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<\/a>\nAlways counterpoint a big nose with a bigger moustache!<\/em><\/p>\n
In 1878, Parrott and his gang murdered two law enforcement officers \u2014\u00a0Wyoming\u00a0deputy sheriff Robert Widdowfield and\u00a0Union Pacific\u00a0detective Tip Vincent \u2014 after a bungled train robbery.\u00a0\u00a0Widdowfield and Vincent had been ordered to track down Parrott’s gang on August 19, 1878, following the attempted robbery on an isolated stretch of track near the\u00a0Medicine Bow River.\u00a0The officers traced the outlaws to a camp at Rattlesnake Canyon, near\u00a0Elk Mountain, where they were spotted by a gang lookout. The robbers stamped out the campfire and hid in a bush. When Widdowfield arrived at the scene, he realized the ashes of the fire were still hot. The gang ambushed the two lawmen, shooting Widdowfield in the face. Vincent tried to escape, but was shot before he made it out of the canyon. The gang took each man’s weapons and one of their horses before covering up the bodies and fleeing the area.<\/p>\n
The murder of the two lawmen was quickly discovered and a $10,000 reward was offered for the “apprehension of their murderers”. This was later doubled to $20,000.\u00a0 In February 1879, “Big Nose” George and his cohorts were in Milestown (now\u00a0Miles City, Montana). It was known around Milestown that a prosperous local merchant, Morris Cahn, would be taking money back east to buy stocks of merchandise. George, Charlie Burris and two others carried out a daring daylight robbery despite Morris Cahn traveling with a military convoy containing 15 soldiers, two officers, an ambulance, and a wagon from\u00a0Fort Keogh, which was tasked to collect the army payroll. At a site approximately 10 miles (16\u00a0km) beyond the\u00a0Powder River\u00a0Crossing, near present-day\u00a0Terry, Montana, there is a steep\u00a0coulee\u00a0(known ever since as “Cahn’s Coulee”). Approaching the coulee over a five-mile (8\u00a0km) plateau, the soldiers, ambulance and the wagon became “strung out”, creating large gaps between party members. The gang donned masks and stationed themselves at the bottom of the coulee, at a turn in the trail. The gang first surprised and then captured the lead element of soldiers, as well as the ambulance with Cahn and the officers. They waited and likewise captured the rear element of soldiers with the wagon. Cahn was robbed of an amount between $3,600 and $14,000, depending on who was doing the reporting.<\/p>\n
In 1880 following the robbery of Cahn, Big Nose George Parrott and his second, Charlie Burris or “Dutch Charley”, were arrested in Miles City by two local deputies, Lem Wilson and Fred Schmalsle. Big Nose and Charlie got drunk and boasted of killing the two Wyoming lawmen, thus identifying themselves as men with a price on their head.\u00a0Parrott was returned to Wyoming to face charges of murder.<\/p>\n
Parrott was sentenced to hang on April 2, 1881, following a trial, but tried to escape while being held at a\u00a0Rawlins, Wyoming\u00a0jail. Parrott was able to wedge and file the rivets of the heavy shackles on his ankles, using a pocket knife and a piece of sandstone. On March 22, having removed his shackles, he hid in the washroom until jailor Robert Rankin entered the area. Using the shackles, Parrott struck Rankin over the head, fracturing his skull. Rankin managed to fight back, calling out to his wife, Rosa, for help at the same time. Grabbing a pistol, she managed to persuade Parrott to return to his cell.<\/p>\n
News of the escape attempt spread through Rawlins and groups of people started making their way to the jail. While Rankin lay recovering, masked men with pistols burst into the jail. Holding Rankin at gunpoint, they took his keys, then dragged Parrott from his cell.\u00a0 Parrott’s “rescuers” turned out to be townspeople, bringing Parrott out to a\u00a0lynch mob\u00a0of more than 200 people. The mob strung him up from a telegraph pole.<\/p>\n
Doctors Thomas Maghee and\u00a0John Eugene Osborne\u00a0took possession of Parrott’s body after his death, to study the outlaw’s brain for clues to his\u00a0criminality.\u00a0The top of Parrott’s skull was crudely sawn off, and the cap was presented to 16-year-old\u00a0Lillian Heath, then a medical assistant to Maghee. Heath became the first female doctor in Wyoming and is said to have used the cap as an ash tray, a pen holder and a doorstop.\u00a0A\u00a0death mask\u00a0was also created of Parrott’s face, and skin from his thighs and chest was removed. The skin, including the dead man’s nipples, was sent to a\u00a0tannery\u00a0in\u00a0Denver, where it was made into a pair of shoes and a\u00a0medical bag.\u00a0They were kept by Osborne, who wore the shoes to his inaugural ball after being elected as the first Democratic\u00a0Governor of the State of Wyoming.\u00a0Parrott’s dismembered body was stored in a whiskey barrel filled with a salt solution for about a year, while the experiments continued, until he was buried in the yard behind Maghee’s office.<\/p>\n
The death of Big Nose George faded into history over the years until May 11, 1950, when construction workers unearthed a whiskey barrel filled with bones while working on the Rawlins National Bank on Cedar Street in Rawlins. Inside the barrel was a skull with the top sawed off, a bottle of vegetable compound, and the shoes said to have been made from Parrott’s thigh flesh. Dr. Lillian Heath, then in her eighties, was contacted and her skull cap was sent to the scene. It was found to fit the skull in the barrel perfectly, and\u00a0DNA testing\u00a0later confirmed the remains were those of Big Nose George. Today the shoes made from the skin of Big Nose George are on permanent display at the Carbon County Museum in Rawlins, together with the bottom part of the outlaw’s skull and Big Nose George’s earless death mask.\u00a0The shackles used during the hanging of the outlaw, as well as the skull cap, are on show at the Union Pacific Museum in\u00a0Omaha,\u00a0Nebraska. The medicine bag made from his skin has never been found.<\/p>\n Culled from:\u00a0Wikipedia<\/a><\/a>
\nThe Remains of Big Nose George<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nBig Nose George’s Soles<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSpecial thanks to\u00a0Marco\u00a0McClean<\/strong>\u00a0for the suggestion!<\/p>\n