The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-04-27
MASTER GUNMAN
DEAD IN BOSTON
Jim" JORDAN, FORMER DEN
VERITE, DIES IN HOSPITAL
CHARITY WARD

Jim" Jordan, master gunman is
dead, according to word received
here by former cronies and the
police who knew him when he was
considered the fastest man on the
draw and trigger in the west"
Jim" died in a charity ward of
a Boston hospital following an oper-
alton, ending a life of IS years,
sixty-five or more of which was
spent as a wanderer in many de-
vious paths.
Jim" Jordan's record was known
20 every police chief in the land
aid his exploits were known on
Two e as we'll.
Denver was home to Jordan, but
even here nothing was known of
that far off past when he was a boy.
None knew from whence he came
Dr. who were his parents. He never
married and no relatives are known
to survive him.
Jordan is most remembered in
Denver from his famous battle with
: Soapy" Smith and Smiths gang in
the old Murphy exchange on Lari-
mer street. 1t was October IL,
1892, that 'Soapy" and his gang
planned to get" Jordan. They
failed.
With 'Soapy" in the room where
The battle took place were the late
Mart Watrous, Murphy, Tom Ready
aud Cliff or "Griff" Sparks, noted
gambled and faro dealer, when
Jordan entered.
Somewhere outside he had been
tipped" to the coming play. When
he entered Smith, after a few words
licked to the top of the bar with
his shooting irons and said:
"Them's my arguments"
And a -- poor argument
for you Soapy," smiled Jim.
Quick as a flash Jim had
drawn" AS he did so three guns,
Iarked forth, his own, Soapy's and
that of Tom Ready. Jim was not
hit. He had a peculiar style of
firing from the knee, STOPPING over
quickly to disconcert an antagonists
aim and shooting while bending
low.
AS the three guns spoke Clifford
Sparks in some mysterious manner
got between the duelists. He drop
ped dead. All three gunner were
arrested and charged with murder,
but all were acquitted as it could
ret be proved any of them wanted
to kill Sparks. Some witness say
IN enemy of Sparks pushed him in
G range.
After this Jim quit Denver. While
he was here and in his travels to
other points of the west he is said
to have made more bad men quit
cold than any other man in the his
tory of the west. He also caused
some to be mourned beause of his
ceadly aim.
From Denver Jim then went to
me Atlantic seaboard, where he is
sold to have headed a band of card
sharps on transatlantic liners. He
made more fortunes with his wits
to add to the ones he had made and
sQuandered in the west.
Before coming west Jordan had
served three years in a. Illinois pri-
son for manslaughter for killing
a hack driver, who didn't drive
to suit him." according to friends.
In 1900 he was sought for a dia-
mond robbery in Stockton, Califor-
ria. In 1905 he was arrested in
Dayton, Ohio, on various charges,
hut was released.
OF his enemies "Soapy" Smith
was killed in Skagway, Alaska. by
the civil engineer Henderson, a
vigilante; Tom Ready was sent to
the Colorado penitentiary for rob-
berry and is now out undermined in
health.
Jim was six feet one inch tall. At
so he still was "spry," and only a
year ago he was arrested in Chicago
for working the wire tapping racing
bunco. He was acquitted for lack
of evidence.