Posted on 04/20/2009 1:58:12 PM PDT by yankeedame
In compiling this list, I’ve given myself more latitude then usual—from the post- Lewis and Clark era into the early days of the 20th century. I would not want to neglect one of these men and have his shade come after me in the next life.
--David Penzel
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HUGH GLASS:
In 1823, while a member of a trapping expedition led by Andrew Henry, Hugh Glass was mauled by a sow grizzly. His back and scalp were torn apart and one leg was broken. Because they were in Indian country, and because it seemed obvious that Glass could not live, Henry detailed John Fitzgerald and the 17-year-old Jim Bridger to stay with Glass until he died, bury him, and then catch up with the main party.
When Glass survived for 4 days, Fitzgerald and Bridger decided that there was no sense in waiting longer and left, after taking Glass’ rifle, tomahawk, and knife. Eventually, Glass grew strong enough to crawl, and be began his journey to Fort Kiowa, 200 miles and 6 weeks away. He set his own leg and let maggots eat the rotting flesh on his back. He lived on roots and berries, and on one occasion was able to drive a pair of wolves away from the carcass of a buffalo calf.
When he made it, he swore revenge on Fitzgerald and Bridger, but it was not to be: the former had joined the army, and he forgave the latter because of his youth. Glass was killed near the Yellowstone River by Arikara Indians in 1833.
JOHN WESLEY HARDIN:
Some gunmen (Wyatt Earp, most notably) built awesome reputations despite having killed very few people. (Earp got three or four.) However, this fun-loving Texan stacked up the bodies on an assembly-line basis. Born in 1853, Hardin stabbed a schoolmate at the age of 14, and then got serious a year later when he shot his first man. For the next ten years his life was one protracted gunfight, interrupted by arrests and escapes from jail. In 1878, he was tried and sentenced to 25 years for murder in Texas, but was pardoned in 1894.
Hardin then went bad. He studied law and opened a more or less successful practice. In 1895, he was murdered in El Paso by Constable John Selman, who shot him in the back of the head while Hardin was rolling dice. Hardin claim to have killed 44 men; the real number is probably more like 30. It will do.
BEAR RIVER TOM SMITH:
Remember all the punchouts in the Saturday afternoon Westerns? Mostly that stuff never happened, but here was one lawman who did use his fists in favor of his guns. Tom Smith was a New Yorker, a professional middleweight prizefighter, and a policeman who was hired by the city of Abilene, Kansas, in 1869. Smith enforced a highly unpopular no-guns policy in the cowtown, and for the most part, made the law stick by beating the hell out of people with his bare hands. He was thought to be completely fearless, and never backed down from a fight, no matter what the odds.
Smith met his end while carrying a gun to serve a warrant on two local farmers. He was shot, then clubbed with a rifle butt, and then decapitated with an axe. Smith was succeeded by James Butler Hickok, who believed in shooting people.
FRANK HAMER:
Born in 1884 he is my personal selection as the toughest sumbitch of all. This Texas Ranger is best known for leading the posse that killed Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow in 1934 (and forget the crap you saw in the movie; no one ever got the drop on him). He was a big man who would cheerfully stomp a mudhole in your ass or shoot you if you broke the law. He was never beaten in a fight of any kind; he survived numerous gunshot wounds and killed numerous people. Hamer did not play politics, which probably cut short his Ranger career.
Hamer’s career spanned the last of the Old West and into the 20th century. He served 18 years in the Rangers, and even after his retirement he retained a special commission as a Ranger. During his life, he refused money (a lot of it, reportedly) to tell his life story. Hamer died in his bed in 1955. His biography, I’m Frank Hamer, appeared in 1968, and if you can find a copy, grab it.
Any of the Younger Brothers.
For long and hard
I've worked for bread
for honor and for riches
But upon my corns too long you've tred
you fine haired son's of b*tches.”
Poetry by Black Bart, left at the scene of his stagecoach robbery.
I’d have to disagree with the inclusion of JW Hardin. From a standpoint of those he killed, perhaps. But “tough” is a far broader concept and that’s about the only way he fits the bill. Either Isaac Parker (the “hanging judge”) or Roy Bean would better suit the definition...
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, decapitation is overkill.
Deputy Tom Herrera.
From 1943 to 1973 he was the “law” in several hundred square miles of New Mexico, not known for it’s law abiding ways even today.
Yep. I should have noted earlier, if number of kills is the guideline, then Elfego Baca should make the list. I see him as a tougher gent than JW Hardin, though his number of kills was likely less...
Jim Bridger Lyrics
Artist(Band):Johnny Horton Review The Song (0)
Once there was a mountain man who couldn’t write his name
Yet he deserves the front row seat in History’s Hall of Fame
He forgot more about the Indians than we will ever know
He spoke the language of the Sioux the Black Foot and the Crow
(Let’s drink to old Jim Bridger yes lift your glasses high)
As long as there’s the USA don’t let his memory die
(That he was making history never once occured to him)
But I doubt if we’d been here if it weren’t for men like Jim
He spoke with General Custer and said listen Yellow Hair
The Sioux are the great nation so treat ‘em fair and square
Sit in on their war councils, don’t laugh away their pride
But Custer didn’t listen at Little Big Horn Custer died
(Let’s drink to old Jim Bridger...
There’s poems and there’s legends that tell of Carson’s fame
Yet compared to Jim Bridger Kit was civilized and tame
These words are straight from Carson’s lips if you place that story by him
If there’s a man who knows this God forsaken land it’s Jim
(Let’s drink to old Jim Bridger...
Another long lost feller: Commodore Perry Owens
Jack “Coffee” Hayes was one of the toughest men ever in my book. They named a county after him here in Texas, and Hayes founded the City of Oakland California when he went there after hearing of the gold rush.
I don’t know how true this is, or remember where I read it, but the toughest guy I’ve ever heard of was a soldier in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. He was on his final exam for the Rhodesian SAS (I believe it was “D” Squadron of 22SAS). He was dropped by Puma helicopter way out in the bush with his personal rifle, a compass and some dried meat. On the final leg of his journey he was gored by an elephant. He managed to patch himself up with whatever he was carrying in his kit and marched back into Salisbury. Instead of making a beeline for the nearest hospital, he made for the nearest pub.
Jack Hayes is one of only 30 Texas Rangers in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. Definitely more a bad-ass than most on this list.
My relatives revealed to us that my father was a pretty tough dude before my mother tamed him.
In WWII England, he got into the a bar fight with a man who pulled a knife on him. A broadly built six-foot-four inch street thug before the war, Dad got the knife away from the man and when the MPs arived, they saw him perched on top of of the guy, taunting him with the knife.
Dad took off out the side door and down the street into a dark alley, where he knocked out the four MPs who were chasing him.
Of course, his captain had to hide him from the MPs once they came looking for him.
Now THAT’S a Tough Guy!!
Another good choice. This author mixes "tough" with pathalogical and sociopath, IMO, regarding JW Hardin. Hardin hated Blacks, carpetbaggers and anyone associated with Texas/Federal government after the war. He killed with glee. There's one story (perhaps apocryphal) about him shooting a sleeping man in Abilene, KS because he was snoring. That's not tough, that's sociopathic...
Liver Eating Johnson
There was a segment on one of the “Wild West Tech” shows on Discovery Channel where a guy working for a mining company carrying a payroll was waylaid by 12 bandits. They killed his partner but he fought it out with them killing the majority with his pistol while getting wounded numerous times. When he ran out of ammo he pulled out his knife and finished off the rest. In my book, that’s tough.
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