Return to Old News home pageby Richard Sheppard
Harvey "Kid Curry" Logan was a western outlaw who robbed banks
and trains. During the late 1890s he rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid in a gang called "The Wild Bunch."
Kid Curry was short, solemn, and shy. Although he was a soft-spoken man
who never deliberately started a fight, he was wanted for fifteen murders.
According to William Pinkerton, head of the Pinkerton Detective Agency,
Kid Curry was the most vicious outlaw in America. "He has not one single
redeeming feature," Pinkerton wrote. "He is the only criminal
I know of who does not have one single good point."
Although the Kid was a cold-blooded killer of men, he was always warm and
gallant to women. Maude Davis, who received a fox fur as a present from
Kid Curry, told Pinkerton detectives that the Kid was "a gentleman,
clean through." Annie Rogers, a high-class prostitute, described the
Kid as "a fine man who never said a bad or cross word to me."
***
In the fall of 1901, Kid Curry fell in love with Catherine Cross, a respectable
girl in Knoxville, Tennessee. At that time the Kid, in his mid-thirties,
was trying to retire from the business of robbing trains. He had moved east
to Tennessee in hope of starting a new life there.
While Kid Curry was spending his days respectfully courting Catherine Cross,
he was living in a brothel in downtown Knoxville. The two young prostitutes
who shared his bed later told Pinkerton dectectives that the Kid had been
one of their favorite customers. Both girls described the Kid as a "sweet
and bashful person" who had tried to impress them by boasting, "My
underwear comes from the finest men's shop in Denver, Colorado."
Kid Curry's plans to marry Catherine Cross were disrupted by the following
incident:
On December 13, 1901, the Kid entered Ike Jones's pool hall in the downtown
section of Knoxville, Tennessee. After ordering a shot of expensive apricot
brandy, Kid Curry lit a big cigar, took off his coat and began shooting
pool.
"What's your name?" somebody asked.
"William Wilson," said the Kid.
"What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a railroad man," said the Kid.
After a while the Kid began gambling with pair of local pool sharks, Luther
Brady and Jim Boley. When Brady's game suddenly improved in response to
a large bet, the Kid lost his temper and accused Brady of being a hustler.
Some insults were exchanged.
The Kid put down his cue, walked to the bar, and ordered a shot of apricot
brandy. He tossed off the drink and scowled for a moment into the empty
glass. Then he returned to the pool table, seized Brady by the neck, and
began to strangle him.
Boley tried to come to Brady's defense, but the Kid, continuing to strangle
Brady with one hand, pulled a pistol from his pocket with the other hand.
He shot Boley, then coolly pocketed the pistol in order to free both hands
to strangle Brady.
Patrons of the pool hall ran to summon police. Officers Robert Saylor and
William Dinwiddie, on patrol nearby, hurried to the scene of the disturbance.
When the two policemen entered the pool hall, Kid Curry emptied his six-shooter
into their bodies. As the officers slumped to the floor, severely wounded,
the Kid tried to make his getaway by running out the back door of the pool
hall. He did not realize that the door opened onto a railroad cut. When
he leaped out the door he fell twenty feet to the railbed.
Lurching to his feet with a badly sprained ankle, the Kid limped down the
tracks. He managed to reach the woods outside of town.
For two days he wandered through the wooded hills in subfreezing weather,
eluding a hundred deputies and bloodhounds.
On December 15, Mr. A. B. Carey of Jefferson City, Tennessee, saw Kid Curry
limping down a country road. Having read newspaper descriptions of the Kid,
Carey recognized him.
Carey had recently installed in his house a new gadget called a telephone,
with which he very quickly summoned a posse of his friends. The amateur
manhunters found Kid Curry huddled over a small fire. The Kid, who had never
encountered a telephone in the wild west, seemed astonished by the sudden
appearance of several men armed with rifles. "He was slow in putting
up his hands, but he finally surrendered," Carey reported.
