Negro Fiend</a>,” <em>Daily Journal </em>(Telluride), November 16, 1900.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Laura Bliss, “<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-17/this-map-of-u-s-lynchings-spans-1835-to-1964">A Comprehensive Map of American Lynchings</a>,” <em>Bloomberg, </em>January 17, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.coloradolynchingmemorial.org/">Colorado Lynching Memorial Project</a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stephen J. Leonard, <em>Lynching in Colorado: 1859-1919 </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2002).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=NCP19001114.2.23&amp;srpos=20&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22louise+frost%22----1900---0------">Theory of the Limon Murder</a>,” <em>New Castle Nonpareil</em>, November 14, 1900.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 18 May 2022 17:00:02 +0000 yongli 3682 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Elijah McClain http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elijah-mcclain <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Elijah McClain</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2022-02-08T17:33:10-07:00" title="Tuesday, February 8, 2022 - 17:33" class="datetime">Tue, 02/08/2022 - 17:33</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elijah-mcclain" data-a2a-title="Elijah McClain"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Felijah-mcclain&amp;title=Elijah%20McClain"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Elijah McClain (1996–2019) was a massage therapist in <strong>Aurora</strong> who was walking down the street when approached and killed by Aurora Police and Aurora Fire Rescue officers on August 24, 2019. The death of McClain, a young Black man whom his family described as “exceedingly gentle,” was immediately protested as unnecessary. Prosecutors initially refused to charge the responding officers, but the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 renewed local calls for justice for McClain.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following intervention by the state and immense public pressure, in September 2021, the three police officers and two paramedics involved in McClain’s death were charged with manslaughter. McClain’s death and later events surrounding the case made national news and put a spotlight on the Aurora Police Department, whose violent and racially biased practices were later highlighted by a Colorado Department of Law investigation. The investigation was the first to occur under the state’s Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity law, passed in the wake of the <strong>Floyd protests</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Elijah McClain was born in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>’s <strong>Park Hill</strong> neighborhood and had five brothers and sisters. His mother, Sheneen McClain, moved the family from Park Hill to Aurora to get away from gang violence. As a teenager, McClain played the guitar and violin. He also cared a lot about animals, playing music for them at local shelters and becoming a vegetarian. His friends recalled him as an “oddball” who was kind and passionate about life. McClain found his calling in massage therapy by the time he was in his twenties. A fellow massage therapist who became his friend said that McClain “was never into, like, fitting in. He just was who he was.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Death</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>On the night of August 24, 2019, McClain left a gas station on East Colfax Avenue and began walking home to his nearby apartment, which he shared with his cousin. Having received a 911 call about a “suspicious person,” Aurora Police officers approached the twenty-three-year-old. The caller said nobody was in danger; McClain was dancing to music and wearing a ski mask but had no weapon. Officers Nathan Woodyard, Jason Rosenblatt, and Randy Roedema aggressively contacted and restrained McClain for about fifteen minutes. They put him in a chokehold and continued to manhandle him after he was handcuffed. The officers claimed he was resisting arrest, but an audio recording revealed the young man was struggling to breathe (the officers’ body cameras had fallen off during the incident).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>At that point, Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec, paramedics with Aurora Fire Rescue, arrived and injected McClain with a 500-milligram dose of the sedative ketamine—more than one and a half times the appropriate dose for his weight. The drug sent the young man into cardiac arrest. McClain was hospitalized for days until he was taken off life support and died from the altercation on August 30, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Initial Response</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Aurora Police Department did not release audio or video from the McClain incident until October 2019. The department report claimed that the young man “began to resist the officer contact and a struggle then ensued” before he was administered ketamine and taken into custody. On November 8, 2019, the coroner for <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/adams-county"><strong>Adams</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/city-county-broomfield"><strong>Broomfield</strong></a> Counties announced the cause of McClain’s death to be “undetermined.” On November 22, the district attorney for Adams and Broomfield Counties announced that the officers in the McClain case would not be charged, prompting outrage from the family and supporters.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Lawsuit and Later Investigations</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>McClain’s case received renewed attention after the massive protests in response to George Floyd’s death in the spring of 2020. More than 800,000 people signed an online petition for justice for McClain in just two days. On June 25, Governor <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jared-polis"><strong>Jared Polis</strong></a> announced a state investigation into the McClain incident. Two days later, hundreds in the Aurora community gathered for a violin vigil to celebrate McClain’s life and call for justice. Interstate 225 was briefly shut down as demonstrators blocked the highway. Later, Aurora Police descended upon the violin vigil in full riot gear, breaking up the peaceful demonstration with pepper spray and baton prods. National and even international press condemned the response, but the Aurora Police Department defended its use of force.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In August 2020, McClain’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Aurora and the officers involved in his death. Theirs was not the first lawsuit to allege misconduct and racial bias by the Aurora Police; the city had already shelled out some $4.6 million to cover previous settlements. The McClain lawsuit compiled a range of disturbing details, including the entire audio transcript of McClain pleading with officers to let him breathe and documented evidence of the Aurora Police’s alleged abuse of people of color.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In February 2021, three Aurora Police officers—Erica Marrero, Jaron Jones, and Kyle Dittrich—were found to have taken mocking photos of themselves in front of a memorial dedicated to McClain, reenacting the chokehold used on the young man before his death. The officers were fired, and the incident served as a scathing reminder to the community of how trivial McClain’s death was to the Aurora Police.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charges</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In September 2021, after a grand jury investigation, state Attorney General Phil Weiser announced manslaughter charges for the three police officers and two paramedics involved in McClain’s death. That same month, Weiser’s office released the findings of its broader investigation into the Aurora Police Department—an investigation made possible by Colorado’s new <strong>police reform law</strong> passed after the Floyd protests. The report concluded the Aurora Police “culture leads to the frequent use of force, often in excess,” that the department “does not meaningfully review officers’ use of force,” and that Aurora Fire Rescue “had a pattern and practice of using ketamine in violation of the law.” The Aurora Police Department is cooperating with the state’s recommendations in the report. On November 18, 2021, the city of Aurora settled with the McClain family for $15 million.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elijah-mcclain" hreflang="en">elijah mcclain</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elijah-mcclain-story" hreflang="en">elijah mcclain story</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elijah-mcclain-police" hreflang="en">elijah mcclain police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/aurora-police-department" hreflang="en">aurora police department</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/aurora" hreflang="en">aurora</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/racism" hreflang="en">racism</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/racism-colorado" hreflang="en">racism in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/police-brutality" hreflang="en">police brutality</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Attorney General of the State of Colorado, “<a href="https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/3d/15/0226fdd94a12b23ae6dfdc72389e/pattern-and-pracice-investigation-report-aurora.pdf">Investigation of the Aurora Police Department and Aurora Fire Rescue</a>,” September 15, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Blair Miller, “<a href="https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/aurora-police-violate-laws-use-excessive-force-and-racially-biased-practices-according-to-state-report">Aurora Police Violate Laws, Use Excessive Force and Racially Biased Practices, According to State Report</a>,” <em>Denver Channel</em>, September 15, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1033289263/elijah-mcclain-death-officers-paramedics-charged">Officers and Paramedics Are Charged in Elijah McClain’s 2019 Death in Colorado</a>,” <em>NPR </em>via <em>Associated Press</em>, September 1, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Noelle Phillips and Elise Schmelzer, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2021/09/01/elijah-mcclain-grand-jury-aurora-police/">Elijah McClain Case: Grand Jury Indicts Police, Paramedics in Death</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, September 1, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/7/1/police-chief-defends-crackdown-at-elijah-mcclain-violin-vigil">Police Chief Defends Crackdown at Elijah McClain Violin Vigil</a>,” <em>Al Jazeera</em>, July 1, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Michael Roberts, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/elijah-mcclain-two-year-death-anniversary-aurora-injustice-update-12189609">Aurora’s Pathetic Performance in Two Years Since Elijah McClain Death</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, August 30, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Michael Roberts, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/claim-alberto-torres-one-of-at-least-13-people-of-color-abused-by-aurora-cops-since-2003-11026378">Claim: At Least 13 People of Color Abused by Aurora Cops Since 2003</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, January 23, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Michael Roberts, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/elijah-mcclain-police-related-death-to-be-reviewed-by-colorado-governor-11732615">Elijah McClain Update: Polis Asks AG to Investigate Police-Related Death</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, June 25, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Michael Roberts, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/no-criminal-charges-in-elijah-mcclain-aurora-police-death-update-11555397">Lawyer on Elijah McClain: It’s a Capital Crime in Aurora to Be Black, Act Weird</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, November 25, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Michael Roberts, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/denver-and-aurora-protests-update-statue-arson-and-elijah-mcclain-violin-rally-pepper-sprayed-11734765">Protests Update: Statue Fire Arrests, Elijah McClain Violin Rally Sprayed</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, June 29, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elise Schmelzer, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2021/11/18/elijah-mcclain-aurora-settlement/">Aurora Agrees to Pay $15 million to Elijah McClain’s Parents to Settle Lawsuit Over 2019 Death</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, November 18, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elise Schmelzer, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2021/02/09/elijah-mcclain-aurora-police-fired-appeals/">Aurora Police Officers Fired for Photos Taken at Elijah McClain Memorial Site Lose Appeals to Rejoin Department</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, February 9, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elise Schmelzer, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/11/elijah-mcclain-lawsuit-aurora-colorado-police/">Elijah McClain’s Family Sues Aurora Officers, Paramedics Involved in His Death</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, August 11, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Grant Stringer, “<a href="https://sentinelcolorado.com/metro/unlikely-suspect-those-who-knew-elijah-balk-at-aurora-police-account-of-his-death/">Unlikely Suspect: Those Who Knew Elijah Balk at Aurora Police Account of His Death</a>,” <em>Aurora Sentinel</em>, October 27, 2019.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Patty Nieberg, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/08/22/elijah-mcclain-ketamine-police-arrests/">Elijah McClain Case Leads to Scrutiny of Ketamine’s Use During Arrests</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em> via <em>Associated Press</em>, August 22, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>DJ Summers, “<a href="https://kdvr.com/news/colorado-has-some-of-nations-highest-police-shooting-numbers/">Colorado Has Some of Nation’s Highest Police Shooting Numbers</a>,” FOX 31 Denver, May 18, 2021.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 09 Feb 2022 00:33:10 +0000 yongli 3660 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org The Denver Police Department, 1859–1933 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-police-department-1859-1933 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Denver Police Department, 1859–1933</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-01-25T15:34:17-07:00" title="Monday, January 25, 2021 - 15:34" class="datetime">Mon, 01/25/2021 - 15:34</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-police-department-1859-1933" data-a2a-title="The Denver Police Department, 1859–1933"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fdenver-police-department-1859-1933&amp;title=The%20Denver%20Police%20Department%2C%201859%E2%80%931933"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Denver Police Department was formed in 1859 to bring order to a rowdy, dusty mining camp. The department grew up with the city and with broader trends in American policing. Denver Police spent most of the late nineteenth century focused on drunks, gamblers, thieves, and prostitutes. Later, a more professionalized police force developed during the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/progressive-era-colorado"><strong>Progressive Era</strong></a> (1900–20), and the increase in police power during <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/prohibition"><strong>alcohol prohibition</strong></a> (1916–33) formed the basis for a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-police-department-1933"><strong>modern Denver Police Department</strong></a> that increasingly functioned as an apparatus of social control as well as capturing criminals.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins of American Policing</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Boston formed the nation’s first public police department in 1838. Between then and Denver’s founding in 1858, many American cities developed public police forces distinct from the night watches or constable systems that preceded them. In the north, the need for public police grew with industrializing cities and was especially influenced by perceptions of new immigrant populations, including the Irish and Germans. In the south, police departments had their origins in slave patrols that dated back to the early eighteenth century. In both regions, the formation of police stemmed more from a need to control populations that elites saw as disorderly than from a need to control crime in general.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Controlling Rowdy Denver</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In this context, public police were seen as a necessity for maintaining order in towns that sprang up in freshly colonized Western territories. During the chaotic <a href="https://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> of 1858–59, thousands of white immigrants streamed into the area that became <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>. Saloons, brothels, and gambling dens riddled the fledgling city; brawls and shootouts were common, and gamblers won and lost entire blocks of the early town in card games. As in many of the earliest white settlements in the West, vigilantes and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lynching-colorado"><strong>lynch mobs</strong></a> carried out “frontier justice” before the arrival of governments, police, and courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>When Denver was chartered in 1859, its first leaders sought to get a handle on the rough-and-tumble settlement. They commissioned Wilson E. “Bill” Sisty as a marshal—the city’s first law enforcement officer—for the joint settlements of Denver, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/auraria-west-denver"><strong>Auraria</strong></a>, and Highland. One of Sisty’s first jobs was to punish Denver’s first official murderer, John Stoeffel, who had shot his brother-in-law over a bag of gold dust (such crimes were common in early Denver). Sisty carried out Stoeffel’s sentence—death by hanging. After five months on the job, Sisty abruptly resigned for reasons unknown.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>1860s–70s: A “well regulated and judicious police system”</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>While the marshals did Denver’s first police work, the new city’s charter gave the city council power “to establish, regulate and support night-watch and police, and define the powers and duties of the same.” In January 1860, inaugural mayor <strong>J. C. Moore</strong> directed the new city council to establish a “well regulated and judicious police system.” That year, P. P. Wilcox was elected the city’s first police magistrate, a role similar to today’s police chief. In 1862 the city hired George E. Thornton as its first police chief, and the force got its trademark star badges two years later.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The first Denver Police headquarters was on Market Street near Fifteenth Street, a location chosen on account of its proximity to many brothels, gambling dens, and other common sites of criminal activity. In its early years, the Denver Police were largely concerned with thieves, drunks, street violence, and prostitutes (the city passed prostitution ordinances in the 1860s and 1870s, stepped up its red-light enforcement in the 1880s, and eventually banned the sex trade outright in 1913).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1873 Denver remodeled its police department along the lines of New York City’s, giving its officers standard badges and uniforms. By 1874 the department had thirteen officers, all of whom were listed in the <em>Denver Daily Times</em>. Operating out of a new headquarters at 1517 Lawrence Street, the force was split between day and night shifts.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>1880s: Standardization and Growth</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado joined the Union in 1876, and the state’s reinvigorated mining industry made Denver into a booming city during the 1880s. By 1881 the police department had grown to “fifteen regulars and eleven specials,” in addition to the chief and a sergeant, patrolling a city of more than 35,000. This included the city’s first black police officer, <strong>Isaac Brown</strong>, hired in April 1880. The department was now operating more like its contemporaries across the nation, conducting investigations, raiding brothels and opium dens (its first racially targeted anti-vice activity), and making thousands of arrests per year. On May 5, 1881, the police department held its first annual ball, a popular and much-anticipated event in many cities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>While they often harassed the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver%E2%80%99s-chinatown"><strong>Chinese community</strong></a> for its opium use, the Denver Police were instrumental in protecting Chinese from <strong>a white riot</strong> on October 31, 1880. Riding a wave of anti-Chinese <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/populism-colorado"><strong>populism</strong></a> that swept the West at the time, a huge mob of white Denverites descended on Chinatown, burning buildings, smashing goods and property, and beating up Chinese citizens, including one who died from his wounds. That day, Mayor <strong>Richard Sopris</strong> made an emergency appointment of <strong>Dave Cook</strong>, the city marshal, as Denver Police chief. Cook’s officers, along with hundreds of emergency-deputized citizens, eventually drove the white mob out of Chinatown.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The next year, one of the earliest accusations of brutality against the department came in an anonymous letter to the <em>Great West </em>newspaper. Denver officer Jim Connors allegedly “jerked” local farmer John Wolff out of his wagon, “pounded him on the ground, took his valuables,” and then “broke Wolff’s nose with his club”—all because Wolff apparently “did not start his team from a watering place quite quick enough.” Wolff was later released and had his valuables returned, but the letter opined that “the policeman deserves to be made to pay a heavy fine, and to serve a term in prison.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1886, with the city’s population fast approaching 100,000, the Denver Police started using patrol wagons for multiple suspects and installed a system of call boxes so officers could be more quickly dispatched across the city. As raids on brothels increased during the decade, the department hired its first matron, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sadie-likens"><strong>Sadie Likens</strong></a>, in 1888 to look after female prisoners.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>1900–20: Corruption, Consolidation, and Crackdowns</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Denver Police became known for violence and corruption under chief Michael A. Delaney, who held the post in 1894–95 and 1904–08. The local <em>News Free Press </em>labeled the chief an “official anarchist” who had not only “assaulted scores of prisoners” but also “used his power to extort graft” from criminals and “played favorites” in enforcing the law. In 1905 it was discovered that Delaney, a Democrat, had played a major role in a voter fraud scheme to benefit the Democratic Party in the previous year’s election. Nevertheless, Delaney remained chief, but later resigned in 1908 amid public pressure from his broad-daylight beating of a man who turned out to be innocent. Delaney was eventually indicted for taking money from “red light denizens” while serving as police chief.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The department looked ahead to brighter days in 1909, when it celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Delaney’s disastrous tenure even prompted some calls for reform. In June 1912, investigative journalist <strong>George Creel</strong> was appointed as Denver police commissioner and sought to end the force’s use of billy clubs. Yet most residents worried more about disorder than police violence, so Creel’s proposal was never enacted.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1910s, the Denver Police force had grown to more than 200 officers and became more organized with the administrative reforms of the Progressive Era. Formal police training began during this era, stemming from August Vollmer’s pioneer 1908 training program in Berkeley, California. An Army veteran-turned-cop, Vollmer was one of many reformers who believed the police should function more like a military unit to achieve better discipline and maximum efficiency. Overall, police departments during this period adopted their now-familiar rank hierarchy (with associated pay grades) as well as mounted patrols.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The 1910s also saw the Denver Police grappling with labor disturbances and the increased popularity and danger of the automobile. During the <a href="/article/western-federation-miners"><strong>Western Federation of Miners</strong></a> strike against the <strong>American Smelting and Refining Company</strong> in 1903, dozens of Denver officers were called in to protect company property, with one sustaining an eye injury. Later, in the wake of a violent <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-tramway-strike-1920"><strong>Tramway Strike</strong></a> in 1920—during which the state militia was called to assist the city police—the department added 100 more officers. Meanwhile, the department’s first traffic division was formed in 1910; it consisted of the largest officers on the force so they would be easily seen in traffic.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>1920s: Ku Klux Cops</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan experienced a national revival amid broad anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiments, and new populations of southern blacks in northern (and western) cities due to the <strong>Great Migration</strong>. In Colorado, noted Klan members included Governor <strong>Clarence J. Morley</strong>, Denver mayor <strong>Benjamin F. Stapleton</strong>, and nearly two dozen Denver Police officers, including chief William Candlish.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>A former state senator from <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/leadville"><strong>Leadville</strong></a>, Candlish was appointed by Stapleton in 1924 and quickly turned the department against the city’s growing population of immigrants and ethnic minorities. In October, for instance, he issued an order to “oust all white girls from establishments of any kind owned and operated by Greeks, Japanese and Chinese within the city.” Despite such xenophobic policies, the Klan’s power at this time stemmed from institutional influence and intimidation more than outright violence. Its power in Colorado was also short lived. In June 1925, Colorado Klan leader John Galen Locke was arrested for tax evasion, and the group began a steady decline nationwide. Forced to renounce his Klan ties, Mayor Stapleton fired Candlish.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition and Effects on Policing</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Meanwhile, much of the Denver Police’s day-to-day operations were consumed by the enforcement of prohibition. Owing to the heavy demands of policing a widespread black market in booze, Denver added hundreds of new officers, including its first accredited female officer, <strong>Edith Barker</strong>. To assist police efforts, lawmakers in Colorado (and elsewhere) essentially gave police free reign, resulting in a sharp increase in excessive force incidents, brutal interrogations, and warrantless searches and wiretaps.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>However, the increase in police power during this time did not translate into a decrease in criminal activity, especially in black-market liquor. Instead, bootleggers became more sophisticated, deadlier, and wealthier. Heavily armed mobsters, such as associates of the <strong>Smaldones</strong> and the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/carlino-brothers"><strong>Carlino Brothers</strong></a>, shot at each other and the police in broad daylight, or led police on deadly automobile chases. This led to a kind of arms race between major bootleggers and the police; for instance, the Denver Police began using armored cars with mounted machine guns at this time, foreshadowing the continued militarization of police throughout the twentieth century. Meanwhile, criminal wealth led to police corruption, as dozens of officers took bribes to look away from illegal liquor activity.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Although prohibition ended in 1933, the Denver Police Department did not downsize, but rather settled into its newly expanded power. Unfortunately, corruption and abuse—two huge hangovers from prohibition—continued to plague the Denver Police throughout the twentieth century and to the present, even as the department continued its work to improve public safety in the city.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-police" hreflang="en">denver police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/history-denver-police" hreflang="en">history of denver police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-police-history" hreflang="en">denver police history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-police-history" hreflang="en">colorado police history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/saloons" hreflang="en">saloons</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/brothels" hreflang="en">brothels</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/red-light-district" hreflang="en">red light district</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/early-denver-history" hreflang="en">early denver history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/police-brutality" hreflang="en">police brutality</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>William G. Bailey, “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Historical_Dictionary_of_Law_Enforcement/wIf5w6BJOmQC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=%22denver+police%22&amp;pg=PA91&amp;printsec=frontcover">Denver Police Department</a>,” in <em>The Encyclopedia of Police Science</em>, ed. William G. Bailey, 1995.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT18760803.2.66&amp;srpos=24&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22denver+police%22-------0--">City and Vicinity</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, August 3, 1876.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=THD19120818-01.2.40&amp;srpos=27&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22Denver+police%22+%22brutality%22-------0--">A Clubless Police Force</a>,” <em>Herald Democrat</em>, August 18, 1912.