But I believed I could pull off one last big rustle and then get out of the business for good., Roddys plan was to steal an eighteen-wheeler filled with several dozen steers. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. the slaughtering cattle article below in the related links. One cattleman reported losing 3,000 head to . Then, over the next few months, he began sending me short stories he had written in his prison cell that were based on his days as a rustlerthe first stories, he said, he had ever written. A few nights later Roddy tried again, this time with David. But whenever he had free time, hed slip onto a ranch, either driving his truck or riding his horse, and hed head for the back pastures, far from the highways. The rustler had to drive the trailer onto a pasture in the dark of night, figure out how to lure the cattle into the trailer, slip away without being seen, and then hope that the employees at the sale barn did not recognize the brands on the cattle he was trying to sell. A person is justified in using deadly force against another to protect land or tangible, movable property: (1) if he would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.41; and. Current law punishes cattle thieves with a third-degree felony, which is punishable by as much as 10 years in prison and a fine of as much as $10,000 if they steal more than 10 head of cattle, horses or exotic livestock. In addition to wearing his boots and spurs for the event, he wants to help build the gallows from which he would hang. They too have pleaded not guilty.). Still, you can trust your mother, but cut the cards. He didnt have tattoos. Section 107 related to Copyright and Fair Use for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. In the Old West, rustling was a tempting and lucrative crime that crossed ethnic, social, and national borders. Current law punishes cattle thieves with a third-degree felony, which is punishable by as much as 10 years in prison and a fine of as much as $10,000 if they steal more than 10 head of cattle, horses or exotic livestock. But Roddy still wasnt satisfied. They looked at me and said, Whats a rustler?, Roddy said that the brothers eventually agreed to become part of his gang as long as he promised to evenly split the proceeds of each cattle sale with them. What was perhaps most surprising about Roddy, however, was his personality. hung from the hocks. Every dollar helps. I totally agree about vigilante justice, as we are unfortunately seeing today. Receive small business resources and advice about entrepreneurial info, home based business, business franchises and startup opportunities for entrepreneurs. Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18. In an eighteen-month spree, he slipped onto ranches in North Texas at least 25 times, hauling away more than 130 head of. In fact, Roddy said, when he took David out for his first rustling jobhe always used David one night, Darrell the nexthe drove to the ranch of a millionaire whom David and Darrell despised. Mr. Dumas returned his horse, Colonel, to his paddock in Franklin, then drove his pickup to an auction at a sale barn in Groesbeck, where, a few months earlier, eight black calves vanished overnight. So, his widow killed a few men in return. Behind the house were a stable and a corral for Roddys horse, and the driveway was long enough for his Dodge four-by-four pickup and his fourteen-foot cattle trailer. The stolen cattle are generally calves weighing between 350 and 500 pounds. (Photo by Sean Gallup . Im bettin youll find some interesting stories one of these days. You made some very accurate and noteworthy observations. And I said, Okay, Im going to give it a go.. Joseph Johnson Jr., a Black parolee, was the last executed. In addition to herding cattle, they also helped care for horses, repaired fences and buildings, worked cattle drives and in some cases helped establish frontier towns. Hed find a group of cattle and literally sit near the herd so the lead cows could get to know him. Some Still Sentenced to Hang. Attorney General Opinion GA-0093 (2003) "It's a pain in the ass to round up cattle and take them to market," Hays said. My father was the oldest of 6. He confessed to not liking sale barns with motion lights or people living on site, and said he avoided ranches and sale barns that had the cattle raisers associations blue membership sign on display. Stolen cattle often end right back up at the sale barn. Legend says the Wild West outlaw Billy the Kidcattle rustler, gunslinger, murderer, escape artistkilled 21 people before he turned 21 years old, his age at death. Probably took two minutes, Mr. Dumas said, his face shaded by his palm-leaf white hat. God willing that the creek dont rise, well meet again soon. Then he would get into his pickup and drive