Back in the 1800s, it was done on horseback and was considered a crime they would hang you for. There will always be someone who will give cattle rustling a try, especially when he learns the kind of money he can make. In the Old West, rustling was a tempting and lucrative crime that crossed ethnic, social, and national borders. In addition to wearing his boots and spurs for the event, he wants to help build the gallows from which he would hang. Weve got a right to pick a little fight with rustlers, Opened the two iron gates and chained them to the mouth of his trailer. And how is this behavior viewed by those who work and live cattle? What are the disadvantages of shielding a thermometer? More common was the theft of large unbranded calves. He turns into a cattle rustler and becomes an outlaw, even killing a fellow rustler to save his own life. But one of the reasons why may be a bit surprising: Drug users are stealing them. ), Occasionally, Id come across a story about some men who had formed what the newspapers would describe as a cattle theft ring. But they too seemed to be mostly amateurs who had gotten together to pull off a single heist and then gone their separate ways. Thats when Roddy and I began corresponding. How do you use cattle rustler in a sentence? Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. Hi Alisa, good to hear from you. They gather much of their intelligence by working cattle in the pastures, chatting up muck-stained employees in sale barns and asking ranchers what theyre hearing. Asked what would happen with the motion. In fact, Rodger Huffman, Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) livestock inspection and predator control programs manager, says few cattle thieves these days ever stand . Every now and then, Id read a brief story in one of the states newspapers about a down-on-his-luck blue-collar worker who had swiped a few cows from someone elses ranch and tried to sell them at a nearby sale barn. He told me that he wanted to become the Robin Hood of rustlers. Whooped the calves through the makeshift chute and into his trailer, and drove off with 4,000 pounds of cow worth about $4,800. A few nights later they got some more calves. that's legal JUST RUDE! On the vast open ranges of yesteryear, rustling was a serious problem and punishable by hanging. But, sir, I must tell you, as those cows stampeded over me, the thought did occur to me that if I was going to go down as a rustler, this was the perfect way to die.. He was invariably polite, never failing to raise his Resistol upon meeting a lady. The man who was after me had his rifle out the window., On another evening, Roddy came across a couple hundred cattle that were penned in order to be sold the next day. If, at that point, Roddy had kept his mouth shut, he probably would have been booked on a single charge: theft of livestock under ten head, a fourth-degree felony. by Brandi Grissom Many cowboys' herds increased so rapidly that some ranchmen refused to hire any hand who had stock of his own. As we reported in 2016, according to the arrest affidavit filed by the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), Special Ranger Kenny Wadsworth explained Thompson engaged in illegal theft of the cattle from Oct. 1, 2016 through Oct. 27, 2016, which was the day . He initially came to Alabama because he was going to rob the train that came thru the town where my Great Grandfather lived and decided to visit him. At its peak, one of the largest ranches in the Texas Panhandle had over 150,000 head of cattle and a thousand horses. https://petticoatsandpistols.com/author/phyliss/, 2023 Petticoats and Pistols & Licensors, If you need a real man "Give Me a Texas Ranger", https://www.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Archive/Story-Article-View/Article/477774/the-last-ride-of-jesse-james-infamous-outlaws-last-crime-was-robbing-the-us-arm/. Stealing 1 - 10 head is a felony carrying fines, and state jail time. We know approximately where it is. One of her favorite tales was about the outlaw Black Jack Ketchum, the first man hanged in the town. He didnt play much with other boys because we lived out in the country. Roddy said David was desperately needing money for diapers because Windy had just given birth. As soon as my injuries heal, Ill be riding again across the purple sage., Sir, I apologize. Train robberies closed in on it. That night, after his mother had gone to bed, he slipped out of the house, stuck his homemade crate back in his pickup, drove toward the cattle, and wrestled a calf into his crate. One day, sitting in the kitchen, he watched some cattle grazing in the distance. It was early 2003. J. Evetts Haley, The XIT Ranch of Texas and the EarlyDays of the Llano Estacado (Chicago: Lakeside, 1929; rpts., Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1953, 1967). . When I got my first look at Roddy, in a visitors room at the state prison in Huntsville, I asked myself the very same question. My dad and mom were only children. Bless your heart, not knowing where your great-great grandfather is buried. In claims made against the Mexican government, it was asserted that from 1859 through 1872 Mexican bandits stole 145,298 cattle from various South Texas ranches. Theyve pulled over wild-eyed plumbers and air-conditioning repairmen who