Bat Masterson

W. B. "Bat" Masterson (November 24, 1853 or 1856 – October 25, 1921) was a legendary figure of the American West. He lived an adventurous life which included stints as a buffalo hunter, U.S. Army scout, gambler, frontier lawman, U.S. Marshal, and, finally, sports editor and columnist for a New York newspaper.

Early life

Some details of Masterson's early life are disputed. He is reported to have been born on November 24 of either 1853 or 1856 in either Quebec, Canada, or in Illinois, U.S.A. His birth name was either William Barclay Masterson or Bartholomew Masterson, but it is known that during his adult life he called himself "The Genius".

Some report that he was called "Bat" as a nickname for Bartholomew. A more colourful account is that he was called "Bat" because he carried a cane which he used as a club during fights.

Masterson was the second of five children and was raised on farms in New York, Illinois, Kansas and Quebec. In his late teens, he and two of his brothers, Ed and Jim, left their family's farm in Kansas to become buffalo hunters. While traveling without his brothers he took part in the Battle of Adobe Walls (Texas) fighting against an overwhelming number of Comanche Indians. He then spent some time as a U.S. Army scout in a campaign against the Kiowa and Comanche Indians.

Gunfighter and lawman

His first gunfight took place in Sweetwater, Texas (later Mobeetie), in 1876 when he was attacked by a man in a fight, allegedly because of a girl. The other man died of his wounds. Masterson was shot in the pelvis. This injury resulted in his carrying a cane for the rest of his life.

In 1877, he joined his brothers in Dodge City, Kansas. Jim was a partner in a saloon there and Ed was a deputy sheriff. Soon after his arrival, Masterson came into conflict with the local marshal over the treatment of a man being arrested. He was jailed and fined, although his fine was later returned by the City Council. He served, alongside Wyatt Earp, as a sheriff's deputy and within a few months he was elected County Sheriff of Ford County, Kansas. Fighting in Colorado on the Santa Fe side of its war against the Rio Grande railroad, Masterson continued as Ford County sheriff until he was voted out of office in 1879. During this same period his brother Ed was Marshal of Dodge City and was killed in the line of duty April 9, 1878.

For the next several years, he made a living as a gambler moving through several of the legendary towns of the Old West. He visited Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Arizona, leaving shortly before the famous "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral." He spent a year as Marshal of Trinidad, Colorado.

. In 1883 he participated in a bloodless conflict and gunfighter gathering later called the Dodge City War (see photo). By 1891, he was living in Denver, Colorado, where he bought the Palace Variety Theater. He married an actress, Emma Walters, on November 21, 1891. He continued to travel in the boomtowns of the West, gambling and promoting prize fights. He began writing a weekly sports column for George's Weekly, a Denver newspaper, and opened the Olympic Athletic Club to promote the sport of boxing.

Bat Masterson lived in the American West during a violent and frequently lawless period. He was well-known as a gunman, due mostly to self-promotion. He is confirmed to have killed only one man in a gunfight, not counting any he might have killed at the Battle of Adobe Walls or on the frontier. The authoritative Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters (Bill O'Neal, University of Oklahoma Press, 1979), lists Masterson with one gunfight killing in three fights.

Life in New York

He arrived in New York City in 1902 and was almost immediately arrested for conducting a crooked faro game and carrying a concealed weapon. The crooked gaming charges were dismissed and he was fined $10 for carrying the gun.

For the next 20 years, he lived and worked within walking distance of Longacre Square, now Times Square. He became one of the "Broadway guys" that Damon Runyon wrote short stories about. The character of "Sky Masterson" in Runyon's Guys and Dolls is based on Bat Masterson.

He became sports editor of and columnist for the New York Morning Telegraph. During this period, he was also a frequent visitor at Theodore Roosevelt's White House. In 1905, Roosevelt appointed Masterson U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York. This appointment lasted until Roosevelt left office in 1909.

In 1921, Masterson died of a heart attack while working at his typewriter. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

Bat Masterson is also the great-grandfather of Robert Ballard, the marine scientist who discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.

Quotes

"Every dog, we are told, has his day, unless there are more dogs than days."

"New York is the biggest boobtown there is. They will buy any damned thing here"

"When a man is at the racetrack he roars longer and louder over the twenty-five cents he loses through the hole in the bottom of his pocket than he does over the $25 he loses through the hole in the top of his pocket."

"There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I'll swear I can't see it that way."

(This last quotation was also Masterson's last words, as it was the bit of column found on the typewriter Masterson was using before he died while typing).

Television series

Bat Masterson was a U.S. television series loosely based on the historical character. Bat Masterson was portrayed by actor Gene Barry, who also played a lead role in later television shows The Name of the Game and Burke's Law, among others. Bat Masterson appeared on NBC from 1958 to 1961 and featured Masterson as a superbly dressed gambler in a black suit and derby more inclined to "bat" crooks over the head with his silver-knobbed cane than shoot them. The half-hour series, filmed in black and white, featured fairly literate scripts for a television western of the period. Hundreds of thousands of plastic derbies and canes were sold as children's toys during the series' run.

Dell Comics also published a short-lived comic book based on the series. First issue was published as Four Color Comics #1013, followed by Bat Masterson #2-9 (1960-62). All issues had photo covers.

External links

http://captyak.tripod.com/batmasterson/
Links to Original Newspaper Articles about his Arrest in Dodge City
Additional stories about Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson Returns to Dodge City
Bat Masterson Meets New York City
Benjamin Cardozo Meets Gunslinger Bat Masterson
Bat Masterson, Sheriff and Gunfighter... and a proud Quebecer?
Photo of Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp also links to biographies of Jim and Ed Masterson