The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-10
STARR OF THE SILK MASK.
Famous Desperate Recently KILLED
in the Indian Territory.


Wichita Cor. New York Times.
John Starr is dead starr first appeared
In the Chickasaw Indian country in 1852.
or thereabout One popularity about the
man was the singular way he had OF
shading the upper portion Of his face
and eyes with the rim Of a six-inch som
brero, while the lower part Of the face
was always covered by a heaviIy-lined
mask Of silk. This mask caused the
Mask.
No one ever saw starr without his hat
and the mask. He was Of slender build,
with small hands and feet When he
spoke 10 was in low tone OF voice. He
was always ready for a night OF a game Of
poker At first he was boomer, ana the
boys were all anxious to see the color
OF his eyes" as Dan Darrell said when
he tried TO pull the silk mask TO enc side
during a game at CaddC one night They
buried poor Dan the next day. The silk
mas@x' enigma had driven knife straight
through the inquisitive gamblers heart.
No one paid much attention to Starr
after this until ne suddenly turned up in
No Mans Land at Bear City in 1855 and
opened a gambling den called the Half
Nay house. Ben Smith OF Colorado, who
played there one night, said II ought to
nave been called the sure pop" place.
As Ben thought of his losses he began to
urlnk, and the next night he reappeaFed a.
the Halfway house with full cargo OF
lilicit whisky on board He was ugly
and vicious, and proclaimed himself as a
Da1 man from the back regions of Bit
yer creek Finally he strobe up TO where
starr was dealing faro and reached for the
sombrero "Silk-Mask Jack" always wore
me man az the faro table made one quick
pass and shot Ben dead. There was an
uproar and cry for vengeance, but when
me noise subsided and the body of the
Aead Colorodian had been carried from the
room, the man with the silk mask was still
coolly dealing the cards.
During the days preceding the opening of
me cherokee strip Jack Starr acted as a
g0-Delween with Kansas border sheriffs
MO We're willing that all sorts of gamb-
ing uevlces should run IL the operators
put uR SoO each every morning. 1t is said
an ho ai@Fr rS Soliect soQ ,o every day in
Bons, tents, shacks and dug-outs. Thou
sdioS or nOme-seck ers were robbed daily
py sparks, who paid the sheriffs for the
privilege OF running Johnny Dodge, Flat
Nose, as the boys called him, with a
general reputation for cussedness and out
iaWry' allowed that "a man who hid his
ace had no right to collect money, and
ne refused TO pay toll. Flat Nose" was
buried that night. the boys being too busy
TO plant him until business hours were
over.
When the rush came for claims. John
starr had big roll of cash, and secured
a good farm near Wharton. This place
was near Perry, and WIS a gambler par
adise. Here the man with the mask
ioUrshed for months. His well-known
sllllng proclivities kept the ''hitters"
Ious pull with the officers. Eventually
starr began TO develop into a sort of de-
tective. and one night was shot in the
PACK by some would-be assassin, who
probably supposed that he was after him
Nellie Bell was a girl who had made a
race for home, and got a claim next
TO STAIRS. She always appeared to have
a sneaking regard for the man who hid
his face, and when ne was reported to be
dying she had him taken to her home and
began to nurse him. In the end Starr recov-
linen npRDlp hogan to
notice a change In him. He quit gambling
and killing. and began to dress up. The
mask, however, he still chung to. That
was where the mystery lay, and this fact
made him famous.
About a year ago he disappeared, after
first selling his claim. Shortly after Nellie
Bell also disappeared. Later on came ru-
mors that the two were living together in
the Creek country, and there they were
lost sight of until a few days ago, when
they came to light again in a, sensational
The officers have been chasing the Rog-
ers, Doolans, and Datt0ns so much In this
country that they find II hard 10 distin-
guish between the good and the bad, and
many men are killed by mistake" that
one blames the deputy marshals for this
work. They lead dangerous lives and
are constantly exposed to attempts at
assassination. For this reason they are
often quicker to draw and shoot than is
exactly consistent with public safety. So
when the announcement was made last
week tndl JOnn CtdfT ndu Dee0 SnOl
out near Eufauls, no one paid much at
tention to it. Bill Smith, deputy mar
shall in the Fort Smith district, however
stated that he thought Starr had been
stealing cattle, and he knew that every
maverick loose on plains was claimed
by the dead man of the mask.
And know Nellie, too" said the dep
uty. She has been living with John
quite a time. Now, I'll tell you a secret
that has been kept for years. Starr was
really a quarter-blood Cherokee but did
not exhibit much sign of his blood. He
was well educated. In a trouble with
some of his people he was shot in the
lower part of the face, and a part of the
jaw was torn away. The wound was neg
lected, and healed in a very unsightly
manner. Starr was vain and proud. He
became embitsered at his Disagreement.
and turned gambler and desperado Then
he was shot and met Nellie Bell, who
fell in love with him. They never mar
ried, but she is out on the ranch--and |
miss my g1less II she don't develop into
another Kate Daniels or, rather, Rocky
Kate, who led the female boomer crowd
and was killed only month ago. Yes,
Starr was dangerous and more than half
insane over his afiliction. No one knows
just who killed him..