Lester Moore -- No Les No More

The American Cowboy Chronicle ^ | June 1, 2017 | Tom Correa

[Texas Fossil]

Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona, is the final resting place for over a couple of hundred people. They include gunmen, outlaws, lawmen, gamblers, cowboys, a man wrongly hanged, blacksmiths, soiled doves, miners, business men and women, housewives, children, and those only known to God "who died with their boots on."

Those buried there includes Marshal Fred White who was 31 years old when he was accidentally shot and killed by Curly Bill Brocius on October 30th, 1880. The reason I say "accidentally" is because that's what Marshal White said before he died.

Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton are there. We all know they were killed in the shootout near the O.K. Corral on October 26th, 1881.

James "Tex" Howard, William E. "Billy" Delaney, Dan "Big Dan" Dowd, Omer W. "Red" Sample, and Daniel "York" Kelly are buried there. All were the perpetrators of the Bisbee Massacre.  All were legally hanged on March 28th, 1884. 

Then there's the story of how William Kinsman ended up in Boothill. The story goes that someone put a notice in the Tombstone Epitaph that William Kinsman intended to marry May Woodman. Since they were already living together, this made Kinsman angry. His anger obviously overrode his better judgement and he made the big mistake of running his own ad in the Epitaph stating that he had no intentions of ever marrying May Woodman. 

On February 23rd,1883, William Kinsman was standing in front of the Oriental Saloon on Allen Street when May Woodman walked up and shot him dead. And yes, this goes to the heart of not publicly embarrassing a woman.  After all, it's one thing to be talked about in whispers and a whole nother thing to be made a fool of in the local newspaper.

Woodman was sentenced to five years in Yuma Territorial Prison for killing Kinsman. The acting governor pardoned her after she had served less than one year. And while Kinsman is in Boothill, there's no telling whatever happened to May Woodman.

Jack Dunlop, the bandit known as "Three Fingered Jack," died of gunshot wounds on February 24th, 1900, after an attempted holdup. And yes, he's there.

George Johnson's marker can be found there. It states "Here lies George Johnson, hanged by mistake 1882. He was right we were wrong. But we strung him up and now he's gone." Of course the only problem with his marker is that no one can verify that a man named George Johnson was lynched in Arizona in 1882.

As for John Heath, he was accused of organizing the robbery that led to the 1883 Bisbee massacre. He has a grave marker near the grave of the five perpetrators of the massacre. Heath was arrested and convicted, and was later removed from the Tombstone jail by an angry group of 50 citizens. 

Those citizens lynched Heath on February 22nd, 1884, from a telegraph pole on Second Street. And though there is a grave marker there for him, he was not buried in Boothill Cemetery. In fact, John Heath's body was returned to his wife in Terrell, Texas, and buried in the Oakland Cemetery there.

Thomas Harper is an outlaw supposedly buried in Tombstone's Boothill Cemetery. He was said to be a friend of Curly Bill Brocius. Harper was hanged for murder by Sheriff Bob Paul in Tucson on July 8th, 1881. And though he too has a marker there in Tombstone's Boothill, Harper is actually buried in Tucson.

One marker that is there simply reads, "DUTCH ANNIE 1883." It is an epitaph too short for someone known by the broke and desperate as a true friend. She is said to have grub-staked many. She is also said to have gone to her eternal rest with more than 1,000 people following her coffin. All paying tribute to "Dutch Annie – Queen of the Red Light District."

In Tombstone's Boothill Graveyard, there is a plot in row six that has become famous. It has become famous more for the marker that says who's there, than for the soul that's buried there.

Lester Moore has become forever known for the epitaph inscribed on his headstone. It reads, 

Here Lies

Lester Moore

Four Slugs

From a .44

No Les

No More

When was he born? No one knows. As for his death? It's said to be 1880, but no month or day is known. Then again, it could be a year other than 1880. Supposedly there was a Lester Moore who was a Wells Fargo Station Agent in the Mexico-United States border town of Naco, Arizona. in the early 1880s. As the station agent, Moore was responsible for delivering items shipped. Yes, he worked the window and dealt with all sorts of customers.

It's said that Hank Dunstan arrived at the Wells Fargo station to pick up a package he was expecting. Dunstan was surprised to see that the package was badly handled and was actually a shambles when Moore handed it to him. And as expected, Dunstan wasn't happy with the condition of his delivery and soon became angry over the poor condition of the battered package.

