Please don't forget to add the postage costs before the checkout
where appropriate!
|
|
|
|
Kid Curry Curry was born Harvey Alexander Logan in Tama County, Richland Township, Iowa in 1867. While enroute to his Aunt Lee's house in Dodson, Missouri, in 1876 his mother Eliza Jane died. In late 1883, he and his older brother Henry left Dodson to break horses in Texas. They hired on with a trailherd bound for Pueblo, CO. They traveled up the Cimmaron River into New Mexico and arrived in Pueblo by mid summer. They got into a minor saloon brawl there, so had to leave town quickly. They headed for Hole in the Wall, WY, a place then already known as an outlaw hideout. They went there and met up with George Currie. Harvey had been called Kid in Texas, so when he and George swapped names Kid Curry was born. One story says Kid stole a herd of mavericks and took them to Wyoming. He and his brother, George, did take a stolen herd to the Tongue River at Otter Creek Montana. They met the outlaw middleman Milton F. "Dad" Marsh at the Circle Bar spring roundup headquarters on Crooked Creek. There he and his brother were hired by Johnnie Lee for the Judith Basin 1884 Fall Roundup. Kid then worked for the Circle C and Circle Diamond outfit of Robert Coburn at Flat Willow Creek. Then came the event that would change his life forever. Up to that point, Kid had been a pretty decent sort, but was forced into a life of crime after his self defense killing of Powell "Pike" Landusky. Kid, Henry, and friend Jim Thornhill had a ranch at Rock Creek in Couteau County, Montana. Pike Landusky was a prospector that had made a rich strike. A boom started near the Curry's ranch. The town was named Landusky and Pike was elected sheriff. Pike had a reputation for being a gunfighter and being sheriff fed his ego. One night Kid was a little drunk and Pike decided to flex his muscles and arrest Kid. He was derisive and even insulted Kid's dead mother. This made Kid mad and he promised Landusky a beating when he got free. Another story says the dispute started when Kid was courting one of Pike's daughters, Elfia. Another man had got her pregnant. Her father slapped her around causing a miscarriage. Pike filed false assault charges against Kid. A.S. Lohman and Frank Plunkett put up the $500 bond. The result was a false fine of $50 against Kid. None of the charges were ever dropped. At any rate, Kid eventually met up with Landusky. An altercation ensued and Landusky drew his gun. Kid had been unarmed, but Thornhill quickly gave Kid his gun. Landusky fired first but missed; Kid killed him in self-defense on December 27, 1894. The story was verified by 11 witnesses at the inquest. But a crooked judge named Debois was on the stand, and Kid didn't trust him. So he hit the trail and became a fugitive from justice. First he went back to Hole in the Wall, WY. An incident that just made matters worse was when he went to Lillian Lohman wife of the man who had posted his bail. She had a new buggy and matching team of horses that he had sold to Kid. She didn't know that Kid and her husband made the deal. So when he took two horses and left more than than they were worth with a note to her about where she could find the money, the story got told that he had stolen the horses. In 1896 he and his cousin Bob went to Cototaxi, CO, to get the McCoy Boys to join them in a train robbery. While there, Kid and Bob hired on as horse breakers at the FL Bar ranch of Frank Lamb of Sand Gulch, CO. Lamb befriended the Kid who was using the name Harv Wright at the time. Lamb also later befriended Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Near the Lamb ranch is where the Pinkertons lost the Kid's trail after the Wilcox, WY train robbery. In 1897 at Belle Fourche, SD, Harvey was captured with Sundance and Walt Putney after a bank robbery. Later Kid and Sundance broke out of jail on October 31, 1897. In 1902, Kid got caught in a pool room in Knoxville, TN while evading. A billy club was broken over his head leaving a 3 inch scar on his lower head and upper neck. On the Knoxville report it said there were scars on his leg, right wrist, left forearm, buckshot scars on back, knife scar, teeth missing from upper and lower jaws, and a wrist scar from a gunshot wound. The buckshot was from the Shankersville, WY whorehouse robbery. The gunshot wound he acquired during the South Dakota holdup. He escaped from the Knoxville jail by the help of Jim Thornhill and Red Jordon. He went to his sister Allie's in Minnesota and, disguised as a hobo, jumped on a freight train to Wagner, MT. At Wagner he walked to his hideout in Thornhill Buttes where he found supplies as prearranged. He owed Thornhill $1,000 for the Knoxville breakout. So Kid, George Kilpatrick, and Charlie Howland made plans for the Parachute, CO train robbery that had been planned earlier by Curry, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. His choice of partners were limited. Butch and Sundance were in south America by then. The Wild Bunch was disbanded. Other possibilities were unavailable. He got George from the Lamb ranch. Kid, George, and Charlie worked the railroad as hands for a week while learning the country and train schedules. But the train carrying the money failed to stop to water for the upcoming grade. Not wanting to be beat out of the money, he, George, and Charlie decided to hit the next train. They got $50 and a small posse out after them. They eluded the posse for several days, but the posse finally caught up to them, thinking them possible sheep rustlers. A shootout took place and more than 200 shots were exchanged. Kid was shot in the arm and both lungs, with the bullet leaving through his other arm. Kid new it was his last moments, so held off the posse so George and Charlie could get away. Then he took his own life with his Colt .45 on June 9, 1904. The posse wasn't sure whose body they had. Tap Duncan was in Green River UT, so they thought it might be him. The body was taken to Glenwood Springs, CO where the coroner looked at it. Kid's coat was the same label as the coat he had worn when captured in Knoxville. The marks and scars were the same as noted by the Knoxville doctor's report. Pinkerton detective Lowell Spence brought a doctor to examine the body thought to be the Kid. They were sure it was Curry. But since the railroad did not want to pay the $30,000 reward the body has been labeled to this day as Tap Duncan. This resulted in the story that the kid made it to South America. George and Charlie later affirmed the Kid's death. They never paid the Parachute posse their $100 reward for the Curry/Duncan body either.
|
Have you added the appropriate delivery costs from
the postage page before going to the checkout
for final payment?
Send mail to
|