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=LWH18810507-01.2.28&amp;srpos=49&amp;e=-------en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22denver+police%22-------0--">Colorado Condensations</a>,” <em>Weekly Herald</em>, May 7, 1881.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=NFP19080522-01&amp;e=--1900---1960--en-20--61-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22delaney%22+%22denver+police%22-------0--">Delaney a Practical Anarchist</a>,” <em>News Free Press</em>, May 22, 1908.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=TRJ19080508.2.110&amp;srpos=57&amp;e=--1900---1960--en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22delaney%22+%22denver+police%22-------0--">Denver Police Chief Resigns</a>,” <em>Record Journal </em>(Douglas County), May 8, 1908.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=DMF19091225-01.2.17&amp;srpos=64&amp;e=--1900---1960--en-20--61-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22delaney%22+%22denver+police%22-------0--">Denver’s Police System Is 50 Years Old This Week</a>,” <em>Denver Municipal Facts</em>, December 25, 1909.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=TTJ19120905.2.50&amp;srpos=66&amp;e=--1900---1960--en-20--61-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22delaney%22+%22denver+police%22-------0--">Former Denver Police Chief Indicted by Grand Jury</a>,” <em>Telluride Journal</em>, September 5, 1912.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Julian Go, “<a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/708464">The Imperial Origins of American Policing: Militarization and Imperial Feedback in the Early 20th Century</a>,” <em>American Journal of Sociology</em> 125, no. 5 (2020).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=THD19050305-01.2.4&amp;srpos=14&amp;e=--1900---1960--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22delaney%22+%22denver+police%22-------0--">He Scores ‘Big Mitt:’ Waldron’s Close and Careful Analysis of Denver’s Political Corruption</a>,” <em>Herald Democrat</em>, March 5, 1905.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://denverpolicemuseum.org/history/history-facts/">History and Facts</a>,” Denver Police Museum, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=RMW18591214.2.2&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22charter%22+%22auraria%22-------0--">Laws of the Provisional Government of the Territory of Jefferson: An Act to Charter and Consolidate the Towns of Denver, Auraria, and Highland</a>,” <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, December 14, 1859.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Shawn Lay, ed., <em>The Invisible Empire in the West: Toward a New Historical Appraisal of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s</em> (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jan MacKell, <em>Red Light Women of the Rocky Mountains</em> (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=RMW18600125.2.13&amp;srpos=8&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22police%22-------0--">Mayor’s Message</a>,” <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, January 25, 1860.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Leonard Moore, “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/police-brutality-in-the-United-States-2064580">Police Brutality in the United States</a>,” <em>Encyclopedia Britannica</em>, updated June 4, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CLM18810129-01.2.15&amp;srpos=37&amp;e=-------en-20--21-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22denver+police%22-------0--">Ollapodrida</a>,” <em>Colorado Miner</em>, January 29, 1881.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=GTW18810626-01.2.5&amp;srpos=54&amp;e=-------en-20--41-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22denver+police%22-------0--">An Outrage</a>,” <em>Great West</em>, June 26, 1881.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Dr. Gary Potter, “<a href="https://ekuonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf">The History of Policing in the United States</a>,” Eastern Kentucky University, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Byron Reed, “<a href="https://www.9news.com/article/news/the-denver-police-department-has-a-history-of-hiring-black-officers-dating-back-to-the-late-1800s/73-4edde5e6-840a-491a-8061-358d27eab2b5">Denver Police Department Has a History of Hiring Black Officers Dating Back to the Late 1800s</a>,” 9News, February 11, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ted Richthofen, <a href="http://digital.auraria.edu/IR00000098/00001"><em>A People’s History of Alcohol Prohibition in Colorado: Labor, Class, Gender, and Moral Reform 1916–1933</em></a>, undergraduate thesis, Metropolitan State University, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=LMR19050125-01.2.11&amp;srpos=3&amp;e=--1900---1960--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22delaney%22+%22denver+police%22-------0--">The Assembly and the Denver Frauds</a>,” <em>Lamar Register</em>, January 25, 1905.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=ADT19250609.2.16&amp;srpos=86&amp;e=--1920---1930--en-20--81-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22john+galen+locke%22-------0--">The Grand Dragon Under Arrest</a>,” <em>Aspen Daily Times</em>, June 9, 1925.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=DTM18740305.2.130&amp;srpos=13&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22denver+police%22-------0--">The Police</a>,” <em>Denver Daily Times</em>, March 5, 1874.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cheryl Siebert Waite, <a href="http://digital.auraria.edu/AA00002143/00001"><em>Denver’s Disorderly Women: Prostitution and the Sex Trade, 1858 to 1935</em></a>, master’s thesis, University of Colorado–Denver, 2006.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James Walsh, “Vagrancy Laws in Colorado History,” <em>Colorado Heritage</em>, March/April 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Robert Weller, “<a href="https://apnews.com/2cbb976bd9417e46018fbe4fe2b39fde">Scandals Spotlight Denver Police</a>,” <em>Associated Press</em>, March 24, 2000.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=ADT19241002&amp;e=--1920---1930--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22candlish%22-------0--">Why Not Throw Out the Greeks and Chinamen?</a>” <em>Aspen Daily Times, </em>October 2, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=RPA19240313-01.2.95&amp;srpos=11&amp;e=--1920---1930--en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22candlish%22-------0--">William Candlish Will Be New Chief Of Police in Denver</a>,” <em>Republican-Advocate</em>, March 13, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Carroll D. Wright, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li3h4y&amp;view=1up&amp;seq=23&amp;q1=Denver"><em>Labor Disturbances in the State of Colorado, from 1880 to 1904</em></a> (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1905).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a id="_Hlk48830448" name="_Hlk48830448"></a><a href="https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Departments/Police-Department">Denver Police Department</a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Denver Police Department, “<a href="https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/720/documents/DPD_Decade_of_Achievement.pdf">Denver Police Department, 2002–2010: A Decade of Achievement</a>,” 2010.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a id="_Hlk48830453" name="_Hlk48830453"></a><a href="https://denverpolicemuseum.org/">Denver Police Museum</a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Marjorie Hornbein, “Three Governors in a Day,” in <em>Western Voices: 125 Years of Colorado Writing</em>, ed. Steve Grinstead and Ben Fogelberg (Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lisa McGirr, <em>The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State</em> (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Melinda Pearson, “<a href="https://frontporchne.com/article/who-was-ben-stapleton/">Who Was Ben Stapleton?</a>” <em>Front Porch </em>(Denver), October 1, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Eugene Frank Rider, <em>The Denver Police Department: An Administrative, Organizational, and Operational History, 1858–1905</em> (Denver: University of Denver, 1977).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 25 Jan 2021 22:34:17 +0000 yongli 3490 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org The Denver Police Department since 1933 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-police-department-1933 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Denver Police Department since 1933</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-01-25T14:39:18-07:00" title="Monday, January 25, 2021 - 14:39" class="datetime">Mon, 01/25/2021 - 14:39</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-police-department-1933" data-a2a-title="The Denver Police Department since 1933"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fdenver-police-department-1933&amp;title=The%20Denver%20Police%20Department%20since%201933"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Denver Police Department is the primary law enforcement apparatus for the city of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>. Officially formed in 1859 as a small group of marshals, today’s Denver Police Department consists of more than 1,500 officers in sixteen units active in a metropolitan community of more than 620,000 residents. Its headquarters is located at 1331 N. Cherokee Street. As of 2020, Paul Pazen serves as chief.</p><p>In its <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-police-department-1859%E2%80%931933"><strong>early days</strong></a>, the Denver Police Department focused on bringing order to a fledgling city filled with drunks and prostitutes. In the early twentieth century, Denver’s explosive growth and changing demographics produced a gradual shift in police activity, from general maintenance of order to more targeted policing of specific groups and activities. The department grew in size and power during both the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/progressive-era-colorado"><strong>Progressive Era</strong></a> (1900–20) and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/prohibition"><strong>alcohol prohibition</strong></a> (1916–33). These years established the Denver Police—as well as American police more generally—as predominantly a force for social and cultural control, in addition to capturing criminals.</p><p>Since then, the Denver Police has provided justice for many victims, offered many residents a sense of security, and had innumerable positive encounters with citizens. However, the department today continues to grapple with many of the problems of its past, especially the erosion of community trust stemming from continuous instances of police-citizen violence and discriminatory practices. These have continued despite ongoing efforts at reform, from both within and outside the department.</p><h2>Prohibition Hangovers</h2><p>Before alcohol prohibition, police corruption and abuse of power occurred infrequently and on a much smaller scale than they did during and after. During prohibition, the massive scale of illegal booze activity necessitated an equally massive beefing-up of law enforcement. To drive the vice of drink from the land, lawmakers in Colorado and elsewhere essentially gave police free reign, resulting in a sharp increase in abuses. Corruption also increased during prohibition, as wealthy criminals paid dozens of officers to look away from their illegal liquor activities.</p><p>Although prohibition ended in 1933, the large police forces created to enforce it remained, and the abuses and corruption that became rampant in an era of expanding police power continued. Unfortunately, these hangovers from prohibition continued to plague the Denver Police Department throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.</p><h2>New Station, New City</h2><p>In 1939 the Denver Police moved to a new headquarters, a three-story Art Deco building at Thirteenth and Champa Streets. The building was built by the federal Works Progress Administration during the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/new-deal-colorado"><strong>New Deal</strong></a>. The new police station was not the only new thing about Denver at the time. The <strong>Great Depression</strong> had brought an end to the mining economy that had previously driven the city’s growth. In its place, Denver developed a multifaceted economy based largely on agriculture and manufacturing, with <a href="/content/great-western-sugar-company"><strong>Great Western Sugar</strong></a><strong> </strong>and <strong>Gates Rubber </strong>among the city’s leading businesses.</p><p>Into this new economy came new people. More African Americans arrived from the South, turning the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/five-points"><strong>Five Points</strong></a> neighborhood into a thriving Black community. Latino came from Mexico or other parts of the United States to work jobs in factories or sugar beet fields; they formed communities along the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/south-platte-river"><strong>South Platte River</strong></a>, near today’s Lower<strong> Downtown Denver</strong>. The percentage of Denver’s population born in Mexico increased from .3 percent in 1910 (about 275 individuals) to 3.9 percent by 1940 (about 950 individuals)—not including those of Mexican descent who came from other states. Altogether, Denver’s population surged from just over 133,000 in 1900 to more than 320,000 by 1940. The growth of the city’s nonwhite working class would continue over the ensuing decades, prompting a shift in police activity that was largely driven by laws and perceptions crafted by Denver’s elite.</p><h2>Postwar Policing</h2><p>In the 1940s, Latino residents faced blatant discrimination in housing, employment, and policing. The city used the formation of Latino gangs as an excuse to pass broad vagrancy laws that criminalized all young Latino people. For instance, young people were banned from congregating outside pool halls and other popular places, which gave officers cover for excessively policing young Latino groups. Between 1945 and 1954, Latino residents represented 31 percent of those arrested for vagrancy, even though they made up only 10 percent of the city’s population.</p><p>This racialized policing continued over the next few decades and ultimately sowed resentment and distrust toward the police in many Denver communities.</p><h2>1960s–70s: Years of Unrest</h2><p>Trust in the Denver Police was further undermined in 1961, when detective Arthur “Art” Dill uncovered a ring of thieves within the department. Overall, fifty-four officers were arrested for a string of burglaries from 1954 to 1962. The saga was detailed by one of the officers, Art Winstanley, in his 2009 autobiography, <em>Burglars in Blue</em>.</p><p>Statistics do not tell a complete story of crime, but FBI data indicate a sharp rise in violent crime in Colorado in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This period also saw frequent peaceful demonstrations for civil rights, as well as many urban protests against systemic poverty in communities of color. George L. Seaton, Denver’s Police Chief from 1968 to 1972, remembered the 1960s as a time of “social catharsis” brought on by decades of inequality—“and in the middle of that ‘catharsis,’” Seaton wrote, “was the American policeman who dealt with . . . the violence, hatred, frustration, rage of American citizens too long denied the American Dream.”</p><p>Seaton led a department in a city that was 11 percent Black and 25 percent nonwhite, but where only 2 percent of police were Black and 1.6 percent were Latino. Art Dill, who succeeded Seaton as chief in 1972, tried to rectify that, bringing those percentages up to 6 and 13, respectively, by the time he retired in 1983. It did not help, however, that Dill inherited a department that according to two police historians, held “ass kicking” as a “hallowed tradition, especially with respect to minorities.” In predominantly Black communities such as <strong>Park Hill</strong>, for example, a 1967 police-community relations program instructed Black youth to cooperate with all police search requests of vehicles—an unnecessary level of compliance never expected of the city’s white youth.</p><p>Against this backdrop of rising crime, national unrest, and local distrust, the 1960s and 1970s were a period of intense mutual hostility between the Denver Police and the communities where it was most active. The police especially antagonized—and were antagonized by—members of the Crusade for Justice, a Chicano (Mexican American) activist group formed by <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rodolfo-"><strong>Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales</strong></a> in 1966, and the <strong>Denver Black Panther Party</strong> (BPP), a militant Black rights group formed by <strong>Lauren Watson</strong> in 1967. The organizations formed to resist the discrimination endured by communities of color in housing, education, employment, and especially policing. Throughout the heated street encounters of these decades, members of both groups often used or threatened violence against the police as well. In March 1973, for instance, a street confrontation between Crusade for Justice members and Denver Police escalated <strong>into a shootout</strong> that seriously wounded several officers and killed twenty-year-old Luis Martinez.</p><p>In addition to overpolicing racial minorities, the police were also active in the culture wars of the times. The mostly conservative Denver Police and city officials made no secret of their general disdain for a younger generation that embraced far different norms of dress and behavior and was constantly agitating for civil rights and protesting the Vietnam War. This led the police to profile and target young people—predominantly young, college-aged whites—as “hippies.” For example, in 1970 officers attempted raids on a music venue and health clinic popular among young people, with Chief Seaton telling <em>The Denver Post</em> that “hippie pads” were home to “nothing but degeneration.”</p><p>The department policed other cultural lines as well. Veteran gay rights activists recall the Denver Police tricking gay men into admitting homosexual activity, then arresting them for it. As they did in earlier arrests of Latino youth, the police used a city ordinance—the Lewd Acts Ordinance, which criminalized homosexuality—to expedite the arrests of LGBT individuals. Activists got the ordinance repealed in 1973.</p><h2>1980s–2000s: Spy Files, Crackdowns, and Attempts at Reform</h2><p>Despite sustained community resistance and several attempts at reform, the Denver Police Department maintained its reputation for stoking community distrust into the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. From the 1950s through the 1990s, the department secretly collected information on more than 3,200 groups and individuals—most of whom were neither known nor suspected criminals. Denver Police continued targeting activists of color, including members of the <strong>American Indian Movement</strong>, on whom the department spied from 1986 to 2002 despite no evidence of criminal activity.</p><p>In 1993, after a series of violent episodes led the media to proclaim a “Summer of Violence,” the Colorado legislature passed a set of harsh sentencing laws and Denver Police established a forty-three-member “gang unit,” which worked with existing state and federal units focused on gangs. These units disproportionately targeted Latino and Black communities, where citizens repeatedly complained about a rash of unpunished police beatings, killings, and weapon brandishing; they also told researchers and interviewers that gang squads made their communities considerably less safe.</p><p>In 2000 Mayor <strong>Wellington Webb</strong> hired Gerald Whitman as police chief. An eighteen-year veteran of the department with a clean, impressive record, Whitman held the post for eleven years, making him the longest-serving chief in Denver Police history. He was given the job in part to bring change to a department that was experiencing high rates of turnover and low morale in the wake of its latest scandal, a no-knock SWAT raid at the wrong address that killed Ismael Mena, a forty-five-year-old Mexican national. One of Whitman’s first initiatives was to form a Clergy Advisory Team made up of local community leaders. He also reshuffled Denver Police leadership, created more training programs, and overhauled the department’s use-of-force policy in hopes of avoiding more unnecessary shootings.</p><p>Whitman’s reform efforts angered many longtime officers who felt that the chief was making their jobs more complicated and difficult. Part of the problem, according to one former officer, was an internal culture of violating citizens’ constitutional rights. Media reports based on internal sources referred to this set of unofficial (and potentially illegal) practices as “The Denver Way.”</p><p>Whitman’s tenure as chief was generally lauded by politicians and many citizens, even if his reforms did not stop police violence. “The Denver Way” prevailed on the street, and Denver Police continued to be plagued by use-of-force scandals. In 2011 newly elected Mayor <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/michael-hancock"><strong>Michael Hancock</strong></a> praised Whitman for his reforms but still replaced the city’s longest-serving chief with Robert C. White, another reform-minded chief whom Hancock sought to continue Whitman’s legacy.</p><h2>Today: Protests, Response, and Reform</h2><p>By the 2010s, the Denver Police were entrenched in a cycle common to police departments in other US metropolitan areas: the police would kill a person of color under questionable circumstances, protests and calls for justice and reform would follow, and then the cycle would go on, with or without justice or reforms. In particular, the 2015 killings of Jessica Hernandez, a teenager, and Paul Castaway, who was mentally ill, prompted fresh criticism of the department.</p><p>A year later, Denver allocated nearly $1.8 million for body cameras for its police department as a reform tool intended to provide clear evidence of either police misconduct or threats to officers. After all Denver officers were required to wear body cameras in 2017, the department reported that fifty-three officers were disciplined that year for failing to use them. Transparency issues, such as delays in release of footage or incomplete release of footage, hamstrung the efficacy of body cameras over the next few years.</p><p>In late May 2020, the graphic, highly publicized video of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, sparked a <strong>historic wave of protests</strong> against police brutality across the nation. In Denver, protesters crowded streets for nearly two weeks, demanding police accountability and reform, as well as funding cuts to the police department. At one point, Denver Police chief Paul Pazen, who replaced White in 2018, marched with peaceful protesters in a show of solidarity.</p><p>However, in the first few days of demonstrations, police and protesters engaged in several violent altercations. Police as well as protesters and bystanders were injured. The city eventually settled a lawsuit with those injured during police response, and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the department to limit its use of nonlethal weapons that had caused injury, such as tear gas and rubber bullets.</p><p>In the wake of the protests, Governor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jared-polis"><strong>Jared Polis</strong></a> signed into law a sweeping police reform bill that included a stricter body-camera mandate, struck down the state’s “fleeing felon” law (used by police to justify shooting fleeing suspects), made it easier to file lawsuits against individual officers, compelled police to report all uses of force, and allowed the state attorney general to investigate alleged patterns of abuse in police departments. The Denver Police Department has stated its support for these reforms and began implementing them in mid-2020; embattled chief Pazen has further stated his willingness to “reevaluate every single thing” at the department.</p></div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-police" hreflang="en">denver police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/history-denver-police" hreflang="en">history of denver police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/police-brutality" hreflang="en">police brutality</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/george-floyd-protests" hreflang="en">george floyd protests</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/social-justice" hreflang="en">social justice</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/activists" hreflang="en">activists</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/wellington-webb" hreflang="en">wellington webb</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/american-indian-movement" hreflang="en">american indian movement</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/crusade-justice" hreflang="en">Crusade for Justice</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/la-crusada-para-la-justicia" hreflang="en">la crusada para la justicia</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/black-panthers" hreflang="en">black panthers</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lauren-watson" hreflang="en">lauren watson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/paul-pazen" hreflang="en">paul pazen</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/michael-hancock" hreflang="en">michael hancock</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-way" hreflang="en">the denver way</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/police-reform" hreflang="en">police reform</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ismael-mena" hreflang="en">ismael mena</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jessica-hernandez" hreflang="en">jessica hernandez</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/paul-castaway" hreflang="en">paul castaway</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/gerald-whitman" hreflang="en">gerald whitman</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/george-seaton" hreflang="en">george seaton</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/burglaries" hreflang="en">burglaries</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/police-crime" hreflang="en">police crime</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p><a href="https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html">1910 US Census</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html">1940 US Census</a>.</p><p>Jake Bleiberg, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/16/police-body-cameras-transparency/">Value of Police Body Cameras Limited by Lack of Transparency</a>,” <em>Associated Press</em>, June 16, 2020.</p><p>Summer Burke, “<a href="https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&amp;context=psi_sigma_siren">Community Control: Civil Rights Resistance in the Mile High City</a>,” <em>Psi Sigma Siren</em> (University of Nevada Las Vegas) 7, no. 1 (April 2011).</p><p>Center for Policing Equity, “<a href="https://policingequity.org/about/who-we-are">About</a>,” n.d.</p><p>Center for Policing Equity, “<a href="https://policingequity.org/about/history">History</a>,” n.d.</p><p>Denver Police Foundation, “<a href="https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/720/documents/DPD_Decade_of_Achievement.pdf">Denver Police Department, 2002–2010: A Decade of Achievement</a>,” 2010.</p><p>“<a href="https://coloradosun.com/2020/06/27/denver-george-floyd-protests-settlement/">Denver Reaches Agreement in Lawsuit Over Police Response to George Floyd Protests</a>,” <em>Associated Press</em> (<em>Colorado Sun</em>), June 27, 2020.</p><p>Disaster Center, “<a href="https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/cocrime.htm">Colorado Crime Rates 1960–2018</a>,” via Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports, updated 2018.</p><p>Robert J. Durán, “Over-Inclusive Gang Enforcement and Urban Resistance: A Comparison Between Two Cities,” <em>Social Justice </em>36, no. 1, 2009.</p><p>Robert J. Durán, “Racism, Resistance, and Repression: The Creation of Denver Gangs, 1924–1950,” in <em>Enduring Legacies: Ethnic Histories and Cultures of Colorado, </em>ed. Artura J. Aldama, Elisa Facio, Daryl Maea, and Reiland Rabaka (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2010).</p><p>Jessica Fender, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2011/09/01/defenders-step-up-for-denver-police-chief-whitman-as-he-prepares-to-step-down/">Defenders Step Up for Denver Police Chief Whitman as He Prepares to Step Down</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, September 1, 2011.</p><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=WMJ19611207-01.2.26&amp;srpos=1&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22officer+sentenced%22+%22denver+police%22-------0--">Fifth Former Denver Police Officer Sentenced for Burglary in County</a>,” <em>Westminster Journal</em>, December 7, 1961.</p><p>Natasha Gardner, “<a href="https://www.5280.com/an-inside-look-at-the-denver-police-department/">An Inside Look at the Denver Police Department</a>,” <em>5280</em>, September 2015.</p><p>Natasha Gardner, “<a href="https://www.5280.com/was-1993s-summer-of-violence-really-so-violent/">Was 1993’s Summer of Violence Really So Violent?</a>” <em>5280</em>, December 6, 2011.</p><p>Liz Gelardi, “<a href="https://www.denver7.com/news/front-range/denver/denver-police-department-rolls-out-body-cameras-to-first-wave-of-officers">Denver Police Begin Wearing Body Cameras</a>,” CBS 4 Denver, January 7, 2016.</p><p>Shay Gonzales, “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/5497253/_CALM_stands_for_be_cool_man_A_Black_Citizen_s_Patrol_in_Denver">CALM Stands for ‘Be Cool, Man!’: A Black Citizen’s Patrol in Denver</a>,” Academia.edu, n.d.</p><p>Ted Robert Gurr, “<a href="https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/stable/1147382?seq=30#metadata_info_tab_contents">Historical Trends in Violent Crime: A Critical Review of the Evidence</a>,” <em>Crime and Justice</em> 3 (1981).</p><p>Jeff Haanen, “<a href="https://www.denverinstitute.org/denvers-changing-economy-1/">Denver’s Changing Economy: A Five Minute History</a>,” Denver Institute for Faith and Work, May 12, 2016.</p><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CNK19701217-01.2.61&amp;srpos=2&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22denver+police%22+%22hippies%22-------0--">Hip Help Offed</a>,” <em>Chinook</em> (Denver), December 17, 1970.</p><p>Matt Hoyer, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/24/like-other-native-americans-paul-castaway-didnt-have-to-die-like-this/">Like Other Native Americans, Paul Castaway Didn’t Have to Die like This</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, November 24, 2017.</p><p>Terge Langeland, “<a href="https://www.csindy.com/temporary_news/police-targeted-american-indians/article_93a3832c-97f3-5232-b6bb-3bcdfe6d5dd7.html">Police Targeted American Indians</a>,” <em>Colorado Springs Independent</em>, December 19, 2002.