Dunstan voiced his complaint to Moore, and soon enough they were arguing. Their argument quickly escalated to where both men reached for their guns. And yes, soon shots were fired. 

The rest of the story goes that Hank Dunstan shot Lester Moore four times with his .44 caliber revolver. Moore didn't go down without a fight since it's said that he managed to fire at least one shot. It hit Dunstan in the ribs. So when the smoke cleared, Lester Moore lay dead behind his window and Hank Dunstan lay mortally wounded. All in all both men ended up dead.

Lester Moore's body was transported to the town of Tombstone, where he was buried in the Boothill Graveyard. As for Hank Dunstan, no one knows where he is buried. That's the tale of Lester Moore as repeated for years. But frankly, there may be more to this story.

For example, as for his name, the name of Lester Moore doesn't appear in a 1880 Census. But, a Lewis Moore does show up. A reader sent me information showing that while the 1880 Census doesn't have Lester Moore listed, it does list a Lewis Moore who is said to have lived in Tombstone, Pima County, Arizona Territory. It also states that Lewis Moore was born in Illinois in 1828. 

So was Lester Moore really Lewis Moore who lived in Tombstone, and was he born in Illinois in 1828?  Or, could there really have been a Lester Moore that arrived before the 1880 Census? Since it's only speculation that Moore was killed in 1880, could a Moore have been killed earlier during that time period?

Since Cochise County wasn't founded until 1881, and subsequently their records only start that year, could there have been a Lester Moore that arrived before the 1880 Census and was killed there? If so, than why is it that it's said there was never anyone named Lester Moore who was killed in Arizona Territory? As for a Lewis Moore being killed, who knows? 

Of course, what if it's simply a case of a grave marker being wrong? Was it changed at some point because it became too weathered to read? As I said, who really knows? Fact is, we don't have answers to this mystery as well as for the names of all of the unknown buried in Boothill. Yes, the same as how we also don't know who penned Lester Moore's famous epitaph. No one knows if it was the local undertaker, or just someone else good with words. 

Maybe it was someone when the cemetery was being cleaned up in the 1940s? During the 1940s, the Tombstone City Council is said to have sponsored a group to restore and preserve their Boothill. It's said that metal markers were used to replace the old wooden markers that had actually disappeared in many cases. 

During that time, it's said that as new markers were put into place, the preservation group actually researched as many of the graves as possible by contacting relatives, friends, older residents, and historical records. I can't him but wonder how they would explain Lester Moore's grave mystery? I can't help but wonder if it's true, that no Moore existed?

Tom Correa

[Tammy8]

In the 30s and 40s Tombstone was a falling down old mining town that few cared about. History buffs would go there and people writing for the magazines that played history as drama to sell stories. Few others ever went to Tombstone, there were some small businesses there so locals would go there to shop; basically it was a little rural community.

When western movies began to get popular and from the publicity of the western magazines the people in Tombstone began to get a few more people stopping by on their vacation and decided to target tourism. An earlier group had cleaned up and fixed up Boot Hill, that group did their best to locate the actual graves and replace markers- in their mind they were fixing up the town cemetery. As time went on and more of Tombstone was cleaned up and fixed up for tourists from time to time additions were made to Boot Hill that were not accurate, added for the tourists.

I knew the people that owned the ranch where Johnny Ringo is buried, it is as the crow flies around 50 miles from Tombstone. When Tombstone was getting prettied up for tourists they added Johnny Ringo to Boot Heel. People objected to that so much they removed him pretty quick, otherwise he would still “be” there.

There are many things in Tombstone that are historically accurate as can be; but over the years some have not cared about that and have included things that are not true just for tourism.

I love Tombstone, have been there many times over the years. Lived close to there on a ranch for a while and went there to shop. Later as a college student would go there on weekends to dance because the bars had live music. Now I take my grand kids and just go as a tourist. I hate to see all the commercialism now but if not for the tourists it would likely be another ghost town so can’t have it both ways.

[discostu]

The accuracy will be dramatically better, because it’s stored in multiple places with standardized formats and no more single point of failure.

[snooter55]

Just look at those fellers !
One glance at those lean, mean, fightin’ machines tells that they did NOT sit around in front of a TV eatin’ junk food and washin’ it down with soda pop or beer.

What can we learn from just a picture ?

Snoot ;o)

[airdalechief]

Bookmarked that site. Thanks!

