Joe Lefors
| Joe Lefors | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 20, 1865 Paris, Texas |
| Died | October 1, 1940 (aged 75) United States |
| Occupation | Lawman |
Joe Lefors (February 20, 1865 – October 1, 1940) was a lawman in the closing years of the Old West. He is best known for the arrest of gunman Tom Horn in 1903 for the alleged murder of 14‑year-old sheepherder Willie Nickell, which has since come into question, and it has long been believed that Lefors falsified evidence helping to convict the wrong man for the murder.
Lefors was featured as a character in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Lefors was born in Paris, Texas, to James J. Lefors and Mahala West. His brothers Sam, Ike, Rufe, and Newton were all peace officers in some capacity. Newton was killed in the line of duty serving as a Deputy U.S. Marshall in Indian Territory. The town of Lefors, Texas is named for another brother, Perry.
Lefors first arrived in Wyoming in 1885 after working on a cattle drive that ended there. He played a minor role in the 1887 recovery of a large herd of cattle rustled by the "Hole in the Wall Gang". He later worked as a Contract Livestock Inspector for Wyoming, where his job was to recover stolen livestock and apprehend cattle thieves. Lefors married his first wife, 16‑year‑old Bessie M. Hannum, in Newcastle, Wyoming on August 5, 1896.
In 1899, Lefors took part in a posse to capture those responsible for what would become known as the "Wilcox Train Robbery", committed by the "Hole in the Wall Gang" led by outlaw Butch Cassidy. The robbers eventually escaped into the Big Horn Mountains. Famed lawman and Pinkerton Agent Charlie Siringo worked heavily on that case, and would years later come into contact with Lefors in the process of working other cases, and would later indicate that Lefors was incompetent, at best, as a lawman. However, US Marshal Frank Hadsell appointed Lefors to a Deputy US Marshal's position in October 1899. Lefors always claimed that Hadsell approached him to take that job based on his hard work on the Wilcox Robbery case. However, Lefors contributed to that case very little, if anything, and is not mentioned as a contributor at all in the official records of that investigation. It is more likely that Lefors asked Hadsell to give him the appointment, and eventually he asked often enough to get it.
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