Charlie Russell knew Kid Curry and has given me his analysis of his character (and he seldom made a mistake in the reading of human nature). Charlie figured any normal man might have went the route the Kid did.
I am going to set down some of the facts regarding the Kid’s becoming an outlaw. His name was Harvey Curry. He had an older brother, Henry Curry. They had a little ranch in the Badlands of the Missouri River and ran a few cattle and horses. Both the brothers were fine boys at that time and would give anyone the shirt off their back if they were in need.
Now there was a little mining town sprung up in the Little Rockies not far from the Curry Ranch. The outstanding character in that town was a man by the name of Pike Landusky, a prospector who had found some fairly rich prospects, and as there was some excitement about the find quite a lot of people went to the mining camp and Pike being about the first one on the ground, the town was named Landusky.
The town was about fifty miles from the railroad and farther from the Sheriff’s office, so Pike was appointed a Deputy Sheriff. Now Pike was not a bad sort of a fellow as a rule, but had a reputation as somewhat of a gun-fighter and was rather proud of it—he didn’t have much education and very little intelligence—but was proud of his authority as a Deputy Sheriff.
The Kid was in town one night with some friends, having a few drinks and celebrating in the ways of the early West, when Pike decided Harvey had violated some law and arrested him, and not having any jail in the camp, handcuffed him for safekeeping. During the time he was handcuffed, the Kid said Pike abused him shamefully and cast reflections even on his mother, who was dead and whom Pike had never known or seen, which burned very deeply into the Kid. During the abuse the Kid told Pike, “I won’t always be handcuffed, Pike, and when I get out of this trouble, you are going to get a licking you will remember.” Pike said, “I will be ready.”
Some time after this incident Pike and the Kid met in the saloon in Landusky and had a fist fight. Of course the Kid started it and Pike got a bad licking. When the fight started both men had guns on. Neither one knew the other had a gun. Pike’s gun was in a holster under his arm. Kid’s gun was fastened to his pants. In the fight, the Kid’s gun fell on the floor. A friend of the Kid’s picked it up and when the fight was over handed it to him. Both Pike’s eyes were pretty well closed, but he raised up on his knees and was trying to get a bead on the Kid—so he shot Pike and killed him.
Of course this was a very serious offense as he had killed an officer of the law, and the sentiment of the people was divided—and the Kid did not know whether to give himself up or not. Anyway, he and a few of his friends went to the ranch and talked the matter over and decided it would be best for the Kid to cache himself in the Badlands for a while. And his friends would bring him food—and, of course, the longer he stayed a fugitive, the less chance he had of getting acquitted if he did give himself up. So after dodging around for a while and having lost his older brother, Hank, as he was known, who had died and was always the leader and adviser, the Kid and a couple of his friends held up the Great Northern Railroad train which had a shipment of currency—they got away with it all right and got the money, but it was new money and had not been officially signed, so of course it was not much good to them. However, they did pass some of it. The Kid had two half brothers who come to Montana from Missouri. Their names was Lannie and Johnny Logan, and they tried to pass some of the money without much success. Lannie was caught in Kansas City and killed with $10,000 of it on his person. Johnny was killed in the Little Rocky country in a gun fight with another cowboy.
The Kid was caught in Tennessee after several years and sent to the Knoxville pen—I believe for life. However, he didn’t stay there very long. The papers said he roped a guard and tied him up and got away. My personal opinion is he got help in some other way. I was told by a very reliable party that he went to the Argentine country. Anyway he has never been heard of since. If he is alive now, he would be about 70 years old.
CHAPTER XII
FRED REID
Fred Reid was one of the old time deer and elk hunters in the early days of Montana. He told me the first bear he ever killed when he was a young boy, that he was so scared he didn’t go near it after he shot it until he saw some flies flying around its mouth. He said, he knew then it was dead.