When the Kid was searched, $2,000 in cash was found in his pockets. He was
also carrying a baggage check for the checkroom of the Southern Railway
depot in Nashville. There the authorities found a "telescope bag"
containing three expensive suits and $3,130 in stolen banknotes from the
holdup of the Great Northern Express train at Wagner, Montana.
Although the Kid tried to insist that his name was "Wilson," he
was positively identified by Superintendent Lowell Spence of the Pinkerton
Detective Agency. Spence, who had been tracking the Kid for months, took
one look at him and said, "This is Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry."
"Hi, Spence," said the Kid, calmly.
For a few minutes Spence stood in front of the Kid's jail cell, writing
in his notebook. He recorded that the Kid stood five feet, seven inches
tall, with "jet black hair," "peculiar dark eyes" and
"a reserved manner." Spence wrote, "He speaks quietly but
positively and is slightly bowlegged. He acts cool and collected."
After Spence left, Kid Curry turned to one of his guards and said, "Someday
I'll have to kill that man. He's very troublesome."
As soon as the newspapers reported that Kid Curry had been captured, a crowd
estimated at two to five thousand people gathered outside the Knoxville
jail, hoping to get a glimpse of the famous western badman. To please the
crowd, Sheriff James W. Fox gave permission for a line of visitors to file
past the Kid's cell.
After that, long lines formed every day outside the jail. From dawn to dusk
gawkers filed past the Kid's cell. A Knoxville reporter, who observed this
parade, noted that many visitors wanted to shake the outlaw's hand.
The reporter wrote, "Logan stood at the bars of his cell most of the
time receiving and indulging in fun with his visitors. He answered the questions
politely unless there were some things asked that he didn't care to make
public.
"Most of his visitors simply asked how he felt, just to hear the sound
of his voice, but some just looked at him as one would at a corpse, then
passed on. He was the recipient of many cigars. The public had read in The
Sentinel that he did not smoke cigarettes and none of these nor the material
used in making them were offered to him...
"The outlaw was given some diversion when some W.C.T.U. ladies held
services on his floor. He was a respectful and interested listener. After
the services Mrs. Skillman called him to the bars and talked to him for
some time privately. Logan gave her a respectful audience.
"There was an unusual stir late in the afternoon when Sheriff Fox reported
his brindle bulldog, 'Dock Crocker,' was lost. He is only nine months old
and full of play. The back gate was left open and he followed someone out.
Sheriff Fox will be obliged if anyone who sees the dog will notify him.
"Jailer Bell reported that almost 2,000 were turned away. He said some
were mountain people who had come down with their rifles. They wanted to
see if a western badman was a better shot than they were."
In Knoxville Kid Curry was tried for passing stolen money from the robbery
of the Great Northern Express train at Wagner, Montana. The engineer and
conductor of the Great Northern told the jury how their train had been robbed
on July 3, 1901.
When the train had halted at Malta, Montana, the Sundance Kid boarded the
coach as a paying passenger. Later as the train was chugging up a grade
near Wagner, Montana, Kid Curry leaped from his galloping horse onto the
rear of the baggage car. Kid Curry then crawled over the roof of the baggage
car to hide in the tender.
At exactly two p.m., Kid Curry had dropped into the locomotive cab, waving
two six-shooters. At the same instant, back in a passenger coach, the Sundance
Kid closed his watch, drew a pistol, and began shooting holes in the roof.
After getting everybody's attention, Sundance announced, "Don't worry,
we only want the railroad's money, not yours. Everybody sit tight and keep
your heads in."
After the train halted, Kid Curry uncoupled the passenger coaches from the
express car. Leaving the passenger coaches stranded on the prairie, the
outlaws forced Engineer O'Neil to haul the express car seven miles up the
tracks to an isolated ranch, where Butch Cassidy and Deaf Charlie Hanks
were waiting with a box of dynamite and a string of Thoroughbred horses.
At Kid Curry's trial, a messenger boy named C. H. Smith told the jury how
Kid Curry had held a gun to his head during the robbery. The crowd in the
courtroom laughed when Smith reported Kid Curry's words, "All I want
from you is Jim Hill's money." (Hill was the president of the railroad.)
