Old West Cowboy Detective

[Shotgun Steve]

Charlie Siringo, Pinkerton's "Cowboy Detective"

Old West Cowboy Detectivesby Carol Powell
(edited and enhanced by Kathy Krause)

In Santa Fe, NM, there is a place called Siringo Road. It was named for Charles A. "Charlie" Siringo who had a ranch in the area in the early 1900s. Charlie was born in Texas in 1855 and by age 15 was working on surrounding ranches as a cowboy, eventually becoming a trail driver and working the Chisolm Trail. In 1884, he quit the cowboy life, settled down and got married, becoming a merchant in Caldwell, Kansas. It was there he began writing his first book, "A Texas Cowboy; or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony." A year later, it was published to much popular acclaim - one of the first real looks at the cowboy life by someone who actually lived it.

Charlie became bored with business life and moved to Chicago in 1886 to join the famed Pinkerton Detective Agency and for the next 22 years worked all over the West, including Arizona, as a successful detective. He didn't always get to choose his assignments. He was known as "Pinkerton's Cowboy Detective." He was a small, wiry man, cold and steady. By most accounts, he was brave, loyal, tough and exceedingly honest. Although reputed to be a crack shot, he liked to boast that he made most of his arrests without resorting to violence.

Siringo was one of the first to use undercover techniques, variously disguising himself as a robber, rustler, union member, wealthy mining man, railroad hobo, etc., in order to bring hundreds of criminals to justice. His name is linked to many well known western characters such as Wyatt Earp, Tom Horn, Clarence Darrow, Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson, Will Rogers, Billy the Kid and numerous outlaws. He infiltrated the Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid Wild Bunch as a murderer-fugitive and ultimately arrested several of the gang members. In a 1974 TV movie, "Mrs. Sundance," L.Q.Jones plays the role of Charlie Siringo as he tracks Etta Place (Elizabeth Montgomery), Sundance's school teacher widow with a $10,000 bounty on her head.

Around 1894, Siringo was sent to Arizona to find a man by the name of John Zillman. Some big insurance companies in New York had been trying to find Zillman since 1879. He was purported to have died in Barbour County, Kansas but the insurance companies that insured his life for $75,000 suspected that a drunken cigar maker had been killed and buried as Zillman. Mrs. Zillman took her claim to several courts and won. The insurance companies appealed and each time the case was due to come up again in court, the insurance companies felt that if they could locate two people they were investigating in Arizona, one of them would prove to be Zillman. John Fletcher Fairchild was one of the men, Bill Herendon was the other. The last time Fairchild was seen was on a bobtail horse headed for Flagstaff, Arizona. Armed with a photo of Zillman, Siringo found both men. The photo did not match Herendon but he was a desperado and smuggler and was arrested anyway. Fairchild was easy to find; he was in Flagstaff working as a deputy under Sheriff Ralph Henry Cameron. No photo match and he was cleared.

It's interesting that a man-hunter like Fairchild was being tracked by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. He was a good match for the famous Charles Siringo because Fairchild was known for always getting his man. Fairchild worked with Yavapai County officers in tracking one of Prescott's most ruthless killers, Fleming Parker, a man whose life ended at Prescott's gallows, guilty of the murder of Prescott's Assistant District Attorney.

Fairchild went insane shortly after becoming the Coconino County Sheriff and he died about age 47 in the Territorial Insane Asylum in Phoenix in 1899.

Siringo retired from Pinkertons in 1907. He settled in Santa Fe and wrote a book detailing his experiences as a Pinkerton detective, entitled "Pinkerton's Cowboy Detective." When it was complete, publication of the book was held up by the Pinkerton Agency who felt it violated a confidentiality agreement signed by Siringo when he was hired. Siringo gave in and deleted their name from the book title, instead writing two separate books, entitled "A Cowboy Detective" and "Further Adventures of a Cowboy Detective," both published in 1912 with fictitious names replacing real ones. You can read Siringo's, "A Cowboy Detective," online at books.google.com. Siringo died in California in 1928.
Men like Siringo and Fairchild helped romanticize the myth of the Old West and of the American cowboy, as well as that of the private detective. Unfortunately, they seem to be largely forgotten now. They were a special breed. You can't invent people like this; they were larger than life and they did fantastic things.
(Carol Powell is a frequent contributor to Days Past. More of hers and others' articles may be found at sharlot.org)

[Will Ketchum]

I based my CAS persona on loose depiction of Charlie Siringo.  My complete SASS alias is Isaac William Ketchum (I. Will Ketchum) which I normally shorten to Will Ketchum  I came up with it after reading "A Cowboy Detective".  There are a couple of places where both the Pinkerton Agency and Charlie missed changing names.  It sure is a good read.  I have never read the other 2 books although I would like to.

Will Ketchum

[Delmonico]

Agree, it's a good read.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I have a re-print of Texas Cowboy that I found at my local Salvation Army thrift store!  A bit steep at $1.00.  A good read, and probably as good as you'll find for a "primary source".

[Will Ketchum]

I have a re-print of Texas Cowboy that I found at my local Salvation Army thrift store!  A bit steep at $1.00.  A good read, and probably as good as you'll find for a "primary source".

So do you want to double your money?  Triple it?

Will Ketchum

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

No Will;  That one is a keeper!

But look here;

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Charles+Siringo&sts=t&tn=Texas+Cowboy&x=66&y=17

[Will Ketchum]

Thanks Pard...I didn't figure you would

Will Ketchum

[Stillwater]

Siringo worked with Tom Horn, some of the time, when they were both working for Pinkerton.

Bill

[Tjackstephens]

AT a big SASS shoot several years ago I met the cowboy that has Charlie Siringo as his SASS name. He sure could pass for the real one. That is in looks. Tj

[Texas Lawdog]

Mr. Siringo was a snappy dresser. I'm curious about his lapel pen.

[kflach]

After reading this I'm still not sure why the Insurance Companies were after John Fletcher Fairchild. I Googled his name and found a link to his picture (http://www.antiquephotoparlour.com/realcowboys.php) and an article on him by one of his descendants (http://sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/text/2008_06_08.shtml). Neither indicates why he was wanted.

I guess unless it was just as a witness.

I wonder if his insanity was brought on by Syphilis (I understand that that kind of thing wasn't completely unusual back then)?

By the way, no disrespect was intended by that last sentance.

[Stillwater]

Al Capone died of the advance stages of Syphillis. Syphillis in it's advanced stages is called paresis...

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000748.htm

Bill