Thomas E. Ketchum, known as Black Jack, was a cowboy who later turned to a life
of crime. He was hanged in 1901 for attempted train robbery.
First train robberies and murders Tom Ketchum was born in San Saba County,
Texas. He left Texas in 1890, possibly after committing a crime. He worked as a
cowboy in the Pecos River Valley of New Mexico, where by 1894, his older
brother, Sam Ketchum, had joined him. Black Jack and a group of others were
named as the robbers of an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway train that
was en route to Deming, New Mexico Territory, in 1892 with a large payroll
aboard. The gang supposedly robbed the train just outside of Nutt, New Mexico
Territory, a water station twenty miles north of Deming. Black Jack and his gang
would often visit the ranch of Herb Bassett, near Brown's Park, Colorado,
who was known to have done business with several outlaws of the day, having
supplied them with beef and fresh horses. Herb Bassett was the father of
female outlaws Josie Bassett and Ann Bassett, who were girlfriends to several
members of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang. One of Ann Bassett's boyfriends
and future Wild Bunch gang member, Ben Kilpatrick, began riding with Black
Jack's gang about that time. Outlaw "Bronco Bill" Walters, later noted for
the legend of his "hidden loot" near Solomonville, Arizona, is also believed
to have begun riding with the gang at this time.
The second major crime attributed to Tom was the murder of a neighbor, John N.
"Jap" Powers, in Tom Green County, Texas, on December 12, 1895. However,
information at the Sutton Historical Society in Texas, says that Will Carver
and Sam Ketchum were the ones actually accused of killing Powers in
Knickerbocker. Fearing the law, they closed their joint saloon and gambling
venture in San Angelo, and hit the outlaw trail. Within six months, Mrs.
Powers and her lover, J. E. Wright, were arrested for the murder, but it was too
late for Carver and the Ketchums. By late 1895, outlaw Harvey "Kid Curry"
Logan and his brother Lonnie Curry were members of Black Jack's gang. However,
in early 1896, a dispute concerning their share of robbery loot prompted the
Currys to leave the gang. It is alleged that Ketchum was involved
with the February 1, 1896, disappearance and presumed murders of Albert Jennings
Fountain and his son Henry Fountain of Las Cruces, New Mexico. In early June
1896, after working for the famed Bell Ranch in New Mexico, Tom and Sam
Ketchum, and possibly others, robbed a combined store and post office at
Liberty, New Mexico, northwest of present-day Tucumcari. According to
contemporary accounts, the Ketchums rode into Liberty on June 12 and purchased
supplies. That evening, a thunderstorm began, and they returned to the store,
owned by Morris and Levi Herzstein, who invited them to take shelter.
Returning the next morning to open his store, Levi Herzstein found that both
the store and post office had been burglarized. After gathering a posse,
Herzstein set out on the outlaws' trail. The posse, composed of just four men,
took the two outlaws by surprise in the Plaza Largo arroyo, where a shootout
immediately began. Seconds later both Levi Herzstein and Hermenejildo Gallegos
lay dead. Seeing his comrades fall, Anastacio Borgue turned his horse and
rode out of the arroyo. Placido Gurulé, the fourth member of the posse, also
survived to give an account. Gurulé said he had been struck by a .30-30 bullet
that knocked him off of his horse. He landed on the ground with a blow that
knocked the wind out of him. He lay in a semiconscious state as Black Jack
Ketchum emptied his rifle into the bodies of Levi Herzstein and
Hermenejildo Gallegos. Tom and Sam Ketchum were never tried for the
killings at the Plaza Largo arroyo, but Morris Herzstein reportedly was present
in Clayton, New Mexico Territory to witness the hanging of Black Jack
Ketchum in 1901. Morris Herzstein moved to Clayton
shortly after the killing in Liberty, and finally into the Texas Panhandle
area. This is memorialized by the inscription on a shoe brush: Herzstein's
Clayton, New Mexico -- Dalhart, Texas. If it's from Herzstein's it's correct.
Morris was the father of Albert Herzstein, who became one of the
founders of Big 3 Industries in Houston, and is the man who helped the museum in
Clayton to become a reality years later. Joining the Hole-In-The-Wall gang
Following this event, Thomas Ketchum joined other outlaws of the Hole in the
Wall Gang and continued a life of crime, focusing on train robberies, although
when not robbing trains they worked for several ranches in New Mexico and Texas.
