The Hawaiian gazette., 1918-05-07
LONG GAREER0F
Made aha Lost Many Fortunes
But Finally MED Object III \ \
7 Chiefly ID n6SbltaL :. Z.

DENVER, Colorado, May Class
Ciated Pressl 80 jim" Jordan, master
gunman is dead, according to word
received here by former cronies and
the police who knew him when he wac
considered the fastest man on the
draw and trigger in the. west. " ..,
| ."JimN died in q charity ward of
Boston hospital following an opera
! ton, ending a life of -eight.fve years,
sixty five or more Of which was spent
Rs u wanderer in many devious paths.
HAD Long 'Record'
Jim" yordanSs record was known
\ to every police chief in the land and
his exploits were known on two oceans
| as well. -.
even nothing was known of that far
off past when he was a boy. None
knew from whence he came or wis
| We're his parents. He never married
and no relatives are known to survive
him. r..
Jordan is most remembered in DEN.
yer from his famous battle with
"SOapy'' Smith and Smiths gang IN
the old Murphy exchange on Larimer
Street. 1t was October IL, 1892, that
"soapy" and his gang planned to;
get" Jordan. They failed.
With "Soapy" in the room where
I the battle took place were the lite
Mart Watrous, Murphy, Tom Ready
and Clifford "Griff Sparks, noted gam,
| bier and faro dealer, when Jordan en-
| tered
Il Tipped or
Somewhere outside he had been "tip
ped" to the coming play. when he
entered Smith after Few words flick
ed the top of the bar with his "shoot:
ing irons" AM said:
"Them's my argumentsl
"And a-pOor argument for you
Soapy'', smiled Jim.
Quick as a FASH Jim had drawn.
As he did 80 three guns barked forth,
, his own, Soapy's and that Of Tom
| Ready. Jim was not hit. He had q
peculiar style Of firing from the knee
stopping over quickly, to disconcert an
antagonist aim and shooting while
bending low.
AS the three guns spoke Clifford
! Sparks in some mysterious manner got
between the duelists. He dropped dead.
| All three gunner were arrested and
| charged with murder but all were &C
quilted as it could not be proved any
of them wanted to Kill sparks, Some
witness say an enemy of Sparks push
ed him into range.
Terror To Bad Men"
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
| nfh 81 a
west. He also caused some to be mourn
ed, BECAUSE of his deadly aim.
From Denver Jim then went to the
Atlantic seabOard, where he is said
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 squandefed in
the west ''''' g.
Before coming west Jordan had ser
we'd three years in an Illinois prison
for manslaughter for killing o hack
driver, who 'didn I drive to suit him,
! according to friends In 1000 he was
sought for diamond robbery in Stock.
ton, California. In 1905 he was mr..
rested in Dayton, Ohio, on various
charges, but was released.
Fates Of Others
! or his enemies "Soapy" Smith was
killed in Skagway, Alaska, by the
civil engineer Henderson, Vigilante;
Tom Ready was sent to the Colorado
penitentiary for robbery and is now
out undermined in health, 81.
Jim was six feet one inch tall. Al
80 he still was "spry", and only a year
ago he was arrested in Chicago for
working the wire tapping racing bunco