Bat Masterson was a lethal gunfighter, fearless lawman and professional gambler. In the decades following the Civil War, he rode across the frontier and into the history and legend of the American West.
Born William Barclay Masterson in Illinois in 1855, he was one of six children, three brothers and two sisters. A few years later, the family moved to Sedgwick, Kansas, on the edge of the frontier.
Bat received little formal education. At 17, he and his brothers got hired as buffalo hunters to supply meat for the crews building the railroads. They butchered as many as 20 animals a day. It was in the camps of the buffalo hunters that Bat learned to gamble and play poker.
In 1876, in Sweetwater, Texas, young Bat killed his first man. After a poker game at the Lady Gay Saloon, Bat was the big winner and Sgt. King, a U.S. Calvary soldier, was the heavy loser. When Bat left the saloon later in the company of Miss Mollie Brennan, a popular prostitute, drunk and still angry Sgt. King decided to confront the youth.
King knocked on Masterson's door. When Bat opened it, the soldier fired his pistol; the bullet going through Bat's abdomen and out his thigh. The soldier's second shot hit Mollie killing her instantly. Bat quickly raised himself up and fired, dropping King with a shot through the heart.
Miraculously, Bat recovered within weeks. It was determined that he acted in self-defense and was acquitted of murder. Nevertheless, it was the beginning of his frontier fame. Before it was over, he admitted to killing more than two dozen men (not counting Indians and Mexicans he would say).
Masterson was a well known marksman. One witness declared, "I've seen Bat shoot at a tin cup thrown in the air, with his six-shooter, at twenty-five cents a shot and make money at it."
Bat left Texas for Dodge City. Wyatt Earp was town marshal and the two men soon became good friends. When Wyatt banned fire arms from town he hired Bat as his Deputy to help enforce the unpopular city ordinance. Masterson also became a partner in the Lone Star, a dance hall, gambling house and bordello. At 22, he ran for the position of county sheriff and won by three votes.
Bat lost his re-election campaign for sheriff and was out of a job. It was 1880, and the buffalo were gone. Now the 26-year old turned to his other talent - gambling. According to Masterson, "Gambling was not only the principal and best-paying industry of the time, but it was also reckoned among the most respectable."
Experienced faro dealers were customarily paid $25 for a 6-hour shift. Bat visited every railroad town and mining camp throughout the West playing or dealing faro and poker. He sat across the table from the likes of Doc Holliday, Luke Short, and the Earp brothers.
For a professional frontier gambler, Bat was considered successful. But, as with all gamblers, life was an up-and-down struggle. In a letter to a close friend he wrote, "I... have experienced the vicissitudes which has always characterized the [gambling] business. Some days - plenty, and more days - nothing." He concluded, "I came into the world without anything and I have about held my own to date."
Prizefighting was an emerging sport in the 1880s. Out West, gunslingers and gamblers were important to the fight game. Fair play was maintained by a "display of force on both sides" explains a leading ring historian. Gamblers were often promoters as well as bookies.
Attracted to the action, Bat became a well respected boxing authority. In the 1890's he worked as a manager or dealer in the many gambling houses of Denver. At the same time, he promoted, judged or was a celebrity guest at every major fight in the US. Illustrated Sporting West magazine featured Masterson in an 1894 issue, reporting that he's "considered one of the best judges of pugilists in America".
Offered a job covering boxing for a New York City newspaper, Bat arrived in the Big Apple in 1902. As a sports columnist he wrote as he spoke, bluntly, fearlessly. Writer Damon Runyon said posthumously of his friend, "Bat had no literary style, but he had plenty of moxie."
Masterson was bothered by the huge paycheck boxers received for a fight, as much as $12,000! Hard working farmers made less in a year. There are those who say "everything breaks even" in life, he wrote, pointing out that they're the same ones who argue "because the rich man gets ice in the summer, and the poor man gets it in the winter, things are breaking even for both."
Among those who admired and befriended Masterson was President Theodore Roosevelt, himself a "Rough Rider", sharpshooter and poker player. The President wanted to appoint his hero U.S. Marshal of the Oklahoma Territory. Bat declined.
The gunslinger 'n gambler explained to the President that a "man of my peculiar reputation" couldn't hold such an office because "Some kid who was born after I took my guns off would get drunk and look me over... In the end he'd crawl around to gun play and I'd have to send him over the jump...."
Bat Masterson spent his remaining years covering boxing. In 1921, at age 68, the American legend quietly passed away while writing his column.
