The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-20

her up the bank away from the streaTn,
| whispering the while some gentle lie likely
to reassure her. He was q handsome fellow
and of a kindly disposition. Creek maid
ems, like white ma.dens, admire dasaing
| lover, AMI this girl recognized Colbert the
| moment she sa v him. What became Of the
lover il not known; some folks think Col
bert killed him.
Fortunately, the girl had not heard that
/ Colbert was deputy marshal. II was
therefore easy TO make her believe he hal
come all the way from Fort Smith to see
her. She took him 70 tho house inside Of
two hours, and when. the next morning.
Old man Cranshaw and his Oldest boy Jack
reached the cabin, Colbert me5 them
! with a revolver in each hand. he
had the drop On them beautifully,
but no had not calculated en- the
women making trouble. No sooner did
| the two men hold up their arms than the
girl, half wild TO think she had been made q
fool Of, Jumped on the officer from behind.
Colbert pulled the triggers and both mon
! droppsd, and then he deliberately shot the
! girl, but not 10 death. The old man Was
/ Killed, and Jack so badly hurt tina. he could
not fight, and Colbert was oncs moro mas
| ter of the situation. WHAT to do next he
was at loss TO know for a while, but he
eventually mounted his horse and rode
| awayfOr a surgeon 20 care for the wounded.
| Bob Jack and the girl recovered. The
| three boys " ere taken to Fort Smith for
| trial; two were convicted and one came
I clear. The two got sentences of q little
over year each, as was customary at Fort
/ Smith in those DAYS. The adventure had
| simply added 20 the number of men who
were looking for tho blood Of Burton Col
| bert.
| The shooting OF the girl did not have such
an evil effect on Colber-'s reputation as
might ba im1giued Il was clearly done in
! sels-iefeDse, for be had to hold up the old
! woman nex5. Besides, Colbert had shown
! spch a dash in the matter, and so much
| bravery withal in going alone 20 the cabin
| that he was forgiven for doing an ungallant
deed.
To tel Of all the fights that Colbert en-
gagged in from that time until his death,
we're the details ali known, would make a
mignty interesting page of the Sun. A
| man who can shoot, and likes to do it. can
have all the fun he wants if attached to the
marshaPs force at Fort Smith. Colbert
asked for the most dangerous work
oa hand and got it every time He
is credited with killing from fourteen to
nineteen men since 1880, but the exact num-
Der is not known. One man who knew him
very WE'LL Charlie Peri, a Chickasaw police
man, told the SIM reporter that Colbert had
really killed over twenty men, and that this
number was made up of six cor seven men
for whom warrants had been issued and
they had disappeared. They were supposed
to have goae TO the states, but had really
been killed, and no report made of it be-
cause they had been shot from ambush
needlessly.
There was one case, however, that was an
exception TO that rule. He was playing
poker one night in Purcell with q gang
while number Of men looked on. Among
the spectators was q stranger who was as
pleasant a looking fellow as there was
present, but Colbert took an aversion to
him for some unaccountable reason After
while Colbert jumped up from the table,
and drew revolver on the stranger and
said TO a companion:
Say Bob, shall kill him or drive him
aways Better kill him, chg"
That would have paralyZed any other
man in the room, but the stranger, who had
heretofore paid no attention to tho re-
marks of Colbert. simply raised q hand and
crooked his finger with smile.
After remaining on the marshal's force
until about two years ago, Colbert lost his
job. The force was reorganized, because SO
many of the men had become blackmailers.
and lived by harrassing the peaceable citi-
zens OF the territory. Colbert was one of
those who had to go. Like a good MANY
| others who were then dismissed from the
service, he had so long lived life of ex-
citement that he could not give it up. II
he could not be man hunter he would be-
come one of the hunted. de turned horse
thief himself. and from his long experience
as an officer was able to toy
with the fledgling deputy marshals in
a way that made them wild But he
was handicapped in one way; the men
whom he had formerly hunted were lust as
| eager as ever to take his life They had
not hated the officer but the individual, and
he was between two fires. To add to his
peril the lovo of liquor got the better of
him. When partly drunk Colbert was lat
| terly probably the most dangerous man in
the territory. He was not only easily
offended. but the liquor made him suspi-
cious. Once his luminosity was aroused, the
| object of his ire had TO run, shoot, or die.
Of course Colbert had many close friends.
| The old gang of marshals with whom he
| had worked wlen on the force stood by him
| to q man. Even the few old ones who were
retained on the reorganized force always
| spoke of him kindly, and would go out of
| their way to avoid official information that
would implicate him.
| His death was due TO cold caught while
on spree with party of men and womea
| that had come up from Denison. ostensibly
to see the coal mines here, but really for a
lark. Colbert got full on the whisky the
party brought, and was soaked through on
his way home from the dance by rain that
had come on during the night. He fell
down beside the road and lay there no one
knows how long. Pneumonia killed him in
forty-eight hours.
| Colbert was not far from feet IL inches
tall. He had light hair, blue eyes, and was
originally rather thin and hollow checked.
He became somewhat bloated at the last.
He had a long, dropping nustache, thin
| lips, ami a mouthful OF beautiful white
teeth. He weighed about 100 pounds, and
was as wiry and tough as bundle of steel
| springs.
| The following are the names of the men
slain by Colbert so far as known here:
| Curtis Dinsmore and Brant Mcpherson.
shot in roadside store on the TahIequah
road from Fort Gibson.
Danton Creushaw, shot at his home on
Pole Cat creek in the Creek nation.
Sylvanus Mcpherson, (brother of Brant)
shot in a saloon near the territory and AT.
kansas line, where he was waiting to kill
| Colbert
Archie Brown, a horse thief. shot near
Atoko for failing to get his hands up quick
enough.
Bulwer Sturgis and Leonard Swift, shot
as they were running from cabin on Buff
falo creek. in the eastern part of the Choc.
taw nation, where they had boon rounded
up by posse of marshals for carryinp
liquor into the territory. Colbert was
guarding the back door, while the other
marshals raided the front
Gregory Miller. deputy marshal way.
| laid on Saline creek in the Caerokee conn