up and down the back highways that ran alongside some of the states most prosperous ranches. (Spectrum News), California Consumer Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information, California ConsCalifornia Consumer Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Display TSCRA member sign on gates and entrances, Brand cattle and horses, make sure the brand is recorded with the county clerk, Put drivers license number on all saddles, tack and equipment, Videotape horses and tack. The money wasnt bad, and the revenge was sweet. At the ranch, David, wearing tennis shoes, stood by the pickup and held a spotlight while Roddy, wearing his cowboy clothesnew leather chaps and leather glovesgrabbed a few calves. They knew the cattle country and were adept at roping, branding, and trailing. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry. My maiden name was changed, too, but for different reasons. The rangers could establish a rapport with the likes of Mr. Novak because many of them are also ranchers. Though the vigilante, string-em-up response to cattle rustling has faded into the sepia-toned past, livestock theft still carries the whiff of the low-down cur. His mother, Holly, stayed at home with Roddy. In looking over the Espy file of legal executions in the U.S., I didnt find any cattle rustlers who were hanged, but a few dozen people have been legally hanged for horse thieving. He and his friend loaded three calves into the crate that night, and the next day Roddy took them to a nearby auction barn, telling the employees that the calves mothers had died in a snowstorm. Before branding unweaned calves, often the rustler kept them penned until they quit bawling and learned to eat grass. If theres anything else you need to get off your chest, you need to do it. I bet your family wasnt as boring as you thought. 40 Votes) Back in the day, when you stole a horse you got hung! The history of the Texas Rangers spans nearly 200 years. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Hed drop by the Medicine Mound Depot, Quanahs best restaurant, and order a medium-rare steak, fried okra, a baked potato with all the trimmings, a garden salad with ranch dressing, and a glass of milk with ice, and hed talk in an almost courtly manner to the waitress about the weather and country music and the cattle business. Texas Supreme Court Elections, 2022, Tuesday unanimously voted to enhance Penalties for theft of less than 10 head cattle. Following behind the trailer was another pickup. By April 2003, however, Roddys friend had decided that he had had enough of four-wheeler rustling. If the waitress asked him what he did for a living, Roddy would smile and say that he dabbled in cattle himself. So thats my family story with infamous outlaws. Last month, four days after Mr. Dumas sent out the cattle-rustler alert, the Brazoria County Sheriffs Department received a report of a portable corral containing three dozen calves in a field where they did not belong. Establish an organized, easy-to-find proof of ownership file to save valuable time in recovery process, Dont establish a routine when feeding, vary the times you feed, Be cautious about who gets keys and combinations, If possible, park trailers and equipment where they are out of view from the roadway, Keep tack rooms and saddle compartments on trailers locked, Participate in neighborhood crime watch programs, Never leave keys in tractors or other equipment. Im sure in those days a casket did not weather well. My mama was from Louisiana and they met and married here, so there was little they agreed on especially when it came to food! Hi Debra, glad to hear from you. God willing that the creek dont rise, Ill hear back from you soon.. On May 6, Hal Dumas, a special ranger for the unique Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association part industry advocate, part law enforcement agency joined the Milam County sheriff in sending out a be-on-the-lookout alert, telling ranching communities everywhere of the rustler among them: Locations are being hit in the early morning hours. . The dispute boils down to a disagreement over whether Pippin should get credit toward his jail sentence for two years he served on "shock probation," essentially house arrest. So why didnt you give up rustling right then? I asked. Take care of yourself and your family. The hearing was held in Quanah in early March, in the court where Roddy had received his original sentence. He looked me in the eye, and he was strictly yes sir, no sir. I couldnt help but think, Why would a kid with such nice qualities want to turn himself into a no-good cattle thief?. "One thing about Roddy, he doesnt joke around, he doesnt bluff," Jacie Pippin said. He did however go to North Alabama to steal payroll for laborers in the Blue