Jim Courtright of Fort Worth : his life and legend / / Robert K. DeArment.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeArment, Robert K., 1925-2021.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Courtright, Jim, 1845-1887.

Courtright, Jim.

Peace officers--Texas--Fort Worth--Biography.

Peace officers.

Frontier and pioneer life--Texas--Fort Worth Region.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Violence.

History.

Outlaws.

Fort Worth (Tex.)--Biography.

Fort Worth (Tex.).

Outlaws--Texas--Fort Worth Region--History--19th century.

Violence--Texas--Fort Worth Region--History--19th century.

Fort Worth Region (Tex.)--History--19th century.

Fort Worth Region (Tex.).

Texas--Fort Worth Region.

Texas--Fort Worth.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 287 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Fort Worth : TCU Press, [2004]

Summary:

Isaiah Timothy "Longhair Jim" Courtright operated on both sides of the law and became a legend in his lifetime and after his death. One of the most colorful characters from the wild and woolly days of Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre, Courtright was at various times city marshal, deputy sheriff, deputy U.S. marshal, private detective, hired killer, and racketeer. Today, he is almost forgotten, either as a gunfighter or a lawman, except in Fort Worth, Texas.

Little is known about Courtright's early life, though he apparently served in the Union Army during the Civil War. But when he got to the West, Courtright seemed to attract trouble. He was involved in a shootout during the 1886 railroad strikes and was accused of murder in New Mexico. Deputies were sent to Fort Worth to take him to New Mexico to stand trial, and his escape from them, complete with guns hidden under a restaurant table, is one of Fort Worth's most colorful stories. Finally, he was killed in a shootout that he apparently provoked with gambler Luke Short. Nobody is sure to this day what was behind that feud, but Courtright was honored with the longest funeral procession Fort Worth had ever seen.

The myth of Courtright as legendary gunfighter was built in two previous biographies, one by a novelist and the other by a Franciscan priest. After exhaustive research into contemporary newspapers and other accounts and close study of the previous two books, historian Robert DeArment deconstructs the myth of Longhair Jim and then reconstructs the gunfighter as a real human being, complex, flawed, often courageous, usually both honorable and dishonorable.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Legend and the Legend Makers 1

Chapter 2 Marshal of Panther City 17

Chapter 3 Policing the Bloody Third 45

Chapter 4 The Texas Detective Bureau and the Hunt for Sam Bass 69

Chapter 5 "A Clash of Giants" 83

Chapter 6 Lake Valley Marshal 107

Chapter 7 The American Valley Murders 127

Chapter 8 The Great Escape 153

Chapter 9 The Fugitive 173

Chapter 10 The Battle of Buttermilk Switch 193

Chapter 11 Enter Luke Short 203

Chapter 12 Death of a Gunman

Birth of a Legend 217.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [245]-274) and index.

ISBN:

0875652921

OCLC:

54460487