Death Comes to Albuquerque 

Joe Chancellor and the Killing of Marshalls McGuire and Henry - 20 Nov. 1896

Joe Chancellor began life as an outlaw at an early age. Born in 1867 and raised in Texas, by the time his family moved from their home in Ellis County to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1885 Joe was already showing his criminal tendencies. By the fall of that year Chancellor (real name Joe Evans) using the name "Kid" Johnson was already stealing horses in central New Mexico with his new partner Charlie Ross

On Saturday, Nov. 20, 1886, newly appointed town marshal, Michael Robert “Bob” McGuire learned that two cowboys, accused of stealing horses had been seen at Pasqual Cutinola’s dance hall in Martinez Ttown near the northern edge of Albuquerque. Thinking he had proper warrants McGuire took his deputy,  E. D. Henry to the dance hall to attempt an arrest.

On arriving at the dance hall they found that the two young desperados, Charlie Ross and “Kid Johnson,” had already left the premises with two young women.  Those questioned presumed that the foursome had not gone far and were somewhere nearby. Glancing in a window of a small adobe house, about twenty feet south of the dance hall, McGuire and Henry spotted the two men seated at a supper table eating with the two young women, Simona Noya and Terecita Trujillo. The two officers, walking to the closed door of the house formed a simple plan to capture both outlaws. They would throw open the door and, with drawn guns, rush the two, McGuire rushing Johnson, and Henry rushing Ross, thereby capturing them by surprise.

Having just finished eating, Kid Johnson asked for a glass of water. Miss Trujillo picked up a water pitcher and opened the door to fetch water from a nearby well just as the two police officers burst through it. All three, caught by surprise, ended up in a pile of bodies in the doorway. McGuire quickly rose and rushed for Johnson while Henry started after Ross. The two girls, both extremely frightened, dove for safety under the beds. Then the shooting started, Henry shot at Ross, Ross shot at both Henry and McGuire, McGuire shot at Johnson, and Johnson shot wildly in all directions.

When it was all over, Deputy E. D. Henry lay on the floor dead with two bullets to the chest, and one to the leg, McGuire lay in the doorway mortally wounded with two bullet wounds in the side, and another one in his arm. Johnson and Ross fled the scene taking different directions. Johnson wounded slightly in the neck and also in the foot got to his horse first and fled town. Ross, being more severely wounded with a slight wound to the head, and a bullet lodged in his back, made his way to a friend’s home near Old Town and collapsed on the bed.

The next morning, The County Sheriff tracked Ross to Old Town and made an arrest for the murder of Henry and the wounding of McGuire, as McGuire had not yet died. Johnson, having fled town was not able to be tracked and was able to completely escape. Johnson later joined up with an Ox train near the Rio Puerco where he was treated for his wounds before moving on.

Marshal McGuire lived until November 26th when he finally died from his wounds.

Charlie Ross and “Kid” Johnson were never prosecuted for the killings of either McGuire or Henry. “Kid” Johnson whom the Albuquerque Morning Democrat described as “full of cowboy swagger, wears a Chihuahua hat, and wears his pants in his boots,” was never caught nor arrested for this crime, though he did serve two subsequent terms in prison for other crimes. Charlie Ross remained in jail until January 17, 1887, when he escaped with a fellow prisoner Peter Trinkhaus, leaving a note to the Democrat stating in part:” Please write in your paper that hearing there is a reward offered for my partner Johnson that I have gone to find him. Tell the boys not to feel uneasy about my absence as the weather is such that they might take cold, it may be better to stay at home. We’ll turn up in time, and don’t you forget it. [signed] C. Henry Ross with his hair parted in the middle.”

Both Ross and Trinkhaus were captured a few weeks later after attempting to derail and rob a train. In the meantime, the Grand Jury after investigating all of the facts of the shooting, determined that the shooting was in self-defense. McGuire had not obtained a proper warrant, and both McGuire and Henry were disguised in such a way that Ross and Johnson had no idea that they were police officers when they charged in and started shooting.