Been to Tombstone many times. Watched the ‘shoot-out’ many times. Drank a beer there many times.

Tombstone has an aura about it. Especially if you like non-fiction western history.

[Texas Fossil]

Website owner (and author of this article) is in CA.

He is retired Marine and LEO. Great guy.

He had a big archive of work like this one on the site.

[Texas Fossil]

I lived in NM from 1972-1986. Most of time in Silver City, another mining town.

For many years I traveled every other week on business to Sierra Vista, AZ and back with lots of stops in between. I was in the Wholesale Hardware Distribution Business. Was a drummer. smile. I had a customer in Tombstone that ran a lumber yard.

I really liked the people in Southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Silver City, NM has the best year round climate of any place I’ve ever been. High, Dry, Cool and clear skies.

[Old Grumpy]

Fascinating reading!

[Texas Fossil]

Possibly. But remember: garbage in -> garbage out.

NOBODY proof any more, because it costs nothing to reprint.

I remember when a plate for offset printing cost $50 per page. (and it was optically set)

Digital composition changed all that.

[Texas Fossil]

I suggest you look at the archive. There is a huge variety there. Indian history, Western History and current events.

[discostu]

Nobody proofed back then, there was the person who wrote things in the book and that was it. If that person was stupid, or had bad handwriting, or just didn’t like your family too bad. That’s one of the reasons the family Bible became a place to record the family tree, it was a second source and more trustworthy. These days there’s probably a lot more proofing since you fill out the name for the kid and actually get copies of the ensuing paperwork. There’s a lot more opportunities to correct the record now.

Digital composition makes it better. I found out yesterday I didn’t have the right vehicle registration in my car, didn’t have the current address, $4 and 5 minutes later print at home and I’m up to date.

[Texas Fossil]

We were thinking of a different point in the past and the technology.

You were thinking about 1850’s. (When the article was about) I was thinking 1950’s which I can relate to. smile.

Sorry.

I carried a very large print catalog (25#) from 1972 to 1986. (reference to $50 plate charge was then)

I ran a catalog and advertising department for 5-1/2 years many years later. Also created and maintained a website then.

[Axenolith]

Stanley Paher’s two volume work “Ghost towns and mining camps of Nevada” has loads of great imagery from the era before as I term it “ the advent of the cheap off road vehicle”. Places like Tombstone survived because they always had some folks around but there were literally hundreds of towns and camps that existed in deserted stasis until idiots got the means to reach them easily and recreationally or accidentally burned them down or deconstructed them for materials/souvenirs.

The photography in them was done by a woman who quit the news business and spent her later years hunting these sites down and photographing them.

[Old Grumpy]

I will absolutely do that. Thank you!

[discostu]

I was thinking about all the way up until the computer revolution finally sunk into government. In most places records were handled by hand by one person, at best a handful, and the records were only as good as that person. Nobody proof read, errors were only found if somebody suddenly cared about that record. By and large these systems didn’t change between the 1400s and the 1980s, the big revolution was typewriters so we were no longer reliant on Millie having decent handwriting. And the lack of reliability spawned an entire culture of people and communities keeping their own record, the Family Tree in the Bible, wedding and baptismal records in the church. All those things genealogists rely on largely went in place because record keeping was so bad, and have largely gone away in the last few decades because record keeping is actually useful now.

[Big Red Badger]

Silver City , New Mexico.

Got It!

[\/\/ayne]

Next trip.. A nights stay at the Copper Queen Hotel!

Visit the Bisbee Library. It's really old.

[Big Red Badger]

Bisbee library...

Okay,
It’s near Cochises Stronghold .

[Big Red Badger]

So.Az. pinglist...?
Get Me on It please..
Thanks Wayne.

[PJ-Comix]

Those buried there includes Marshal Fred White who was 31 years old when he was accidentally shot and killed by Curly Bill Brocius on October 30th, 1880.

A lot younger than the Harry Carey, Jr. version.

[Tammy8]

I have seen the remnants of many of those old towns many times over the years, there is a couple real close to me now. The old buildings around here were mostly adobe and were in decent shape until people decided to gather/steal doors, windows, and old tin from the roofs. Of course the adobe buildings melted down at that point. Sad to say the least. There is an old church near me, the old bell was even in the bell tower until about 30 years ago- one day it was there and the next gone.

Thank you for the book recommend, I am sure I will like them.