Water Camp at the Muscle Shoals Canal Project on the Tennessee River. He becomes a cattle rustler and when caught, he refuses to speak to his friend. They gather much of their intelligence by working cattle in the pastures, chatting up muck-stained employees in sale barns and asking ranchers what theyre hearing. Many preyed on herds that grazed on the western ranges, especially where canyons or high brush afforded hiding places. Jacie Pippin, Roddy Dean Pippin's wife, said he is depressed and frustrated. Roddy later went back with Darrell and grabbed a few more. He requests a 72-hour conjugal visit with his wife and two hours to play with her two young children. I tried to keep away from that because its a band of members that will hold together and push the issue, said Mr. Novak, who goes by Heath. And he dismissed Pippin's assertions that he has learned his lesson and would never steal again. Roddy and Darrell, talking on their cell phones, tried to outrun her. He wants to apologize again to the people he stole from and, finally, to be buried in a pinebox in Oklahoma, "on a sublime highly elevated hill overlooking the Red River Valley.". Gives me the shivers. Bath and Body Works. "One thing about Roddy, he doesnt joke around, he doesnt bluff. Before pulling up to the barn, he also made sure to replace the tag in each cows ear with one that showed he owned that cow, and sometimes, hed get out his electric branding iron and stamp his DP brand on the cow. Roddy was a handsome fellow, lean as a fence post, with tousled brown hair and piercing brown eyes. But, Roddy continued, as much as he wanted to stay next to her, cattle ran through my mind. He slipped out of bed, put on his cowboy clothes, and drove out Hyson Well Road, where he knew cattle were grazinglarge, hairy, horned, hooved animals known as the last true legacy to me of the west. These agents, deputized by the Texas Department of Public Safety as Special Texas Rangers, helped to recover 4,000 cattle in 1993. When I spent a day this spring with Scott Williamson, he was at his office in the small town of Seymour by six in the morning, and for the next nine hours he drove more than two hundred miles, from one ranch to another and then on to county courthouses and small-town police departments. His execution turned into a big town event, with the lawmen actually selling tickets to the hangin. Even though "the hanging deal stresses me out," she said, she understands why he's demanding such a drastic measure. Then he got another job, making $12 an hour hauling fifty-gallon drums of hazardous waste for a chemical company. Yes, under the criminal act of theft of livestock you can still be hung as a punishment for that crime. My dad told me when I growing that our last name was Younger instead of Young. He has even brought down country con artists who lease out pastures to other ranchers, promising to watch over those ranchers cattle, but then sell the cattle instead, disappearing with the profits. Occasionally they started stampedes and killed cattle they could not drive off. But he was woefully unpreparedhis prior bullriding experience mostly consisted of some sessions on a mechanical bull at a country-western nightcluband within weeks hed hurt his knee. His lawyers then filed a motion for shock probation, which argued that Roddy had been so changed by going to prison that he was no longer a criminal threat. He will not be a reoffender. She paused. Culminating in 1692, both men and women were hanged after the notorious witchcraft trials in Salem, Massachusetts.One of these notorious cases was four-year-old Dorcas Good, convicted of witchcraft and sent to prison in 1692.She was the daughter of Sarah Good, who was one of the first three people accused of witchcraft.Little Dorcas was taken to prison with her mother, and she confessed to . Because Easter stole 15, his punishment was bumped up. Out here, our opinions about cattle rustlers havent changed since the frontier days, when cattle thieves were hanged, Bird told me. All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Sometimes the barn itself is the one getting taken for a ride with people purchasing cattle using bad checks. A judge allowed Pippin to serve two years under his mother's care so that he could get the medical care he needed for his diabetes. Not my smartest decision, rustling in such a public place, Roddy said. You could tell by the seamless way he could lure more than a dozen animals at a time out of their pens, onto his trailer and into the endless Texas night, like some Pied Piper of bovines. This time, Roddy branded all of the cattle, and the stamp on the brand read DP, for Dean Pippin. A few of the ranchers who had lost their cattle to Roddy were in the courtroom. Read More 349 Christopher J. Joubert IT Manager Author has 