Heck Thomas Was In On The Kill For Some Of The West's Biggest Criminals

 

Heck Thomas got his start at 17, at 17 when he joined the Atlanta police force

Henry Andrew Thomas, better known as “Heck” Thomas, was in on the kill for some of the West’s most dangerous outlaws. He helped take down Bill Dalton, Bill Doolin, and the Lee brothers, a notorious group of Texas cattle rustlers. He rode on the final chase after “Dynamite Dick” Clifton but missed out on the kill.

Thomas got his start in law enforcement at seventeen when he joined the Atlanta, Georgia, police force. From 1875 to 1885, he worked as a railroad guard for the Texas Express Company. In 1885, he became a member of the Fort Worth Detective Association.

His first big case involved tracking down the Lee brothers.

The Dillon Tribune said the Lees had been terrorizing Delaware, Bend, and Cook Counties in Texas for nearly two years. They rustled cattle on the Texas side of the Red River and drove them across the river into Indian Territory, where they had ranches. Jim, Bill, and Pink Lee led a gang of twenty cattle thieves in the river country and were said to have killed forty men.

Thomas told the Dallas Daily Herald he had been chasing the Lee boys since May 5. “At times, we were in close places and could not tell whether the Lee boys were after us or we after them.”

On September 11, Thomas received a tip that the Lee brothers were hidden away in the village of Dexter, Texas. He rode out with officers James Taylor and James Settles.

Both Lee brothers died in the fight on the open prairie

It was raining hard. The posse came upon the gang as they cut the pasture fence on John Washington’s ranch. The officers rode up as close as possible, dismounted their horses, and crept up on the suspects.

In his official report, Heck Thomas said, “We got as close to them as possible—about 40 or 45 yards away—and ordered them to surrender. They dropped their nippers and fired at us and missed us; as Pink tried another shell on his gun, he was killed...about a second or two later, Jim was shot by one of us, and about 16 shots were fired; we kept up shooting till Jim quit.”

Both brothers died in the fight. When the posse searched the Lees’ clothing, they found newspaper clippings detailing their crime spree. Heck Thomas’ last comment was, “The fight was in the grass, in the open prairie, and was as pretty a one as I ever saw.”

In 1887, Heck got himself shot up while trailing the Purdy Gang. He brought the outlaws in despite taking two bullets and found himself a new wife to boot.

Burrel F. Cox rode with Thomas on that outing. After Heck got shot, Cox, Hank Childers, and Jim Wallace returned fire. They killed Aaron Purdy, the gang leader, and arrested the rest of its members.

Nurse Matie Mowbray cared for Thomas’ gunshot wounds. After he recovered, they were married.

Heck Thomas and John West captured Oscar Coulter on August 25, 1889. Coulter was a desperate character who first landed in Arkansas at eighteen. In 1880, he got arrested for carrying a pistol in town and threatened revenge against the officer who arrested him.

After his arrest, officers discovered several arrest warrants for Coulter in Georgia. Officer Maysey escorted him there to face charges. Six and a half years later, after his release from prison, Coulter made good on his threat.

On Friday morning, February 27, 1888, he walked into a store in Logan County, Texas, armed with two six-shooters and a Winchester rifle. He pulled his pistol and shot and killed Officer Maysey, now a shopkeeper.

After killing Maysey, Coulter mounted his horse and disappeared into Indian Territory. He robbed a train in Muscogee, Indian Territory, not long after that. When Thomas and West learned his whereabouts, they lay in wait for him along a road they knew he would soon be passing. The Fort Worth Daily Gazette reported when the two lawmen confronted Oscar Coulter, “he surrendered and gave us his guns without a murmur.”

Thomas became a member of the “Three Guardsmen” in 1891. The other members were Bill Tilghman and Chris Madsen. Together they took down over 300 outlaws and fugitives in the Indian Territory.

After the Adair, Oklahoma train robbery in July 1892, Heck trailed the Dalton Brothers to within twenty miles of Coffeyville, Kansas. Before he could close in on their campsite, Heck received word of their virtual annihilation during the Coffeyville Bank robbery. He rode into town to help identify the bodies.

Heck Thomas and his possee killed Bill Doolin in an early morning raid

One of the “Three Guardsmen’s” bigger tests came in 1893. On September 1, Marshal E. D. Nix received a tip that the Doolin-Dalton Gang was hiding in Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory. Ingalls was a small town of roughly 150 people, on the dividing line between the Creek Indian Reservation and Oklahoma Territory that contained two saloons and a house of pleasure with four working girls. The town catered to the outlaws and depended upon their wild spending for its survival.

