Bat Masterson: The Most Feared Lawman of the Wild West

This episode is brought to you by CuriosityStream, a subscription streaming service that offers thousands of documentaries and non-fiction titles for just $2.99 a month. Get a 30-day free trial by clicking the link in the description below. More on them in just a bit.

A mild-eyed man who was said to have killed 26 people—that was the title of an article published in the New York Sun in 1881, detailing the exploits of Bat Masterson. Even for the Wild West, that was a huge number and almost unheard of for a man of the law. However, there was a good reason this claim wasn’t widely accepted: it wasn’t true. The article was penned by a gullible city reporter who was too eager to learn and write about the rough and tumble adventures on the frontier. But it was popular and exciting, and it got reprinted all over the country. Just like that, Masterson’s reputation was made as one of the most feared gunslingers of the West.

Don’t get us wrong, though—Bat Masterson was no stranger to gunfights, as you’re about to find out. He had been involved in a shootout or two and plenty of other violent adventures, but his body count was much lower. In fact, during a libel trial, while under oath, Masterson estimated that he had killed three men and claimed that all of the shootings had been justified. Masterson was a man whose ambitions extended beyond the life of a gunslinger. Most notably, he actually got to fulfill them. Once he saw that his lawman days were over, he moved to New York City, working various jobs in the boxing world, then as a journalist, a bodyguard to a millionaire, and even as a presidential appointee by Teddy Roosevelt. Bat Masterson might have been molded by the Wild West, but he was one of the few to outgrow and outlive it.

Bat Masterson was born Bartholomew William Barclay Masterson on November 26, 1853, in Henryville, Quebec, Canada, to Thomas Masterson and Catherine McGurk. His father was a Canadian farmer, and his mother was an Irish immigrant. His parents had six other children, notably his brothers Ed and James Masterson, who would also become gunslinging lawmen alongside Bat, although neither achieved his level of fame.

The origins of his nickname “Bat” are a matter of some dispute. According to Wild West folklore, Masterson earned the moniker while serving as a lawman in Dodge City. He had been wounded in a previous gunfight and was forced to use a cane to walk. Although this was initially an impediment, Masterson became proficient with his new accessory and often used it as a club in fights against rowdy cowboys, thus earning the nickname “Bat.” However, he claimed in his book, “Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier,” that he earned the nickname during his buffalo hunting days, passed on to him by a skilled hunter named Baptiste Brown, also known as Old Bat.

The Masterson family left Canada when Bat was just a boy and moved around the United States before finally settling in Kansas in 1871 on a large farm near Wichita. By that point, Bat was 18 years old and ready to find something to do. He was already skilled with guns, so he joined his older brother Ed and became a buffalo hunter. The two were later joined by James Masterson. During this time, Bat began meeting characters who would become part of the legend of the Wild West, such as Tom Nixon, frontiersman Billy Dixon, and his soon-to-be close friend Wyatt Earp.

There were already stories that helped build the reputation of Bat Masterson. On one occasion, he and his brother Ed were stiffed on payment by a contractor named Raymond Ritter, who had hired them to do some grading for the Santa Fe Railroad. According to the story, it took almost a year, but they finally tracked Ritter down. Bat waited for the train to pull into the station, entered Ritter’s compartment, drew on him, and made him pay what he owed at gunpoint.

On June 27, 1874, Bat Masterson unwillingly took part in the Second Battle of Adobe Walls against hundreds of Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa warriors led by the Comanche chief Quanah Parker. Adobe Walls was a trading post built in the Texas Panhandle, and a decade prior, it was the site of one of the largest conflicts to take place on the Great Plains. This time, the scale of the conflict was reduced significantly. On one side, there were just 28 buffalo hunters trapped inside Adobe Walls, with 20-year-old Bat being the youngest of the bunch. On the other side, there were hundreds of warriors, with the exact number disputed.

The battle consisted of a prolonged siege but ended with one phenomenal shot that has become the stuff of legend. It belonged to Billy Dixon, who was a renowned crack shot. During a break in the fight, the buffalo hunters saw a group of enemy riders gathering on a ridge almost a mile away. Dixon took aim with a 50-90 Sharps rifle and dropped one of the warriors cleanly with one bullet. Allegedly, the Comanche were so disheartened by the shot that they gave up the siege. As far as Masterson was concerned, he acquitted himself well during the fighting and later enrolled as a civilian scout in the Red River War, which took place on the Southern Plains as a direct result of the siege at Adobe Walls.

After his enrollment finished, Masterson spent some more time hunting buffalo and gambling in saloons until he headed out to Dodge City and became a lawman. Before that, however, there was an event that left him with a limp and forced him to use a cane. In January 1876, while still hanging around the army camp near Adobe Walls, Bat got into an argument during a card game with Corporal Melvin King of the Fourth U.S. Cavalry. The argument escalated into a fight, and King pulled out a gun and fired. During the scuffle, a woman named Molly Brennan got between the two men, trying to stop the fight. King’s bullet accidentally hit her in the stomach, then struck Masterson in the pelvis. In return, Bat shot King dead, but Molly also died of her injuries.

