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Cowboy, author, and detective born on Texas coast
On this day in 1855, Charles Siringo was born in Matagorda County.
Beginning in 1870, he worked as a cowboy, part of the time for Shanghai
Pierce, and later helped establish the LX Ranch. While working as an LX
cowboy, he met Billy the Kid and led a posse into New Mexico in pursuit
of him. In 1884, while working as a merchant in Caldwell, Kansas,
Siringo began writing his first book, A Texas Cowboy; or, Fifteen
Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony (1885), which
established him as the first cowboy autobiographer and became a range
literature classic. In 1886 he moved to Chicago and began a
twenty-two-year career with Pinkerton's National Detective Agency. He
subsequently worked all over the West and participated in such
celebrated cases as the Haymarket anarchist trial and the murder trial
of "Big Bill" Haywood. After leaving Pinkerton's in 1907, Siringo
retired to his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His second book (A
Cowboy Detective, 1912) caused a bitter conflict with the
Pinkertons, and his Two Evil Isms, Pinkertonism and Anarchism
(1915) brought an unsuccessful libel suit from the agency. Siringo was
appointed a New Mexico Ranger in 1916 and for two years saw active
service against cattle rustlers. Following his return to Santa Fe he
published A Lone Star Cowboy (1919) and History of "Billy the
Kid" (1920). In 1922 he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked
as a film advisor and played bit parts in movies. His Riata and Spurs
(1927) was a mature composite of his first two autobiographies. Siringo met
such varied celebrities as Pat Garrett, Bat Masterson, Clarence Darrow,
William S. Hart, and Will Rogers. He helped to romanticize the West and
to create the myth of the American cowboy. Siringo died in California in
1928.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- SIRINGO, CHARLES ANGELO
- PIERCE, ABEL HEAD [SHANGHAI]
- LX RANCH
- MCCARTY, HENRY
- GARRETT, PATRICK FLOYD JARVIS
- MASTERSON, BARTHOLOMEW
- CATTLE TRAILING
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Transfer of command misfires in Republic of Texas army (1837)
- Seguin incorporates (1853)
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