Joseph Alfred Slade

[Bob Sacamano]

cbz, I know you rode with him back in the 1860s, and maybe you and Hos and other Old West, history buffs may have heard of him

if not, I just read a book about him, called, "Death Of a Gunfighter", pretty interesting stuff

recommend you guys pick it up

 

[Hostile]

Did the book do a good job of describing his revenge on a man who shot him named Jules?

There are two different stories of how he killed him. I have always wondered which on is actually true.

In one Jules was tied to a post and allowed to express his last will and testament. When someone went to get a pen for him to sign it Jack Slade shot him.

In the other Jules was still tied to a post but Slade used him for target practice, cut off his ears and let him die a slow death.

Legend also has it that after he was hanged in Montana by vigilantes after he shot up a saloon that his wife had his body pickled in alcohol and shipped to Salt Lake City for burial. But that before making that trip she slept over his body under her bed for several months.

I've always wondered if this story contributed to Larry McMurtry's story of Captain Call taking Gus back to Texas to bury.

 

[ologan]

Did the book do a good job of describing his revenge on a man who shot him named Jules?

There are two different stories of how he killed him. I have always wondered which on is actually true.

In one Jules was tied to a post and allowed to express his last will and testament. When someone went to get a pen for him to sign it Jack Slade shot him.

In the other Jules was still tied to a post but Slade used him for target practice, cut off his ears and let him die a slow death.

Legend also has it that after he was hanged in Montana by vigilantes after he shot up a saloon that his wife had his body pickled in alcohol and shipped to Salt Lake City for burial. But that before making that trip she slept over his body under her bed for several months.

I've always wondered if this story contributed to Larry McMurtry's story of Captain Call taking Gus back to Texas to bury.

Speaking of Gus McRae,I didn't know till just the other day that Robert Duvall was friends with Sammy Baugh,and that Duvall modelled his interpretation of Gus after Baugh. I always wondered where Duvall got the inspiration for his use of hand movements in Lonesome Dove. Still,IMHO,the best western to come along in quite awhile.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Did the book do a good job of describing his revenge on a man who shot him named Jules?

There are two different stories of how he killed him. I have always wondered which on is actually true.

In one Jules was tied to a post and allowed to express his last will and testament. When someone went to get a pen for him to sign it Jack Slade shot him.

In the other Jules was still tied to a post but Slade used him for target practice, cut off his ears and let him die a slow death.

Legend also has it that after he was hanged in Montana by vigilantes after he shot up a saloon that his wife had his body pickled in alcohol and shipped to Salt Lake City for burial. But that before making that trip she slept over his body under her bed for several months.

I've always wondered if this story contributed to Larry McMurtry's story of Captain Call taking Gus back to Texas to bury.

the book says that Slade posted a warrant for Jules' arrest, with a $500 bounty, 2 men of his tried to apprehend him at a farm and shot him, and Jules expired before Slade arrived, the men still tried to collect the reward which was of the condition that Jules was to be brought to Slade alive, by trying to convice Slade that Jules was just tied to the fence post, not actually dead

to make sure that Jules wasn't playing possum, Slade cut off one of his ears, and said he might as well take the other one, which he did, and carried them with him the rest of his life (one of the Slade myths actually verified by more than one source)



the death of Slade is quite gut-wrenching, you have to read this book