</p><p>Conor McCormick-Cavanaugh, “<a href="https://www.westword.com/news/denver-police-chief-reevaluate-department-11723489">Chief Paul Pazen Commits to “Re-evaluating Every Single Thing” at DPD</a>,” <em>Westword</em>, June 9, 2020.</p><p>Jeremy P. Meyer, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2011/10/28/search-for-denvers-next-top-cop-kept-going-back-to-louisville/">Search for Denver’s Next Top Cop Kept Going Back to Louisville</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, October 28, 2011.</p><p>Michael Miller, <em>Deep Nights: A True Tale of Love, Lust, Crime, and Corruption in the Mile High City</em> (Authorhouse, 2010).</p><p>Kirk Mitchell, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2011/10/29/departing-denver-police-chief-proud-of-his-tenure-thought-media-coverage-was-unfair/">Departing Denver Police Chief Proud of His Tenure, Thought Media Coverage Was Unfair</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, October 29, 2011.</p><p>Wilmer Nieves, “<a href="http://digital.auraria.edu/AA00006170/00001/citation">The Denver Economy: Its History, Economic Base, Regional Impact and Its Direction Into the Future</a>,” MA thesis, University of Colorado-Denver, 1978.</p><p>Thomas J. Noel, “<a href="https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/collection/p15330coll14/id/9">City and County of Denver Police Administration Building …</a>” Denver Public Library Digital Collections (Thomas J. Noel photograph collection), n.d.</p><p>Noelle Phillips, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/23/denver-police-officers-fail-to-use-body-cameras/">Denver Police Boost Body Camera Training After Dozens of Officers Fail to Use Them</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, October 23, 2017.</p><p>Maximillian Potter, “<a href="https://www.5280.com/the-chief-concern/">The Chief Concern: Police Chief Gerry Whitman Is Respected by Minsters and Reviled by His Own Cops. Should Denver Be Worried?</a>” <em>5280</em>, August 28, 2010.</p><p>George Seaton, “<a href="https://freerangelongmont.com/2011/07/09/outsider-absurd/">A New Police Chief for Denver—An Absurd Notion to Look ‘Outside’ the Department</a>,” <em>Free Range Longmont </em>(blog), July 9, 2011.</p><p>Allison Sherry, “<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/06/19/polis-signs-broad-police-accountability-and-reform-bill-into-law/">Polis Signs Broad Police Accountability and Reform Bill Into Law After Weeks of Protests</a>,” <em>Colorado Public Radio</em>, June 19, 2020.</p><p>Jerome H. Skolnick and David H. Bayley, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VS2UYa38XFMC&amp;pg=PA119&amp;lpg=PA119&amp;dq=chief+art+dill+denver+police+policy&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=dEH2cwHEcM&amp;sig=ACfU3U34gPstlDiSY5JY0Ndcpi7lK6oxOQ&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwip77Sn1KzrAhVHqp4KHTIyAjA4ChDoATAOegQIAxAB#v=onepage&amp;q=chief%20art%20dill%20denver%20police%20policy&amp;f=false"><em>The New Blue Line: Police Innovation in Six American Cities</em></a> (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1988).</p><p>Allison Sylte, “<a href="https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/denver-aclu-protest-lawsuit/73-228d4727-5e59-4e69-a047-9e4be0fc68a5">2nd Lawsuit Filed Against City and County of Denver for Use of Force Against Protesters</a>,” 9 News, June 25, 2020.</p><p>Art Winstanley, <em>Burglars in Blue </em>(Bloomington, IL: Author House, 2009).</p></div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>ACLU Denver, “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20091120125020/http:/www.aclu-co.org/spyfiles/samplefiles.htm">The Denver Police Spy Files</a>,” 2009.</p><p><a href="https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Departments/Police-Department">Denver Police Department</a>.</p><p><a href="https://denverpolicemuseum.org/">Denver Police Museum</a>.</p><p>Natasha Gardner, “<a href="https://www.5280.com/direct-fail/">Direct Fail</a>,” (feature on Colorado criminal justice and juvenile justice system) <em>5280</em>, December 2011.</p><p>Elise Schmelzer, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/29/denver-police-paul-pazen-progressive-initiatives/">Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen Has Rolled Out a Series of New ‘Progressive’ Initiatives—Are They Working?</a>” <em>The Denver Post</em>, April 29, 2019.</p><p>Mort Stern, “What Makes a Policeman Go Wrong? An Ex-Member of the Force Traces the Steps on Way From Law Enforcement to Violating,” <em>Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science </em>53, no. 1 (March 1962).</p></div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 25 Jan 2021 21:39:18 +0000 yongli 3489 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Belmont Hotel Fire of 1908 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/belmont-hotel-fire-1908 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Belmont Hotel Fire of 1908 </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-07-08T16:00:07-06:00" title="Wednesday, July 8, 2020 - 16:00" class="datetime">Wed, 07/08/2020 - 16:00</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/belmont-hotel-fire-1908" data-a2a-title="Belmont Hotel Fire of 1908 "><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fbelmont-hotel-fire-1908&amp;title=Belmont%20Hotel%20Fire%20of%201908%20"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>On September 8, 1908, a fire broke out on the second floor of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>’s Belmont Hotel, claiming as many as fifteen lives and injuring several others in one of the city’s deadliest fires. After the fire, authorities suspected that theft may have been a motive for arson, as valuables had gone missing during the fire and the hotel was near some of the poorer areas of the city. The perceived connection between criminals and arson contributed to several <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/progressive-era-colorado"><strong>Progressive Era</strong></a> reforms designed in part to reduce arson by eliminating potential motivating factors such as alcohol, gambling, and prostitution.</p> <h2>A Death Trap</h2> <p>The Belmont Hotel, a three-story boardinghouse located at 1723 Stout Street, was built in 1893, just across the street from the <strong>Albany Hotel</strong>. The Belmont had a reputation as a low-class boardinghouse, and its proximity to the crime and vice of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/larimer-square"><strong>Larimer</strong></a> and <strong>Market Streets</strong> placed it in what Denver’s upper class considered the “seamy” side of town. Shortly before four o’clock on the morning of September 8, 1908, a fire broke out in a second-floor linen closet. Within minutes, flames blocked all stairways and exits, trapping at least one hundred residents inside. The few first-floor residents who managed to escape fled across the street and were sheltered at the Albany Hotel.</p> <p>The residents trapped inside the Belmont flocked to the windows of their rooms. Residents of the Albany Hotel as well as spectators in the street pleaded with them not to jump. Some listened and waited to be rescued by the fire department, but several others jumped. One guest at the Belmont, Patrick Treadwell, was a member of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cripple-creek"><strong>Cripple Creek</strong></a> Fire Department and managed to save at least ten lives by helping victims swing to safety in neighboring buildings.</p> <p>The fire department arrived soon after the alarm was raised, but the fire kept burning for at least two hours before it was extinguished. Among the victims were George D. Ott, George W. Bodle, and J. B. Moore, all of whom died of injuries sustained from jumping. A fourth victim, John J. Kane, was found dead in his room, a victim of suffocation due to smoke inhalation, and a fifth victim, William E. Lewis, was badly burned and later died in the hospital. In addition, ten of the hotel’s 100 known guests were unaccounted for after the fire and were also presumed dead. This brought the total number of fatalities to fifteen, making the Belmont Hotel fire one of the deadliest in Denver since the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/gumry-hotel-explosion"><strong>Gumry Hotel explosion</strong></a> in 1895. Six other guests were taken to the hospital with burns and other injuries sustained from jumping.</p> <p>A lack of clearly marked and easily accessible fire exits contributed to the high number of deaths at the Belmont Hotel. There was only one fire exit at the back of the Belmont, and it was not clearly advertised to residents. It was also almost completely inaccessible from the hotel windows, and the escape ladder itself stopped at a point twenty feet above the ground, making it dangerous to use. Investigation into the fire proved that none of the victims knew that the fire exit existed. Even those who knew of it, such as landlady Nettie Rahn and her three sons, chose not to risk the long drop to the ground.</p> <h2>The Work of Thieves&nbsp;</h2> <p>While the fire department initially blamed the blaze on faulty wiring—a common cause of fires at the time—further police investigation unearthed evidence of arson. One of the first facts that troubled investigators was the lack of wires or lights in the second-floor linen closet that could have started the fire. Investigators also discovered traces of gasoline in the debris around the linen closet, which could have been used as an accelerant, explaining the fire’s quick spread. However, the gasoline was ambiguous evidence because several Belmont residents reported seeing the landlady sprinkling gasoline in the hallways to exterminate bugs in the weeks before the fire.</p> <p>The clearest clue pointing to arson was the fact that up to $3,000 of diamonds, jewelry, and other valuables were missing after the blaze, probably stolen from rooms while residents were distracted by the fire. Nettie Rahn was missing $325 from under her mattress as well as a diamond sunburst, a gold watch, and other jewelry; Lulu Guyer was missing $30 from her stocking; Mabel Williams was missing a gold watch; and F. H. McConnell was missing a bag of clothes, some jewelry, and an unspecified amount of cash. John Kane’s family reported that his effects were missing $600 and a gold watch. The items stolen from long-term residents were frequently the only valuable possessions those people had, while guests visiting Denver would have had relatively large sums of cash, even at a down-market hotel such as the Belmont.</p> <h2>Arson and Poverty</h2> <p>The losses at the Belmont Hotel were high enough to suggest robbery as a strong motive for arson. In fact, several nearby fires in the previous three months were also suspected to be arsons for the purpose of robbery. Police suspected the Belmont fire was the work of the same group of criminals, but investigators never discovered who the arsonists were and never fully confirmed that arsonists were to blame. Nevertheless, historians today have agreed that arson is the most likely explanation for the fires as well as the thefts.</p> <p>Like other lower-class hotels that were set on fire and robbed, the Belmont was probably targeted by arsonists because law enforcement was scarce in those neighborhoods, reducing the likelihood of being caught. Most such robberies resulted in losses of only a few hundred dollars, suggesting that the arsonists were poor people stealing out of desperation. Rather than choosing targets such as the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/brown-palace-hotel"><strong>Brown Palace Hotel</strong></a>, where their efforts would have been more lucrative, these arsonists stuck to less luxurious establishments where criminal activity would draw less attention.</p> <p>The proximity of many suspected arsons to Market and Larimer Streets also sheds light on the motivations behind the fires and the methods local reformers used to curb them. Market and Larimer were notorious during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for having the highest concentration of saloons, brothels, and gambling halls in Denver. Investigators suspected that money from the robberies may have been used to pay off gambling debts or for drinking money. The response of city officials and Denver citizens during the Progressive Era was a crusade to minimize criminal activity in Denver, which reformers believed would also reduce arson attacks against businesses. Progressive efforts to outlaw gambling and prostitution, increase law enforcement in poor neighborhoods, and enact <strong>alcohol prohibition </strong>aimed to improve the city’s morals and eliminate motivations for arson.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/kennedy-anna" hreflang="und">Kennedy, Anna</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/belmont-hotel" hreflang="en">Belmont Hotel</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/arson" hreflang="en">arson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/fire" hreflang="en">fire</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“Belmont Horror Wrecking Minds of Survivors: Awful Fire Scenes Pictured in Delirium Adds to Physical Sufferings,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em>, September 9, 1908.</p> <p>“Belmont Hotel Burns,” <em>Wet Mountain Tribune</em>, September 12, 1908.</p> <p>“Belmont Is Looted by Thieves Who Start Fire to Rob Guests,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em>, September 9, 1908.</p> <p>“Corpse of Fire Victim Robbed of $600 Money,”<em> The Denver Post</em>, September 27, 1908.</p> <p>“C&amp;S Brakeman Victim of Belmont Hotel Holocaust,” <em>Colorado Transcript</em>, September 10, 1908.</p> <p>&nbsp;“Four Dead in Hotel Fire: Many Jumped From Windows of the Flaming Belmont in Denver,” <em>New York Times</em>, September 8, 1908.</p> <p>“Four Deaths in Denver Fire: Burning of Belmont Hotel on Stout Street Near the Albany Proved a Death Trap,” <em>Breckenridge Bulletin</em>, September 12, 1908.</p> <p>“Four Lives Sacrificed in Denver Hotel Fire,” <em>Herald Democrat</em> (Leadville, CO), September 9, 1908.</p> <p>“Injured in Fire: Two Silverton People Have Close Call in Denver Hotel,” <em>Durango Wage Earner</em>, September 10, 1908.</p> <p>&nbsp;“Proof at Hand That Coliseum Was Set on Fire: Chiefs of Police and Fire Departments Have Clew to Criminal,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em>, September 29, 1908.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Dick Kreck<em>, Denver in Flames: Forging a New Mile High City</em> (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2000).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 08 Jul 2020 22:00:07 +0000 yongli 3383 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org River House Saloon Fire of 1862 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/river-house-saloon-fire-1862 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">River House Saloon Fire of 1862 </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-06-10T12:11:58-06:00" title="Wednesday, June 10, 2020 - 12:11" class="datetime">Wed, 06/10/2020 - 12:11</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/river-house-saloon-fire-1862" data-a2a-title="River House Saloon Fire of 1862 "><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Friver-house-saloon-fire-1862&amp;title=River%20House%20Saloon%20Fire%20of%201862%20"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Seeing them as public nuisances that bred sin, enraged citizens burned down several saloons and dance halls in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> during the 1860s. One of the first and most significant of these attacks was the burning of the River House Saloon on Ferry Street on November 1, 1862. The River House fire was unique not only because the punishments for those who started the blaze were uncharacteristically forgiving, but also because the fire ignited citizen protests against future incendiary attacks.</p> <h2>“Forked Tongues of Lurid Flame”</h2> <p>Originally built in 1859, soon after Denver was founded, the River House started as a low-class boardinghouse. As with many of the city’s early boardinghouses, the residents of the River House were often single miners or fugitives fleeing the law back East. Soon the River House developed into a saloon where gambling, drinking, and prostitution were prevalent. As Denver’s growth drew more self-consciously respectable and affluent residents to the city, saloons such as the River House became targets of Christian moral reform.</p> <p>Around half-past seven on the evening of November 1, 1862, four or five men entered the River House and ordered the occupants to leave, saying they were going to set the building on fire. Most inside the building were prostitutes, but there were also a few male customers. It is unclear whether the incendiaries waited until they evacuated before starting the fire inside the building, or if they set the blaze outside the building first and warned occupants after the fire was under way. Witnesses reported seeing “forked tongues of lurid flame” spread throughout the building. The volunteer <strong>fire department </strong>was alerted and managed to save all the furniture and everyone in the River House, though the building itself was completely destroyed.</p> <h2>Public Response</h2> <p>A few thousand spectators gathered on Ferry Street (today’s South Eleventh Street) to watch the blaze. Despite conflicting information about exactly how and when the blaze started, multiple River House regulars claimed that soldiers of Denver’s First Regiment of Colorado Volunteer Infantry were responsible. Newspapers reported that some soldiers were among the spectators and became agitated when word spread that members of their regiment started the fire.</p> <p>Some people seemed glad to see the River House gone. One witness told the <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News Weekly</em></strong> that the fire could “easily have been put out” but that “no effort was made to do so.” Given that fire posed such a risk to early frontier towns, the fact that no citizens attempted to help extinguish the blaze was suspicious to investigators. It seemed to suggest that citizens were glad to be rid of such an establishment, with the <em>Rocky Mountain News Weekly </em>going so far as to say that “the abatement of a nuisance is a benefit to the city.”</p> <p>Despite such claims, responses to the River House arson were mixed throughout Denver. On the one hand, some citizens did believe that destroying businesses of ill repute was good for public morality. Newspapers reported rumors of a plot to burn all the saloons and boardinghouses like the River House in the city. The <em>Rocky Mountain News Weekly </em>even claimed to know that the next fire would be set “threateningly near the heart of the city.” No proof of such a plot was ever found, but even the possibility of it prompted several journalists and civilians to rebuke anyone who would resort to arson to rid the city of public nuisances. Any fire started in a seedy boardinghouse or saloon could easily spread to the rest of the city, especially given Denver’s dry and windy climate. Indeed, this fear would become reality when Denver’s so-called <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-fire-1863"><strong>Great Fire of 1863</strong></a> struck the heart of the city’s business district the following April. Others worried that taking incendiary action against people they saw as undesirables would lead to retaliatory attacks by the reputedly lawless lower classes.</p> <h2>Unconventional Justice</h2> <p>Witnesses inside the River House at the time of the fire identified two of the arsonists, J. B. Ross and Daniel McCleary, who were in fact soldiers of the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteer Infantry. The other perpetrators were never identified. City Marshal David J. Cook arrested Ross and McCleary for arson within days of the fire, and the two men were brought before the district court on November 10, 1862.</p> <p>Ross was indicted as an accessory to arson, but the infamous reputation of the primary witness against him, who was a River House regular, caused Chief Justice Benjamin F. Hall to grant him a new trial. At Ross’s second trial, he was acquitted, with the blame for his actions placed on his liquor consumption on the night of the fire. Only days after being set free, Ross was arrested again, this time for murder. Meanwhile, McCleary received only one year in prison after Hall learned that McCleary’s mother had died a year earlier and his father had left town, abandoning McCleary and his sister. Hall decided that McCleary’s poor parentage and his youth (he was nineteen) merited him as much mercy as the law allowed so that he could reform his criminal behavior.</p> <p>Denver citizens were shocked by the lenient sentences that Chief Justice Hall handed down at a time when the typical punishment for arson was death by hanging. Many people protested such leniency, arguing that arson attacks such as the River House fire put the entire town at risk of burning and therefore required harsh punishment to deter any future arsonists from burning Denver’s buildings.</p> <p>On the other hand, many lawmen and middle-class Christian moral reformers, Catholic as well as Protestant, supported Hall’s light sentences because they brought attention to the need to stop corruption and vice. Supporters of Hall’s sentences also believed they would encourage a shift from mob vigilante justice in Denver to a more forgiving system that allowed individuals to pay penance for crimes.</p> <p>The debate over what constituted proper justice would continue into the early twentieth century as Denver worked to establish a professional <strong>police force</strong>.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/kennedy-anna" hreflang="und">Kennedy, Anna</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/river-house" hreflang="en">River House</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/saloons" hreflang="en">saloons</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/fire" hreflang="en">fire</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/fire-history" hreflang="en">fire history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/arson" hreflang="en">arson</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“Another Fire,” <em>Weekly Commonwealth</em>, November 6, 1862.</p> <p>“The Cases of Ross and McCleary,” <em>Weekly Commonwealth</em>, November 13, 1862.</p> <p><em>Colorado Decisions: Every Opinion of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of the State of </em></p> <p><em>Colorado, </em>vol. 1 (Denver: Mills Publishing, 1900).</p> <p>“More About Those Fires,” <em>Rocky Mountain News Weekly</em>, November 6, 1862.</p> <p>“Murderous Affair,” <em>Weekly Commonwealth</em>, November 20, 1862.</p> <p>“The River House Burned,” <em>Rocky Mountain News Weekly</em>, November 6, 1862.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Dick Kreck, <em>Denver in Flames: Forging a New Mile High City </em>(Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2000).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 10 Jun 2020 18:11:58 +0000 yongli 3283 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Prohibition http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/prohibition <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Prohibition</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3296--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3296.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/prohibition-still-near-greeley"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Prohibition-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=nrzmLm-W" width="1000" height="592" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/prohibition-still-near-greeley" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Prohibition, still near Greeley</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A group of men wearing suits and hats stand near a large still and barrels of liquor near Greeley (Weld County), Colorado. One man leans his arm on a pile of sacks with labels reading: "100 lbs, Cerelose, Product Refining Co., New York, U.S.A."</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-06-09T14:51:18-06:00" title="Tuesday, June 9, 2020 - 14:51" class="datetime">Tue, 06/09/2020 - 14:51</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/prohibition" data-a2a-title="Prohibition"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fprohibition&amp;title=Prohibition"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Alcohol prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) was a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/progressive-era-colorado"><strong>Progressive Era</strong></a> experiment, based on reform-minded and religious sentiments, to completely ban the sale and transport of alcohol. While the intention of reformers was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime, outlawing alcohol instead created more issues than had been anticipated.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Prohibition in Colorado predated national prohibition by four years, and ended only months before national prohibition was also repealed. As it was elsewhere, the prohibition era in Colorado was marked by a sharp increase in organized crime, public flouting of laws, black markets, law enforcement and government corruption, and a growing distrust of Progressive politics. Despite the failure of prohibition as a movement, it introduced the state to new social and economic opportunities for women and fundamentally changed the way the public drank alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> of 1858–59, most mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government, suppliers, grocers, and other official functions. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings, money caches, and places where immigrant miners could buy foreign-language newspapers. They were also hot spots for gambling, boxing, and prostitution.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene was a feature of its early communities, Colorado soon saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s, when Colorado was still a territory. Conscious of the region’s saloon culture, some towns were established as totally dry from the get-go, including the agrarian communities of <a href="/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a> (<strong>Union Colony</strong>) and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/longmont-0"><strong>Longmont</strong></a> (<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chicago-colorado-colony"><strong>Chicago-Colorado Colony</strong></a>) in the early 1870s. However, the idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol in the state followed this precedent and often corresponded with antiurban, anti-immigrant sentiments.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives often saw alcohol as the source of many problems. There was a popular belief among prohibitionists that alcohol was a slippery slope: one sip could lead to a lifetime of physical and financial ruin. They believed that alcohol consumption led to labor unrest and moral degeneracy. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of urbanization and immigration, and hoped to keep Colorado free from what they called “un-American” activities. Several leaders of the <strong>Women’s Christian Temperance Union</strong> (WCTU) were also prominent members of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ku-klux-klan-colorado"><strong>Ku Klux Klan</strong></a> (KKK), and their stance on banning alcohol was based in strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiments. They felt as if their frontier state were being overrun by unskilled foreign laborers whose taste for drink made them dangerous and unsettled.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly acquired voting rights, and they were especially concerned with drinkers and gamblers who left their families impoverished. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/womens-suffrage-movement"><strong>women’s suffrage</strong></a> out of fear that women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance and had taken up the cause of prohibition as a quick fix for society’s ills. It was no longer a gendered issue but, rather, a unifying Progressive issue.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As a step toward full prohibition, antialcohol Progressive voters first worked to make drinking a male-only activity, reinforced by strict Victorian ideas of womanhood. These sentiments led to a 1901 law that prohibited women from entering saloons, working in areas that served alcohol, or purchasing alcohol. When saloon owners challenged the law, arguing that it was at odds with women’s suffrage, it was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907 the antiliquor campaigns of the WCTU and the <strong>Anti-Saloon League</strong> led to a state local-option law for prohibition, allowing cities to vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 <a href="/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a>, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>, <strong>Aurora</strong>, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over the legality of alcohol was between rural towns and urban areas (including mining camps). Besides <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, the strongest antiprohibition counties included <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/teller-county"><strong>Teller</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mineral-county"><strong>Mineral</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/la-plata-county"><strong>La Plata</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ouray-county"><strong>Ouray</strong></a>, <a href="/article/chaffee-county"><strong>Chaffee</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/alamosa-county"><strong>Alamosa</strong></a>, and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/garfield-county"><strong>Garfield</strong></a>. All of these counties were home to major industrial centers, especially mining and <strong>smelting</strong> operations. They were also home to larger numbers of non-Protestants as well as higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League held several public demonstrations, toured the state with their campaign, spoke directly with lawmakers, campaigned door to door, and maintained a strong public presence to demand the banning of any and all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who gave large contributions to the WCTU and the Anti-Saloon League, aided the prohibitionist campaign, while a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment at the start of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-world-war-i"><strong>World War I</strong></a> stoked suspicions that German American brewers were leading an anti-American conspiracy. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado, but there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal, and it was instead overpowered by the famous Progressive drive to “organize and agitate.” Called Measure 2, the prohibition referendum passed on November 3 with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect, four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the earlier Colorado prohibition referendum. For example, both defined “intoxicating liquor” as any beverage containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol. Both laws also banned the sale and transport of all alcohol, even for religious purposes. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado, and many others scrambled to convert to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area alone.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As in most states during prohibition, the problems of enforcing an alcohol ban became obvious within the first year of the law. Aside from closing cultural hot spots and other businesses that served and sold alcohol, dry laws quickly proved difficult to enforce, especially on individual citizens. Early on, Governor <strong>William Ellery Sweet</strong> appointed “dry agents” who routinely broke civil liberty laws in order to enforce prohibition. Colorado also became home to corrupt law enforcement practices. For example, many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol and simply gave free liquor to officers to stay in business. In addition, caches of liquor taken in raids on speakeasies and stills would often disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an ambiguous legal status. These squads were often made up of men not formally trained as police officers. According to various newspaper reports, they viewed themselves as “crusaders” seeking to destroy the “demon drink.” These moral enforcers were known to frequently bust down the doors of people’s houses without warrants and arrest anyone on the premises, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten, or otherwise publicly humiliated.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted many complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, <strong>John R. Smith</strong>, and his vigilante groups (often composed of members of the KKK). Smith was frequently sued for violating civil liberties and using extreme force, specifically against the Italian American and Mexican American communities. Progressive judge <strong>Benjamin Lindsey</strong>, who originally supported prohibition, openly expressed his disdain for how marginalized communities were targeted with brutal enforcement and given unfair trials.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lindsey also lamented that wealthy Coloradans seemed immune to the dry laws. Indeed, the wealthy drinkers of Colorado worked with corrupt cops to ensure that they always had as much liquor as they wanted. Newspapers gawked at various instances of police eagerly partying with rich people, often sipping on liquor seized from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a result of alcohol prohibition, Colorado saw the rapid growth of organized <strong>crime families</strong> in the 1920s and early 1930s. Notorious gangsters appeared all around Colorado—including Joe Berry, Joe Roma, Joe Varra, and Sam and <strong>Pete Carlino</strong>—each of whom made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. In 1924, during a series of prohibition sweeps in the Italian American community of <strong>Globeville</strong>, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested over the course of a week, and more than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having previously been barred from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of new opportunities in black-market booze. They participated in both the consumption and creation of alcohol at unprecedented rates. During prohibition, Coloradans experienced a new diversity within spaces where people drank alcohol. Women and men of all ages now enjoyed an activity that had been primarily male.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job pertaining to booze during prohibition, from running kitchen stills to peddling booze, tallying sales records, and smuggling alcohol within and beyond borders. When police were tipped off to moonshine stills, they often found women operating them from their kitchens, a traditionally acceptable realm for women that served as a convenient cover.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also benefited from new opportunities in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were appointed as deputy sheriffs to crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments throughout the state benefited from hiring their first female officers. <strong>Edith Barker</strong>, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first accredited female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed as eager to end prohibition as they had been to start it. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a referendum calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The referendum failed. <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong> hosted its own “Rocky Mountain Referendum on Prohibition,” in which the newspaper printed its own ballots asking readers whether they were for or against the continuation of prohibition. The consensus from 110,000 newspaper ballots was that Coloradans favored repeal. Because anyone could send in a newspaper ballot, <em>The</em> <em>Post </em>did not account for people who could not vote. This factor suggests that there was a strong sentiment to repeal prohibition in the state but that eligible voters still supported temperance after rejecting the official referendum.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After Colorado’s referendum, several other states, mainly in New England, began to agitate for repeal of prohibition. Soon several western states—including Arizona, New Mexico, and California—joined the call for repeal. Raymond Humphreys, chief investigator for the state district attorney’s office in Colorado, opined that “prohibition spawned corruption in law enforcement that undermined public confidence in the law as a whole.” By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts, but only half of them had been heard. Clearly, the law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted once more on the repeal of prohibition, and this time repeal received 67 percent of the vote. Starting April 7, 1933, beer with a maximum alcohol content of 3.2 percent by volume could be legally sold in the state, though federal prohibition was still in effect nationwide. This loophole meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado, but it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved a constitutional amendment to repeal prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing national prohibition.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>According to the <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News</em></strong>, beer sales alone made the newly revived alcohol industry more than $200,000 (roughly $4 million today) on the first day of statewide repeal. Equipment manufacturers, laborers, and railroads all benefited from the end of prohibition. The <em>News </em>anticipated that in Denver alone, more than 1,000 retailers would be issued liquor licenses during April 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As the industry revived, alcohol quickly became a part of the public lives of Coloradans again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production, including the <strong>Tivoli Brewing Company</strong> in Denver and <strong>Coors</strong> in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/golden"><strong>Golden</strong></a>, which had relied on producing other products (such as porcelain and nonalcoholic beverages) until prohibition was repealed. Meanwhile, mobsters who had profited from the illegal status of alcohol had the rug ripped out from under them. They were eliminated by legal and regulated competition within a few months. No longer did the law prevent women and American Indians from entering places that sold alcohol, as the Twenty-first Amendment also removed prohibitive laws that targeted individual groups of people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition took legal hold on the state between 1916 and 1933, Colorado has thoroughly reclaimed its saloon roots through the tradition of crafting and imbibing alcoholic beverages. As a state, Colorado currently hosts more than 400 established breweries, including famous national brands such as Coors, <strong>New Belgium</strong>, <strong>Left Hand</strong>, <strong>O’Dell</strong>, and <strong>Breckenridge</strong>. It is the top US state in microbreweries per capita, and in 2019 Coloradans voted craft beer as their state’s most iconic drink. Colorado is also home to vibrant spirit industry (including Stranahan’s, Montoya, Woody Creek, and Laws), as well as a celebrated wine industry based largely in the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/grand-junction"><strong>Grand Valley</strong></a>.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/richthofen-ted" hreflang="und">Richthofen, Ted</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/prohibition" hreflang="en">prohibition</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/prohibition-colorado" hreflang="en">prohibition in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alcohol" hreflang="en">alcohol</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/saloons" hreflang="en">saloons</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/womens-christian-temperance-union" hreflang="en">womens christian temperance union</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/temperance" hreflang="en">temperance</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cannabis" hreflang="en">cannabis</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/edith-barker" hreflang="en">edith barker</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-police" hreflang="en">denver police</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ku-klux-klan" hreflang="en">Ku Klux Klan</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/crime-families" hreflang="en">crime families</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/carlino" hreflang="en">carlino</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bootlegging" hreflang="en">bootlegging</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bootleggers" hreflang="en">bootleggers</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/speakeasies" hreflang="en">speakeasies</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1920s" hreflang="en">1920s</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/beer" hreflang="en">beer</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/wine" hreflang="en">wine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/spirits" hreflang="en">spirits</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craft-beer" hreflang="en">craft beer</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Robert Annand, <em>A Study of the Prohibition Situation in Denver</em> (MA thesis, University of Denver, 1932).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>CF&amp;I Industrial Bulletin, “The End of the Saloon at CF&amp;I Properties”, vol. 1, no. 2 (December 22, 1915).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John Whiteclay Chambers II, <em>The Tyranny of Change: America in the Progressive Era, 1890–1920</em> (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ernest Hurst Cherrington, <em>Standard Encyclopedia of the Alcohol Problem</em> (Westerville, OH: American Issue Publishing Company, 1925).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rick Clyne, <em>Coal People: Life in Southern Colorado’s Company Towns, 1890–1930</em> (Denver: Colorado Historical Society, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stanley Coben, <em>Rebellion Against Victorianism: The Impetus for Cultural Change in 1920s America</em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado General Assembly, “<a href="http://www.leg.state.co.us/lcs/ballothistory.nsf/">Ballot Issue History</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Colorado National Guard, <em>The Military Occupation of the Coal Strike Zone of Colorado, 1913–1914</em> (Denver: Smith-Brooks Printing Company, 1914).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Colorado Springs Gazette</em>, “Rum Runners, in Jail Here, Profess Innocence of Crime,” October 13, 1924; “Olsen Sent to Prison on Rum Conviction,” January 22, 1915.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado.com, “<a href="https://www.colorado.com/articles/colorado-breweries-defining-craft">Colorado Breweries: Defining the Craft</a>,” updated June 17, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Cornell University Law Library, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/192/108"><em>DANIEL CRONIN v. FRANK ADAMS</em></a>, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Cripple Creek Times-Record</em>, “Four Stills and Hundred Gallons of Whiskey Seized by State Prohibition Men,” September 22, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Daily Times (Longmont)</em>, “Woman Arrested in Booze Raid at Boulder Will Be Tried, Says J. E. Kirkbride,” vol. 33, no. 217, August 26, 1927.<br />&#13; <em>Denver Express,</em> “Job in Question: Status of Dry Agent in Dispute,” December 27, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Denver News,</em> “Three Are Arrested in State Dry Raid: Prohibition Charge Faces Owner of Italian Gardens Following Liquor Seizure,” December 10, 1923; “State Dry Agent Rapped by Judge for Alleged Raid Without Warrant,” January 9, 1924; “State Officers Jail Seven in Rum Raids: Hotel Proprietress and Clerk Arrested After Alleged Wild Party in Room,” January 10, 1924; “Anti-Rum Societies Aid State Officers Destroying Liquor,” March 19, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>The Denver Post</em>, “Liquor Sales Under New Law,” March 3, 1915; “Denver Policewoman Uses Jiu Jitsu to Rout Mashers,” March 6, 1921; “Woman Arrested as Bootlegger,” January 22, 1923; “Booze Raid Disturbs Revel of 200 Youths and Girls,” August 6, 1923; “Pocket Still Discovered by Agents in Raid on Home of Denver Woman,” July 10, 1924; “Wild Parties of Police With Women and Liquor Are Learned of by May,” April 21, 1925; “Wets Are Victorious In Posts Referendum,” February 23, 1926; “Pete Carlino Is Found Murdered on Lonely Road Near Pueblo,” September 14, 1931; “Denver Beer Drinkers on 3.2 Spree With Old-Time Saloons Open Again,” April 7, 1933; “National Prohibition Repealed,” November 8, 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Denver Times</em>, “Women Barred From Saloons”, July 27, 1901.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Durango Herald</em>, “Hardboiled Methods at Law Enforcement at Silverton Breeds No One Any Good,” July 24, 1924.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Fort Collins Courier</em>, “Judge Lindsey Urges Prosecution of Rich Booze Law Violators,” October 8, 1921; “Five Seeking Smith’s Post as Dry Agent,” July 6, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Phil Goodstein, <em>Robert Speer’s Denver, 1904–1920</em> (Denver: New Social Publications, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James Hansen, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v50n1_Winter1973.pdf">Moonshine and Murder</a>,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> (Winter 1973).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hangovercure.org, “<a href="https://hangovercure.org/guides/most-popular-drink-by-state/">America’s Favorite Iconic State Drink</a>,” December 17, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Katherine Harris, “Feminism and Temperance Reform in the Boulder WCTU”, <em>Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies</em> 4, no. 2 (Summer 1979).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Herald Democrat (Leadville)</em>, “Women’s Rights: To Drink in Saloon to Be Heard Before U.S. Supreme Court,” July 31, 1902; “Their Life Belts Loaded With Booze,” August 1, 1919.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>R. Todd Laugen, <em>The Gospel of Progressivism: Moral Reform and Labor War in Colorado, 1900–1930</em>, (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Harry G. Levine and Craig Reinarman, “From Prohibition to Regulation: Lessons From Alcohol Policy for Drug Policy,” <em>Milbank Quarterly</em> 69, no. 3 (1991).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Carol Mattingly, <em>Well-Tempered Women: Nineteenth-Century Temperance Rhetoric</em> (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Montrose Daily Press</em>, “Sheriff Ducray Arrests Bootlegger Who Sought Protection by Bribery,” vol. 12, no. 206, March 4, 1921.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas Noel, <em>The City and the Saloon: Denver 1858–191</em>6, 2nd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1996).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Pueblo Star Journal</em>, “They All Love Publicity; Even State Dry Law Director Will Stage a Raid For the Movies,” July 25, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ted Richthofen, “<a href="http://digital.auraria.edu/IR00000098/00001">A People’s History of Alcohol Prohibition in Colorado: Labor, Class, Gender, and Moral Reform, 1916–1933</a>” (BA honors thesis, Metropolitan State University of Denver, 2019).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, April 7, 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>San Juan Prospector</em>, “Women Whiskey Merchants,” March 15, 1918.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Clark Secrest, <em>Hell’s Belles: Prostitution, Vice, and Crime in Early Denver: With a Biography of Sam Howe, Frontier Lawman</em>, rev. ed. (Denver: University Press of Colorado, 2001).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Trinidad Chronicle, </em>“State Dry Officers May Be Charged with Violence by Two Local Attorneys,” September 10, 1923.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>United Labor Bulletin, October 10, 1914, CSFL Collection, Colorado Historical Society, Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Up-to-the-Minute Bulletin of the International Reform Bureau,” July 9, 1918, Shafroth Family Papers, Western History Collection, Denver Public Library.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John Dinan Wake and Jac C. Heckelman, “Support for Repealing Prohibition: An Analysis of Statewide Referenda on Ratifying the 21st Amendment,” <em>Social Science Quarterly </em>95, no. 3 (September 2014).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elliot West, “Cleansing the Queen City: Prohibition and Urban Reform in Denver,” <em>Journal of the Southwest</em> 14, no. 4 (Winter, 1972).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Women Named Deputy Sheriffs,” <em>Brush Tribune</em>, June 8, 1923.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Betty L. Alt and Sandra K. Wells, <em>Ban the Booze: Prohibition in the Rockies </em>(N.p.: Dog Ear Publishing, 2013).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lisa McGirr, <em>The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State</em> (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Daniel Okrent, <em>Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition</em> (New York: Scribner, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ted Richthofen, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/story/womens-history/2020/03/12/openly-and-gusto-how-women-moonshiners-led-denvers-first-female-cop">Openly and With Gusto: How Women Moonshiners Led to Denver’s First Female Cop</a>” (History Colorado, March 12, 2020).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbJtXMa0ZAQ">Colorado Experience: The Smaldones, Family of Crime</a>” (YouTube).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Erin Turner, <em>Rotgut Rustlers: Whiskey, Women, and Wild Times in the West </em>(Kearney, NE: Morris, 2009).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) banned the sale of alcohol. The goal was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime. The prohibition era in Colorado saw an increase in organized crime and corruption.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59, mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings. They were also hot spots for gambling and boxing.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene, Colorado saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s. Some towns were founded as dry. These included Greeley (Union Colony) and Longmont (Chicago-Colorado Colony) in the early 1870s. The idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol followed.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives saw alcohol as the source of many problems. They believed that alcohol consumption led to unrest and moral failings. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of immigration. Several leaders of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were also members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Their stance on banning alcohol was based on strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly gained voting rights. The women were concerned about drinkers and gamblers who left their families poor. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on women’s suffrage. Men were afraid women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance. They had taken up the cause of prohibition. Prohibition was no longer a gendered issue. It was a unifying Progressive idea.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressives worked to make drinking a male-only activity staring in 1901. They passed a law that kept women from entering saloons or buying alcohol. The law was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907, cities could vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over alcohol was between rural and urban areas. Denver, Teller, and Alamosa counties were against prohibition. All were home to major industrial centers. They were also home to higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League toured the state with their campaign. They spoke with lawmakers. The groups demanded a ban on all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. helped their campaign. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado. However, there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal. The prohibition referendum passed with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect. That was four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the Colorado prohibition referendum. Both laws banned the sale and transport of all alcohol. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado. Others changed to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Problems enforcing the alcohol ban started within the first year. The governor appointed “dry agents” who broke civil liberty laws to enforce prohibition. Many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol. They gave free liquor to police officers to stay in business. Liquor from speakeasies would disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an uncertain legal status. These squads were made up of men not formally trained as police officers. They would break down the doors of people’s houses without warrants. Anyone at the home would be arrested, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, John R. Smith. Smith was sued for violating civil liberties.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Judge Benjamin Lindsey supported prohibition at first. However, he expressed frustration with how certain communities were targeted. Lindsey was also upset that wealthy Coloradans didn't obey dry laws. Newspapers reported police partying with rich people while drinking liquor taken from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Because of prohibition, Colorado saw the growth of organized crime families in the 1920s and early 1930s. Gangsters emerged all around Colorado. Joe Berry, Joe Roma, and Joe Varra made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. During a 1924 sweep in Globeville, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested in a week. More than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having been banned from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of black-market booze. They drank and made alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job related to booze. They ran kitchen stills, sold liquor, and smuggled alcohol. When police were tipped off, they found women operating moonshine stills from their kitchens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also got new chances in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were made deputy sheriffs as part of the crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments hired their first female officers. Edith Barker, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed eager to end prohibition. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a vote calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The vote failed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts. Only half of them had been heard. The law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted on repeal again. This time, repeal received 67 percent of the vote. However, federal prohibition was still in effect. This meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado.  However, it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved an amendment to end prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment. National prohibition was repealed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alcohol became a part of Coloradan's lives again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production. This included the Tivoli Brewing Company in Denver and Coors in Golden. Mobsters who had profited from prohibition were gone within a few months.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition, Colorado has reclaimed its saloon roots. As a state, Colorado currently has more than 400 established breweries. There is also a celebrated wine industry based in the Grand Valley.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) banned the sale and transport of alcohol. The goal was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime. The prohibition era in Colorado saw a sharp increase in organized crime and corruption.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59, most mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government and other official functions. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings. They were also hot spots for gambling, boxing, and prostitution.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene, Colorado saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s. Some towns were founded as dry. These included Greeley (Union Colony) and Longmont (Chicago-Colorado Colony) in the early 1870s. The idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol in the state followed.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives saw alcohol as the source of many problems. They believed that alcohol consumption led to unrest and moral failings. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of immigration. Several leaders of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were also members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Their stance on banning alcohol was based on strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings. They felt the state was being overrun by unskilled foreign laborers whose taste for drink made them dangerous.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly acquired voting rights. The women were concerned about drinkers and gamblers who left their families poor. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on women’s suffrage. Men were afraid women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance. They had taken up the cause of prohibition. Prohibition was no longer a gendered issue. It was a unifying Progressive idea.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressives worked to make drinking a male-only activity staring in 1901. The idea was reinforced by strict Victorian ideas of womanhood. Progressives passed a law that kept women from entering saloons or buying alcohol. When saloon owners challenged the law, it was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907, cities could vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over alcohol was between rural and urban areas. Denver, Teller, and Alamosa counties were against prohibition. All were home to major industrial centers. They were also home to higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League toured the state with their campaign. They spoke with lawmakers. The groups demanded a ban on all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. helped their campaign. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado. However, there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal. The prohibition referendum passed with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect. That was four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the Colorado prohibition referendum. Both laws banned the sale and transport of all alcohol. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado. Many others scrambled to convert to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area alone.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Problems enforcing the alcohol ban started within the first year. The governor appointed “dry agents” who broke civil liberty laws to enforce prohibition. Many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol. They gave free liquor to police officers to stay in business. Liquor from speakeasies would disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an uncertain legal status. These squads were made up of men not formally trained as police officers. They would break down the doors of people’s houses without warrants. Anyone at the home would be arrested, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted many complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, John R. Smith. Smith was sued for violating civil liberties and using extreme force.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressive judge Benjamin Lindsey supported prohibition at first. However, he expressed frustration with how certain communities were targeted. Lindsey was also upset that wealthy Coloradans didn't obey dry laws. The well-off drinkers of Colorado worked with corrupt cops to make sure they had liquor. Newspapers reported police partying with rich people while drinking liquor taken from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Because of prohibition, Colorado saw the growth of organized crime families in the 1920s and early 1930s. Notorious gangsters emerged all around Colorado. Joe Berry, Joe Roma, Joe Varra, and Sam and Pete Carlino made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. In 1924, during a series of sweeps in the Italian American community of Globeville, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested in a week. More than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having been banned from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of black-market booze. They drank and made alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job related to booze during prohibition. They ran kitchen stills, sold liquor, and smuggled alcohol. When police were tipped off to moonshine stills, they often found women operating them from their kitchens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also got new chances in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were appointed as deputy sheriffs to crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments hired their first female officers. Edith Barker, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed eager to end prohibition. