Bass Reeves, The Lone Ranger…?

“Eighty miles west of Fort Smith was known as “the deadline,” and whenever a deputy marshal from Fort Smith or Paris, Texas, crossed the Missouri, Kansas & Texas track he took his own life in his hands and he knew it. On nearly every trail would be found posted by outlaws a small card warning certain deputies that if they ever crossed the deadline they would be killed. Reeves has a dozen of these cards which were posted for his special benefit. And in those days such a notice was no idle boast, and many an outlaw has bitten the dust trying to ambush a deputy on these trails.”

 – Oklahoma City newspaper article, 1907

When you think of bad-asses, it wouldn’t surprise me if many of you naturally turned you’re mind to old west USA, gun totting bandits like Billy the Kid, or Butch Cassidy are etched in Hollywood folklore. But I put it to you that there is one little known figure that stands shoulder to shoulder with those titans of villainy… enter Bass Reeves, the 6’2, handle bar moustachioed U.S Marshal. Reeves was a black man, born into slavery in Arkansas in the early-mid 1800’s, his family, enslaved to then state legislator William Steele Reeves. He was moved around when he was young, spending most of his time in slavery to William Reeves son, George, who was a sheriff and legislator in Texas. Bass was dragged into the civil war by his master who joined the confederate army, Bass wasn’t a fan of this, until at some point during the war the young slave decided he’d had enough of the slave life, and beat the holy shit out of Colonel George Reeves before disappearing into the wilderness where he lived among the Cherokee.

Bass remained hidden among the native American tribes throughout the remainder of the civil war until the Thirteenth Amendment was passed and slavery abolished. Reeves life was peaceful for a time, he moved back to Arkansas and started a family, siring 11 children, Nice, until U.S Marshall James F Fagan, who’d heard tell of Reeves, who knew Indian territories and could speak their languages recruited him as a U.S Deputy, The first black deputy west of the Mississippi.

Reeves quickly became an unsung hero, famous for his .44 Winchester with which he could down a man at a quarter mile, he was responsible for hunting and bringing in criminals and bandits in a 75,000 square mile region of what is mostly Oklahoma now. Now, even though Reeves was a master of the rifle, he often relied on other methods for his arrests, in his time he is credited with around 3,000 arrests, THREE THOUSAND, but only 14 kills, that’s 0.0046% of deaths per arrest.

One such occasion Reeves had gathered a posse to round up a pair of outlaws that were thought to be hiding out at their mothers in Red River Valley, his posse was camped out away from the house ready to strike, when Reeves disappeared one night, and concocted a plan. He approached the house, disguised as a vagrant, hiding his tools amongst his filthy clothes, and after convincing the outlaws mother that he was on the run from the law, she invited him in and suggested Reeves join up with her sons, and upon agreeing, he waited until the outlaws arrived at the house and in their sleep, handcuffed them, kicking them awake in the morning and marching them back to his posse who was still preparing for the raid.

Bass Reeves was also credited with putting down the famous Tom Story Gang after he was reassigned to Paris, Texas, where he lay in wait along a known route the gang used and confronted them with an arrest warrant, the outlaw panicked, and went for his pistol, but Reeves was quicker on the draw and shot Tom Story dead, and the gang was never heard from again.

But perhaps the most difficult outlaw Bass Reeves was credited with bringing in came in 1902, after delivering two prisoners in Muskogee, Oaklahoma he’d been informed that his own son Bennie Reeves, had been charged with murder, of his own wife no less, the warrant sat on the Oklahoma desk for two days and no one would touch it until Reeves was told. Reeves had a reputation for remaining, never showing excitement or fear… but this shook him… Still Reeves being the stoic badass he was demanded the responsibility of brining his own son in. It took him two weeks, but Reeves tracked down his errant son and dragged him back, though a few lessons had been beaten into him, Bennie was sent to life in prison, though was eventually released with a citizens petition and exemplary prison record, Bennie lived out the rest of his life as a model citizen.

Reeves served out his time as a U.S deputy and ended his career in 1909 with two years on the Oklahoma Police Department, during which there were ZERO reported crimes on his beat. Bright’s disease brought Bass Reeves to his end in 1910, but his legend lived on, his obituary described him as “Absolutely fearless and knowing no master but duty”

Many make the argument that the legend that was Bass Reeves served to inspire the creation of ‘The Lone Ranger’ drawing several similarities between the two, though this rumor is not confirmed. But if any real life figure deserves the moniker, there’s no more deserving than Bass Reeves.