Billy Oduory separates fact from fiction on Lawmen: Bass Reeves…
After 32 years of gallant service as a US Marshals deputy, with over 3,000 successful arrests to his name, Bass Reeves is arguably the most decorated law enforcement officer in US history. His story reads like the stuff of legends which is why Lawmen: Bass Reeves was so highly anticipated. According to the biographer Art Burton, Bass Reeves was a combination of The Lone Ranger, Sherlock Holmes, and Superman, which is pretty close to what fans expected to see in the first season of Lawmen: Bass Reeves.
Unfortunately, the show drifts from the historical facts about Reeves, focusing instead on the fictional characters of Mr. Sundown, Billy Crow, and Edward Jones. The final picture of Bass Reeves as painted by David Oyelowo’s character in the show’s first season is far from the legendary hero that most fans expected. Despite the show’s eye-catching cinematography and enviable performances by the main cast, Lawmen: Bass Reeves doesn’t feature the intricate action sequences, the touch of rugged reality, and unpredictable multidimensional characters associated with Taylor Sheridan’s other shows like Yellowstone.
To be fair to the creators of Lawmen: Bass Reeves, most of the available historical details about Bass Reeves’s life cannot be corroborated, and some may be exaggerated. The heroism of Reeves’s service as a lawman on the frontier is out of question though. While Lawmen: Bass Reeves has the feel of a true Western to it, it skips some of the best things about the real-life Bass Reeves, which is why it is important to separate fact from fiction.
Fighting in the Civil War
Bass Reeves is forced to fight at the Battle of Pea Ridge as the body servant of his master George Reeves which agrees with most historical accounts. While that is the last of his participation in the war according to the show, Bass Reeves claimed to have proceeded to fight at the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge a year later. However, there are no corroborating sources to back up these claims, so the Pea Ridge battle could well have been his last engagement with the Confederacy.
Some sources also suggest that he left the Confederacy after the battle of Pea Ridge and joined the Union’s Indian Homeguard Regiment. The Union offered a path to freedom for formerly enslaved African Americans who joined their ranks, and, as discussed below, it makes more sense to how Bass Reeves became a free man.
Becoming a free man
There is no credible source explaining how Bass Reeves was freed from servitude. Lawmen: Bass Reeves follows the widely circulated tale about Bass Reeves beating his master for cheating him in a game of cards and then escaping into Indian Territory to his freedom. Although the tale is interesting, its authenticity is highly questionable, considering the harsh consequences that Bass would have faced for beating up his master.
George Reeves wasn’t just any officer in the Confederate army, he was the colonel who had previously served as a sheriff and also as The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. In the Old West, assaulting such a high-ranking officer would incur the penalty of death, and, as opposed to what the show portrays, his wife, Jennie, would have faced the same fate.
Worse still, Bass kills two officers during his escape, which would make him a dangerous fugitive wanted for murder, and even the Proclamation of the Emancipation in 1863 wouldn’t have saved him from a death sentence for the murders. While his escape into Indian territory during the war is reliable, fighting for the Union still seems like his most credible path to true freedom and recognition as an upstanding citizen for Bass.
His most famous arrests
Despite being compared to Billy The Kid in terms of his skills with the gun, Bass Reeves preferred to bring outlaws to the courtroom. As compared to his 3,000 arrests, which included his own son Bennie, Bass Reeves only killed 14 fugitives. He still managed to bring in some of the most dangerous outlaws of his time. It is not clear whether the show will cover all of his known arrests, but here is a look at the most iconic ones.
1. The Brunters
In 1884, the Brunter brothers were at the peak of their criminal careers as horse thieves. They were also wanted for an array of other crimes including murders. As the legend goes, Bass Reeves came upon them on a dirt trail in the Indian territory and bravely faced them with the warrant for their arrest. As the brothers looked at him surprised by his seemingly foolish bravery, Bass Reeves asked them for the date, saying he needed to write it down on the warrant for the court.