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a vote calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The vote failed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Denver Post hosted its own “Rocky Mountain Referendum on Prohibition.” The newspaper printed ballots asking readers whether they were for or against prohibition. Based on the 110,000 newspaper ballots, Coloradans favored repeal. However, eligible voters still supported temperance.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts. Only half of them had been heard. The law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted on repeal again. This time, repeal received 67 percent of the vote. Starting April 7, 1933, beer with a maximum alcohol content of 3.2 percent by volume could be legally sold in the state. However, federal prohibition was still in effect nationwide. This meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado.  However, it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved an amendment to end prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment. National prohibition was repealed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>According to the Rocky Mountain News, beer sales alone made the alcohol industry more than $200,000 (roughly $4 million today) on the first day of statewide repeal. Equipment builders, laborers, and railroads all benefited from the end of prohibition. The News guessed that in Denver alone, more than 1,000 retailers would be issued liquor licenses during April 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Alcohol quickly became a part of Coloradan's lives again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production. This included the Tivoli Brewing Company in Denver and Coors in Golden. They had produced products such as porcelain and nonalcoholic beverages during prohibition. Mobsters who had profited from prohibition were gone within a few months. The law no longer prevented women and American Indians from entering places that sold alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment removed alcohol laws that targeted groups of people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition, Colorado has reclaimed its saloon roots. As a state, Colorado currently has more than 400 established breweries. It is the top US state in microbreweries per capita. In 2019 Coloradans voted craft beer as their state’s most iconic drink. Colorado is also home to vibrant spirit industry. There is also a celebrated wine industry based in the Grand Valley.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Alcohol prohibition in Colorado (1916–33) was a Progressive Era experiment. It was based on reform-minded and religious ideas. Prohibition banned the sale and transport of alcohol. The goal of reformers was to reduce violence, drunkenness, and crime. However, outlawing alcohol created more issues than first thought.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Prohibition in Colorado predated national prohibition by four years. It ended only months before national prohibition was also repealed. The prohibition era in Colorado was marked by a sharp increase in organized crime, black markets, and government corruption.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Origins</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59, most mining camps and early towns used saloons as places for government and other official functions. Later, saloons served as locations for labor union meetings. They were also hot spots for gambling, boxing, and prostitution.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Because the rough-and-tumble saloon scene, Colorado soon saw a push for alcohol prohibition. Legal and moral arguments for the control of liquor existed as early as the mid-1860s, when Colorado was still a territory. Conscious of the region’s saloon culture, some towns were founded as dry. These included the communities of Greeley (Union Colony) and Longmont (Chicago-Colorado Colony) in the early 1870s. However, the idea of turning the entire state dry did not gain traction until the end of the century. A state law passed in 1889 outlawed the sale or delivery of alcohol to American Indians. Further efforts to ban alcohol in the state followed.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Building Support</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the late 1800s and early 1900s, reform-minded Progressives saw alcohol as the source of many problems. They believed that alcohol consumption led to labor unrest and moral failings. Reformers saw saloon culture as a product of urbanization and immigration. They hoped to keep Colorado free from what they called “un-American” activities. Several leaders of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were also members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Their stance on banning alcohol was based on strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings. They felt as if the state was being overrun by unskilled foreign laborers whose taste for drink made them dangerous.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Many of the antialcohol Progressives were also women with newly acquired voting rights. They were concerned with drinkers and gamblers who left their families poor. Colorado men opposed the 1877 referendum on women’s suffrage. Men were afraid women would vote for prohibition. By the time women gained the right to vote in 1893, many men had changed their stance. They had taken up the cause of prohibition. Prohibition was no longer a gendered issue but, rather, a unifying Progressive idea.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As a step toward full prohibition, antialcohol Progressives worked to make drinking a male-only activity staring in 1901. The idea was reinforced by strict Victorian ideas of womanhood. Progressives passed a law that kept women from entering saloons, working in areas that served alcohol, or buying alcohol. When saloon owners challenged the law, it was upheld by the state and federal Supreme Courts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1907, cities could vote on whether to go dry. By 1909 Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Aurora, and Greeley used this law to ban alcohol within a mile of their borders.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The biggest divide over alcohol was between rural towns and urban areas. The strongest antiprohibition counties included Denver, Teller, Mineral, La Plata, Ouray, Chaffee, Alamosa, and Garfield. All of these counties were home to major industrial centers, especially mining and smelting operations. They were also home to larger numbers of non-Protestants and higher numbers of immigrants than lived in the counties voting to go dry.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prohibition Takes Effect</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>During the years leading up to prohibition, the WCTU, KKK, and Anti-Saloon League toured the state with their campaign. They spoke directly with lawmakers. The groups also publicly demanded the banning of any and all alcohol. By 1914 the WCTU gathered enough signatures to get a prohibition referendum on the ballot. Donations from industrial leaders such as John D. Rockefeller, Jr. aided their campaign. The culture of alcohol remained strong in Colorado, but there was not an organized campaign to keep it legal. Called Measure 2, the prohibition referendum passed on November 3 with 52 percent of the vote.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On January 1, 1916, statewide prohibition of alcohol went into effect. That was four years before the federal Volstead Act brought prohibition to the entire country. The Volstead Act used language similar to the Colorado prohibition referendum. For example, both defined “intoxicating liquor” as any beverage containing more than 0.5 percent alcohol. Both laws also banned the sale and transport of all alcohol, even for religious purposes. Thousands of breweries and saloons went out of business in Colorado. Many others scrambled to convert to soft drink parlors. By 1917 statewide prohibition had closed as many as 1,615 saloons and 17 breweries in the Denver area alone.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enforcement and Corruption</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Problems enforcing an alcohol ban became obvious within the first year of the law. Governor William Ellery Sweet appointed “dry agents” who broke civil liberty laws in order to enforce prohibition. Colorado also became home to corrupt law enforcement practices. For example, many soft drink parlors still sold alcohol. They gave free liquor to officers to stay in business. In addition, liquor taken in raids on speakeasies would disappear from police evidence rooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Members of the governor’s “purity squads,” as newspapers called them, had an uncertain legal status. These squads were often made up of men not formally trained as police officers. According to newspaper reports, they viewed themselves as “crusaders” seeking to destroy the “demon drink.” These moral enforcers would break down the doors of people’s houses without warrants. They would arrest anyone on the premises, with or without evidence that they had been drinking. Suspected drinkers or bootleggers were sometimes tied to chairs and beaten.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This activity prompted many complaints against the state’s Chief Prohibition Officer, John R. Smith, and his vigilante groups (often composed of members of the KKK). Smith was sued for violating civil liberties and using extreme force against the Italian American and Mexican American communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Progressive judge Benjamin Lindsey supported prohibition at first. However, he expressed frustration with how marginalized communities were targeted and given unfair trials. Lindsey was also upset that wealthy Coloradans didn't comply with dry laws. The well-off drinkers of Colorado worked with corrupt cops to ensure that they had as much liquor as they wanted. Newspapers reported police partying with rich people, often sipping on liquor seized from poorer communities.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Organized Crime</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As a result of prohibition, Colorado saw the rapid growth of organized crime families in the 1920s and early 1930s. Notorious gangsters appeared all around Colorado. Joe Berry, Joe Roma, Joe Varra, and Sam and Pete Carlino made names for themselves through the bootleg liquor trade. Prohibition laws did not decrease the demand for alcohol, so the market for illegal booze skyrocketed. In 1924, during a series of prohibition sweeps in the Italian American community of Globeville, at least eighteen bootleggers were arrested in a week. More than half of them were women.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Opportunities for Women</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Having been barred from the legal alcohol trade, women in Colorado took full advantage of new opportunities in black-market booze. They took part in drinking and creating alcohol.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women held every sort of illegal job pertaining to booze during prohibition. They ran kitchen stills, sold booze, tallied sales records, and smuggled alcohol. When police were tipped off to moonshine stills, they often found women operating them from their kitchens.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Women also benefited from new chances in law enforcement. In the early 1920s, four women in Denver were appointed as deputy sheriffs to crack down on the alcohol trade. Throughout prohibition, several other police departments hired their first female officers. Edith Barker, a member of the WCTU, became Denver’s first accredited female police officer on May 2, 1920.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Repeal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1920s, Coloradans seemed as eager to end prohibition as they had been to start it. In 1926 Colorado became the first state to hold a referendum calling for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. The referendum failed. The Denver Post hosted its own “Rocky Mountain Referendum on Prohibition.” The newspaper printed ballots asking readers whether they were for or against prohibition. The consensus from 110,000 newspaper ballots was that Coloradans favored repeal. However, eligible voters still supported temperance.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After Colorado’s referendum, several states in New England began to call for repeal of prohibition. Soon several western states—including Arizona, New Mexico, and California—joined the call.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1928 more than 12,000 liquor-violation cases were filed in the Denver courts. Only half of them had been heard. The law had become a burden on the state’s executive and judicial branches.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In November 1932, Colorado voted on the repeal of prohibition again. This time, repeal received 67 percent of the vote. Starting April 7, 1933, beer with a maximum alcohol content of 3.2 percent by volume could be legally sold in the state. However, federal prohibition was still in effect nationwide. This loophole meant that beer could be bought and sold in Colorado, but it was illegal to travel with or ship it across state lines. Later that same year, the US Congress approved an amendment to end prohibition. By December 5, 1933, thirty-six states, including Colorado, had ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing national prohibition.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>According to the Rocky Mountain News, beer sales alone made the newly revived alcohol industry more than $200,000 (roughly $4 million today) on the first day of statewide repeal. Equipment builders, laborers, and railroads all benefited from the end of prohibition. The News guessed that in Denver alone, more than 1,000 retailers would be issued liquor licenses during April 1933.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As the industry revived, alcohol quickly became a part of the public lives of Coloradans again. Former Colorado breweries returned to beer production, including the Tivoli Brewing Company in Denver and Coors in Golden. They had relied on producing other products such as porcelain and nonalcoholic beverages until repeal. Meanwhile, mobsters who had profited from prohibition had the rug ripped out from under them. They were gone within a few months. The law no longer prevented women and American Indians from entering places that sold alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment removed prohibitive laws that targeted groups of people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Since prohibition took legal hold on the state between 1916 and 1933, Colorado has reclaimed its saloon roots. As a state, Colorado currently has more than 400 established breweries. It is the top US state in microbreweries per capita. In 2019 Coloradans voted craft beer as their state’s most iconic drink. Colorado is also home to vibrant spirit industry, as well as a celebrated wine industry based in the Grand Valley.   </p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 09 Jun 2020 20:51:18 +0000 yongli 3274 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Italian Murders of 1875 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/italian-murders-1875 <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Italian Murders of 1875 </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3246--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3246.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/italian-banditti"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Italian-Murders-of-1875-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=i4uLCez5" width="900" height="824" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/italian-banditti" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Italian Banditti</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Filomeno Gallotti was the leader of the band of nine men known as the “Italian Banditti” or “Italian Butchers.” The gang targeted young immigrants such as Leonardo Alessandri and roped them into a life of crime.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3247--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3247.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/lawrence-street-denver"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Italian-Murders-of-1875-Media-2_0.jpg?itok=V7TpOR3c" width="600" height="725" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/lawrence-street-denver" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Lawrence Street, Denver</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Lawrence Street, where the Italian Murders were committed in 1875, was generally considered a respectable neighborhood, with multiple flourishing businesses.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> <button class="carousel-control-prev" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="prev"> <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Previous</span> </button> <button class="carousel-control-next" type="button" data-bs-target="#carouselEncyclopediaArticle" data-bs-slide="next"> <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span> <span class="visually-hidden">Next</span> </button> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-04-09T10:58:00-06:00" title="Thursday, April 9, 2020 - 10:58" class="datetime">Thu, 04/09/2020 - 10:58</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/italian-murders-1875" data-a2a-title="Italian Murders of 1875 "><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fitalian-murders-1875&amp;title=Italian%20Murders%20of%201875%20"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>In October 1875, the mutilated bodies of four Italian men were discovered in a house on Lawrence Street, shocking <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> citizens. Police eventually captured and charged nine members of a gang known only as the “Italian Banditti,” all of whom pled guilty to involvement in the crime. The so-called Italian Murders unleashed fear and outrage in the “Queen City,” as Denver was known at the time. Not only had the murderers been Italian immigrants, a group most Denverites perceived as mobsters and alcoholics, but they also had managed to escape the death penalty. This outcome ignited persistent tensions over <strong>capital punishment in Colorado,</strong> with the death penalty repealed most recently in 2020 after a decade-long reform effort.</p> <h2>Grisly Discovery</h2> <p>On October 20, 1875, Officer Sherman of the <strong>Denver police</strong> accompanied N. M. Robinson to a neighborhood of tenements on Lawrence Street. Investigating a horrible stench that had grown almost unbearable for residents, Robinson and Sherman searched for what they assumed was an animal carcass that had been left somewhere to rot. They were drawn to a small frame cottage at 634 Lawrence Street, where flies had gathered on the windows.</p> <p>Upon entering the cottage, Sherman and Robinson discovered blood on the floor. The men followed the blood to a trapdoor in the kitchen, where the smell became so overwhelming that they had to retreat. When Sherman returned with deodorizing material, he ventured into the cellar, where he found the legs of two corpses protruding from under a rubbish heap. He immediately alerted the mayor and the coroner of his discovery. The coroner returned to 634 Lawrence Street with several men who had consented to bring the bodies up from the cellar. As the men started to move the pile of rubbish off the two bodies in the cellar, they discovered another two bodies. Along with the bodies, investigators found five dirk knives, three razors, and a hatchet, all stained with blood.</p> <p>The murders caused a sensation; lurid reports soon appeared as far away as Chicago and New York. According to an October 26, 1875, article in the <em>Chicago Tribune</em>, the bodies were “swollen to almost bursting” and crawling with “swarms of filthy maggots.” They were also horribly disfigured, with their throats cut from ear to ear and stab wounds all over their breasts, abdomens, shoulders, and faces. Despite the state of decomposition, several neighbors were able to identify the bodies by the clothing, which was still intact. They were the bodies of Giuseppe “Uncle Joe” Pecorra, his two sons, and a young cousin, all Italian musicians who had been living in the house.</p> <h2>Investigation and Capture</h2> <p>Sheriff <strong>David J. Cook</strong> presumed that robbery was the most likely motive for the killings and began to gather information from neighbors. John Morris, a shoemaker who had identified the shoes on Giuseppe Pecorra’s body, mentioned that “Uncle Joe” had at one point been associated with two other men, Filomeno Gallotti and Michele Ballotti. Cook learned that Gallotti and Ballotti were members of a gang called the “Italian Banditti” or the “Italian Butchers,” several members of which had not been seen in Denver for roughly a week. Cook learned that three of the men had boarded a southbound train at <strong>Littleton</strong> a few days before the discovery of the bodies, presumably headed to Mexico, and he sent officers W. Frank Smith and R. Y. Force to pursue them.</p> <p>Rumors that the murderers were Italians aggravated already tense ethnic relations in Denver. With the suspects still at large, a mob of citizens burned the house at 634 Lawrence Street because the police had not caught the murderers. Newspapers expressed these tensions, articles describing the suspects as “butchers,” “Italian Gorillas,” and “snarling mongrels.”</p> <p>On October 26, 1875, Smith and Force arrived in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/el-corazon-de-trinidad-national-historic-district"><strong>Trinidad</strong></a>, where they learned that three men had arrived one day after the murders. Quickly tracking the men to an Italian-owned saloon, Smith and Force found Michele Ballotti, Silvestro Campagne, and Leonard Alessandri and brought them to the local jail for questioning. The men had fifty dollars’ worth of greenbacks and twenty dollars in gold pieces, which Smith suspected were stolen from the slain victims in Denver. Smith also found that Campagne and Alessandri wore bloodstained undershirts; Ballotti’s bloodstained undershirt was later found back at the saloon.</p> <p>Frightened, Alessandri confessed that on Friday, October 15, he had played the harp while five other men committed the murders. He said that “Uncle Joe” and his older son were killed first, around noon, while the younger boys were out. Around one o’clock, the two younger boys returned home, and the gang killed them by cutting their throats. According to Alessandri, the murderers then took all four bodies to the cellar and stripped them of about $1,000 in greenbacks and gold pieces.</p> <p>In Trinidad, Smith and Force had found three suspects. Alessandri’s testimony, which alleged that six men had committed the murders, led Smith and Force to expand their search to New Mexico in pursuit of the other three suspects. The officers crafted a ruse to track the fugitives. Smith dressed in a gentleman’s suit and pretended to be a wealthy sheep king from New Mexico, while Force—who had a darker complexion—dressed as a laborer and asked about the Italians, calling them his partners.</p> <p>In early November, Smith and Force tracked the suspects to Taos, New Mexico. Word of a gun purchase involving gold pieces soon led to the arrests of Filomeno Gallotti and John Arratti. Acting on information from Arratti, the officers then went north to Red River to apprehend the final suspect, Henry Fernandez. The three men were taken back to Denver, where three additional members of the gang—Leonard Deodato, Frank Valendre, and a man known only as the Ranchman—were arrested at the end of the month.</p> <h2>Trial and Response</h2> <p>The Pecorra murder trial started in May 1876. All nine members of the “Italian Banditti” were tried for the murders, and all nine pled guilty to avoid execution. Arratti and Alessandri turned state witnesses, reducing their sentences to ten years each in exchange for their cooperation. Gallotti and Ballotti received life sentences, as did Frank Valendre. The rest of the men—Campagne, Fernandez, Deodato, and the Ranchman—were set free.</p> <p>Public outrage followed the sentencing. Ethnic tensions had contributed to perceptions of Italian immigrants as drunken mobsters, and many in Denver believed that murder and crime would grow as Italians continued to come to the city. Several murders later occurred in Italian saloons in the 1890s and early 1900s, but in general residents’ fears were unfounded. Nevertheless, the Italian Murders certainly stoked these fears, and the fact that the Italian Banditti escaped the death penalty added fuel to the fire.</p> <p>In addition, the seemingly light sentences handed down to the Banditti also contributed to Denver citizens’ sense that capital punishment was necessary to deter criminality. The <strong><em>Colorado Weekly Chieftain</em></strong> sharply criticized the sentences, stating that if men knew they could escape execution by pleading guilty, that would spell the end of capital punishment. If that were the case, the article warned, the “<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lynching-colorado"><strong>court of Judge Lynch</strong></a>” would start to be convened more frequently.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/kennedy-anna" hreflang="und">Kennedy, Anna</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/crime" hreflang="en">crime</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/murder" hreflang="en">murder</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/italian-murders" hreflang="en">Italian Murders</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/giuseppe-pecorra" hreflang="en">Giuseppe Pecorra</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/italian-banditti" hreflang="en">Italian Banditti</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/italian-butchers" hreflang="en">Italian Butchers</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/filomeno-gallotti" hreflang="en">Filomeno Gallotti</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/italian-immigrants" hreflang="en">Italian immigrants</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“Ballotti Found Guilty of Murder in First Degree,” <em>Colorado Weekly Chieftain</em>, May 11, 1876.</p> <p>“City and Vicinity,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain, </em>December 9, 1875.</p> <p>David J. Cook, <em>Hands Up: Twenty Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains </em>(Denver: Republican Publishing, 1882).</p> <p>“The Cut-Throats Lodged in Prison,” <em>Las Animas Leader</em>, June 9, 1876.</p> <p>“The Denver Horror: Fearful Discovery in an Unoccupied House,” <em>Chicago Tribune</em>, October 26, 1875.</p> <p>“<em>Denver Times</em> Argues in Favor of Special Term of Court to Try Italian Murderers,” <em>Colorado Banner</em>, November 18, 1875.</p> <p>“The Denver Tragedy: Confession of the Italian Who Played the Harp at the Murders,”<em> Las Animas Leader</em>, November 12, 1875.</p> <p>“Extraordinary Legislation,” <em>Colorado Weekly Chieftain</em>, May 25, 1876.</p> <p>“Gallotti Finally Confessed to Murder,” <em>Colorado Banner</em>, November 18, 1875.</p> <p>“The Italian Banditti: In the Grasp of the Law,” <em>Boulder County News</em>, November 12, 1875.</p> <p>“The Italian Butchers,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, October 29, 1875.</p> <p>“Italian Gorillas,” <em>Denver Daily Times, </em>November 10, 1875.</p> <p>“Italian Murderers Arrive in Denver After Being Captured at Taos,” <em>Colorado Miner Weekly</em>, November 13, 1875.</p> <p>“The Italian Murders in Denver,” <em>New York Times,</em> October 29, 1875.</p> <p>Andrew Kenney, “<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/23/polis-signs-death-penalty-repeal-commutes-sentences-of-death-row-inmates/">Colorado Death Penalty Abolished, Polis Commutes Sentences of Death Row Inmates</a>,” Colorado Public Radio, March 23, 2020.</p> <p>Stephen J. Leonard and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Denver: From Mining Camp to Metropolis </em>(Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1984).</p> <p>Thomas J. Noel, <em>The City and the Saloon: Denver, 1858–1916, </em>(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982).</p> <p>“The Rent of the Butchers,” <em>Denver Daily Times</em>, November 9, 1875.</p> <p>“Trial Has Commenced,” <em>Colorado Banner</em>, May 4, 1875.</p> <p>“The Trial of Deodato: Gallotti, the Chief Cut-Throat, Not Allowed to Testify,” <em>Rocky Mountain News Weekly</em>, May 24, 1876</p> <p>&nbsp;“Wholesale Murders in Denver: Four Decaying Mutilated Bodies Found in a Cellar,” <em>New York Times, </em>October 22, 1875.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Alex Hernandez, “<a href="about:blank">The Italian Murders</a>,” Denver Public Library, June 26, 2019.</p> <p>Alex Hernandez, “<a href="about:blank">The Italian Murders: A Ghostly Postscript</a>,” Denver Public Library, September 24, 2019.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 09 Apr 2020 16:58:00 +0000 yongli 3198 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Lake County War http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lake-county-war <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Lake County War</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-03-13T15:28:16-06:00" title="Friday, March 13, 2020 - 15:28" class="datetime">Fri, 03/13/2020 - 15:28</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lake-county-war" data-a2a-title="Lake County War"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Flake-county-war&amp;title=Lake%20County%20War"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Lake County War of 1874–75 grew out of a personal dispute over land and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/water-colorado"><strong>water</strong></a> rights in an area where increasing settlement was making both resources relatively scarce. The conflict ultimately turned into a test of law, justice, and state legitimacy in a frontier community.</p> <p>After Elijah Gibbs was acquitted of the June 1874 murder of George Harrington, established ranchers in the upper <strong>Arkansas Valley</strong> formed an extralegal Committee of Safety that harassed and drove away residents sympathetic to Gibbs. This culminated in the vigilantes’ murder of Judge Elias Dyer in his courtroom in <strong>Granite</strong> on July 2, 1875. The violence in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lake-county"><strong>Lake County</strong></a> provoked debate throughout <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>, with some worrying that the lawlessness threatened Colorado’s chances of attaining <strong>statehood</strong>.</p> <h2>Origins</h2> <p>The Lake County War began on June 16, 1874, near Centerville, a town north of present-day <strong>Salida</strong>, which was still part of Lake County at the time. That day, rancher Elijah Gibbs and his hired hand, Stewart McClish, got into a disagreement with neighboring rancher George Harrington over fencing and water rights along a branch of Gas Creek. The disagreement escalated into a fight, with Gibbs brandishing a gun, but all three men walked away without serious injury. That night, however, someone set fire to an outbuilding on Harrington’s property, and when Harrington went outside to douse the flames, he was shot dead. Because of their earlier altercation with Harrington, Gibbs and McClish were arrested as suspects.