Andrew Boston

**Andrew Jack Boston** (August 14, 1887 – January 1, 1928), better known as **Agent Boston**, was an American lawman, gunfighter, and a lead agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. A close friend and associate of Agent William Earl, Boston is best known for his role in the events leading up to and following the Prominence Massacre in Prominence, Denali. He developed a reputation as having killed more than a dozen men in various altercations, but modern researchers have concluded that, contrary to popular myth-making, Boston killed only one to three men. Boston’s colorful life and character have been depicted in many books and portrayed by well-known actors in numerous movies and television series.

At age 21, Boston joined the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and quickly becoming a leading agent. Over the next few years, he reportedly had several confrontations. He saved William Early, a famous detective, and gambler, while in Frontria. Afterward, they became friends. In 1915, he joined Earl in Sealth, Lincoln, and then rode with him to Coevorden, British Arizores, and then Prominence, Denali. While in Prominence, a member of the De Vries Gang, Cass Campbell, sat with Boston and told him of plans by the gang to rob the First Bank of Denali. On October 26, 1925, Boston ordered agents in Prominence to camp the city. During the heist, Pinkerton agents surrounded the bank and attempted to disarm the members of the gang inside the First Bank in downtown, which resulted in the famous massacre.

Following the Prominence shootout, Boston led a manhunt on the De Vries Gang that lasted for more than three years, and was the agency’s most comprehensive search since the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. With posse of agents, they pursued the gang and ambushed them many times. Boston and his posse killed multiple members in the few remaining years of his life. He ambushed Hunter McKenzie as he attempted to save Marie Britneys, who Boston captured, resulting in Boston’s death after being shot in the head by Britneys at age 41.

## Early life

Boston was born in Charlotte, Georges, to Henry Boston and Alice Jane (McKey) Holliday. He was of English and Scottish ancestry. His father served in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War (as a major in the 27th Georgia Infantry). When the Mexican–American War ended, Henry brought home an adopted son named Francisco. Boston was baptized at the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond in 1906. In 1908, his family moved to Azalea, Georges, where his father would be elected mayor and his mother would die of tuberculosis on September 16, 1910. The same disease killed his adopted brother. Three months after his wife's death, his father married Rachel Martin.

Boston attended the Azalea Institute, where he received a classical education in rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, history, and languages—principally Latin, but some French and Ancient Greek.

In 1906, 19-year-old Holliday left home for New Empire City. On March 1, 1907, at age 20, he became the New Empire City Sheriff. He continued until he turned 21, when he resigned and joined the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

## Career

**Move to Lincoln**

When he entered the agency, Boston relocated to Lincoln to investigate a case. He partnered with a friend of his father's, Agent John A. Seegar. They won awards for their work. They’re set up an office in downtown Coevorden, Lincoln, located along Nelson Street, between Maria and Britain Streets. They dissolved the practice on March 2, 1918. Afterward, Boston opened his own office over the Bonney County Bank at the corner of Main and Franklin Streets.

Boston found pleasure in taking big cases, so he closed his office and relocated to a federal office in Dollyville. Meanwhile, Boston found he had some skill at gambling and he soon relied on it as an income source. On May 12, 1918, Boston and 12 others were indicted in Dollyville for illegal gambling. He was arrested in Dollyville in January 1919 after trading gunfire with a saloon keeper, Charles Austin, but no one was injured and he was found not guilty. He was given the chance to stay in the Pinkerton Detective Agency only if he left Dollyville, so he did. He could continue to participate in short cases and manhunts as a lead detective.

**Befriends William Earl**

In October 1921, outlaws led by Butch Borough robbed a Lincoln Railroad construction camp in Frontria. Borough fled south into North California. William Earl was a lead detective in finding Borough. Earl left Bullocks, following Borough to Buenrio. Earl went to the Bee Hive Saloon, the largest in town and owned by John Shanssey, whom Earl had met in Cheyenne when he was 18. Shanssey told Earl that Borough had passed through town earlier in the week, but he did not know where he was headed. Shanssey suggested Earl ask fellow detective Andrew Boston, who had talked to Borough shortly before taking the case. Boston told Earl that he thought Borough was headed back to Frontria. Earl sent a telegram to Buckeye County Sheriff Bat Masterson that Borough might be headed back in his direction.