By May of that same year, Bat Masterson had recovered and made his way to Dodge City, Kansas, a city synonymous with the Old West. When Masterson rode into town, the man in charge was Charlie Bassett, who was serving as both the city marshal of Dodge City and sheriff of Ford County, Kansas. By 1877, Bat was made an undersheriff for Ford County while his brother Ed became deputy marshal. Wyatt also served as a lawman in Dodge City during this time before moving on to Tombstone. By the end of the year, Bassett’s term as sheriff was ending, and he backed Masterson as a candidate for sheriff of Ford County.

Bat Masterson was elected as the new sheriff in November and took office in January 1878. He appointed Charlie Bassett as his new undersheriff and his brother Ed as the new city marshal of Dodge City.

There were three notable events that marked Bat Masterson’s stint as sheriff of Ford County. The first was exactly the kind of thing you would expect from the Wild West. In his second month in office, Masterson and his posse chased down a gang of dangerous train robbers led by a notorious outlaw named Dirty Dave Rudabar. They managed to capture two of the criminals in an ambush and arrested them without a shootout, while the other two were apprehended soon after.

The second event was considerably more violent and left two men dead. On April 9, 1878, City Marshal Ed Masterson approached a drunken cowboy named Jack Wagner, who was causing a ruckus in town. He tried to get him to disarm, but instead, Wagner drew on Ed and shot him. The marshal shot back and hit the cowboy in the chest, then stumbled into a nearby saloon, where he said what had happened before he collapsed. Ed Masterson died about a half-hour later, killed in the line of duty, while Wagner also died the next day.

The third incident that marked Masterson’s tenure as sheriff was known as the Royal Gorge War, which was a dispute between two railroads over who had the right to lay track through the Royal Gorge. These sorts of conflicts were common back then and were known as the railroad wars. In this case, it was a dispute between the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Such companies often employed gunfighters as an intimidation tactic. This time, it was the Santa Fe Railroad that hired Bat Masterson to look after their interests, which involved him assembling a group of about 60 men and even obtaining a cannon should the need arise.

The Royal Gorge War was surprisingly tame. Most of it was fought in courtrooms while the hired men kept their guns holstered and mainly relied on threats and intimidation. There is still dispute over whether anyone was actually killed during the conflict. Some sources say no, while others claim that a man named Henry Jenkins was shot in the back by a drunken guard. Eventually, it was the Supreme Court that settled the matter and sided with the Rio Grande Railroad, thus forcing Masterson and his posse to surrender their positions.

We’re not sure if his role in the Royal Gorge War tainted his reputation somewhat, but Masterson lost his re-election bid for Ford County sheriff in 1880. For the next few years, he drifted from town to town, mainly operating as a gambler and occasional car dealer at the gaming tables. However, there were a couple of instances where he showed that he was willing to leave everything behind to help his friends in need. Most famously, in April 1881, Bat was in Tombstone working in the Oriental Saloon alongside Wyatt Earp when he received a telegram from his brother James Masterson saying that he was in danger and needed help in Dodge City. Bat had already lost one brother and didn’t want to lose another, so he jumped on the first train and arrived in Dodge City on April 16.

Because telegrams were usually short, Masterson didn’t have a clear idea of his brother’s predicament. He knew that James had been arguing with a former business partner named A.J. Peacock and his brother-in-law Al Abdegraf, and he clearly feared for his life. Bat spotted Peacock and Abdegraf as they were getting off the train. It’s possible they were waiting for him, knowing that James Masterson had sent word for help. They drew their guns and opened fire. Bat dove for cover and returned fire. A couple of Masterson’s old friends exited the Long Branch Saloon and joined in the gunfight, but so did a few gunmen from Peacock’s side. Eventually, Abdegraf fell to the ground, moaning as a bullet pierced his lungs. Just as well, Bat had run out of bullets when the mayor approached him, shotgun in hand. Bat simply surrendered his guns and asked how his brother was doing. He was fine, by the way, and since it couldn’t be proven who shot Abdegraf, Masterson was only fined eight dollars for unlawfully discharging his gun on a city street.

He and James left Dodge City together and ended up in Trinidad, Colorado, where they once again served as lawmen. In 1882, Bat Masterson became the city marshal of Trinidad. During his tenure, he used his influence at the behest of Wyatt Earp to save Doc Holliday, who had been arrested in Denver for a shooting committed in Arizona. Holliday risked deportation to Arizona, where he and the Earps had many enemies eager for revenge. Instead, Masterson helped him in Colorado by filing bongo charges against Holliday to delay proceedings and then finally convincing the Colorado governor to reject the extradition altogether.

Oddly enough, the most notable event from this era did not happen in Trinidad but back in Dodge City in April 1883. He received word that one of his friends back there, Luke Short, needed help once again. Masterson didn’t hesitate and boarded the train for Dodge City. Timing-wise, it worked out great because he had just lost his re-election bid for city marshal, so there wasn’t anything keeping him in Trinidad. Luke Short was a partner in the infamous Long Branch Saloon and butted heads with the new mayor, Lawrence Dagger. The latter wanted the saloon closed and Short gone. When legal measures failed, Short claimed that Dagger, along with the police and the city marshal, unofficially organized a vigilante group to drive him out of town under threat of violence.