</p> <p>The murder and subsequent arrests acted as a catalyst in a community riven by conflict. Gibbs was a newcomer to the region but had already become associated with the Regulators, a group allegedly formed earlier that spring to enrich its members through violence and robbery. Some locals wanted him lynched for the Harrington murder, but cooler heads prevailed, keeping Gibbs and McClish safely in custody as they awaited trial in Granite, the county seat. Nevertheless, emotions remained at such a feverish pitch that the trial was relocated to <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> in an attempt to secure an impartial jury. After the trial that October, the lack of convincing evidence against Gibbs and McClish led the jury to acquit. McClish left the region, but Gibbs returned to his ranch.</p> <h2>Vigilante Justice</h2> <p>After Gibbs’s acquittal and return to Centerville in October 1874, Lake County appeared placid for the next few months. Beneath the surface, however, tensions between residents remained. They broke into the open on January 22, 1875, when a group of about fifteen locals secured a warrant for Gibbs’s arrest. Because Gibbs had already been cleared of the Harrington murder on June 17, the vigilantes charged him with intending to kill Harrington during their confrontation the previous day.</p> <p>The men armed themselves and went to Gibbs’s cabin late on January 22, supposedly to serve the warrant. When Gibbs refused to come out, the men set fire to his cabin. During the ensuing shoot-out, Gibbs and his family escaped while three vigilantes were killed—two by Gibbs, one by friendly fire. Gibbs turned himself in for the deaths but was quickly released because he was found to have acted in self-defense. He then fled to Denver.</p> <p>After Gibbs left Lake County, a group calling itself the Committee of Safety formed at the end of January. Composed of some of the most prominent men in the county, including merchant and rancher <strong>Charles Nachtrieb</strong>, the group seems to have represented early ranchers who feared and resented newcomers competing with them for water and other resources. It functioned as an extralegal judicial body opposed to Gibbs, the Regulators, and their supposed hold over the county’s normal channels of justice. Acting without any authority, the Committee of Safety questioned everyone passing through the area, detained anyone suspected of supporting Gibbs, threatened them with violence, and ordered those who refused to change their views to leave.</p> <p>The case of probate judge Elias Dyer, son of the well-known itinerant preacher <strong>John Lewis Dyer</strong>, was typical. On his way to hold court in Granite, Dyer was stopped by members of the committee and held for questioning at the Chalk Creek schoolhouse that served as the group’s headquarters. When he professed his belief in Gibbs’s innocence, he received a clear order: “You are hereby notified to resign your office as probate judge, and leave this county within thirty days, by order of the Committee of Safety.”</p> <p>Dyer complied with the order, heading straight to Denver to try to convince territorial officials to take action. But the territorial government did very little, in part because the territory had an interim governor while it awaited the arrival of <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/john-l-routt">John L. Routt</a></strong>. The acting governor, John W. Jenkins, issued a proclamation calling on “bodies of armed and lawless men” in Lake County to stop disturbing the peace. Jenkins also sent the head of the Colorado militia, David Cook, to investigate the situation. Cook’s report, published in the <strong><em>Rocky Mountain News</em></strong> on February 18, declared that he had “found no disturbance or lawless elements among the citizens, but on the contrary peace and order restored.”</p> <p>Yet the charges and countercharges flowing out of the county and being published in Denver newspapers throughout February suggested that Cook’s investigation had been incomplete. The Committee of Safety did disband, as it had assured Cook it would, but the murder of supposed Gibbs supporter Charles Harding, found shot to death along with his dog on April 1 near what is now Salida, confirmed that authority in Lake County remained contested.</p> <h2>The Assassination of Elias Dyer</h2> <p>In May 1875, more than three months after the Committee of Safety forced him to leave Lake County, Elias Dyer returned to Granite to resume his role in the regularly constituted judicial system. He traveled the county to figure out who had been involved with the Committee of Safety’s reign of terror, and by the end of May he was ready to issue warrants. The judge held off, however, because he feared retaliation. In June he resolved to proceed with the warrants, deputizing a local man to round up the suspects.</p> <p>As news of the first few arrests spread, Lake County sheriff John Weldon, who had been allied with the Committee of Safety, gathered about thirty committee members, including most of the people named in Dyer’s warrants, and came to Granite on July 2. Backed by this armed posse, Weldon demanded that Dyer hold a hearing that night. Dyer reluctantly called court into session, but immediately declared a recess until the morning because no witnesses were willing to testify against the Committee of Safety.</p> <p>Guarded by Committee of Safety members overnight to ensure that he would not leave town, Dyer suspected that the next morning’s court session would go poorly. He was right. Again, no one proved willing to testify against the Committee of Safety, so Dyer had to dismiss the charges within minutes because of a lack of evidence. As the courthouse emptied around 8:30 am, five men went up an external stairway to the second-floor courtroom, where they shot Dyer—presumably for having the temerity to pursue justice—and then mingled into the crowd outside. The identity of the murderers seems to have been an open secret, but by this point everyone had learned not to risk the wrath of the Committee of Safety by leveling charges. The coroner could conclude only that “Elias Dyer Came to his death From a rifle or pistol Shot in the hand or hands of Some person or persons unknown.”</p> <h2>Aftermath</h2> <p>After Dyer’s assassination, accounts of the violence in Lake County once again dominated the territory’s newspapers. Some editors blamed Dyer for needlessly provoking people with his warrants, while others worried about how Colorado might be perceived in the rest of the country. “There are very few people,” the <em>Rocky Mountain News</em> observed, “who will care to come to a country where probate judges are murdered by committees of safety headed by the sheriff of the county.” Members of Congress, too, might cast a skeptical eye on Colorado’s bid for statehood if it seemed that the territory had not yet attained basic standards of civilization.</p> <p>New governor John Routt, who had assumed his post in Denver, attempted to assert some semblance of authority despite having no organized militia and no money to raise one. On July 6, he issued a proclamation offering $200 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderers, but it yielded no results. Routt also made a confidential request to US army commander William T. Sherman for a cavalry company to enforce the law in Lake County, but Sherman declined to send troops. Eventually, all Routt could do was ask the next legislative session to form a militia.</p> <p>Yet even without a trial for Dyer’s killers or soldiers to support local courts, the turmoil in Lake County quickly subsided after a new probate judge and a new justice of the peace with ties to the Committee of Safety were appointed, effectively instituting the former vigilantes as the county’s legally constituted authorities. However, some of those vigilantes ultimately faced retribution, with several Committee of Safety members, including Charles Nachtrieb, coming to violent deaths over the next few years. No clear evidence tied those deaths back to the events of 1874–75, but many locals believed otherwise.</p> <p>Newspapers at the time called the conflict the Lake County War, a term that subsequent journalists and historians have adopted even though it was really an instance of domestic terrorism. No matter the name, the violence revealed clear divisions within the Upper Arkansas Valley, and its consequences reverberated for years. Above all, it showed the need for a stronger judicial system and central authority in Colorado as a growing number of residents came into conflict over scarce resources.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lake-county-war" hreflang="en">Lake County War</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/charles-nachtrieb" hreflang="en">Charles Nachtrieb</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/water" hreflang="en">water</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/upper-arkansas-valley" hreflang="en">Upper Arkansas Valley</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elias-dyer" hreflang="en">Elias Dyer</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/committee-safety" hreflang="en">Committee of Safety</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Don L. Griswold and Jean Harvey Griswold, <em>History of Leadville and Lake County, Colorado: From Mountain Solitude to Metropolis</em>, 2 vols. (Denver: Colorado Historical Society, 1996).</p> <p>John Ophus, “The Lake County War, 1874–75,” <em>Colorado Magazine</em> 47, no. 2 (Spring 1970).</p> <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Upper Arkansas: A Mountain River Valley</em> (Boulder, CO: Pruett, 1990).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Eugene H. Berwanger, <em>The Rise of the Centennial State: Colorado Territory, 1861–76</em> (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2007).</p> <p>Mark Fiester, <em>Look for Me in Heaven: The Life of John Lewis Dyer</em> (Boulder, CO: Pruett, 1980).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 13 Mar 2020 21:28:16 +0000 yongli 3182 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org The Reynolds Gang http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/reynolds-gang <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Reynolds Gang</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-04-27T15:12:21-06:00" title="Thursday, April 27, 2017 - 15:12" class="datetime">Thu, 04/27/2017 - 15:12</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/reynolds-gang" data-a2a-title="The Reynolds Gang"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Freynolds-gang&amp;title=The%20Reynolds%20Gang"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Reynolds Gang, formally members of Company A of Wells’s Battalion, Third Texas Cavalry, was a group of about fifteen Confederate cavalrymen who conducted raids and robberies in the <a href="/article/park-county"><strong>South Park</strong></a> area near the end of the <a href="/article/civil-war-colorado"><strong>Civil War</strong></a>. Initially considered to be a group of Confederate sympathizers, not actual troops, the group was known at the time and for many years after as the Reynolds Gang after two of its members, brothers James and John Reynolds. Like many of their fellow soldiers in Wells’s Texas Battalion, the brothers had lived in <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a> before the war and were jailed for supporting the Confederacy. On account of the gang’s mythologized history, reports of buried loot, and the cold-blooded execution of several of its members, the story of the Reynolds Gang reflects the strong yet often overlooked Confederate presence in Colorado during the Civil War and is regarded as one of the state’s greatest outlaw legends.</p> <h2>Civil War in Colorado</h2> <p>By 1860, tensions related to the looming Civil War ran high across Colorado Territory. Many miners in the <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> (1858–59) came from Georgia and Alabama, so the mining camps held plenty of support for the Southern cause. Prominent businessmen and military commanders in the region sent letters of support to Confederate president Jefferson Davis, assuring him that Colorado Territory could be easily secured for the Confederacy. Armed skirmishes between unionists and secessionists broke out across the state in various <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>mining</strong></a> camps and saloons, with some of the worst occurring in Georgia Gulch near <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/breckenridge-historic-district"><strong>Breckenridge</strong></a>. The fledgling territory was on the brink of chaos, and all early indicators pointed to the territory going to the Confederacy. To restore order and secure the Colorado goldfields for the Union, Territorial governor <a href="/article/william-gilpin"><strong>William Gilpin</strong></a> commissioned former Methodist preacher <strong>John Chivington</strong> as the military commander in the territory.</p> <p>James and John Reynolds were brothers who first came to Colorado Territory in late 1859, traveling with a group of prospectors who had left the placer fields and gold mines of California. Some evidence suggests that the Reynolds brothers briefly stopped at Gregory’s Diggings (<a href="/article/central-city%E2%80%93black-hawk-historic-district"><strong>Central City</strong></a>), then made their way to <strong>Tarryall</strong>, a bustling placer mining camp in South Park. By the time the brothers made it to Tarryall, all the claims had been staked, so they traveled south to a tiny new camp called <a href="/article/fairplay"><strong>Fairplay</strong></a>. At the new camp, they panned gold and eked out a living. Amid rising national tension, Jim and John Reynolds, along with a third Reynolds—a man named George who was either another brother or a cousin—left the goldfields of Fairplay in the summer of 1861. No record exists of the exact date the men left town, but their names would appear again in Colorado lore a few months later.</p> <h2>Mace’s Hole</h2> <p>In the late summer and fall of 1861, over 600 Colorado Confederates rallied in a secluded valley about thirty miles southwest of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-0"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a> at an old trading post called Mace’s Hole. South of the <a href="/article/arkansas-river"><strong>Arkansas River</strong></a>, the Colorado Territory was almost entirely supportive of the Confederacy, and soon every available rifle, pistol, and provision in the region was funneled into Mace’s Hole. Capt. George Madison assumed command of the Colorado Confederate volunteers at Mace’s Hole, and Confederate general <strong>Henry Sibley </strong>gave Madison direct orders to disrupt mail service, capture Union supply columns, and secure the Colorado goldfields for the Confederacy. Word soon spread to Union troops in Colorado about the rebel encampment, and troops were sent to intervene before Madison could put the Confederate plan into action.</p> <p>Many of the Mace’s Hole Confederates were away on recruiting missions when Union forces descended on the encampment in October 1861. The federal troops drove the remaining Confederates into the surrounding hills, and many retreated to Sibley’s army in New Mexico. After the skirmish, a handful of Confederates were taken prisoner and marched to <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, where they were jailed and charged with treason. A recently discovered newspaper clipping from the <em>Colorado City Journal</em> dated November 28, 1861, lists the names of forty-four men taken prisoner at Mace’s Hole. Among the names on the list were James Reynolds and John Reynolds.</p> <p>In January 1862, a group of armed men launched a failed attempt to free the imprisoned Confederates from the Denver City Jail. On February 27, 1862, with the help of a guard named Jackson Robinson, a second attempt successfully freed thirty-six of the forty-four men, including James and John Reynolds. The archives of the Third Texas Cavalry, Confederate States of America, show that the Reynolds brothers and the mysterious “George Reynolds” enlisted in Company A of Wells’s Texas Battalion in 1863. Muster sheets indicate that several of the men in the unit as being among those captured at Mace’s Hole in 1861. Under the command of Gen. Douglas Cooper, Wells’s Battalion made its way into New Mexico and Colorado Territories in 1864, and it was under Cooper’s orders that the Reynolds Gang appeared in South Park.</p> <h2>The Reynolds Gang in Colorado</h2> <p>In the summer of 1864, during the waning stages of the Civil War, local newspapers began referring to a group of bandits plundering towns and stagecoaches in South Park. The bandits were actually a group of Confederates from Company A of Wells’s Battalion. Led by James Reynolds, the group had official orders to disrupt Union supply trains and gather Confederate recruits from the mining camps. Soon after the group’s first few stagecoach robberies—near Kenosha Pass, Como, and Fairplay—local papers dubbed the group the Reynolds Gang and started blaming them for every missing penny, distant gunshot, or unexplained bump in the night. Accounts of what the gang stole range widely—from a few jars of gold dust and a pocket watch to several hundred thousand dollars in coins, paper money, arms, and jewelry. Some accounts state that the plunder was to be funneled back to the Confederacy, while others claimed the loot went to the gang members themselves.</p> <p>Union forces in Colorado became aware of the gang after it robbed stagecoach driver Abner Williamson, who relayed the tale of the robbery to anyone within earshot. Following the robbery of the stage station at <strong>Kenosha Pass</strong>, a posse of angry citizens and law enforcement officers from Fairplay, Jefferson, and Montgomery was formed to apprehend the gang. On July 31, 1864, the posse stumbled upon the gang, tipped off by the flickering flames of their campfire along a creek near present-day Grant. A shootout ensued, and members of the gang fled on foot and on horseback.</p> <p>At daybreak, the posse discovered that one outlaw died in the skirmish. The identity of this man has been debated over the years, but whoever he was, the posse from South Park severed his head and carried it around as a trophy of their exploits. The rest of the gang had split up and disappeared into the hills. Several days later, five gang members had been located and captured. At least two more members—some say three—including John Reynolds, made their escape into New Mexico Territory, last seen by the troops of the Third Colorado Territorial Cavalry heading south from the Spanish Peaks. The escaped bandits’ trail soon went cold, and it was accepted that they had escaped to New Mexico Territory. Meanwhile, the five captured members of the gang were beaten, interrogated, and put on trial in Denver. Accused of rape, murder, and robbery, the men were found guilty only on the charge of robbery and ordered to march to <strong>Fort Lyon</strong> for sentencing.</p> <h2>End of the Gang</h2> <p>The original plan was for the five Confederate prisoners to await the return of the commanding officer at Fort Lyon, who would issue their sentences. But this was apparently not enough for Colonel Chivington, who colluded with his subordinate officers to make it seem like the prisoners brought about their own execution. Some thirty miles south of Denver, in present-day <a href="/article/douglas-county"><strong>Douglas County</strong></a>, Sgt. Alston Shaw, the ranking officer of the escort, ordered the prisoners blindfolded and shackled together around the trunk of a large tree near an old springhouse. Shaw then ordered his men to execute the prisoners, but they refused, protesting that the captives were military prisoners of war, guilty of only robbery and placed under their protection. Shaw again ordered his troops to fire. This time, all but one soldier raised their rifles into the air and fired over the heads of the shackled prisoners. Only one prisoner fell dead, killed by cavalry guard Abner Williamson—the stagecoach driver who had earlier been robbed by the band. With his men clearly unwilling to carry out his orders, Shaw himself shot the next prisoner in the head at point-blank range, but then he reportedly became sickened at the sight and refused to kill another. Williamson finally took over and murdered the rest of the prisoners.</p> <p>Per Chivington’s orders, official reports claimed the prisoners were shot for attempting to escape. But word of the Reynolds Gang’s execution soon traveled to Confederate sympathizers in the region, including the famous Colorado trader <strong>“Uncle” Dick Wooton</strong>, who set out to find the bodies of the dead men. Upon reaching Russellville, Wooton found the decomposing corpses of the five men shackled hand-in-hand around a tree. Outraged, Wooten demanded to know how five men could be shot while attempting to escape if they were shackled to a tree. An inquiry was opened, and testimony by members of the escort described the true events of the day, not the “escape” story fabricated by Chivington. Recently discovered documents show that on February 6, 1865, the convictions of the captured Confederate soldiers of the Reynolds Gang were overturned, and the men were posthumously pardoned. Chivington was found to have acted alone and against orders when he directed Shaw to carry out the executions. Chivington had all his personal records regarding the case destroyed shortly before his death in 1894, partly explaining why the true story had been silenced for more than a century.</p> <p>In 1871, seven years after the shootout near Grant, two men were involved in a gunfight near Taos, New Mexico, following an attempted cattle theft. One of the men was named John Reynolds, and on his deathbed he confessed a tale of buried treasure in the hills west of Denver. He described the 1864 shootout in detail and drew a crude map of the approximate location of the plunder. Without a doubt, this was the same John Reynolds who escaped the posse in July of 1864 and fled south into New Mexico.</p> <h2>Legacy</h2> <p>It is said that “history is written by the victors,” and in the case of the Reynolds Gang, this is very true. Described as brigands, rapists, and murderers in history books today, long suppressed documents now tell a different story. We now know that the Reynolds Gang was an official group of Confederate soldiers acting on direct military orders to disrupt Union supply lines in Colorado Territory. In summer 1864, these Confederate soldiers were captured, tried, found guilty of robbery, and then unlawfully executed. Their case was reviewed, and their convictions overturned. Unfortunately, to this day the victor’s version of events is still told, and the bodies of these Civil War soldiers lay in unmarked graves somewhere in Colorado, vilified by history and forgotten by time.</p> <p><strong>Adapted from</strong><strong> “</strong><a href="https://lifedeathiron.com/2015/04/26/exonerating-the-reynolds-gang-debunking-colorados-greatest-outlaw-legend/"><strong>Exonerating ‘The Reynolds Gang’—Debunking Colorado’s Greatest Outlaw Legend</strong></a><strong>,” <em>Life . . . Death . . . Iron </em>(blog), April 26, 2015.</strong></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/eberle-jeff" hreflang="und">Eberle, Jeff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/reynolds" hreflang="en">Reynolds</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/gang" hreflang="en">Gang</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/reynolds-gang" hreflang="en">Reynolds Gang</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/chivington" hreflang="en">Chivington</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/confederates-colorado" hreflang="en">confederates in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/civil-war-colorado" hreflang="en">civil war colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/civil-war" hreflang="en">Civil War</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/park-county" hreflang="en">Park County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/fairplay" hreflang="en">fairplay</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-reynolds" hreflang="en">john reynolds</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jim-reynolds" hreflang="en">jim reynolds</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henry-hopkins-sibley" hreflang="en">henry hopkins sibley</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-territory" hreflang="en">Colorado Territory</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>David J. Cook and John W. Cook, <a href="https://archive.org/details/handsuporthirtyf00cook"><em>Hands Up; or, Thirty-Five Years of Detective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains</em></a> (Denver: W. F. Robinson, 1897).</p> <p>Gary Goodson Sr., <em>Slaghts/Fairville/Shawnee, Colorado: Historical Sketches, 1859–2005 </em>(Centennial, CO: Cottrell, 2012).</p> <p>Alice Polk Hill, <em>Colorado Pioneers in Picture and Story</em> (Denver: Brock-Haffner, 1915).</p> <p>Walter Earl Pittman, <em>Rebels in the Rockies: Confederate Irregular in the Western Territories </em>(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014).</p> <p><em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, October 26, 29 and November 18, 21, 28, 1861; February 27, 1862; July 26–29, 1864; August 2–4, 8, 13, 1864; September 9, 1864.</p> <p>Ralph C. Taylor, <em>Colorado South of the Border </em>(Denver: Sage Books, 1963).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>R. W. Benoit, <em>The Reynolds Gang: Confederate Outlaws with a Cause</em> (CreateSpace, 2012).</p> <p>Eugene B.&nbsp;Block, <em>Great Stagecoach Robbers of the West</em> (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962).</p> <p>Forbes Parkhill,&nbsp;<em>The Law Goes West</em> (Denver: Sage Books, 1956).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 27 Apr 2017 21:12:21 +0000 yongli 2498 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org The Bloody Espinosas http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bloody-espinosas <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Bloody Espinosas</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2484--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2484.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/tom-tobin"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Espinosas-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=11GYF651" width="1000" height="1302" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/tom-tobin" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Tom Tobin</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Portrait of Tom Tobin, the tracker and army scout who brought an end to the Espinosa gang's murderous rampage in Colorado in 1863.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-04-27T10:42:13-06:00" title="Thursday, April 27, 2017 - 10:42" class="datetime">Thu, 04/27/2017 - 10:42</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bloody-espinosas" data-a2a-title="The Bloody Espinosas"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fbloody-espinosas&amp;title=The%20Bloody%20Espinosas"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The so-called Bloody Espinosas were two brothers—some contend they were cousins—and a nephew who terrorized southern Colorado in the early 1860s. On their vengeful rampage, Felipe, Vivian, and José Espinosa killed dozens of people and remain Colorado’s most prolific serial killers. Today, the Espinosas live on in the canon of western myth and as one of the most violent chapters in Colorado’s territorial period.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Espinosa Family</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The family of Pedro Ignasio Espinosa and his wife, Maria Gertrudes Cháves, resided in the hamlet of El Rito, some thirty-five miles west of Taos, New Mexico Territory. The couple had two daughters and three sons, including Felipe Nerio Espinosa (born in 1828 and the eldest of the boys) and his younger brother, José Vivian Espinosa (born 1831). Even as a young man, Felipe was known as somewhat of a hothead. Around 1854 Felipe married seventeen-year-old Maria Secundida Hurtado. In 1858 the couple moved with their two children to San Rafael, two miles west of <strong>Conejos</strong>, at the west end of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-luis-valley"><strong>San Luis Valley</strong></a> in what would soon be <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>. By 1862, Vivian Espinosa joined his brother, and the two farmed, herded sheep, and rustled horses. At one point, the Espinosas robbed a wagon carrying freight to a priest who operated a trading post in northern New Mexico Territory.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Robbing the priest’s supply wagon proved to be a mistake. The priest notified Gen. James H. Carleton in Santa Fe, who sent word to <a href="/article/fort-garland-0"><strong>Fort Garland</strong></a> in southern Colorado that the Espinosas should be arrested. US marshal George Austin and sixteen soldiers proceeded to the Espinosa cabin near San Rafael. Attempting to get the Espinosas to Fort Garland without a confrontation, the lieutenant told the pair he was on a recruiting trip and asked them to join the army. They declined, and a gunfight followed in which a Mexican corporal was killed. The Espinosas fled and the soldiers looted their cabin. Felipe now vowed revenge on the Anglos. Around March 10, 1863, Felipe and Vivian rode northward from San Rafael to begin their private war.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Killings Begin</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>On March 18, 1863, Francis William Bruce left his log cabin south of <strong>Cañon City</strong> bound for his sawmill twelve miles up Hardscrabble Creek. His horses and empty wagon returned alone to the cabin, and his body was found near the mill, shot through the heart. His gun was still in its holster. Bruce was the Espinosas’ first victim. The next day, Henry Harkens worked all day around his cabin at Little Fountain Creek, southwest of <strong>Colorado City</strong>. He was busy chinking his logs, hanging a blanket for a door, and chatting with his partners at a nearby sawmill. That evening, Harkens’s friends approached his cabin and noticed that no lamplight could be seen between the logs or through the door opening. They came closer and discovered Harkens shot once in the head, which had also been split open by an ax. His chest had two big ax gashes.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The two passersby apparently had interrupted the murderers in the act of ransacking Harkens’s cabin. A sheriff and deputy out of Hardscrabble traced the killers to Colorado City, <strong>Manitou</strong>, and up <strong>Ute Pass</strong> toward <strong>Fairplay</strong>. The next day, the lawmen came upon the body of J. D. Addleman; he had been shot through the head at his remote ranch on the Ute Pass road. They rode back to Colorado City to report the murders. Next, men named Binkley and A. N. Shoup were found murdered by the Kenosha House way station, near the fledgling Fairplay mining camp. The next day, May 2, Bill Carter was found slain near Alma. Two days later, near Fairplay, Fred Lehman and Sol Seyga were found shot and beaten to death.