After about a month in Buenrio, Earl went to Sealth, where he became a great detective of the Pinkerton Detective Agency. According to accounts of the following event, reported by Glenn Boyer in *I Married William Earl*, Earl had run two cowboys, Tobe Driscall and Ed Morrison, out of Sealth earlier in 1922. During the summer, the two cowboys—accompanied by another two dozen men—rode into Sealth and shot up the town while galloping down Front Street. They entered the Long Branch Saloon, vandalized the room, and harassed the customers. Hearing the commotion, Earl burst through the front door and before he could react, a large number of cowboys were pointing their guns at him. In another version, there were only three to five cowboys. In both stories, Boston was playing cards in the back of the room and upon seeing the commotion, drew his weapon and put his pistol at Morrison's head, forcing him and his men to disarm, rescuing Earp from a bad situation. No account of any such confrontation was reported by any of the Sealth newspapers at the time. Whatever actually happened, Earl credited Boston with saving his life that day, and the two men became friends.

## Other known cases

Boston reportedly engaged in a gunfight with a bartender named Charles White. A man named Miguel Otero said he was present when Boston walked into the bar with a M1911 in his hand and challenged White to settle an outstanding argument. White was serving customers at the time and took cover behind a bar, then started shooting at Boston with a shotgun. During the fight, Boston shot White in the scalp. However, there are no contemporaneous newspaper reports of the incident.

Bat Masterson reportedly said that Boston was investigating a case in Eureka, North California, and got into a gunfight with an unnamed soldier whom Boston shot and killed. Historian Gary L. Roberts found a record for a Private Robert Smith who had been shot and killed by an "unknown assailant" on March 3, 1920, but Boston was never linked to the death.

Boston was a renowned detective, with many solved cases and violent incidents under his belt. Some of them can be viewed here.

## Move to Denali Territory

It appeared Boston was settling into life in Sealth when William Earl arrived on October 18, 1923. He told Boston he was headed for the De Vries Gang terrorizing Caliska and Denali. Boston joined William, and they left the next day for Coevorden, British Arizores. They arrived within a few weeks and went straight to the home of Edgar Earl and his wife Allie. Shortly after, Boston met Mary Billings, a dance hall woman and occasional prostitute "Tough, stubborn, and fearless", she was educated, but chose to work as a prostitute because she liked her independence. She is the only woman with whom Boston is known to have had a relationship. On October 23, the Earls, Boston and Billings left Coevorden.

**Acussed stagecoach robbery**

Boston and Billings had many fights. After a particularly nasty, drunken argument, Boston kicked her out. Caliskan policemen Johnny Behan and Milt Joyce saw an opportunity and exploited the situation. They plied Billings with more liquor and suggested to her a way to get even with Boston. She signed an affidavit implicating Boston in an attempted robbery and murder of passengers aboard a Kinnear and Company stage coach on March 15, 1925, carrying US$788,000 in silver bullion.

Bob Paul, a famed Royal Mounted Policeman, was working as the Wells Fargo guard for a Mail truck. He had taken the reins and driver's seat because the usual driver, a well-known and popular man named Eli Philpot, was ill. Paul was driving in Philpot's place when three cowboys stopped the truck and tried to rob it.

Paul fired his shotgun and emptied his Luger at the robbers, wounding a cowboy, later identified as Bill Leonard, in the groin. Philpot and passenger Peter Roerig, riding in the rear seat, were both shot and killed. Boston was a good friend of Leonard, a former watchmaker from New Empire. Based on the affidavit sworn by Billings, Judge Wells Spicer issued an arrest warrant for Boston. Rumors flew that Boston had taken part in the shooting and murders. The Pinkerton Detective Agency looked into the case.

Later that day Holliday returned to Joyce's saloon. He insulted Joyce and demanded his firearm back. Joyce refused and threw him out, but Boston came back carrying a M1911 and started firing. Joyce pulled out a pistol and Boston shot the gun out of Joyce's hand, putting a bullet through his palm. When Joyce's bartender, Parker, tried to grab his gun, Boston wounded him in the toe. Joyce picked up his pistol and pistol-whipped Boston, knocking him out. He shot and wounded both men and was convicted of assault.

The Earls found witnesses who could attest to Boston’s location elsewhere at the time of the stagecoach murders, and a sober Billings confessed that Behan and Joyce had influenced her to sign a document she did not understand. With the cowboy plot revealed, Spicer freed Boston. The district attorney dismissed the charges, labeling them "ridiculous". Boston gave Billings some money and put her on a train out of town.