LAW AND SOME DISORDER
Thousands of men enforced the law on the Western frontier as constables, sheriffs, policemen, marshals and detectives. Most of their work involved routine duties—e.g., collecting taxes, seeing licenses were up to date, arresting wife-beaters, keeping a lid on the illegal sale of booze, checking store doors at night and generally ensuring things were under control in the saloons, gambling sites and other entertainment spots. Gun duels, hangings and the pursuit of stage and train robbers were not nearly as frequent as Western films and TV series suggest.
Most lawmen were on the up-and-up. Virgil Earp, Bill Tilghman and Charlie Siringo met with extraordinary circumstances during their careers, each performing admirably in law enforcement positions across several Western states and territories. Other men proved dependable when wearing a badge but not so much as ordinary citizens. Virgil’s brother Wyatt, for example, was once arrested for riding off on someone else’s horse, pimped in Peoria, Ill., in 1872 and in 1911 was known to the Los Angeles Police Department for running an illegal faro game. In Cochise County, Arizona Territory, Burt Alvord put in good years as constable and deputy sheriff but tilted when he took up robbing trains.
Still others were just no good. Elected marshal of Nevada City, Calif., in 1856, Henry Plummer showed his true colors the following year. After arresting a wife-beater, he turned to comforting the aggrieved wife, often at night, and ultimately killed her husband. Though sentenced to a long term in San Quentin, Plummer was released in 1859 for “health” reasons and eventually landed in what soon became Montana Territory. In 1863 he convinced locals to elect him sheriff of Bannack, in the new gold strike region. In a matter of weeks the Plummer Gang, as writers dubbed it, committed scores of robberies and murders—exactly how many has been a subject of debate, especially in the last quarter-century. The gold-hungry Montanans of Bannack, Virginia City and other boomtowns ran out of patience with the road agents and other
