Tom Horn Cattle Detective

 

Tom Horn

Tom Horn is one of those western characters who’s hard to peg. During his brief lifespan, he served as an Indian fighter, deputy sheriff, Pinkerton man, and range detective, but mostly, he worked as a problem solver, offering a final solution for troubled cattlemen.

The Salt Lake Herald said, “Horn is alleged to have taken it upon himself to get rid of the rustlers in his own peculiar way and which he often remarked was the sure way.”

 “Doc” Shores, the sheriff of Gunnison County, said Tom Horn “didn’t place a high value on human life.” As a cattle detective with the Swan Land Cattle Company and the Iron Mountain Ranch Company, Horn earned $600 for the hide of every cattle rustler he brought in. But Horn told one confidant, I have “no trouble collecting my money, for I would kill a man who cheated me out of ten cents.”

Many Western writers classify Tom Horn as a gunfighter because he killed at least seventeen men during his days as a range detective. But Tom Horn was no gunfighter. He faced no one in a fair fight. His favorite method of getting his man was to ambush him on the trail or back shoot him from a safe distance—with a Buffalo gun. Tom Horn may have played fast and loose with his victims’ lives, but he never took chances with his own.

In his posthumously published autobiography, The Life of Tom Horn, Horn claimed to have single-handedly effected the capture of Geronimo in 1886. “I want to surrender with all my people,” Geronimo told him. “I will do as you say and go where you tell me to go or send me. I am tired of the warpath, and my people are all worn out.”

From 1886 to 1888, Horn served as a deputy sheriff in Yavapai and Gila Counties, Arizona. Several years later, he drifted to Denver, Colorado, and “was initiated into the mysteries of the Pinkerton Institution.” They hired Horn because of his unique tracking skills. He could sniff out a trail faster than a coon dog trailing a bitch in heat.

Horn said he “never had a very good feeling about the Pinkertons.” They spent too much time talking and too little time doing. So when superintendent, James McParland asked how he would handle a train robbery case, Horn didn’t need any time to think about it. He said, “If I had a good man with me, I could catch up to them.”

Tom Horn waited behind piles of rocks, waiting for his prey to come into range

In August 1890, Horn got a chance to show the Pinkertons what he had. Someone robbed the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad at Cotopaxi and Texas Creek. Horn was assigned the case and set out with his assistant, C. W. Shores. After several weeks of tracking, they caught up with Burt Curtis at Washita Station. Shores escorted Curtis back to the Pinkerton office in Denver. Horn stuck around, waiting to round up his accomplice, “Peg Leg” Watson. It didn’t take long. “Peg Leg” returned to Washita Station a few weeks later, and Horn captured him single-handedly.

After that, he tracked Joe McCoy to Ashley, Utah, and arrested him there during Christmas festivities.

Horn said, “I never did like the work [at Pinkerton’s], so I left them in 1894.” However, the truth was somewhat different. Charlie Siringo, a Pinkerton operative, said the agency separated Horn for committing a robbery in Nevada while he was on their payroll. “William A. Pinkerton told me that Tom Horn was guilty of the crime,” said Siringo, “but his people could not allow him to go to prison while in their employ.” The implication was that Pinkerton covered up Horn’s wrongdoings to protect their reputation.

Horn killed two Iron Mountain ranchmen in 1895. William Lewis died while loading beef in his corral. Horn ordered him to throw up his hands, then shot and killed him as he did so. Horn later said Lewis was the most scared man he ever saw. He just rode into his corral and blew him away with his pistol. He gunned down William Powell while he was making hay on his ranch.

In 1896, a ranchman named Campbell disappeared carrying a large sum of money. Horn was suspected, but there was no body or evidence, so he was never charged in that case.

Not long after that, Horn landed a job as a stock detective with the Swan Land and Cattle Company in Wyoming. His unique services included hunting cattle rustlers and ensuring they didn’t rustle cattle anymore. Over time, he performed similar services for the Wyoming Cattlemen’s Association and the Iron Mountain Cattle Company.

Contemporary accounts credit Horn with sending seventeen rustlers to meet their maker. After he killed his victims, the story is that Horn piled a stack of rocks under his victim’s head. It was a sign to his employers he’d started another rustler on the road to hell, and he’d be by soon to collect his due.

Tom Horn served with the 5th Corps in Cuba during the Spanish American War, supervising eight pack trains. The New York Times reported, “Tom Horn will be the boss packer of what will be known as ‘Horn’s Train.’” Horn “not only superintended the training of the mules but also of the men who served as packers. Only strong men physically are selected, as packing is one of the hardest and most tiresome duties in the army service...The manner in which Tom Horn managed these unruly mules [shows] that gentleness is far better than brutality even in the treatment of a stubborn mule.”