1K answers and 1.6M answer views 4 y Related Take a knife and cut the skin away from the meat. Ill usually have a pad here for when my phone does ring, said Murchison, pointing to the center console of his car. But, Im not surprised that they cant. He wanted to rustle only from ranches owned by corporations or by wealthy Dallas or Fort Worth residents who kept what he described as hobby herds or by any big rancher who was already making plenty of money through his oil and gas leases and who probably had bought insurance to cover any cattle loss. Well, firstly, a beef packing plant is hardly the only place to process a cow. cut as you work the hide down, especially if the animal's being . Every penny counts! For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. Horse theft in Texas is punishable as a second degree felony (2 to 20 years in prison) if the horses stolen in a single transaction are worth $100,000 to $199,999, and a first degree felony (5 to 99 years in prison) if the horses stolen in a single transaction are worth $200,000 or more. Because he was hastily buried in place, he has no true grave site for family to honor him. According to the Australian Bureau of Although most of his investigations go nowherehe concludes that the missing cattle have either died, gotten lost, or wandered onto another ranch and been accidentally sold by another rancherhe still arrests about twenty individuals every year for theft of livestock or livestock equipment. Before being sent to prison, a remorseful Mr. Novak, then 27, sat down with rangers to help them understand the mind of the cattle rustler. Texas doesn't require ranchers to mark or brand their cattle. Beef cattle numbers were still about 23.3 million. Im lucky my truck was fast. Reminder that yesterday in Loving County, Texas, a man called Skeet Jones was arrested for being a cattle rustler along with the man helping him, a guy named Leroy Medlin. Great read. You can count on that., Yet not even Williamson could have imagined the kind of thief he was about to confront. I cant think of any infamous family stories but I wish I knew some of them now that Im older. Most of my ancestors where Indian on my dads side. In the smell of manure drifting in the fresh air, I could smell money. Roddy suddenly had no defense. I really wish I had got my dad to tell me the story again in my older adult years so I could have written it down. And he noticed that the fence was cut over here, and he could see fresh tracks going over to this barn, recalled Murchison. But a day after he was arrested, Roddy talked with his father. I called the auction barns and let them know to give me a call if someone pulling this trailer with the panel tied up on it came in with some white cows, said Murchison. Williamson and district attorney Dan Mike Bird, who knew most of the ranchers who had been robbed, made it clear that they were not going to show Roddy any mercy. Williamson, whos 43, is the field inspector for District Eight, an area of seventeen counties south and east of the Panhandle that is home to some of the states most historic ranches: the Pitchfork, the Four Sixes, the Matador, the Morehouse, the Swenson, and the Waggoner, which, at 520,000 acres, is the largest contiguous ranch in Texas. Who is the legal father if my girlfried who is single becomes Fascinating history which I know will be forgotten by the generations to come. GROESBECK, Tex. But that was complicated in itself. Plus, although I dont know how old you are, but when I was growing up stories werent shared as they are now. One of her favorite tales was about the outlaw Black Jack Ketchum, the first man hanged in the town. Chris DuBois, an investigator for the Sheriffs Department, said that none of his answers were making any sense other than, perhaps, his name: Jerome Heath Novak. The rustler might also kill the mother to make the calf a genuine orphan. In all the talks I had with him after his arrest, he was completely well mannered and courteous, never using one word of profanity, said Scott Williamson, a respected field inspector for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) who works throughout northwest Texas investigating livestock theft. And because he had no prior criminal record, it was likely he would get probation. Murchison is one of 30 special rangers deputized as law enforcement by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Lee threw on his clothes and caught up with Roddy, while the Vernon police caught up with Darrell and Melissa. Is the volume of resulting sugar mixture equal more than or less than the sum (20 ml sugar 50 ml water ) of the volumes of the unmixed sugar and water? He got a call from a TSCRAfield inspector who worked in Weatherford, east of Gordon. 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