Once recovered from his wound, "Kid" Johnson, or John "Kid" Johnson as he was sometimes called, who was actually Joe Evans, the son of George W. Evans, the new Colorado & Southern train land agent, once absolved of the killing of McGuire and Henry returned to Albuquerque where he continued to his troublesome ways.

Martinez Town 1898 Suburb of Albuquerque Scene of the Death of Albuquerque City Marshall Robert McGuire, and Deputy E. D. Henry 20 November 1886

 

 

 

 

Joe Chancellor, unknown member of the Wild Bunch

Occasionally, from the murky depths of old west and outlaw history a new face will rise and float to the surface. Outlaws who, during their time were were notorious for their crimes and villainy . Through the years however, as memories have faded, they have been lost to history. Such was the case with lawman George Scarborough and outlaws such as George Musgrave (High Five or the "Black Jack" Christian gang), Tom Capehart and Dave Atkins (Ketchum gang), Ben Kilpatrick, Will Cruzan, (Wild Bunch) George Flat Nose Currie (Hole in the Wall gang) Broncho Bill Walters, Herbert Grice,  and others. These have, until recently, have been either ignored or forgotten, and as a result, dumped into the dust bin of history. When outlaws like these have been mentioned it has been only in passing, or they have been relegated to footnotes. Only recently has their notoriety been resurrected.

One outlaw however has been so shadowy and mysterious, so hidden in the background,  that most historians, even today, have either never heard of him or do not understand his importance in outlaw history. That outlaw was known as Joe Chancellor,  a New Mexican outlaw of some note of the 1880s and 1890s. He was a close friend to Tom Ketchum and Will Carver. A mortal enemy of fellow outlaw Dave Atkins. He was a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch and knew Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Harvey Logan personally. He participated in many of their robberies and depredations. He was also a Pinkerton informant. So valuable to the Pinkertons that they based many of their reports on his information.

After the demise of the Wild Bunch Chancellor was completely forgotten, or ignored in favor of more famous outlaws. So much so that over the years Joe Chancellor has been confused by historians with many different outlaws. In Wyoming he was misidentified as Tom O'Day a sometime member of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang. In Texas he was confused with Will Cheney of Christoval, friend of the Ketchums and sometimes informant for the Pinkertons (Jeffery Burton The Deadliest Outlaws). In New Mexico he was mixed up with Charles Collins aka RedWeaver a fellow member of the Ketchum gang (Erna Fergusson, Murder & Mystery in New Mexico,1948). Even the Pinkertons kept up a perplexing debate between 1904 and 1916 as to just who he was, trying to decide if he was Dave Atkins or not.

However, Joe Chancellor was also a valuable source for early writers who wrote on the demise of the outlaw gangs of the West. He was possibly the unnamed informant to early western writer Michael Williams author of "Real Men of Arizona" a collection of articles that appeared in Pearson's Magazine in 1912 and to Carl B Livingston "Hunting Down the Black Jack Gang," Wide World magazine 1933. Both articles early sources of information on the Ketchum  Gang and the Wild Bunch. In New Mexico he was an acquaintance of Elfego Baca noted gunman, lawman, lawyer, and politician in New Mexico. He also sat down for interviews with noted New Mexican newspaperman and historian George Fitzpatrick.

Joe Chancellor aka Joe Evans 1895 

So who were some of those that got away?

So welcome to my blog.

The title kind of speaks for itself. The outlaws the got away. Specifically who of the Wild Bunch got away and did not pay for their crimes? Most, at least those who ever watched the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, read Charles Kelly's The Outlaw Trail: The Story of Butch Cassidy, or have seen the famous Fort Worth Five photo of 1900 know who or what the Wild Bunch was. But who were the core members of the group? and who were the lesser members or associates that comprised the larger Wild Bunch? That and what happened to these men is what this blog is all about.