One of eight
During his career as a law enforcement representative and gambler, Bat ordered a total of eight single-action revolvers from Colt. The most impressive was an order made by Dodge City and written to the Opera House Saloon in July 1885 whose incipit was
Gentlemen,
Please send me one of your nickel-plated .45 caliber revolvers. It is for my own use, and that is why I would like to have extras along with it. I wish to pay these extras as extra work. Make the trigger easier to cock and the front sight a little higher and thicker than that of weapons of this type. Put it in the gutta-percha and send it as soon as possible, with the barrel about the same length as the extractor.
Yours,
W.B. Masterson
By that time Bat had served as Ford County Undersheriff under Charlie Bassett, taking his place in 1877 after Bassett had served two consecutive terms (by Kansas law a County Sheriff could not hold the office for three consecutive terms). His first disposition after becoming County Sheriff, as one would have expected, was to appoint Undersheriff Charlie Bassett, in essence the two exchanged badges.
Under his tenure in Dodge City, which was also home to the County Offices and the Ford County Sheriff’s Offices, Bat appointed many of his old associates as special advisers when situations became thorny.
Ford County encompassed something like 9,500 square kiloments, a large tract of land in southwestern Kansas-a vast territory in which outlaws could disappear with ease. In their search Bat called Wyatt Earp to his side, and at the same time appointed his younger brother James Masterson and friend Bill Tilghman as deputy sheriffs.
Dodge City also had its own City Marshal, Ed Masterson, and a local police force. Dodge was a difficult city and needed every law enforcement representative available.
As county sheriff, Bat’s thumb rule was to cock the gun first and ask questions later, a technique he learned from Wyatt who saw the barrel of a revolver pressed firmly against the heads of miscreants. This was a controversial practice but Wyatt and Bat always defended it. And it was clearly posted along the road through Dodge that no weapons were allowed within the city limits. Often ignored by the herdsmen, a large part of the law enforcers’ duties was to insist that this rule be obeyed.
The engraving on Pietta Brothers’ Bat Masterson single-action model is based on the pattern found on Masterson’s seventh Colt revolver. This pattern is not a Colt factory design and was likely made by a Dodge City engraver. The engraving on the underguard, however, is typical of weapons ordered from Colt by Masterson.
And sometimes, with a bunch of rampant, booze-fueled cowboys, it could become a dangerous business. In April 1878 Ed Masterson was killed, shot at point-blank range doing exactly that, disarming a drunken cowboy who had blatantly ignored the rules. Ed returned fire and felled two men before falling to the ground and collapsing. He died 40 minutes later. Bat’s friend, Deputy Sheriff Charlie Bassett took over as City Marshal and Wyatt assumed the post of Deputy Marshal the following month. Bat was not in town the night Ed was killed.
His brother’s death was a blow to Bat as he had always thought Ed was too easygoing and not knowledgeable enough, as he should have been. Bat had seen several representatives of the law get shot dead, some with their own weapons taken from behind and used against them. He wore his Colt cross-mounted rig with the stock covered and carried in the front, making it virtually impossible for anyone to disarm him from behind. It has also been written that he carried two weapons, but in the city where almost every confrontation took place at close range, it was the short-barreled Colt carried with a cross-mounted rig that Bat preferred over any other.
In 1879 Masterson began his last term as a law enforcement representative in Kansas having been appointed U.S. Marshals operating officer. Ironically, although in Dodge he had confronted countless rampaging cowboys, and pursued murderers, bank robbers, and cattle rustlers, Bat in his entire career as a law enforcer never killed any of those he arrested. Many were wounded, but no one was shot dead. The reputation that as an officer he killed 27 men was a legend, and Bat was wise enough to let him think so, since the fear of his gun was as effective a weapon as the gun itself. Bat killed in the course of a shooting only one man, his first and only, Melvin A. King.
Article continues in next issue….