The brothers apparently broke down laughing because Bass was outnumbered and outgunned. Bass then took advantage of their dropped defenses as they laughed and beat the first two brothers to the draw of his .45 caliber, killing them instantly. He then overpowered the third brother, whose shot at Bass missed, and transported him to Fort Smith to face Judge Parker.
2. Jim Webb
Webb was Bass Reeves’s arch-rival and also the benchmark of his career because it marked one of his most iconic gunfights. In 1883, while working as the foreman on the large Washington-McLish ranch, Jim Webb shot and killed a preacher from the neighboring farm who had lit a fire that spread onto the ranch. Reeves arrested Webb, but he posted bail. However, when he missed his court date, Reeves was given a warrant to hunt him down once again.
The second manhunt ended in a shootout that is portrayed in the fifth episode of Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Although the show captures the shootout including the exact location where it took place (Jim Bywater’s General Store) it skips Webb’s iconic final speech that was listened to by the crowd that watched the outlaw die:
“I want you to accept my revolver and scabbard as a present and you must accept them. Take it, for with it I have killed eleven men, four of them in Indian Territory, and I expected you to make the twelfth.”
These were the last words of Bass’s arch-rival as he confessed his many crimes, and acknowledged Bass’s honor as a lawman before he died.
3. Greenleaf
Greenleaf was the closest outlaw to the figure of Mr. Sundown which is explored in the first season of Lawmen: Bass Reeves. However, he wasn’t a Texas Ranger as portrayed in the show. Tosa Lo Nah aka Greenleaf was a Seminole Indian robber and serial killer who was wanted for killing at least seven people. After being on the run for over 18 years, Bass Reeves finally captured him in 1889.
Crowds gathered in Forth Smith to watch as Bass Reeves paraded the outlaw through the streets to the jailhouse. Reeves also singlehandedly captured three cop killers that same year. The three had killed US Marshal Joseph Lundy and had been on the run for months when Reeves caught them and brought them to justice.
4. The Tom Story Gang
In 1897, after being transferred to the East Texas Federal Court, Bass Reeves was tasked with dismantling the dangerous gang of horse thieves led by an outlaw named Tom Story. The gang operated in the Red River Valley and the Choctaw Nation which Bass understood well because he could speak Choctaw. He located Tom Story himself and gave him his arrest warrant, but, as expected, the gang leader drew a pistol to shoot Bass who was faster on the draw, so only Story’s boots made it to the courthouse.
5. Bennie Reeves
Arresting his own son remains Bass Reeves’s greatest show of loyalty to the law above personal interests. Bass returned from capturing fugitives in 1902 and found a two-day-old warrant for the arrest of his own son at the courthouse. Despite concerns from fellow marshals, Reeves took the writ and delivered his son Bennie to the courthouse. Bennie was sentenced to life in prison, although he was released 11 years later because of good behavior and lived as a model citizen ever since. Bass Reeves confirmed that his son had killed his wife because he discovered that she was cheating on him.
Being tried for murder
Reeves’s worst time on the force came at the hands of the very law he was sworn to uphold. It all started in 1884 when Reeves shot his cook William Leech at a camp near the Canadian River in the Chickasaw Nation. There are different accounts of the incident, with one account, apparently from Reeves’s Posseman at the time, stating that Reeves shot Leech after a disagreement over Leech’s cooking which peaked when the cook killed Reeves’s puppy.
Reeves, on the other hand, claimed that the shooting was totally accidental, caused by a cartridge that went off while he was cleaning his gun. His version of events didn’t stop a murder trial when a former Confederate, US Marshal John Carol, was put in charge of Fort Smith in 1887. Reeves was arrested and detained for six months because he couldn’t make bail.
The Reeves family had to sell their home in Van Buren to make bail and pay the legal charges. The case ended in an acquittal for Reeves after a long trial that saw 11 witnesses called by the prosecution and 10 called by Reeves’s defense. Judge Isaac Parker is believed to have helped Reeves with his defense thanks to the lawman’s dedicated service to Fort Smith. Despite being acquitted and reinstated as a lawman, Bass was bankrupt after the trial which was said to have been politically motivated, and had to move his family to a rented property in Fort Smith.
Billy Oduory