had been able to get a cow or two into their trucks but who then could not stop weaving back and forth across the highway during their getaways due to the cows constantly shifting their weight around. Like the great rustlers from the Old West, he used broken limbs from mesquite trees to cover his tracks (his tire tracks, that is, not horse tracks). Behind the house were a stable and a corral for Roddys horse, and the driveway was long enough for his Dodge four-by-four pickup and his fourteen-foot cattle trailer. He worked nearly three decades for the Travis County Sheriffs Office; the last 15 years as a detective, and 10 of those years he worked with a multi-jurisdictional auto theft task force. And I said, Okay, Im going to give it a go.. Last month, four days after Mr. Dumas sent out the cattle-rustler alert, the Brazoria County Sheriffs Department received a report of a portable corral containing three dozen calves in a field where they did not belong. Yes, you can legally and morally return fire so as to stop the threat. (With more than 100,000 registered brands in Texas, many of which look alike, it is impossible for anyone to keep up with all of them.) Wayne Gard, Roddy returned to public school, where he was determined to prove that he was as athletic as the other boys. They thought an apology was good enough. Roddy later went back with Darrell and grabbed a few more. . I watched as a sheriffs deputy escorted Roddy out the main door of the courthouse and across the street to the county jail, where he would spend the night before being taken back to Huntsville. He was hanged one of only three death-by-hanging executions in this country since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. I bet your family wasnt as boring as you thought. cut as you work the hide down, especially if the animal's being My maiden name was changed, too, but for different reasons. An average calf can bring thousands of dollars on the open market; so multiply that by a trailer, or even a truck load, of cattle and you can see why its a profitable business for thieves. He wore Western clothes when he went to school. He and his friend loaded three calves into the crate that night, and the next day Roddy took them to a nearby auction barn, telling the employees that the calves mothers had died in a snowstorm. They knew the cattle country and were adept at roping, branding, and trailing. I pray you and yours stay safe, also. Some ranchers even grow fond of the animals they raise, no matter how abruptly these relationships may end at the stockyard gate. I was wearing my best cowboy clothes, Roddy said, and I asked them if they were ready to join up with me and live the life of a rustler. Ranchers figured the thief was someone who knew cattle. Catch men with your **branded **cattle and string them up from the handiest tree. I stared at him, not sure what to say. There, Roddy approached a mother cow and her calf. Can you still be hung in Texas for cattle rustling? Hangings of rustlers and horse thieves by vigilantes was common and widely ignored by the authorities, but nobody was ever legally hanged for livestock theft in the US. He eventually called David and Darrell, telling them he was ready to rustle again. He built himself a good life in America. He works in several of the auction barns, so he hears and sees things. Roddy paused and swallowed. accessed March 02, 2023, . And Hardeman County District Attorney Staley Heatly was thoroughly unimpressed with Pippin's beseechment of the court. Williamson testified about the extent of Roddys career as a rustler (as always, he referred to Roddy only as a thief), and the head of the Estelle Units medical facility testified that Roddy was receiving the best care under the circumstances. He said that the nurses were checking his glucose levels every day and that a doctor was always on call in case Roddy suffered a seizure. He did however go to North Alabama to steal payroll for laborers in the Blue Water Camp at the Muscle Shoals Canal Project on the Tennessee River. The rest of the herd followed. You have some interesting family history. Id sit there for hours, sometimes all night, Roddy said. For a complete list of contributors, click here. Weldon Wilson Drove Cattle the Old-fashioned Way. Even though "the hanging deal stresses me out," she said, she understands why he's demanding such a drastic measure. My daddy was a fly boy here at the AFB and from Ohio. Since the early twentieth century, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association has employed field inspectors to police cattle rustling. (2) when and to the degree he reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary: (A) to prevent the others imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, theft during the nighttime, or criminal mischief during the nighttime; or, (B) to prevent the other who is fleeing immediately after committing burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, or theft during the nighttime from escaping with the property; and, (A) the land or property cannot be protected or recovered by any other means; or. Although Roddy was not feeling wellhe had spent a few days at a hospital in Chillicothe recovering from another diabetic episodehe told the twins he was ready. 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