2 Gun Western, May 1957 — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

38 2-GUN WESTERN In subsequent months Crazylegs organized a gang comprised of fugi- tive criminals, army deserters and fast-buck gents. Though outlawry, es- pecially the leadership of a gang of whites, was an unusual occupation for an Indian, Crazylegs quickly proved that he had what it took. He led his gang on a varied series of capers. Though he never let them kill, except when cornered or fired upon, he became known as the Ghen- ghis Khan of the Colorado Territory. In fact, he was the most feared man in the West, probably because he was an Indian—actually he was less bru- tal than most of the period’s white outlaws, His gang robbed banks, mining camps, smelters, freight offices—any place where they could get their hands on big sums of gold or money. Crazylegs paid his men well, divid- ing half of the proceeds among them. The other half went into the kitty for the Arapahoes’ reservation. OR TWO years the gang roamed over Colorado and south-central Wyoming. Life in the gang was tough and rugged. Calvin Routt, one of Crazylegs’ men, who later became a respected cattleman in Wyoming, wrote in his memoirs, “I suffered greatly at nights. The mountain cold was intense and the pain from my rock beds was excruciating. But the Indian (Crazylegs) said, “Think you are warm, as an Indian does, and you will be warm. And as for the rocks, they will harden your meat.” Routt, who was a literate man, gave posterity its only accurate de- scription of Crazylegs when he wrote, “His face had an intelligent looking expression. In fact, save in dress and complexion, he resembled Amer- ican rather than Indian nationality. He was short middle sized and his legs were warped so that he walked with seeming anguish though he was never given to complaint. He was barcheaded in all seasons, his black hair banged even with his eyebrows in front and done up in a head knot behind with long locks hanging down on either side.” The gang’s robbery of the Black- hawk Mining Company’s smelter in the Sangre de Cristo mountains ia south-central Colorado was an astonishing operation—and the gang’s most profitable. The men rode into the mining camp and went into the office. Crazylegs calmly announced that they had come to reb the firm of its gold and silver and that bloodshed was at the option of the mining peo- ple. Furthermore he wanted enough mules to carry the loot and he ex- pected the miners to load the mules for him. Having no choice, except sudden death, the officials ordered their mea to load the company’s mules with ingots of gold and silver. Then Crazylegs took the officials as host- ages into the wilds of the rugged sangre de Cristo and released them unharmed three days later. The smelt- er manager, Oliver Fossett, later wrote of his experience, “The Indian was pleasant and Christian-gentle but beneath I could perceive savagery. But true to his word he gave us vic- tuals (food) and horses for our re- turn and the whole enterprise was conducted without a single weapon being discharged or one drop of blood being shed.” Sometimes, though, Crazylegs was anything but gentle. After his gang robbed the bank in Greeley on July 7, 1866, they were greeted with gun- fire when they attempted to mount their horses. Crazylegs and his crew ran through the streets and hunted down the men who'd shot at him, killing them without mercy. Crazy- legs himself, according to Routt’s mémoirs, killed two of these. A posse comprised of most of Greeley’s male citizens rode out of town a few minutes after the gang Geparted. But Crazylegs was all-In- dian when it came to utilizing na- tural cover, so he and his men hid in the foothills west of Greeley until the posse passed by, then they went back to Greeley and robbed the freight office, the town’s assay of- fice, and a general store. Crazylegs liked unpredictabie ca- pers like that. He got the Army on his trail, though, after the gang waylaid and : ze eo robbed a military supply, trainer