b'So Was He, Bass ReevesThe Real Lone Ranger?PART 2 By Alan RockmanTHE BOB DOZIERknow of Bass Reeves\' reputation but openly admired CASE, THE HIGHLIGHTand befriended his fellow lawman. That lawman was OF BASS REEVES\'James Franklin "Bud" Ledbetter.CAREERDespite all of the notableLike Reeves and Big Bill Tilghman, Bud Ledbetter pursuits and arrests made bywas a man who knew no fear, a crack shot who once Reeves, it was cracking the Bobshot and killed five outlaws in a gunfight without even Dozier case, then shooting down that vicious outlaw, thatbeing scratched (Ibid., p. 128) - but like Reeves, he was by far the highlight of his career.was another deputy US marshal greatly feared by the numerous outlaws of the Indian Territory. As Emmett Bob Dozier had been a successful rancher in the IndianDalton, the only survivor of the original Outlaw Daltons Territory, but like a few other successful men in the samewrote about Ledbetter:territory (namely the Dalton Brothers and the likable Bill Doolin), Dozier chose to go bad - and when he went"Not a few of the law\'s able gunmen who were at one bad he went all of the way, robbing trains, robbing stagetime or another arrayed against the Dalton gang had coaches, rustling cattle, ambushing innocent travelers -been fellow deputy marshals. We knew their prowess. and killing just for the sport of it. We had seen them in action in a pinch. By and large, they had nerve. Some of them became celebrated Dozier had managed to elude numerous attempts tosheriffs. Fortunately, our outlaw paths seldom crossed bring him to justice - until Bass Reeves was assignedtheir legal bailiwick. Had we clashed with more of them to the case, and had already started tracking him.our page might have been both darker and shorter. Old When Dozier learned that the lawman was on his tail,Bud Ledbetter for instance.Ledbetter had been in the he warned Reeves that he would kill him if he didn\'tmarshal service with (brothers) Frank, Bob, and Grat stop the pursuit. Dozier had picked the wrong lawman,Dalton. Here was an official grizzly that at all times for Reeves not only thrived on confrontation with thewould walk to the death grapple without swerving or lawless, grabbing the bull by the horns, but he also sentbatting an eye. A ponderous shaggy man of forty-fiveBass Reevesword back to Dozier that if and when he was readywhen I first met him. In central Oklahoma, he became for a showdown, he would be there - and resumedan institution, going on year after year, alternately as the the pursuit up into the Cherokee Hills, picking up thechief of police at Muskogee and sheriff of the county. InAs the day went on and nightfall was on the horizon, outlaw\'s tracks as he and a posse man rode down into ahis late seventies, he would be now, if he still lives - thean exasperated Ledbetter sent a rider back to Muskogee ravine. Suddenly shots rang out. Reeves and his possestar of the office still bright and persuasive on his broad,with instructions to find Reeves and bring him back. He man took cover amid a raging thunderstorm, trying tobattle-scarred chest. . . arrived on the scene just as the sun was going down.figure out where the shots were coming from. Crouched down in the wet woods, the lawman noticed a shadowUnlike many other notable border officers, LedbetterAs Fisher and O\'Reilly related what happened next:moving in the trees. He stood up, opened fire, and shotdid not turn his big tricks with a bunch of deputies"Whether the desperado knew that Reeves was there down the outlaw. Only the outlaw wasn\'t Dozier, it wasat his heels. His nerve didn\'t require the sustainingor just grew tired of being shot at, he suddenly took off an accomplice, and in those moments Reeves exposedpresence of others. He fought like a grizzly bear, alone.across a field. The posse opened up on him, but he was himself, shots rang up, and Reeves fell to the ground.Posses, he argued, were a sort of encumbrance in grimat least a quarter-mile away, out of range of their pistols. Reeves laid there playing "possum," uttering not a sound,business (he sure sounded a lot like Bass Reeves, hisFinally, Ledbetter yelled across the din. "Get \'im, Bass!"with his shooting hand gripping his Colt. friend - my notes, AR).Bass responded very calmly and coolly, promising, "I will "Pat dirt!" - Dozier got up and approached the prostateAfter I got out of prison I visited Bud at Muskogee.break his neck." He put his Winchester at his shoulder, lawman, assuming he was dead and that the posse manHe was very cordial. "Emmett," he said with a peculiartook aim, and fired a single shot - right through the had fled. Dozier may have been aware of Reeves\' skill,constraint, "I\'ve always been sort o\' glad that I neveroutlaw\'s throat. Then he slipped his rifle back into its but he still made a mistake - and in this case a fatal one.did meet up with you boys when you were on thescabbard, got on his horse, and rode away" (Fisher and As he crept closer, just yards away, Dozier failed to noticedodge. Somebody\'d got hurt, most likely." His well ofO\'Reilly, pp.128-129).the slight movement as Reeves pulled up slightly withcourage was always full. And the swift way of his hand his Colt loaded. He shouted out to Dozier to lay downwith a gun was astonishing in a man of his bulk andLedbetter would later write of Reeves, "he never quailed his arms and when the outlaw failed to obeyhe fired! otherwise deliberate movement. I was glad that wein facing any man."Dozier tried to hit the ground but it was too late for himnever had to meet up in smoke" (Dalton, Emmett in as the bullet hit him in the neck instead. The viciouscollaboration with Jack Jungmeyer, When the DaltonsReeves\' reputation spread far and wide. In one of the very killer was dead as he hit the ground (Fisher and O\'Reilly,Rode, Doubleday, Doran & Company, Garden City, Newfew cases that he never got his "man" (though it wasn\'t pp. 129-130). York, 1931, pp. 192-194). due to lack of trying)Reeves searched in vain for the notorious Cherokee Chieftain Ned Christie, came close REPUTATION As aforementioned, Bud Ledbetter liked and greatlyto locating him, actually found his cabin and burned it Muskogee may have been a distance from Ingalls, andrespected his fellow deputy, the Black lawman Bassdown. Christie, however, knowing Reeves was on his tail, the "Oklahoma Guardsmen" may or may not have heardReeves. One particular incident says it all. On onemanaged to get clear and hide away in the homes of his of Reeves or may not have wanted to associate with thecelebrated - and very rare instance Ledbetter had takensympathetic tribesmen until another posse caught up Black lawman, but there was one famous Oklahomaposse out in pursuit of a wanted man who was holed upwith him some years later and ended his life in one of lawman, a man who DID know the Daltons well, wentin the wilderness. The outlaw had chosen his groundthe very few instances an outlaw was able to escape the after them, and later would go after the remnants of thewell, and the posse couldn\'t even get close to himclutches of the Black lawman. Even the Outlaw Queen Doolin-Daltons and the Cook Gang who not only DIDwithout the risk of being wounded or killed themselves.herself, Belle Starr, turned herself in to the mercy of 44 April 2021'