Short petitioned the governor, who sided with him but only gave him a 10-day window in which he would be able to return to Dodge City and sell the saloon. It was made clear to Short that if he was still around after those 10 days, bad things were going to happen. That’s when he sent word to his friends, and quite a few of them answered the call. There was Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Charlie Bassett, Shotgun John Collins, and about a half dozen others. This became known as the Dodge City War. However, there was no fighting; Dagger’s posse knew better than to start a shootout with some of the West’s most feared gunmen. Ultimately, it was basic economics that settled the matter. When all of Short’s allies arrived in Dodge City, Mayor Dagger ordered all the saloons, bars, and gambling halls closed. This was at the height of the cattle drive season, and all the business owners complained that the mayor’s actions were destroying the city’s economy. Eventually, he relented, and the Dodge City War ended without a single shot fired. Short did sell the saloon a few months later, and the most memorable moment of the whole affair ended up being a photograph of Luke Short, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and the other gunmen dubbed the Dodge City Peace Commission. It became one of the most widely reproduced images of the Old West.

The Dodge City War was more or less Bat Masterson’s last hurrah as a fearsome gunslinger of the Wild West. From then on, he tried living a more docile life, focusing on some of his other interests. He started with journalism and published his first newspaper called the Vox Papooli in 1884. It only lasted one issue, and although Masterson would eventually find success as a journalist, that time had not yet arrived. In 1886, Masterson left Dodge City behind once more and moved to Denver, where he had various jobs related to gambling, such as faro dealer and gambling hall manager. Around this time, he met and befriended a notorious conman named Sophie Smith.

During the 1890s, Masterson engaged in two more of his interests: boxing and mining. He had been a boxing fan for a while and attended numerous bouts, eventually serving in an official capacity as a timekeeper, promoter, or second. As for mining, Masterson briefly relocated to Creed, Colorado, which had become a silver boom town. While there, he managed a gambling house called the Denver Exchange and also served as an unofficial lawman. We say unofficial because he didn’t have any sort of authority, but as one newspaper described the situation, Masterson was generally recognized in the camp as the “nerviest man of all.”

In 1895, he entered the employ of railroad tycoon George Gould, the son of Jay Gould, one of America’s most notorious robber barons. Gould had been receiving threatening letters from an anonymous person and thought it prudent to hire a bodyguard. He offered the job to Bat Masterson, who began mingling with the country’s wealthy elite. Life was lush for Masterson; he wrote to friends back in Denver telling them how he would spend the whole day fishing on a yacht or how he’d go to the races where Gould would give him thousands of dollars to bet as he pleased. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the bodyguard gig finished for Masterson after about eight months when Gould’s letter writer was finally arrested.

It was time for Bat to return to Denver, but he developed a taste for life in the big city. He wanted to move to New York, but the time wasn’t right yet, so he went back to Colorado and continued where he left off. Masterson became a partner in a boxing club and began writing a weekly sports column for a Denver newspaper called George’s Weekly. This went on for a few more years until Bat left Colorado permanently and relocated to New York City in 1902. His arrival was not auspicious; soon afterward, he was arrested for allegedly running a crooked faro game and was then sued by a Mormon elder from Salt Lake City named George Snow, who claimed that he had been hustled out of $16,000.

During this trial, the newspaper article written about Masterson 20 years earlier came back into the spotlight—the one that was highly exaggerated and asserted that the former lawman had killed almost 30 people. It was also at this time that Bat finally set the record straight about his Wild West exploits. As far as the suit was concerned, it was dismissed when Snow didn’t show for the hearing. Masterson was only fined $10 for carrying a concealed weapon, but he filed a countersuit against his accuser due to damages caused to his reputation and good name. As it turns out, Snow had never specified Masterson by name in his affidavit. The case was settled out of court, but that put the blame on his arresting officers, claiming that they took him for a sucker and tried to pin the charges on him.

Once that initial unpleasantness was dealt with, New York City became Bat’s home for the last 20 years of his life. His journalistic career flourished, becoming a regular columnist for the Morning Telegraph and also an occasional writer for other publications. He mainly covered boxing and was always found ringside at every big bout in the country. Masterson also struck up a friendship with President Theodore Roosevelt, who admired the rough and tough Wild West lawmen and shared a love for boxing. Roosevelt appointed Masterson as deputy U.S. marshal for the Southern District of New York. It sounded fancy, but the position mainly involved Bat providing security in the grand jury room while court was in session. It lasted until Taft became president, as he abolished the job since he didn’t share his predecessor’s fondness for the Old West.

On October 25, 1921, the 67-year-old Bat Masterson had finished writing his column when he suffered a heart attack and died at his desk. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx following a service attended by hundreds of friends and admirers. His death was quiet and peaceful—not something that most other Wild West figures get to experience. Bat Masterson is a rare example of someone who managed to escape the Old West and successfully build a new life for himself in the modern era.

I hope you found this video interesting. If you did, please hit that thumbs up button below, don’t forget to subscribe, and also check out our fantastic sponsor, CuriosityStream. There’s a link