The story is that the boys were warned about the posse’s approach but played out their card game before making their getaway. “Bitter Creek” Newcomb was the first outlaw out the door. He took a bullet from Deputy Marshal Dick Speed but kept moving.

The rest of the outlaws snuck out a side door. Dan “Dynamite Dick” Clifton and Charlie Pierce took bullets during their escape but eluded the posse.

Bill Doolin killed Deputy Marshal Dick Speed during the fighting. Bill Dalton shot and killed Deputy Marshal Lafayette Shadley. “Arkansas Tom” Jones kept the posse pinned down with deadly fire from his hotel room window. That facilitated the gang’s getaway. His gunfire killed Deputy Marshal Tom Hueston. Unfortunately for Jones, he was soon captured and sentenced to fifty years in prison.

Heck Thomas and his posse sent Bill Doolin to meet his maker around 2 a.m. on the morning of August 25, 1896.

Thomas learned Doolin was spending nights with his wife and two-year-old daughter in a house on the outskirts of Lawson. Doolin would arrive at the house after dark and sneak out before morning. Neighbors were aware Doolin was in the area but afraid to alert law enforcement officials.

When Thomas learned of Doolin’s whereabouts, he detailed two men to watch the house.

Captain F. J. Dodge, a special officer with Wells Fargo and Co., said: “It was only by chance that Doolin was caught.” Heck Thomas had his posse ready to move in. Doolin left the house about 2 a.m., armed with a Winchester and a .45 caliber Colt revolver. He started walking towards the posse.

As quick as he heard the posse cry out, “Halt!” Doolin “brought his Winchester to his shoulder and fired two volleys...At almost the same instant, members of the posse fired a volley from their shotguns, and Marshall Thomas discharged his rifle.” Doolin took 21 buckshot rounds in the fracas and a “rifle bullet that tore its way through his breast.”

Heck Thomas took a bullet in the Prudy fight

In September 1896, Heck Thomas arrived in Sedalia, Missouri. He was hot on the trail of “Dynamite Dick” Clifton. Clifton had robbed a bank in Southwest City, Missouri, in 1894. Five of the seven robbers were killed in a running fight with officers and townspeople that day. “Dynamite Dick” and another gang member escaped to Indian Territory.

Thomas received word that “Dynamite Dick” was hiding in a farmhouse near Clifton City. Unfortunately for Thomas, “Dynamite Dick” was tipped off about the posse and escaped just ahead of them.

It was a brief reprieve. “Dynamite Dick” was killed in 1897. After months of searching, Deputy Marshal George Lawson and Hess Bussey tracked “Dynamite Dick” to a cabin outside of Checotah, Indian Territory. When challenged by the posse to throw down his guns, “Dynamite Dick” burst through the door—a six-shooter in both hands—blasting at the marshals. Seconds later, “Dynamite Dick” fell dead.

On October 14, 1896, Heck Thomas and his posse took down the Green Gang in a shootout at Dologsh, Indian Territory.

The Daily Ardmoreite said the Green Gang had been terrorizing the area for nearly two years. The posse surrounded the gang as they attempted to rob a nearby store. The paper said, “It is said that the dead bodies of the two desperadoes were seen lying on the depot platform at Dologsh, where they had been shot down by Deputy Marshal Heck Thomas and posse.”

In 1902, Thomas became police chief of Lawton, Oklahoma.

Life in Lawton proved uneventful for Thomas, who’d spent most of his life riding the range and taking down high-profile criminals. 1904 brought a breath of excitement to the town. The Butler Weekly Times reported, “Bullets fly thick on Lawton Street.” L. T. Russell, the former editor of the Daily Democrat, shot down J. W. Hawkins, the former assistant chief of police. The two men had been engaged in a long-time feud. The day of the shooting, Hawkins pushed Russell down. As he was falling, Russell pulled his revolver and began firing. Hawkins took three bullets—one in the upper leg, one in the knee, and one in the abdomen. He was taken to Heck Thomas’ house and died less than a week later from his wounds.

heck Thomas fell into the drink while fishing at medicine Creek

The Chickasha Daily Express printed an interesting anecdote about Thomas in 1906. Thomas was fishing on Medicine Creek in his custom seersucker suit. One thing led to another, and he fell in the drink. He quickly got himself out, but the fabric shrank as the day went on, and Thomas got stuck in his suit. They said, “The pants took the cake. They shrunk until they fit him as tight as the skin of a sausage...When he arrived home, he said he had to use a bootjack with which to pull off his pants.”

Heck Thomas retired from police work in 1907. He died of Bright’s disease in August 1912.

 

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