Charlie Siringo A Texas Cowboy Detective
by Peter Ogden
Title
Charlie Siringo A Texas Cowboy Detective
Artist
Peter Ogden
Medium
Digital Art - Digital Art
Description
This is a restored copy of an 1886 cover of Charles Siringo, or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony by Charles Siringo.
Charles Angelo Siringo (February 7, 1855 – October 18, 1928) was an American lawman, detective, bounty hunter, agent for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Siringo was born on Matagorda Peninsula in Matagorda County, Texas, to an Irish immigrant mother and an Italian immigrant father from Piedmont. His father died when Siringo was a year old. He attended public school until the start of the American Civil War, then took his first cowpuncher lessons in 1867, before moving to St. Louis after his mother remarried. Siringo attended Fisk public school for a time while in New Orleans, but then started work as a cowboy for Abel Head "Shanghai" Pierce in April 1871, after returning to Texas.
In July 1877, Siringo was in Dodge City, Kansas, where he survived an encounter with Bat Masterson.
Siringo was already working as a cattle drive cowboy, when he started working for the LX Ranch in 1877. This job entailed chasing after LX cattle stolen by Billy the Kid in 1880. Siringo stopped working for the LX Ranch when he married Mamie in 1884, and opened a tobacco store in Caldwell, Kansas. Their daughter Viola was born on 28 Feb. 1885. He began writing his autobiography, A Texas CowBoy; Or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony. A year later, it was published, to wide acclaim, and Siringo moved his family to Chicago in the spring of 1886 for publication of a second printing.
In 1886, Siringo witnessed the Chicago Haymarket affair. This prompted him to join the Pinkerton Detective Agency, using gunman Pat Garrett's name as a reference to get the job, having met Garrett in 1880, when they were searching for Billy the Kid. Siringo was assigned to Denver, reporting to James McParland, and moved his family there. Sadly, his wife died in 1890, and his daughter went to live with his wife's aunt and her husband, Emma and Will F. Read.
He was immediately assigned several cases, which took him as far north as Alaska, for the Treadwell mine, and as far south as Mexico City. He began operating undercover, a relatively new technique at the time, and infiltrated gangs of robbers and rustlers, making more than 100 arrests.
In the early 1890s he found himself assigned to office work in the Denver office of the agency, work which he greatly despised. During that time, he worked with noted Pinkerton agent, gunman and later assassin Tom Horn. He greatly admired Horn's talents and skills in tracking down suspects, but reflected later that Horn had a dark side that could easily be accessed when need be.
In Feb. 1891, assuming the name of Charles T. Leon, Siringo undertook a 6-month investigation for New Mexico Governor L. Bradford Prince. Siringo was tasked with investigating the attempted assassination of Elias S. Stover, Thomas B. Catron, T.B. Mills and Joseph Anchete. Siringo was able to infiltrate the Las Gorras Blancas and Knights of Labor, while understanding their relationship with the Santa Fe Ring. The investigation was called off before Siringo could gather enough evidence to definitively state who was behind the shooting. Siringo did however, purchase 265 acres near Santa Fe, New Mexico, and established his Sunny Slope Ranch. Located north of Arroyo Chamiso, Siringo built a two-room adobe home, with a view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
In 1892, Siringo was assigned to a case in the Idaho Panhandle Silver Valley, for the Mine Owners' Protective Association. He assumed the identity of Charles Leon Allison, working as a shoveler in the Gem Mine. Siringo at first turned down the assignment, telling his boss, James McParland, that he sympathized with the union miners. McParland later asked him to go anyway, with the agreement that Siringo could leave if he still felt the same way after seeing the situation. Siringo infiltrated the Gem Miners' Union, and decided that the leadership was in the hands of anarchists such as George Pettibone. After 1 year and 2 months, which included the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892, Siringo's undercover work and testimony helped convict 18 union leaders.
Siringo married Lillie Thomas in 1893, and their son William Lee Roy was born in 1896. However, they soon divorced, when she wanted to live in Los Angeles, California.
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December 25th, 2019
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