Several other notable outlaws operated out of Hole In The Wall, which was a
hideout for numerous outlaw gangs which operated separately. The famous Wild
Bunch gang, led by Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay, operated out of there. One
Wild Bunch gang member, Kid Curry, along with his brother Lonny Curry, had
previously ridden with Black Jack Ketchum and his gang. He and Ketchum did
not like each other, and Ketchum avoided Curry as much as possible, as Curry was
well known to be the most dangerous of the Wild Bunch gang, and would kill nine
lawmen over the course of the next eight years.
During this time, Tom Ketchum was once identified mistakenly as "Black Jack"
Christian, another outlaw, and that became his nickname as well. Three of
the train robberies that the gang committed were near the same location,
between Folsom and Des Moines, New Mexico Territory. This was at the point
where the old Fort Union wagon road crossed the Colorado and Southern Rail
Road tracks near Twin Mountain. On September 3, 1897, they committed
their first robbery at Twin Mountain. Then, on July 11, 1899, the gang,
without Black Jack, robbed the train again at Twin Mountain. After the
robbery, Sam and several unknown gang members, in addition to Wild Bunch gang
members Will Carver and William Ellsworth "Elza" Lay, headed for the
mountains southwest of Raton, New Mexico Territory. The next day, a posse
consisting of Sheriff Ed Farr of Huerfano County, Colorado, Special Agent
W.H. Reno of the Colorado & Southern Railroad, and five deputies found their
trail and tracked them into Turkey Creek Canyon near Cimarron, New Mexico. There,
the posse engaged them in a gun battle. Sam Ketchum and two deputies were
wounded seriously, and the gang escaped. Sam Ketchum's wounds slowed the intended
escape, and they made it only a short distance from the initial shootout.
Several members of the posse cornered the Ketchum gang a few days later, still
in the same area of the Territory. Deputy W. H. Love and Sheriff Ed Farr
engaged the outlaws in another gun battle, resulting in both Farr and Love
being killed, while the posse wounded at least two unknown members of the gang.
Sam Ketchum escaped, but was found a few days later by Special Agent Reno at the
home of a rancher, where he was arrested.
Sam Ketchum was taken to the Santa Fe Territorial Prison, where he died from
his gunshot wounds. He was buried in the Odd Fellows rest Cemetery, now the
Fairview Cemetery on Cerrillos Rd. in Santa Fe.
"Elzy" or "Elza" Lay was born November 25, 1868, Mt Pleasant, Ohio. Lay had
come out west to Denver, and became an outlaw after mistakenly believing he had
killed a man. Jailed for life after the killing of Sheriff Farr after the Folsom
robbery, he was released in 1906. He returned to Alma, New Mexico Territory
and lived there for two years. He stayed with Louis and Walter Jones, who in 1904
had built a large merchandise store at Alma. Elzy died aged 65 in Los Angeles,
on November 10, 1934. Capture and death
On August 16, 1899, Tom Ketchum, supposedly knowing nothing of the July
11 hold-up which ended in the death of his brother Sam, single-handedly
attempted to rob the same train again at the same place and in the same way that
he and Sam and others had robbed it just a few weeks earlier. The train
conductor, Frank Harrington, saw Tom approaching the moving train. He
recognized him, grabbed a shotgun, and shot Tom in the arm, knocking him off
his horse. The train continued, and the next day a posse came out and found Tom
beside the tracks, badly wounded. He was transported to medical facilities at
Trinidad, Colorado, and his right arm had to be amputated. He was nursed back
to health and then sent to Clayton, New Mexico Territory, for trial.
At the trial, Ketchum was convicted and sentenced to death. He was the only
person ever hanged in Union County, New Mexico Territory. He was also the only
person who suffered capital punishment for the offense of "felonious assault
upon a railway train" in New Mexico Territory. Later, the law was found to
be unconstitutional. Ketchum was executed by hanging in
Clayton. Nobody in Clayton had any experience in conducting hangings; the
rope was too long, and since Ketchum had gained a significant amount of weight
during his time in jail, he was decapitated when he dropped through the
trap door. His last words were reported by the San
Francisco Chronicle as: "Good-bye. Please dig my grave very deep. All
right; hurry up." A popular postcard was made showing the
body. Afterwards his head was sewn back onto the body for viewing, and he was
interred at the Clayton Cemetery. Western actor Jack Elam portrayed
Ketchum in an episode of the 1954–55 syndicated television series Stories of
the Century, tales of the American West starring and narrated by Jim Davis.
See also Jeff Burton, Dynamite and Six-Shooter:
The Story of Thomas E. 'Black Jack' Ketchum, Sunstone Press, Box 2321, Santa
Fe, NM 87504-2321, 2007 References
External links The Spradley's Home Page at
www.hal-pc.org Biography
Clayton, New Mexico