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Thomas Horn Jr., (November 21, 1861 – November 20, 1903) was an American cowboy, scout, soldier, range detective, rodeo performer, and Pinkerton agent in the 19th-century and early 20th-century American Old West. Believed to have committed 17 killings as a hired gunman throughout the West, Horn was convicted in 1902 of the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell near Iron Mountain, Wyoming. Willie was the son of sheep rancher Kels Nickell, who had been involved in a range feud with neighbor and cattle rancher Jim Miller. On the day before his 42nd birthday, Horn was executed by hanging in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

While in jail, he wrote his autobiography, which was published posthumously in 1904. Numerous editions have been published in the late 20th century. Horn has since become a larger-than-life figure of Western folklore, and debate continues as to whether he was actually guilty of Nickell's murder.

Early life

Thomas Horn Jr., known as "Tom", was born in 1861 to Thomas S. Horn Sr. and Mary Ann Maricha (née Miller) on their family farm in rural northeastern Scotland County, Missouri. The family owned 600 acres bisected by the South Wyaconda River between the towns of Granger and Etna. Tom was the fifth of 12 children. During his childhood, he suffered physical abuse from his father, and his only companion as a child was a dog named Shedrick. The young Tom later got into a fight with two boys, who beat him and killed the dog with a shotgun.

Scout

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At 16, Horn headed to the American Southwest, where he was hired by the U.S. Cavalry as a civilian scout, packer, and interpreter under Al Sieber during the Apache Wars. Horn was respected for his work with the army and soon rose through the ranks. In one instance, as the army was crossing Cibecue Creek in Arizona, they were ambushed by Apache warriors positioned on high ground. The officer in charge of their squad, Captain Edmund Hentig, was instantly killed, and the men became pinned down under overwhelming fire. Desperate, Sieber ordered Horn and another scout, Mickey Free, to break away and return fire from a hill. Together with the soldiers, the men repelled the attack. Horn and Sieber also participated in the Battle of Big Dry Wash and gained recognition when he and Lt. George H. Morgan slipped through the banks opposite the Apache line and provided covering fire for the cavalry, killing a number of Apache warriors.

Horn was a respected scout by then, known for going out alone in reconnaissance missions and helping track down Geronimo's major stronghold. By November 1885, Tom Horn earned the position of chief of scouts under Captain Emmet Crawford in Fort Bowie. During one operation, Horn's camp was mistakenly attacked by a Mexican militia, and he was wounded in the arm during the shootout, which also resulted in Crawford's death. Finally, on September 4, 1886, Horn was present at Geronimo's final surrender and acted as an interpreter under Charles B. Gatewood.

Horn allegedly killed his first man, a second lieutenant in the Mexican Army, in a duel,, the result of a dispute over a prostitute.

Horn often gave a warning first to those he suspected of rustling and was said to have been a "tremendous presence" whenever he was in the vicinity.

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In 1895, Horn reportedly killed a known cattle thief named William Lewis near Iron Mountain, Wyoming. Horn was exonerated for that crime and for the 1895 murder of Fred Powell six weeks later. In 1896, a ranchman named Campbell, known to have a large stash of cash, was last seen with Horn.

By 1900, Horn began working for the Swan Land and Cattle Company in northwest Colorado. His first job was to investigate the Browns Park Cattle Association's leader, a cowboy named Matt Rash, who was suspected of cattle rustling. Horn went undercover as "Tom Hicks" and worked for Rash as a ranch hand while also collecting evidence that Rash was branding cattle that did not belong to him. When Horn finally pieced together enough evidence to determine that Rash was indeed a rustler, he put a threatening letter on Rash's door saying that he must leave in 60 days. Rash, however, defiantly stayed and continued working on his ranch. As Rash remained uncooperative, Horn's employers were said to have given him the "go-ahead signal" to execute Rash. On the day of the murder, an armed Horn allegedly arrived at Rash's cabin just as he finished eating and shot him at point-blank range. The dying Rash unsuccessfully tried to write the name of his killer, but no trace was left of the murder. Only the accounts and rumors from various people point to Horn as the one responsible. Rash was supposed to be married to a nearby rancher, Ann Bassett, and the woman accused "Hicks" of being the murderer.200px|right|thumb|upright|Ned Huddleston [[Isom Dart Brown's Hole, WY.]]Around the same time, Horn also suspected another cowboy named Isom Dart of rustling. Dart was one of Rash's fellow cowboys but was believed to have previously worked as a rustler named Ned Huddleston and to have been a former member of the late "Tip Gault" gang. The gang, which had rustled cattle up in the Saratoga, Wyoming, area, had been wiped out in a gun battle. Dart also had three indictments returned against him in Sweetwater County. When Dart was accused of murdering Rash, he took refuge inside his friend's cabin and waited for the rumors to cool down. Horn, however, managed to track Dart to his cabin and saw him hiding together with two other armed associates.

The assassin was said to have set up a sniping position overlooking the cabin from a hill, under cover of a pine tree. As Dart and his friends came out of the cabin, Horn shot him in the chest from a distance. Prior to the assassination, Horn had instructed a rancher named Robert Hudler to ready a horse miles from the murder scene for his getaway. The next day, two spent .30-30 Winchester shell casings were found at the base of a tree where the murderer is believed to have lain in wait. "Hicks" was said to be the only one in the area to use a .30–30 rifle. The news of Rash and Dart's deaths spread throughout the territory, causing the other rustlers to scatter in fear. Horn tracked them all down and killed three other members of Rash's association. The story goes that he pinned one of the dead cowboys' ears for the homesteaders to see as a warning.