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>With the body count rising, a fearful public demanded that territorial officials bring the murderers to justice. But lawmen and military troops were widely scattered, and at that moment, nobody knew who was responsible for the slayings. With the Civil War in progress, some theorized that the terrorists were Confederate sympathizers from Texas.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lehman and Seyga lived in California Gulch and had many friends there—tough prospectors who vowed to prevent any more killing. They called a general meeting to discuss a plan and raise funds for a sustained manhunt. Seventeen men volunteered to set out immediately, with John McCannon as their leader. At the same time, the militia was dispatched to guard Fairplay, and Company I of the Second Regiment of <strong>Colorado Volunteers</strong> was ordered from <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> to patrol the area around Cañon City. A break came when lumber freighter Edward Metcalf was ambushed between Alma and Fairplay. His body toppled over his wagon seat after he was shot and his oxen bolted and dashed back to Fairplay. There Metcalf met the McCannon posse on its way south and gave a description matching the two men who had fled from the Fort Garland soldiers a month earlier. Now authorities knew who their targets were, and the newspapers came up with a name for them: the “Bloody Espinosas.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Vivian’s Death</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The killers had adeptly covered their trail, but a few days later McCannon’s men spotted two horses grazing in a meadow near the mouth of Four Mile Creek. As Vivian Espinosa approached the horses, posse member Joseph M. Lamb fired, striking Vivian in the left side. He fell before raising himself on an elbow and firing back. Posse member Charles Carter fired, striking Vivian between the eyes and killing him instantly. On his body was found an “article of agreement” indicating that the Espinosas intended to kill 600 whites to avenge the loss of family property. Vivian also carried a leather pouch with a note stating that his father had been a murderer and that Vivian was compelled to commit fifty additional murders to expiate his father’s restless soul. The posse promptly cut off Vivian’s head and took it back to Fairplay as a trophy of the “remarkable chase.” For years, a well-known doctor kept the bleached skull and Vivian’s rifle went to a private collector.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>With Vivian dead, Felipe Espinosa emerged from a ravine, but as the sharpshooters set their sights on him, McCannon mistook him for one of his own men and ordered a cease-fire. In the lull, Felipe bounded into the brush and escaped. At the Espinosa campsite, the McCannon posse found personal effects from four of the murder victims before returning to California Gulch as heroes. On his way south, Felipe killed two more men, their names unknown, near Cañon City. Back at Conejos, he became concerned that Vivian might still be alive and retraced his steps back to Four Mile Creek. There he located and buried Vivian’s body before returning to San Rafael with his brother’s dried foot as a memento.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Felipe Renews the Fight</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Felipe recruited a nephew, sixteen-year-old José Vincente Espinosa, to travel north with him and resume the slaughter in retaliation for Vivian’s death. On June 30, they killed fisherman William Smith near Conejos. From Fairplay to New Mexico Territory, public terror grew daily. Freighters feared being on the roads and nearly all travel and commerce stopped unless accompanied by military troops. No mail entered or left <strong>South Park</strong> without guard; ranchers abandoned their properties and fled to more populated areas. Governor <strong><a href="/article/john-evans">John Evans</a>,</strong> along with the commander of the Colorado Military District, Col. <strong>John Chivington</strong>, and President Abraham Lincoln’s chief secretary, John George Nicolay, traveled to Conejos to negotiate a treaty with the <a href="/search/google/ute"><strong>Utes</strong></a>. While there, Chivington and Evans attempted to soothe public anxiety over the Espinosa murders. The Espinosas learned of the trip, and on September 4, they dispatched a message to Evans, requesting pardons and asking the governor to restore property to the Espinosa family. If their message was ignored, they pledged to kill Evans at the first opportunity. The threat went unheeded.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On October 10, 1863, the Espinosas attacked a buggy occupied by a man named Philbrook and a woman, Dolores Sanchez, northeast of Fort Garland. When both mules pulling the wagon were killed, Philbrook and Sanchez fled in opposite directions as the Espinosas torched their wagon. Sanchez, whom the Espinosas referred to as “that prostitute of the American,” was caught, bound, raped, and released—the Espinosas had still only killed one Mexican, the corporal at their initial standoff with the law. Later, Sanchez and Philbrook reunited at Fort Garland, both offering a full description of their attackers.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Enter Tom Tobin</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As the military stationed in Fort Garland, Cañon City, and Fairplay continually failed to catch the Espinosas, Fort Garland’s commander, Lt. Col. Sam Tappan, summoned famed tracker and army scout Tom Tobin to find the killers. Tobin was hard, gruff, taciturn, fearless, and an incredible marksman. On October 12, 1863, Tobin and Lt. Horace W. Baldwin of Company C of the First Colorado Cavalry, fifteen soldiers, a civilian named Loring Jinks, and a youth named Juan Montoya struck northward after the Espinosas. It only took Tobin one day to locate the assassins’ tracks near present-day <strong>La Veta Pass</strong>, west of <strong>Walsenburg</strong>. After following the trail for two days, the posse noticed a group of crows and magpies circling a clearing, evidence that someone was in the area.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As Tobin crept up on the Espinosa camp, he saw Felipe dressing a carcass for food. Tobin stepped on a twig, and hearing it snap, Felipe lunged for his gun. Tobin shot first, wounding Felipe in the side, and the outlaw tumbled into the campfire as he shouted for his nephew to flee. As Tobin reloaded, José ran out of the ravine into an aspen grove. Three of the soldiers set their sights on José and fired. They missed, but Tobin did not—he shot the fleeing boy in the lower back, breaking his spine. Meanwhile, Felipe had pulled himself from the fire and was groping around blindly for his revolver. According to Tobin’s memoir,</p>&#13; &#13; <p>I had run down to where he was. . . . A soldier went to lay his hand on him. I said, “look out, he will shoot you.” Felipe fired but missed the soldier. I then caught him by the hair, drew his head back over a fallen tree and cut it off.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Felipe’s diary Tobin found a record of the Espinosas’ killings, a total of thirty-two. To this day, the Espinosas remain Colorado’s most prolific serial killers. Tobin, the victorious hunter, placed the Espinosas’ heads in a burlap sack and returned to Fort Garland the next day, October 16, 1863.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Adapted from Clark Secrest, “‘The Bloody Espinosas’: Avenging Angels of the Conejos,” <em>Colorado Heritage </em>20, no. 4 (2000).</strong></p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bloody-espinosas" hreflang="en">Bloody Espinosas</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bloody-espinosas-0" hreflang="en">The Bloody Espinosas</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/vivian-espinosa" hreflang="en">Vivian Espinosa</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/felipe-espinosa" hreflang="en">Felipe Espinosa</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/tom-tobin" hreflang="en">Tom Tobin</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Alton Pryor, <em>The Meanest Outlaws in the Wild West</em> (Roseville, CA: Stagecoach Publishing, 2014).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bob Scott, <em>Tom Tobin and the Bloody Espinosas</em> (Baltimore, MD: Publish America, 2004).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 27 Apr 2017 16:42:13 +0000 yongli 2482 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org William “Bat” Masterson http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-bat-masterson <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">William “Bat” Masterson</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3782--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3782.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/william-bat-masterson"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Bat_Masterson_%2814783196015%29_0.jpg?itok=yzYLij9O" width="375" height="642" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/william-bat-masterson" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">William &quot;Bat&quot; Masterson</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-%E2%80%9Cbat%E2%80%9D-masterson"><strong>William "Bat" Masterson</strong></a> was born to a Canadian family who emigrated to the American <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado%E2%80%99s-great-plains"><strong>Great Plains</strong></a> in the nineteenth century. He rose to fame due to his exploits as a bison hunter, civilian scount, and gambling. To this day, he remains one of the most famous figures of the nineteenth-century West.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-01-17T13:06:32-07:00" title="Tuesday, January 17, 2017 - 13:06" class="datetime">Tue, 01/17/2017 - 13:06</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-bat-masterson" data-a2a-title="William “Bat” Masterson"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fwilliam-bat-masterson&amp;title=William%20%E2%80%9CBat%E2%80%9D%20Masterson"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>William Barclay “Bat” Masterson (1853–1921) was a US marshal whose life and work in the American west during the mid-to-late 1800s granted him legendary status in the region’s folklore. In Colorado, where he spent several years during the 1880s, Masterson’s run-ins with the law and other important figures in the state enjoyed regular mention in the press. Remembered as a romantic figure of the “Wild West,” an oft-mythologized period in American history, Masterson’s life story nonetheless illustrates the real and rapid changes unfolding in American society near the end of the nineteenth century.</p> <h2>Arrival in Colorado</h2> <p>If few people today are aware that Bat Masterson was a prominent resident of Colorado during the last two decades of the nineteenth century, even fewer know that he spent his last twenty years in the Times Square District of New York City, where he achieved new renown as a boxing authority, newspaper columnist, and Broadway celebrity. It was during his time in Colorado that Masterson made the transition from Wild West lawman to big-city journalist and sports expert.</p> <p>Masterson probably saw Colorado for the first time when he passed through in 1876 on his way from Dodge City, Kansas, to the new gold fields in the Black Hills of the South Dakota Territory. He was back again in 1879 at the head of a large force of mercenaries that included the celebrated gunmen Ben Thompson and <strong>Doc Holliday</strong> to do battle in the “<strong><a href="/article/royal-gorge">Royal Gorge </a>War</strong>.” That struggle, which pitted the <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande</strong> <strong>Railroad</strong> against the <strong>Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe</strong> <strong>Railroad</strong> for the right-of-way through the gorge to the booming silver camp at <a href="/article/leadville"><strong>Leadville</strong></a>, proved to be a farcical affair, with most of the battles fought in the courts and very little bloodshed. The transition from gunfights to court dates was just one sign that the “Wild West” Masterson now symbolizes was already becoming more subdued.</p> <p>At that time, Masterson was the duly-elected sheriff of Ford County, Kansas, and held a deputy US Marshal’s commission, but he lost both badges later that year when he failed to be reelected as sheriff. He was therefore stripped of all legal authority when he participated in a shootout in Dodge City in April 1881. City officials fined him and drummed him out of town. Following a stint as a professional gambler, Masterson roamed the west for a year before accepting appointment as city marshal at <strong>Trinidad</strong>, Colorado. For the next twenty years Masterson made his home in the Centennial State.</p> <h2>Marshal Masterson</h2> <p>Shootings and street crime declined significantly while Masterson was Trinidad city marshal. In enforcing the law, he often used physical force, as reported in the pages of the <em>Trinidad Daily Democrat</em>: “Marshal Bat Masterson received a severe bat on the head from a cane in the hands of a drunken man yesterday whom he was in the act of arresting,” and “Bat Masterson, our city marshal, in a scuffle to arrest a man on Sunday evening, lost a valuable diamond ring for which he will reward the finder if returned to him.” Masterson never once resorted to gunplay, however. During his tenure as marshal, there was only one fatal shooting in Trinidad, and that was in a battle between two other lawmen.</p> <p>In May 1882, the mythic west again rode into Masterson’s life when his close friend Wyatt Earp visited him in Trinidad. He came with a group of gunmen fresh from their famous vendetta ride in Cochise County, Arizona. There, they had hunted down and killed several of those they believed responsible for the murder of Wyatt’s brothers, Morgan and Virgil. One of Earp’s gunmen, the gambler and occasional dentist Doc Holliday, went on to <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, where he was jailed for involvement in one of the Arizona murders.</p> <p>Masterson did not care for the hard-drinking and irascible Holliday, but Holliday was Wyatt Earp’s friend, so Masterson went to Denver to do what he could to extricate him from the law. Masterson argued Holliday’s case in the Denver papers, claiming that if returned unarmed and defenseless to Arizona, Holliday would certainly be murdered by his enemies. Enlisting the aid of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo-0"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a> City marshal Henry Jamieson, Masterson filed a trumped-up charge of running a bunco game in Pueblo against Holliday in an effort to thwart the extradition case. Together with E. D. Cowen, capitol reporter of the <em>Denver Tribune</em>, Masterson persuaded Colorado governor<strong> Frederick W. Pitkin</strong> to refuse extradition. Jamieson took Holliday to Pueblo, where he was released on bond. Thereafter, whenever the threat of extradition loomed, Holliday obtained repeated bunco-related charges. This went on until Holliday’s death in <a href="/article/glenwood-springs"><strong>Glenwood Springs</strong></a> five years later.</p> <h2>Love and Business</h2> <p>After a year as Trinidad’s city marshal, Masterson lost his reelection bid. He went back on the gamblers’ circuit, traveling in and out of Colorado during the next few years. By 1886 he had more or less settled in Denver, where he became involved in a dispute over Nellie McMahon, a talented (and married) singer. After Masterson publicly pistol-whipped her husband, Lou Spencer, he eloped with McMahon to Dodge City. Back in Denver a few days later, Masterson learned that Spencer, distraught by the loss of his wife, had been arrested in an opium den and bailed out of jail by a friend named Bagsby. Masterson promptly confronted Bagsby in the rough-and-tumble Murphy’s Exchange Saloon at 1617<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/larimer-square"><strong> Larimer Street</strong></a>, an establishment known as “the Slaughterhouse.” After a heated exchange, Masterson pistol-whipped Bagsby, and a pistol shot rang out as bar patrons rushed for the exits. Police arrived minutes later to find Bagsby wiping blood from his head while a doctor attended to Masterson, who had been struck in the leg by a bullet. The story went that the wound was accidental, caused by a pistol dropped by one of the crowd during the panicked scramble. No charges were filed.</p> <p>Masterson was drawn to the theatrical world, and a couple of years later, he managed Denver’s <strong>Palace Variety Theater and Gambling Parlor</strong>, a large brick building at the corner of Blake and Fifteenth streets. Opened twenty-three years earlier by gambling kingpin <strong>Ed Chase</strong>, the palace was the scene of many shootings. Henry Martyn Hart, dean of the St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, called the place a “death-trap to young men, a foul den of vice and corruption.” Even though they had eloped and possibly entered into a common-law union, Masterson and McMahon were never officially married; at the Palace, Masterson met Emma Matilda Walter, a blonde singer and dancer from Philadelphia with whom he would spend the rest of his life.</p> <p>Reformers led by Dean Hart succeeded in closing the palace’s doors in 1889, indicative of the temperance movement that was gaining momentum across the country. For a time, Masterson managed the Arcade Saloon at 1613 Larimer Street, an establishment from which he reportedly led the mayor by the nose. Joining the 1892 rush to the booming mining camp at <a href="/article/creede"><strong>Creede</strong></a>, he oversaw a combination saloon and gambling house called the Denver Exchange. Although he did not hold a lawman’s post in Creede, a correspondent for the <em>St. Louis Globe Democrat</em> reported that he was “generally recognized in the camp as the nerviest man of all the fighters here … all the toughs and thugs fear him as they do no other dozen men in camp. Let an incipient riot start and all that is necessary to quell it is the whisper, ‘There comes Masterson.’”</p> <p>When Creede busted, Masterson returned to Denver, where he engaged in his final act of gunplay, inadvertently shooting and wounding a precinct clerk during an altercation at an Arapahoe Street polling place in April 1897. The issue was settled out of court, and charges were never filed.</p> <h2>Boxing</h2> <p>During the 1880s and 1890s, Masterson became increasingly involved in boxing. Prizefighting developed as a sport in the nineteenth century, and was initially controlled by gamblers. Although Masterson never fought professionally, as a gambler he had forged close ties with those involved and became closely identified with the evolving sport.</p> <p>For forty years Masterson attended almost every important fight held in the United States, and was personally involved as a manager, handler, ring official, promoter, and newspaper commentator. In Denver he managed several prominent fighters, including John P. Clow, for whom he claimed the Rocky Mountain Heavyweight championship, as well as Billy Woods, “Denver Ed” Smith, and Patrick J. “Reddy” Gallagher. He was a close friend and trainer of Charlie Mitchell, an English middleweight who once fought American heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan to a draw lasting three hours and thirty-nine rounds. In 1893 the <em>National Police Gazette</em>, America’s barbershop bible, proclaimed Masterson “the king of Western sporting men [who] back pugilists, can play any game on the green with a full deck, and handles a Bowie or revolver with the determination of a Napoleon.”</p> <p>Bare-knuckle prizefights had long been banned in Denver, but with the introduction of padded gloves and limited numbers of three-minute rounds, boxing matches were permitted. In May 1895, Masterson took a job in New York working as a bodyguard for George Gould, son of <strong>Jay Gould</strong>, the financier and railroad tycoon. In New York, Masterson wrote a Denver friend that he had gone fishing with the Goulds on their yacht and attended the races with George, who gave him $5,000 in cash to amuse himself with the horses. Masterson won another $5,000 betting on the races, but the next day gave it all back to the bookies. He liked New York so well, he said, that he doubted he would ever return to Colorado. Masterson’s comfortable New York gig ended abruptly when the police apprehended Gould’s stalker. Masterson returned to Denver and his gambling and boxing enterprises.</p> <p>Following nearly a decade of intermittent feuding with Denver newspapers; several boxing promoters; and a string of bosses, editors, and colleagues, Bat Masterson left Denver for the final time in May 1902. He went to New York, the city that had enthralled him seven years earlier. There, in the metropolis of the east, the man of the west found new fame as a newspaper columnist and Broadway celebrity until his death on October 25, 1921.</p> <p><strong>Adapted from Robert K. DeArment, “Bat Masterson and the Boxing Club War of Denver,” <em>Colorado Heritage Magazine</em> 20, no. 4.</strong></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bat" hreflang="en">Bat</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/masterson" hreflang="en">Masterson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bat-masterson" hreflang="en">Bat Masterson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/william-barclay-bat-masterson" hreflang="en">william barclay bat masterson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/us-marshal" hreflang="en">us marshal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bat-masterson-colorado" hreflang="en">bat masterson in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/wild-west" hreflang="en">wild west</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Robert K. DeArment,&nbsp;<em>Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend</em> (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).</p> <p>Robert K.&nbsp;DeArment, <em>Gunfighter in Gotham: Bat Masterson’s New York City Years</em> (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2013).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 17 Jan 2017 20:06:32 +0000 yongli 2157 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Thomas E. Ketchum http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/thomas-e-ketchum <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Thomas E. Ketchum</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1875--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1875.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/thomas-ketchums-hanging"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Thomas-E.-Ketchum-Media-1---Copy_0.jpg?itok=v4yy8gou" width="1000" height="776" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/thomas-ketchums-hanging" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Thomas Ketchum&#039;s hanging</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Sheriff Salome Garcia of Union County, New Mexico tightens the noose around the neck of Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum prior to his hanging in Clayton, New Mexico. Also on the gallows are Sheriff O.T. Clark of Las Animas County, Colorado; Detective H.J. Chambers of Chicago, Illinois; Trinidad citizen C. de Baca; Dr. J.C. Clark; and a priest, Father Dean. The hanging would decapitate Ketchum.</p></div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-09-21T15:46:42-06:00" title="Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - 15:46" class="datetime">Wed, 09/21/2016 - 15:46</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/thomas-e-ketchum" data-a2a-title="Thomas E. Ketchum"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fthomas-e-ketchum&amp;title=Thomas%20E.%20Ketchum"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Thomas “Black Jack” Ketchum was a famous outlaw in the late 1800s who, along with his brother Sam and their gang, was responsible for a number of high-profile robberies and murders. While his criminal career achieved great notoriety, it was Ketchum’s eventual hanging, which was badly botched by New Mexico sheriffs and resulted in his decapitation, that garnered the most attention and elevated his life to the status of near-myth. Today, Ketchum’s legacy lives on in dozens of sordid accounts of his activities in newspapers and the cinema.</p> <h2>Early Life</h2> <p>The crimes of the famed James gang were prominently reported in the national press of the 1870s and 1880s. Among those exposed to Frank and Jesse James and their contemporaries could have been Tom and Sam Ketchum, impressionable young men growing up in the 1870s near San Angelo, Texas. Tom, the youngest of three brothers, and Sam, the middle boy, tried ranching but soon realized that there were easier ways to make money. The boys initially were given over to mischief and petty thievery. But while their eldest brother, Berry, became one of the wealthy stockmen of Texas, Sam and Tom became robbers. Their thieving spanned only five or six years. It cannot be determined how many jobs the Ketchum brothers pulled because they were charged in conjunction with only a few holdups. However, other crimes were attributed to them.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Tom’s first flirtation at accosting a train came in 1890 in Clayton, New Mexico, some forty miles south of the Colorado border. Having just arrived there with a northbound trail herd from Roswell, Ketchum hid behind a pile of railroad ties and peppered the seat of a railroad engineer’s overalls with a peashooter as the trainman bent over to oil the drive wheels. When the trainman went for his gun, Tom fled. That would be the most innocent prank that Tom would perpetrate. His first criminal act apparently came on December 12, 1895, when he was in on the shooting of John N. Powers on Powers’s ranch south of Knickerbocker, Texas. It was probably a murder for hire contracted by Powers’s wife, who was arrested. Tom, Dave Atkins, and Bud Upshaw were indicted by a grand jury, but they could not be found; when Tom heard about the indictments, he struck out for New Mexico as Atkins and Upshaw headed for Arizona.</p> <h2>Train Robbers</h2> <p>On June 11, 1896, Tom and Sam Ketchum looted the Liberty, New Mexico, general store and post office operated by Levi and Morris Herzstein. Soon, Levi and four other men began following the brothers’ trail. The Ketchums were finishing a meal when Herzstein’s posse came thundering down on them. When the shooting was over, Herzstein was dead and the Ketchums fled, never to be charged in the killing. Tom was given the sobriquet “Black Jack” after southern Arizona highwayman Will “Black Jack” Christian, who was killed in April 1897, even though the pair had only met once. Tom later tried to disown the “Black Jack” label because he felt that some of Christian’s crimes would be blamed on his gang. Tom, Will Carver, and Atkins began their train-robbing adventures two hours after midnight on May 14, 1897, just outside the southwest Texas crossroads of Lozier.</p> <p>Ketchum and Carver scrambled across the coal tender and at gunpoint ordered the train’s engineer, George Freese, to stop the train a mile ahead. There, Atkins was waiting with dynamite and had already cut the telegraph wire. The stalwart safe required three charges of explosives to blow, and the job took two hours; but the trio soon galloped toward New Mexico and their favorite Turkey Creek hideout with a loot bag bulging with a reported $42,000. They settled into their hideaway cave, making occasional trips to Cimarron or <strong>Trinidad</strong>, in Colorado. At the cave, the boys spent a leisurely summer, resting and planning their next move.</p> <h2>Robbing the <em>Texas Express</em>, Part I</h2> <p>On the night of September 2, 1897, the Ketchum brothers, Carver, and Atkins camped alongside the Union Pacific, Denver &amp; Gulf tracks just south of the village of Folsom in northeastern New Mexico. At 10 am the next day, train Number 1, the <em>Texas Express</em>, pulled out of Denver’s <a href="/article/union-station-0"><strong>Union Station</strong></a> on its usual thirty-one-hour run to Fort Worth. At 9:10 pm the <em>Express</em> stopped briefly in Folsom, where two of the outlaws boarded the coal car undetected. The train resumed its trip, and in its lamplighted cars, passengers prepared to retire. As the little train slowed to make the grade at Twin Mountain, the two men descended into the cab and ordered the engineer to stop on a sweeping curve two miles ahead.</p> <p>The two remaining robbers came aboard and set off their dynamite, but the strong safe refused to open. Frustrated, one robber placed fourteen sticks of dynamite on the safe and put a side of beef on top of it to dampen the concussion. The huge explosion finally busted the box open. The bandits disappeared into the dark, but this time, their take was something between $2,000 and $3,000 and a shipment of silver spoons. As soon as word of the holdup reached Folsom, posses from Clayton and Trinidad started out in pursuit. Northeast New Mexico, previously a quiet place, was now crawling with lawmen. The gang at this point appears to have quietly disbanded and scattered, with Black Jack remaining in southern New Mexico, pulling off a few post office stickups for pocket change and amusing himself with the occasional cattle roundup.</p> <h2>Activity Resumes</h2> <p>The quiet could only last so long. On December 7, 1897, the Ketchum boys and their “chummies”—Ed Cullen, Atkins, “Broncho Bill” Walters, and Carver—targeted a job at Stein’s Pass along the New Mexico-Arizona border. They first accosted the Southern Pacific depot at the pass for a paltry take of twelve dollars and twenty-five cents and a .44 Winchester. Tom and Broncho Bill cut the telegraph wires and proceeded down the right-of-way a mile, where they built a bonfire on both sides of the tracks and secured the horses while Sam and the others waited at the station to commandeer the train. Anticipating a stickup, the railroad had placed numerous guards on the train. The two sides exchanged gunfire for nearly half an hour and Cullen died, his final exclamations being, “Boys, I’m gone! Boys, I’m dead!”</p> <p>The gang limped to retreat without having gained access to even one train car. Leaving Arizona and crossing New Mexico, the Ketchums, Carver, and Atkins made for Val Verde County, Texas, where the Bud Newman gang had made a good haul from Southern Pacific train Number 20 some sixteen months earlier. As was sometimes the practice in train robbery, once a vulnerable location had been established, other gangs would strike there, and that was precisely what the Ketchum gang sought to do. On April 28, 1898, as Number 20 pulled out of the Comstock station, two of the Ketchum gang crawled across the coal tender to the cab, forced the train to stop, uncoupled the express car, and applied dynamite and fuse. The mammoth explosion was so large that it blew a barrel-sized hole in the roof and splintered one side of the car. The thieves rummaged around in the wreckage, found the loot they were after, and disappeared—with no posse in sight.