Young Smith described in detail how the outlaws had blown up the express
car's cast-iron safe with dynamite, collecting about forty thousand dollars
in paper money. As the outlaws were mounting their horses to get away, Smith
had called out to Kid Curry, asking for his Colt revolver.
The Kid asked, "What for, young fellow?"
Smith answered, "Something to remember this event by."
At the trial, Smith testified that Kid Curry had obligingly tossed him the
.44 Colt, after emptying the weapon by firing it into the air.
As the prosecution brought one witness after another to testify against
him, Kid Curry became sullen and touchy. One day he tried to strangle a
fellow prisoner who had scornfully called him "a cowboy." Later
the Kid began hiding from the crowds that paraded past his cell. He put
a blanket over his head "as a protest against being put on display
like an animal."
In a letter addressed to a friend, the Kid wrote: "I will get out of
this scrape yet. I will show these people that they are not dealing with
a soft thing. They call me 'the Napoleon of Crime,' and you should see how
they flock to see me when the trial is on.
"And when I get out of this, Ed, look out for me...I'll cut my way
through hell before they'll take me again.
"I am now waiting for my sentence. It will be a light one for the people
out here are with me and I've got all sorts of friends. Well, goodbye old
friend, it won't be long before I'll be back in Montana and when I am, there'll
be hell to pay!"
On September 20, 1902, a good-looking woman dropped off a package of gifts
for Kid Curry at the Knoxville jail. Looking over the gifts, the sheriff
saw several packages of tobacco and six corn cob pipes with unusually long
stems. Suspiciously, the sheriff broke one of the pipe-stems, and found
inside it a steel saw twenty-two inches long. After that, guards were posted
outside Kid Curry's cell night and day, to keep an eye on him and prevent
him from plotting any escape.
Kid Curry's hopes for a light sentence were dashed on November 30, 1902,
when he was sentenced to twenty years at hard labor in the federal penitentiary
at Columbus, Ohio. For a few months after his conviction, the Kid remained
in the Knoxville jail while his sentence was being appealed. He became determined
to escape before he could be moved to the federal penitentiary, where escape
might prove more difficult.
After some thought, the Kid decided that he could not escape without first
obtaining some kind of weapon. Of course, the guards did not allow a prisoner
to keep anything in his cell that might conceivably be used as a weapon.
For example, the Kid was not allowed to keep a broom in his cell. He was
allowed to borrow a broom from the guards when he wanted to sweep out his
cell, but as soon as he finished his housekeeping, he had to return the
broom to his keepers.
One day, as the Kid was sweeping, he noticed that the brushes of the broom
were bound with wire. He stealthily unwound a length of wire from the broom
and concealed the wire in his clothes.
Outside the Kid's cell was a corridor where his guards were stationed. At
the end of the corridor, adjacent to the Kid's cell, was a barred window
overlooking the Tennessee River. By leaning his face against the bars of
his cell, the Kid could gaze out that window.
At 4:15 p.m. on June 27, 1903, Kid Curry walked to the front of his cell
and stared out the corridor window. "I think the river is rising slowly
from so much rain," he told his guard, Frank Irwin.
Guard Irwin strolled to the end of the corridor to look at the river. It
had been raining steadily, but the storm was breaking up and shafts of sunlight
struck the water.
"It's a nice sight, isn't it?" said Kid Curry.
What happened next was described by Irwin as follows: "I agreed with
him and was about to turn around when suddenly he tossed this loop of wire
from between the bars like it was a lariat and twisted it hard."
With the wire around his neck, biting into his throat, Irwin could not breathe
or cry out. Kid Curry said, "I've got the advantage of you, Frank,
and I'm going to get out of here. If you move I will kill you. Just do as
I tell you, don't yell, and you'll be all right."
The guard was not carrying a gun. As a precaution against having a gun seized
by a prisoner, the guards kept their pistols in a box outside the cell corridor.
Irwin agreed to do whatever he was told.