Government employment

During the Wilcox train robbery investigation, Horn obtained information from Bill Speck that revealed which of the outlaws, George Curry or Harvey Logan, had killed Sheriff Josiah Hazen during their escape. Both were members of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, then known as the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, so named after their hideaway in the mountains. Horn passed this information on to Charlie Siringo, who was working the case for the Pinkertons.

Horn briefly entered the United States Army to serve during the Spanish–American War as the chief packer of the Fifth Corps. He left Tampa for Cuba, where he led some of the pack trains to the front. Horn personally witnessed the bravery of the famous Rough Riders and colored regiments, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalries, during their assault on San Juan Hill, as well as the humiliating rout of American soldiers under Brigadier General Hamilton S. Hawkins. Although the packers were noncombatants, they were still prone to attack by Cuban rebels. Horn considered himself lucky to have lost no packer during the war, although Horn recalled that he and his men were under constant fire as they delivered rations and ammunition to the soldiers.

Horn continued working as a packer during the war, though he and many of his men contracted yellow fever. At one point, he was bedridden and was deemed unfit for combat. Upon recovering, he returned to Wyoming. Shortly after his return, Horn began working in 1901 for wealthy cattle baron John C. Coble, who belonged to the Wyoming Stock Men's Association.

Murder of Willie Nickell

While working again near Iron Mountain, Wyoming, on July 15, 1901, Horn visited the Jim and Dora Miller family, who were cattle ranchers. Jim Miller was no relation to Texas outlaw Jim Miller. Jim Miller and his neighbor, Kels Nickell, had already had several disputes following Nickell's introduction of sheep into the Iron Mountain area. Miller frequently accused Nickell of letting his sheep graze on Miller's land. At the Millers, Horn met Glendolene M. Kimmell, the young teacher at the Iron Mountain School. Ms. Kimmell was supported by both the large Miller and Kels Nickell families, and she boarded with the Millers. Horn entertained her with accounts of his adventures. That day, some men from the Miller family and he went fishing; Victor Miller, a son about his age, and he also practiced shooting, both of them with .30-30 rifles.</blockquote>

Horn was supported by his longtime friend and employer, cattle rancher John C. Coble. He gathered a defense team headed by former Judge John W. Lacey, and which included attorneys T. F. Burke, Roderick N. Matson, Edward T. Clark, and T. Blake Kennedy. Reportedly, Coble covered the costs of this large team. According to Johan P. Bakker, who wrote Tracking Tom Horn, the large cattle interests by this time found Horn "expendable", and the case provided a way to silence him in regard to their activities. He wrote that 100 members of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association paid $1000 each toward the defense, but wanted a minimal effort.

Horn's trial began on October 10, 1902, in Cheyenne, which was filled with crowds drawn by Horn's notoriety. The Rocky Mountain News noted the carnival atmosphere and public interest in a conviction. A hearing several days later sentenced Horn to death by hanging. Horn's attorneys filed a petition with the Wyoming Supreme Court for a new trial. While in jail, Horn wrote his autobiography, Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter, Written by Himself, mostly giving an account of his early life. It contained little about the case.

The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the District Court decision and denied a new trial. Convinced of Horn's innocence, Glendolene Kimmell sent an affidavit to Governor Fenimore Chatterton with testimony reportedly saying that Victor Miller was guilty of Nickell's murder. Accounts of its contents appeared in the press, but the original document has since disappeared.

Writer Dean Fenton Krakel believed that Horn was guilty, but that he had not realized he was shooting a boy.

In 2014, former professor of history at Arkansas State University Larry Ball published Tom Horn in Life and Legend, asserting the opinion that Horn was responsible for the murder. Ball maintains that he found no evidence of a legal conspiracy against Horn, arguing that Horn's penchant for brutality contributed to his being convicted of the crime.

Representation in movies and television

Horn was played by Hollywood star George Montgomery in the 1950 film Dakota Lil.
In 1954, Louis Jean Heydt played Tom Horn in an episode of the syndicated television series Stories of the Century.
In 1959, Les Johnson played Tom Horn in an episode of the TV series Tales of Wells Fargo, (season four, episode eight, "Tom Horn").
In 1959, Gregg Palmer played Horn in the episode "Perilous Cargo" on the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews.
In 1967, the film Fort Utah, a Western starring John Ireland as Horn, was released.
Mr. Horn (1979) was a TV miniseries starring David Carradine as Tom Horn.
Steve McQueen played Horn in the 1980 film Tom Horn. The end of the film depicts Horn's execution on the Julian Gallows.
In December 2009, the History Channel aired the series Cowboys & Outlaws; the episode "Frontier Hitman" was about the life of Tom Horn.
In 2014, American Heroes Channel's series Gunslingers featured an episode dedicated to Horn entitled "Tom Horn: Grim Reaper of the Rockies".
Tom Horn was played by actor Chris Bauer along with Matthew Le Nevez as Bat Masterson in the 2015 Lifetime series The Lizzie Borden Chronicles.
In 2017, actor Larry Poole portrayed Tom Horn in Once Guilty, Now Innocent, Still Dead.

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

Tom Horn web site with photo essay "The Tom Horn Story" Chip Carlson, 2004. Includes discussion forums and additional photos.
"Tom Horn". at [www.thrillingdetective.com Thrilling Detective].