b'Rough Rider, Benjamin Franklin Daniels, who once upon aGround Zero was the oil time was Tilghman\'s chief deputy in Dodge City, and afterboom town of Cromwell. serving alongside Roosevelt in Cuba, had been appointed asSome say it was Oklahoma\'s a territorial marshal in Arizona by the president.then-governor, others say it was a delegation of the Besides Daniels, another mutual friend also advocated forbetter element of Cromwell, Tilghman, that old fellow lawman-turned-sports writerbut someone did appeal to Bat Masterson, who officially introduced the OklahomaBill Tilghman to strap on lawman to the president. Roosevelt, impressed with almosthis six-shooters and restore any Old West character still living, was quite impressedlaw and order in Cromwell. with Tilghman. He once exclaimed that "Tilghman wouldBill Tilghman was on the charge hell with a bucket" (Clavin, Dodge City, p. 133;verge of his 70th birthday, Gerry and Janet Souter, Guns of Outlaws,Crestline, 2017,he was much older, it was p. 169) and despite their political differences invitedfairly obvious that his gun Tilghman to the White House, offered him a position asskills were not quite the a special envoy to Mexico, which he did accept (Souter,same as they were when he Guns of Outlaws, p. 133). faced down Bill Doolin less than 30 years earlier. More Returning to Oklahoma, Tilghman served a term in theominously he was said to be Oklahoma territorial state senate. When his term was overseriously, perhaps deathly illThe new Bill Tilghman movie, Bill Tilghman and the Outlaws, which has all the makings of an he went on to become the police chief of Oklahoma City,with cancer. He accepted theOld West classic, made its release in February.largely credited with eliminating the criminal elementjob and when an old friend, of Oklahoma\'s capital just as he helped eliminate thepresumably his fellow "Oklahoma Guardsman" Chris Doolin-Dalton gang. One would think that after dabblingMadsen urged him to reconsider, he, perhaps thinking of in horse breeding, politics, and staying the course in lawthe cancer that was then ravaging his body, merely replied,of Cromwell\'s better element backing him up) (Souter, enforcement, he would be content to rest on his laurels"It\'s better to die in a gunght than in bed" (Souter, GunsGuns of Outlaws, p. 168). Sadly it all came to a head late with his new wife, but Bill Tilghman was always seekingof Outlaws, p.168). Halloween night, and during the early morning hours of something, and knowing that outlaws Henry Starr and AlNovember 1, 1924.Jennings had gotten involved with that new medium knownSo Bill Tilghman put on his Stetson, put on his boots, as the silent lm, Tilghman too, caught the bug. He wouldstrapped on his six-shooters, and standing tall off he wentTilghman had had some run-ins with one Wiley Lynn, a become the chief writer, the producer and the star in theto Cromwell, "a square mile of spit-and-sawdust saloons,corrupted Prohibition agent who liked to get drunk and 1915 Hollywood production The Passing of the Oklahomathe rankest brothels, and flophouse hangouts of the worstconsort with prostitutes. How he kept his job is anyone\'s Outlaws based around his exploits in the termination of thedrug snorting, liquor-swilling, murderous outlaws westguess, but perhaps as the saying goes, "the more things Doolin-Dalton gang.of the Mississippi, all surrounded by prot-pumpingchange, the more they stay the same" - with his Federal oil rigs" (Souter, Guns of Outlaws, p.168).For the nextemployers turning a blind eye to his misdeeds. Not so Eight years on, and Bill Tilghman was fast approaching hisyear, Tilghman worked wonders in Cromwell. He closedwith Tilghman. Knowing Lynn was (supposedly) a fellow 70th birthday. There was another of Oklahoma\'s periodicdown 70 of the flophouses and saloons, he arrested 16 oflawman, he chose not to arrest him, but he had warned the oil booms and with it came the usual lawlessness, theCromwell\'s worst, and it is estimated that he drove at leastagent to behave himself whenever he was in town. Lynn saloons, the gambling, the violation of the Prohibition500 wannabe thugs out of town, with very little help fromobviously resented being told off by a cranky old Cowboy laws, the prostitution, and the gunplay, of which thethe community (perhaps one loyal deputy and a handfulcontinued on page 322005 HOME 3Br/2Ba/3G HomePoolGuest House is 2Br/1Ba/3GArena4 Stalls + Room for MoreCorralRound PenTurnoutRVPkg with Hookups$883,900. MLS 5854245ArizonaRealCountry.com September 2019 31'