</p> <h2>Robbing the <em>Texas Express</em>, Part 2</h2> <p>In summer 1899, Tom’s moods and temper finally resulted in the breakup of the gang. Atkins decided to reform, and even Sam Ketchum abandoned his brother. Carver threw in with Sam to form a new gang. Following a string of largely unsuccessful robberies as a new gang, Carver died in a shootout with Sheriff E. S. Briant of Sonora, Texas, on April 2, 1901. Sam and his gang attempted to rob the <em>Texas Express </em>out of Folsom for a second time on July 11, 1899. While the robbery itself proved marginally successful, a posse tracked down the gang and Sam suffered a gunshot wound to the arm. After he refused the amputation of his arm, he succumbed to blood poisoning and died on July 24, 1899.</p> <h2>Robbing the <em>Texas Express</em>, Part 3</h2> <p>Meanwhile, Tom remained out on his own and unaware of the July 11 robbery and the death of his brother. Now he planned a third holdup of the <em>Texas Express</em>—the third time a Ketchum would attempt such a robbery at the same location. Tom camped at Twin Mountain the night of August 16, 1899, awaiting the southbound <em>Express</em>. He hid on the coal tender during the train’s brief stop in Folsom. About halfway to the Twin Mountain grade, Black Jack held up the engineer and fireman, asking them “if they would kindly stop when he told them to.”</p> <p>In the baggage and mail car, postal clerk Fred Bartlett knew something was amiss and stuck his head out of the door to take a look. Tom fired his rifle, taking off one side of Bartlett’s jaw. Bartlett staggered to the day coach and gasped to conductor Frank Harrington, “Frank, I’m killed. They’re robbing the train again.” Bartlett actually survived his wounds and Harrington, who had been on the train for both robbery attempts and vowed to fight back if it happened again, fired a shotgun at Tom, striking him with eleven buckshot pellets just above the right elbow.</p> <h2>The End of Black Jack Ketchum</h2> <p>The train proceeded to Clayton, where the sheriff deputized a posse and started for the robbery scene. The next day, the posse found Ketchum, weakened from blood loss. He was transported to the Mt. San Rafael Hospital in Trinidad. There, doctors determined that his arm was shredded beyond repair and recommended amputation. Tom attempted suicide by wrapping bandages around his neck, so he was transferred to the Santa Fe prison, where Dr. Desmarias performed the amputation several days later without the benefit of anesthesia of any kind. Ketchum stood trial in Clayton on September 6, 1900. On September 10, the jury handed down a guilty verdict, and Judge William J. Mills scheduled the hanging date for October 5, 1900.</p> <p>Despite their total take—estimated today at $100,000 to $180,000—their links through shared personnel with Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, and the fact that the Ketchums were feared from Colorado throughout the Southwest, they are remembered today less for their criminal accomplishments than for how Tom Ketchum finally died. Indeed, Ketchum’s hanging would prove to garner more attention in the press than any other act in his criminal career. A fifteen-foot rope had been received from the police chief at Kansas City, who suggested a drop of seven feet at the gallows. Detective H. J. Chambers of Denver, who had been recruited to help Sheriff Salome Garcia as executioner, strongly argued that four feet six inches would be ample for a man of 193 pounds. Lewis Fort, representing the governor’s office, lengthened the rope to five feet six inches, prompting Garcia to lengthen it again to six feet, before the whole party agreed at five feet nine inches.</p> <p>Black Jack’s left arm was chained to his thigh, and his right sleeve hung loose. The executioners removed his bow tie and unbuttoned his collar, placing the black hood over his head and positioning the rope. Black Jack allegedly said, “Let ’er go, boys,” and Sheriff Garcia, who some in the crowd alleged to be drunk, swung his hatchet at the trap door’s release, missing badly. He swung again, and Ketchum’s body swung down seven full feet to the ground. The <em>Denver Times</em> wrote the next day:</p> <p style="margin-left:.5in;">Every one of the large crowd within and without the stockade held their breath and their hearts gave a bound of horror when it was seen that his head had been severed from his body by the fall. His body alighted squarely upon its feet, stood for a moment, swayed, and fell, and then great streams of red, red blood spurted from his severed neck, as if to shame the very ground upon which it poured. Every face turned pale. . . . The head rolled aside and the rope, released, bounded high in the air and fell with a thud on the scaffold. The head was sewn back on the trunk and the body immediately prepared for burial.</p> <p><strong>Adapted from Clark Secrest, “‘Black Jack Died Game’: The Bandit Career of Thomas E. Ketchum,” <em>Colorado Heritage Magazine</em> 20, no. 4 (2000).</strong></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/thomas" hreflang="en">Thomas</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ketchum" hreflang="en">Ketchum</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/thomas-ketchum" hreflang="en">Thomas Ketchum</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/black-jack" hreflang="en">Black Jack</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/tom-ketchum" hreflang="en">Tom Ketchum</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/black-jack-ketchum" hreflang="en">Black Jack Ketchum</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-outlaws" hreflang="en">colorado outlaws</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/outlaws" hreflang="en">outlaws</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Jeffrey Burton,&nbsp;<em>The Deadliest Outlaws: The Ketchum Gang and the Wild Bunch</em> 2nd ed. (Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2009).</p> <p>Tony Hillerman,&nbsp;<em>The Great Taos Bank Robbery and Other Indian Country Affairs</em>, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 21 Sep 2016 21:46:42 +0000 yongli 1873 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org The “Nude” Silks-Fulton Duel http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/nude-silks-fulton-duel <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The “Nude” Silks-Fulton Duel</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1865--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1865.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/mattie-silks"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Silks%20Media%201_0.jpg?itok=gDyaSCMi" width="400" height="564" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/mattie-silks" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Mattie Silks</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Denver Madame Mattie Silks, participant in an 1877 altercation that became known as the "Nude Duel," operated a brothel at Twentieth and Market streets in the late nineteenth century.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-09-21T14:28:02-06:00" title="Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - 14:28" class="datetime">Wed, 09/21/2016 - 14:28</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/nude-silks-fulton-duel" data-a2a-title="The “Nude” Silks-Fulton Duel"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fnude-silks-fulton-duel&amp;title=The%20%E2%80%9CNude%E2%80%9D%20Silks-Fulton%20Duel"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The so-called Nude Duel was a legend that sprouted from a drunken brawl involving two well-known madams—Mattie Silks and Kate Fulton—at Denver Gardens in 1877. Although the original accounts of the fight are hardly remarkable, the story took on a life of its own thanks to the diligent exaggerations of Forbes Parkhill and several other authors. The Nude Duel is a textbook example of how myths were formed in nineteenth-century Colorado and the broader American West.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Dueling in Denver</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>A duel was a prearranged encounter between two people wielding deadly weapons, usually in accordance with a set of rules. Almost exclusively a gentlemen’s game, dueling was conducted in ancient times and was especially common in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France. To a lesser extent, dueling occurred in America throughout the nineteenth century, with at least two duels recorded in the <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a> (1861–76). Sectional politics or matters of love were most often the cause.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> in 1877 was a fairly unsophisticated but increasingly prosperous town of nineteen years, with a population of 20,000. Colorado had just become a state, and good times were returning after a grasshopper infestation that decimated the economy. Denver was also hungry for diversion by 1877. Hardy residents had rough edges but longed for the amusement and culture of their old homes back East. In addition, Colorado women had sought equal <a href="/article/womens-suffrage-movement"><strong>suffrage</strong></a> that year, but men voted it down; it would not arrive until 1893. In the face of tough economic times and limited personal freedoms, some young women in Denver turned to prostitution in order to make ends meet. Despite a thriving temperance movement, Denver’s saloons, gambling dens, and bordellos were open day and night.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Denver Park, immediately southwest of town, was established in 1872 in an effort to diversify Denver’s leisure-time choices. The park encompassed 46 acres, about half of which were covered by a thick grove of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cottonwood-trees"><strong>cottonwood</strong></a>, box elder, and <a href="/article/conifers"><strong>evergreen</strong></a> trees. However, it lay beyond the jurisdiction of Denver police and had open bars where beer flowed day and night. Consequently, Denver Park and nearby Olympic Garden attracted an unsavory clientele that park managers seemed powerless to control. The 1876 Fourth of July festivities passed, thankfully, with no unseemly interruptions; but by August 1877, the grove was again a location to be avoided by upstanding citizens.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Players</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Few in town might have regarded Mattie Silks and Kate Fulton as upstanding. Silks and her beau, Cort Thomson, had become lovers in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/georgetown%E2%80%93silver-plume-historic-district"><strong>Georgetown</strong></a> and had lived in Denver for fewer than six months. Silks quickly developed an unsavory presence in Denver and was fined twelve dollars for drunkenness in March 1876. Silks and Thomson were wed in 1884 and remained married until his death in 1900. During that time, Silks became well known throughout the West as a madam in an indispensable vocation—prostitution. But Thomson drank and gambled away her money, embarrassed her, beat her, and cheated on her. Meanwhile, Kate Fulton, another madam, arrived in Denver a few months before Silks.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Brawl in the Park</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>There are only two known accounts of the incident at Denver Park on August 24, 1877—one from the <em>Denver Times</em> and another from the <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>. A third document, a court record, emerged in 2006, during a renewed investigation into what would later be known as the Nude Duel. On a Friday night, Silks and Fulton were both drinking at the Denver Park bar. When the pair began arguing loudly, Cort Thomson stepped up, said he would fight Silks’s battles, and punched Fulton in the face. Another man, Sam Thatcher, attempted to restore peace and was also punched in the face by Thomson. A number of Thomson’s friends then descended upon Thatcher, with Fulton placing herself between Thatcher and the attackers. For this she received a kick to the face that shattered her nose. Thomson then drew a gun before being knocked to the ground and disarmed. After the parties separated, Thomson was returning to Denver by wagon when somebody ran up to the carriage and fired a shot that grazed the back of his neck. Fulton would leave on the morning train for Kansas City, unsure of the Denver Police Department’s capability or desire to arrest her. By all contemporary standards, the incident was no duel—it was a drunken brawl.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>A Legend is Born</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The following morning, Silks and Thomson were back at Silks’s bordello in the 1900 block of present-day Market Street, tending to hangovers and Silks’s bruises, as Thatcher recuperated across the street at Fulton’s brothel. On the Tuesday following the Friday night melee, Silks filed a threats complaint against Fulton with District Attorney D. B. Graham.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Enter the so-called reporter Forbes Parkhill. Born in Denver in 1892, Parkhill developed an early interest in journalism, beginning as a street-corner newsboy, and eventually writing for five Denver papers plus papers in New York City and El Paso, Texas. While writing in El Paso in 1915, Parkhill so embellished a story about Pancho Villa that his editor pronounced it a work of short fiction and suggested that Parkhill conduct his writing activities in that direction. Novellas, pulp westerns, adventure stories, mysteries, and motion picture scripts soon followed. By 1950, Parkhill was preparing a book-length collection of breezy anecdotes from Denver’s past, and he recalled hearing of an 1877 confrontation between two Denver madams. A trip to the library revealed the <em>Denver Times</em> article of August 25, and Parkhill noticed the first sentence of the <em>Rocky Mountain News </em>account, which stated that “Mattie Silks and Kate Fulton were principals, two men, Thatcher and Thompson [<em>sic</em>] were seconds.” Parkhill saw the words <em>principals</em> and <em>seconds</em>, both of which implied a duel. In 1951 Parkhill’s <em>The Wildest of the West</em> contained these surprising declarations:</p>&#13; &#13; <p style="margin-left:.5in;">This is the story of lovely Mattie Silks, the fastest woman in all the West, and her knight in tarnished armor, Coreze D. Thomson, who tried hard to be the fastest man. It begins with an account of the only known formal pistol duel ever fought between women. This duel was on the night of August 25, 1877, in the Olympic Gardens at Denver. The principals were Mattie Silks and Katie Fulton. Feminine marksmanship being what it is, Mattie missed Katie, and Katie missed Mattie, but Cort was shot in the neck.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Parkhill gets almost every particular wrong in this account: the date, the location, the word <em>duel</em> (used twice), the assumption of a duel in which the women shot at each other, and Fulton’s first name (she never went by “Katie”). Further into the chapter, Parkhill speculated that the fight was a consequence of romantic expressions between Fulton and Thomson—but quickly added that no such motive was known to be a fact. The jealousy theory would be repeated as fact by other writers for the next fifty years. Parkhill also wrote that the Denver Park party was a celebration of Silks’s winning $2,000 in an earlier bet and that a doctor treated Thomson’s wound at the scene.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Duel Goes Nude</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>According to contemporary newspaper reports, none of the things that Parkhill claimed actually happened. Nevertheless, over the ensuing decades Colorado historians of every stripe published and re-embellished his sordid account of the fight. Somewhere in the piling on of myths, the two madams lost their shirts. The earliest suggestion of a topless scenario is in Robert L. Perkin’s <em>The First Hundred Years</em>, although Perkin’s wording suggests he got the idea from somewhere else. Even relatively well-respected authors such as <a href="/article/caroline-bancroft"><strong>Caroline Bancroft </strong></a>could not resist adding to the collection of books, stories, movies, and plays written about the incident. As the years went by and access to historical records improved, the original newspaper articles slowly made the rounds of publishers, editors, and western authors, and the truths behind the fight slowly reemerged. But in the meantime, dozens of popular interpretations of the “duel” were widely published and read.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Silks-Fulton skirmish is among the most inviolable legends in Colorado history. It has long been represented not only as a duel but as the first duel between two women—and later as the first duel between two shirtless women. Of course, the available evidence doesn’t support any of these later versions. Even when interpreted at its highest level of significance, the Denver Park scenario represents little more than the town’s first drive-by shooting. Silks and Fulton were not major players in the histories of Denver or Colorado, but the titillating, self-perpetuating, and reckless sensationalism imposed upon their story is a textbook example of runaway historical revisionism.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado history is rife with similar examples, such as the story of <strong>killer rats</strong> atop <a href="/article/pikes-peak"><strong>Pikes Peak</strong></a>, or the many myths surrounding the life of <strong>Margaret Brown</strong>. The reader can ponder innumerable other historical accounts that were tinkered with over the decades, influencing how today’s readers might regard an entire region. People love a good story, which is why Colorado’s topless duel will certainly be around for another century and might be even less recognizable by then compared to today.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><strong>Adapted from Clark Secrest, “Escapade beneath the Cottonwoods: Revisiting Colorado’s ‘Nude Duel that Will Not Die,’” <em>Colorado Heritage Magazine</em> 26, no. 3 (2006).</strong></p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/nude-duel" hreflang="en">Nude Duel</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mattie-silks" hreflang="en">Mattie Silks</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/kate-fulton" hreflang="en">Kate Fulton</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/silks" hreflang="en">Silks</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/fulton" hreflang="en">Fulton</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/nude-duel-0" hreflang="en">The Nude Duel</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/silks-fulton-duel" hreflang="en">Silks-Fulton Duel</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Michael Rutter, <em>Upstairs Girls: Prostitution in the American West</em> (Helena, MT: Farcountry, 2005).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 21 Sep 2016 20:28:02 +0000 yongli 1864 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Cotopaxi Train Robbery http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cotopaxi-train-robbery <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Cotopaxi Train Robbery</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-08-15T15:57:50-06:00" title="Monday, August 15, 2016 - 15:57" class="datetime">Mon, 08/15/2016 - 15:57</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cotopaxi-train-robbery" data-a2a-title="Cotopaxi Train Robbery"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcotopaxi-train-robbery&amp;title=Cotopaxi%20Train%20Robbery"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The 1891 Cotopaxi train robbery typified a new era of crime in the American West—robbing trains carrying railroad and federal property—and set off one of the highest-profile manhunts of the era. The robbers, Peg Leg Watson and Bert Curtis, took thousands of dollars in cash and gold bars from a Denver &amp; Rio Grande train and evaded authorities for weeks before being caught by famed Pinkerton detective Tom Horn and legendary lawman Cyrus W. “Doc” Shores. Today, the robbery is remembered as one of the signature crimes of Colorado’s Wild West era.</p> <h2>Train Robbery in Colorado</h2> <p>As railroads reached farther into the remote western frontier in the late nineteenth century, highwaymen began to target these wealthy empires of steel. Colorado was notorious for such highwaymen. By the 1880s, most states and territories west of the Mississippi River were victims of one or more such holdups. In an effort to curb this crime wave, legislatures passed laws imposing harsh penalties against train robbers, including the death penalty in some places.</p> <p>Rail lines played an essential role in the development of early Colorado by supplying the many mining camps strewn across isolated mountain valleys and hauling precious metals to market. As early as 1881, robbers hijacked a <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong> train between <a href="/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a> and <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, taking a reported $100,000. As other robberies took place in Colorado and throughout the West, railroad and express companies employed detective agencies such as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to combat them.</p> <h2>Cotopaxi Robbery</h2> <p>In an atmosphere of growing alarm, holdup artists struck a Denver &amp; Rio Grande train near <strong>Cotopaxi</strong> on the evening of August 31, 1891. The bandits selected a remote whistle-stop near the west entrance to the Arkansas River’s <a href="/article/royal-gorge"><strong>Royal Gorge</strong></a>, about twenty-five miles west of <strong>Cañon City</strong>. While some of the robbers fired shots into the air to intimidate passengers, others made their way to the treasure car. Not realizing that the mail and the express were hauled in the same car, they mistakenly broke into the postal compartment. They quickly retreated, not wanting to run the risk of federal charges. When the bandit leader ordered express messenger A. C. Angell to open his door, Angell fired into the darkness without success. Angell finally admitted the bandits, who took $3,600 in cash and gold bars and then rode southward into the rugged vastness of the <strong>Wet Mountain Valley</strong> along the eastern slope of the <strong>Sangre de Cristo</strong> <strong>Mountains</strong>.</p> <p>To many lawmen, there was little doubt as to who had committed the robbery. A loose aggregation of thugs and petty thieves, sometimes called the Wet Mountain Gang, had plagued the region for many years. Their leader was Richard McCoy, who had a ranch on the south bank of the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/arkansas-river">Arkansas River</a>,</strong> within eyesight of the Cotopaxi station. “Old Dick,” as he was called, was a former member of William Quantrill’s guerillas in the Civil War and was considered a hard man. Local residents feared that McCoy’s sons—Joseph, Charles, Thomas, and Streeter—were following in his footsteps. On December 18, 1888, Dick and Joseph shot and killed Wilbur Arnold, a cattle detective investigating rustling in the Arkansas Valley. Both men were arrested and indicted, but Dick was out on bail and awaiting trial when the Cotopaxi robbery took place. Joseph had recently escaped from the Cañon City jail.</p> <p>While investigators assumed that the McCoy band committed the Cotopaxi robbery, it was not clear how many robbers were involved. Initial reports said seven persons were present. One robber was said to have been a woman, but this report was never verified. Subsequently, law officers concluded that Peg Leg Watson, Bert Curtis, William Parry, and George Boyd were the principals in the holdup, but that the McCoys and their friends had aided and abetted in the crime. While the amount of money taken was not large, the daring and recklessness of the robbers provoked an outcry. The public demanded that the offenders be hunted down. <em>The</em> <em>Denver Republican</em> expressed the fear that the Cotopaxi robbery might persuade people elsewhere in the nation to place Colorado in the same unfortunate category as Missouri, where the James Gang went on a robbery spree a few years earlier.</p> <h2>The Manhunt Begins</h2> <p>The quick response of Colorado authorities gratified these concerned journalists. Since the robbery took place in <a href="/article/fremont-county"><strong>Fremont County</strong></a>, Sheriff James Stewart had immediate jurisdiction in the case. While Stewart was away from his office at the time of the holdup, a deputy led a posse to Cotopaxi early on the morning of September 1, 1891. As the US government had a standing $500 reward for capturing any mail robber, citizens as far away as Denver turned out to lend a hand. Within twenty-four hours of the robbery, posses were converging on the Sangre de Cristos from all directions. As many as 100 men scoured the region. Sheriff Stewart, who had borrowed a pack of bloodhounds from <strong>Trinidad</strong>, was confident that the bandits would not escape, as the area’s mountain passes were blocked as far south as <a href="/article/fort-garland-0"><strong>Fort Garland</strong></a> and <strong>Alamosa</strong>. One reporter wrote confidently from Fort Garland that “a general round-up” of the thieves was expected on the following day, September 3.</p> <p>The pursuit of the Cotopaxi bandits was very disorganized, and many locals repeatedly mistook members of the various posses for the bandits themselves, spreading confusion and false reports all over the region. Thomas Horn, one of the posse members, was a veteran fresh from the Geronimo campaign in Arizona. Horn had been hired by the Pinkerton Agency in April 1890 on the recommendation of Doc Shores, the lawman famous for capturing <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/alferd-packer"><strong>Alferd Packer</strong></a>. Although Horn believed that he had stumbled across the tracks of the Cotopaxi robbers, the various posses in the hunt were constantly disrupting his efforts. In fact, Horn had been placed under arrest twice in as many days and had to be taken to <strong>Salida</strong> to be identified as a detective. A few days later, Horn and Shore followed a fruitless lead into northern New Mexico, where they tracked a heavily armed group of four suspects into the vicinity of Taos only to discover that they were cattlemen on legitimate business.</p> <p>As the search for the Cotopaxi bandits floundered, tempers flared among the posses. The railroad detectives resented Horn and Shores, who they viewed as outsiders. Shores also clashed with Sheriff Stewart. After a week of frenetic activity, a sudden lull appeared to have occurred in the chase. On September 7, the <em>Republican</em> reported that “the last clue had been lost.”</p> <p>These reports proved to be part of a plan to catch the elusive highwaymen. The authorities deliberately called off the manhunt, according to one newspaperman, in order to lull the robbers into a false sense of security. Engaged in what was called a “still hunt,” investigators hoped that sooner or later the bandits would become impatient and venture forth from their mountain hideaway. As the Pinkerton contingent pulled out, Horn stood trial for his robbery charge in Reno, and the jury found him not guilty. While many Nevadans believed Horn was guilty as charged, he was thus free to resume the hunt for the Cotopaxi bandits.</p> <h2>The Manhunt Intensifies</h2> <p>In late September, “Black Bill” Kelly, a <a href="/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano County</strong></a> deputy sheriff, reported overhearing a conversation between two men dressed as hobos in a night camp near Trinidad. Their talk led him to believe they were in on the train robbery. Kelly even produced a false mustache that he picked up after the two mysterious men broke camp. He believed that one of the highwaymen wore the disguise at Cotopaxi but, unfortunately, he was unable to relocate the campsite when prompted by Shores, Horn, and Deputy Frank Owenby. Shores was livid and Horn and Owenby showed a disposition to kill Kelly on the spot, but Shores stepped in and cooler heads prevailed.</p> <p>Kelly’s tip did prove accurate after all. When Shores and Horn returned to Denver, they received a corroborating report that Watson and Curtis, dressed as hobos, had been spotted near Trinidad. Since the August 31 robbery, they had been holed up in a camp near the McCoy ranch. The McCoys and the Price brothers supplied them with food and kept them informed about posse movements. Acting on this latest report, a Huerfano County posse, including Kelly, picked up the outlaws’ trail. When the posse overtook the pair southeast of Trinidad, Watson and Curtis laid in ambush and caught their pursuers by surprise, robbing the officers and forcing them to return to Trinidad in disgrace. The bandits fled to New Mexico, where they engaged in a shootout at a Clayton saloon. Although Curtis sustained a gunshot wound to his side, the pair managed to escape into Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).</p> <h2>Confrontation in Indian Territory</h2> <p>After riding over 500 miles in pursuit of the pair, Shores and Horn learned of two men matching Curtis and Watson’s description were staying with a farmer named Polk near Washita in Indian Territory. When Shores and Horn approached the Polk residence, Curtis leapt up from his bed on the outside porch and surrendered to the lawmen immediately. After binding Curtis’s hands with the only available material—Mrs. Polk’s apron strings—Shore and Horn learned that Watson had gone to Texas to visit his brother and would return in a few days. Horn remained at the Polk residence as Shore escorted Curtis back to Colorado by train. When Watson returned several days later, Horn waylaid and captured him without resistance, and the pair returned to Colorado by rail. In the following weeks, Horn and Shore would manage to chase down and capture other members of the McCoy gang.</p> <p>Years after the Cotopaxi robbery and the McCoy gang saga, Horn continued to serve in various law enforcement and detective capacities until his career went awry. As a livestock detective in Wyoming, he was suspected of murdering alleged rustlers for the big cattle companies. After honorably serving as a civilian packer in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898, Horn returned to his old job on the Wyoming ranges. Five years later, he was hanged in Cheyenne for the murder of a fourteen-year-old boy.</p> <p><strong>Adapted from Larry D. Ball, “Audacious and Best Executed: Tom Horn and Colorado’s Cotopaxi Train Robbery,” <em>Colorado Heritage Magazine</em> 20, no. 4 (2000).</strong></p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/tom-horn" hreflang="en">Tom Horn</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/cotopaxi-train-robbery" hreflang="en">Cotopaxi Train Robbery</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/train-robbery" hreflang="en">Train Robbery</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pinkerton" hreflang="en">Pinkerton</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Jay Monaghan,&nbsp;<em>Tom Horn: Last of the Bad Men </em>(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997).</p> <p>Arthur Orrmont,&nbsp;<em>Master Detective: Allan Pinkerton </em>(New York: J. Messner, 1965).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 15 Aug 2016 21:57:50 +0000 yongli 1689 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org