As superintendent of the Packer Corps, Horn didn’t take part directly in any battles, but he was on hand to witness Teddy Roosevelt and the Rougher Rider’s storm up San Juan Hill.

Within a short time of the war’s end, Horn returned to work as a cattle detective. He allegedly shot and killed two cattle rustlers in July 1900. Matt Rash, of Brown’s Park, Colorado, was shot and killed while eating supper in his cabin. Isham Dart died in an ambush near his ranch. The only evidence tying Horn to the murders was that he was in the vicinity when they occurred.

Tom Horn served with the Fifth Corps in Cuba during the Spanish
American War, supervising eight pack trains

Horn took his last job in 1901, working as a stock detective for John Coble, a wealthy cattle baron. One of his duties was to ensure the sheep of Kels P. Nickell didn’t graze on cattle land. Unfortunately, things went badly for Tom Horn on July 10, 1901. Fourteen-year-old Willie Nickell died that day.

Investigators determined Willie Nickell died from two .30-.30 Winchester shots. They said the “assassin was secreted behind a pile of rocks on a little hill overlooking the gate.”

At first, the family of James Miller, a neighbor of Nickell’s, came under suspicion. Then, the father and his two sons were arrested and questioned because of an ongoing feud with Nickell. Both families had threatened to kill each other.

Eventually, Tom Horn came under suspicion. According to the Red Lodge Pickett, the case against Horn rested on two facts: Horn was within two miles of the murder scene just twelve hours before it occurred. And, just four hours after the murder, he rode into Laramie on a “powerful horse which showed the effects of a long, hard ride.” Another piece of the puzzle was the murder weapon—a .30-.30 Winchester, Horn’s weapon of preference.

Several days later, a man fitting Horn’s description left a bundle of clothes at a shoe store in Laramie. A sweater found in the bundle contained human bloodstains. When law enforcement officials showed the sweater to Horn, he admitted it was his.

The most damning evidence came to light a few months after that. Horn drank too much at the Festival of the Mountain and Plain in Denver. Then wagged his tongue a bit too much. He implied to several of his drinking buddies that he had killed Willie Nickell.

On January 10, 1902, Deputy Marshal Joe Lefors coaxed a confession out of Tom Horn.

Horn told Lefors, “Killing men is my specialty, and I guess I’ve got a corner on the market in this section.” He said he put a stone under his victim’s head. The rocks told his employers he did the job.

Horn testified, “I used a .30-.30. I like it better than any other. It carries true to the mark. I thought once the kid would get away from me, but I nailed him. It was the finest shot I ever made and the dirtiest job I ever done.”

Horn told Lefors he made his first kill when he was twenty-six, a second lieutenant in the Mexican army. He said he got $600 each for killing William Lewis and William Powell. After that, he was paid $500 for killing Willie Nickell.

The Salt Lake Herald said Horn admitted to his attorneys “he was lying in wait for Kels Nickell at the time the boy was murdered. He cut the lad off at the gate leading from the Nickell pasture and killed him to prevent him from running to the house and raising a hell of a commotion.”

During his trial, Horn said his confession was a joke. He was drunk and “joshing” with Lefors.

Whatever Horn said, the jury didn’t buy it. He was convicted of killing Willie Nickell and sentenced to death by hanging. In a letter written to John Coble moments before he died, Horn said, “I did not kill Willie Nickell. I never made an admission to Lefors, Ohnhaus, or Snow, and all swore to lies, including Irwin of Laramie.”

Tom Horn on the gallows

In the end, Tom Horn swung on the gallows for the murder of fourteen-year-old Willie Nickell.

The Salt Lake Herald said, “Horn went smiling to [the] scaffold.” He “died at 11:08 a.m. game to the last and smiling. He stood with clenched fists, waiting for the drop.” His friends, Charlie and Frank Irwin, sang, “Keep your hand upon the throttle and your eyes upon the rail,” as he walked to the scaffold.

Sixteen minutes later, Tom Horn was pronounced dead. His neck snapped by the hangman’s noose.

After Horn’s death, William Pinkerton told the San Francisco Call, “I doubt whether Tom Horn during his whole life on the frontier ever experienced the sensation of fear.”

 

Before you go ...

If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, “I remember that,” you’re in the right place.

I dig up stories about Old West lawmen, outlaws, gunfighters, robberies, murders, forgotten towns, and all the strange, fascinating pieces of history that somehow slipped through the cracks. No clickbait. No fluff. Just authentic stories and actual history.

If you enjoy what you read and would like to help keep the lights on, consider buying me a Big Gulp.

Every little bit helps pay for books, newspaper archives, research trips, and the countless hours spent tracking down stories most people forgot decades ago.

Buy Me a Big Gulp / NickVulich.com

If the Old West is your thing, you may enjoy these books...

Shot All To Hell

Shot All To Pieces