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Dan Tucker, better known as "Dangerous Dan" Tucker, (1849 - unknown), is a little-known lawman and gunfighter of the Old West. Author Bob Alexander, who wrote the biography ''Dangerous Dan" Tucker, New Mexico's Deadly Lawman'', proclaimed Tucker was more dangerous and more effective than better known lawmen, including Wild Bill Hickock and Wyatt Earp. He was supported in this claim by historian Leon C. Metz. He was also a subject in the book ''Deadly Dozen'', by author Robert K. DeArment, who included Tucker as one of the twelve most underrated gunmen of the Old West. ==Arrival in New Mexico Territory and reputation== Tucker first ventured into New Mexico Territory in the early 1870s. Born in Canada, Tucker was said to have been soft-spoken and laconic, and with a slight accent often mistaken for being southern. Famed New Mexico sheriff Harvey Whitehill was, at the time, serving as the Grant County, New Mexico sheriff. Whitehill first met Tucker in 1875, when the latter drifted into Silver City, New Mexico from parts unknown. Although some were suspicious of Tucker, who initially introduced himself as David Tucker, Whitehill took a liking to him, and hired him as a deputy sheriff. Tucker was rumored to have last been in Colorado, but had fled after stabbing a man to death. He was also said to have killed men in El Paso, Texas and Santa Fe, New Mexico, but these claims were never confirmed. The only known facts were that he had ridden with outlaw John Kinney, and he did, after arriving in New Mexico, take part in the El Paso Salt War. One of the first incidents of violence in which Tucker took part after accepting his new job, occurred in 1876, and was witnessed by Sheriff Whitehill's son, Wayne Whitehill, who was then but a child, but was able to give a full account of the incident during an interview in 1949. According to Wayne Whitehill, two Mexican men began fighting inside "Johnny Ward's Dance Hall", in Silver City. One of the men stabbed the other, wounding him, then ran out into the street to escape. Just as he rounded a corner on Broadway Street, Dan Tucker shot him in the neck, in full view of many citizens, the young Whitehill being one of them. An account of this shooting was also taken from Dan Rose, who was 12 years old at the time, but who also was on the street that night. Another incident, occurring in 1877, and also witnessed by Wayne Whitehill, concerned a report that a Mexican man was intoxicated and throwing rocks at people as they passed by, on a side street in Silver City. Tucker responded, with several young boys running a short distance behind him, due to him being somewhat of an enigma to the locals after the first shooting. According to witnesses, Tucker merely located the intoxicated man, and shot him dead with one shot, without ever muttering even one word to the suspect. No charges were ever filed against Tucker for that shooting. In 1878, Tucker shot and killed a thief as he fled, as well as becoming engaged in a gunfight with three suspected horse thieves inside a Silver City saloon, killing two of the thieves, and wounding the third. By this time, Tucker was legendary in the area, and had acquired the nickname "Dangerous Dan" after the shooting of the rock throwing suspect. In early May, 1880, Sheriff Whitehill dispatched Deputy Tucker to track down two suspects who had broken into a prospector's cabin and stolen numerous goods and personal property. Tucker was gone for two days, then returned with all the stolen property, along with the horses, saddles, and weapons of the two suspects. He reported to Sheriff Whitehill that he had located the two on a ranch, and killed them, with the owner of the ranch agreeing to bury them. Days later, Tucker responded on a domestic dispute, during which a man had clubbed his wife and child to near death. As Tucker entered the house, the man knocked Tucker's gun from his hand with the club. In the altercation that followed, Tucker was able recover his gun from the floor, and shot the man, killing him. In 1878, although remaining a deputy sheriff, Tucker had accepted the position of Silver City Marshal, the town's first, and a position he would hold through several terms. By later accounts, Tucker brought the town's violent crime rate under control quickly, and was feared due to his lack of hesitation when he deemed violence was necessary to solve a problem. By newspaper accounts from the ''Grant City Herald'', in November 1878 Tucker was shot and wounded during a shootout with cowboy Caprio Rodriguez, when the latter resisted arrest following a disturbance in a saloon. Tucker killed Rodriguez in the exchange. In 1881, Tucker assisted Sheriff Whitehill in a double hanging, and had acted as the hangman in several other hangings for Grant County previously, and later accepted the position of Marshal for Shakespeare, New Mexico; in September, he shot and killed rustler Jake Bond. In November, 1881, he arrested outlaw Sandy King after he shot and wounded a storekeeper. On November 9, 1881, he captured outlaw "Russian Bill" Tattenbaum for cattle rustling. The two were hanged by the town's "Vigilance Committee" that same day. Tucker was sent to Deming, New Mexico on November 27, 1881, due to several outlaws causing disturbances and basically taking over the town. He began patrolling the streets with a double-barrel shotgun, and within three days, according to journalist C.M. Chase, who was in the area doing a story on the Southern Pacific Railroad, Tucker shot and killed three men and wounded two more. In 1882, James H. Cook became the manager of the "WS Ranch", and later would comment Tucker was, to his personal knowledge, involved in several gunfights as a shotgun rider while working for Wells Fargo. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dan Tucker (lawman)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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