After removing Irwin's keys from his belt, the Kid wired the guard by the
neck to the bars of his cell. The Kid then reached into his mattress and
pulled out two ropes made of strips of knotted cloth. He used one rope to
tie Irwin's hands.
Irwin's keys unlocked Kid Curry's cell, but would not unlock the gate at
the end of the cell-block corridor. A few yards beyond the locked gate sat
the box containing Irwin's pistols, a .45 caliber Colt and a .38 Smith &
Wesson.
Kid Curry took one of the ropes he had made and looped it into a lariat.
Reaching through the bars of the locked gate at the end of the corridor,
he lassoed the box of guns and pulled it within reach.
According to Irwin, "He stuck both guns in his belt. Then he took out
my pocket watch, looked at it, and replaced it. 'I don't want your watch,'
he said. 'I just want to see what time it is. Now call Tom.' I knew that
he would kill me if I made any trouble. I could do nothing but call Tom."
Guard Tom Bell later testified:
"I was so surprised when he shoved a gun in my face that I hardly realized
what had happened. 'Open up, Tom,' he said. 'I'm going to get out of here.
I don't want to hurt you but I will kill you if you do not open this door.'
...There was nothing I could do. I knew the man and I knew he meant every
word. I opened the door."
With a gun to his head, Bell led Kid Curry out of the jail and into the
courtyard, where the Kid found a horse belonging to Sheriff Fox.
Bell later testified, "The sheriff's bay was out there and so was R.
P. Swanee, the helper. He commanded me to saddle the horse and told Swanee
to assist me. When we got the bay saddled he swung up, a pistol in his hand.
"Then the sheriff appeared on the porch above us and asked what was
the matter. I told him he would soon find out what was the matter if he
did not get back into the house. I said this because I knew Logan was ready
to kill the sheriff and the sheriff didn't have a gun.
"The sheriff ran back into his house to get a gun but Logan galloped
out into Prince Street. I ran back into the jail and met Jim, our colored
cook, and together we freed Irwin who had been tied by the neck to the bars
with a wire lasso.
"When we got back to the courtyard the sheriff had his gun but Logan
by this time was gone."
At 6:30 p.m. that afternoon, Kid Curry rode in leisurely fashion up to a
country store about five miles outside Knoxville. Several people recognized
him and a crowd gathered to stare at the famous outlaw. The Kid admitted
his identity and chatted cheerfully, smoking a cigar. Only when he noticed
several men getting "into a huddle" did the Kid ride away.
Two weeks after his escape, Logan was seen passing through some small towns
in the mountains of North Carolina. A large posse, led by Lowell Spence
of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, pursued him there without success.
In Waxhaw, North Carolina, some residents think that Kid Curry was the mysterious
stranger who settled down in their community in the early 1900s. The stranger,
who called himself "C. H. Lewis," had plenty of money and came
from "out west." He died peacefully in 1948 and was buried in
Waxhaw.
Some western historians believe that Kid Curry eventually made his way to
South America, where he joined Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Other historians think that the Kid went to Colorado, where he worked as
a ranch hand under the alias of "Tap Duncan." On June 7, 1904,
"Tap Duncan" was one of three bandits who robbed a train of the
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad at Parachute, Colorado. They dynamited the
express car but found the safe empty. A posse trailed the outlaws to a gully
near Rifle, Colorado. Wounded and surrounded, Tap Duncan shot himself in
the head to avoid capture and prison.
A month later, the body was exhumed by Lowell Spence of the Pinkerton Agency.
Although the corpse was badly decomposed, Spence felt certain that he was
looking at the corrupt remains of Kid Curry.
SOURCES;
The Gunfighters. by James D. Horan. Crown Publishers, Inc. New York. 1976.
Desperate Men. by James D. Horan. G.P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 1949.
In Search of Butch Cassidy. by Larry Pointer. University of Oklahoma Press.
1977.
OLD NEWS: 3 West Brandt Blvd. Landisville, PA 17538-1105 (717) 898-9207.