Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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SIX-SHOOTER JIM







Six-Shooter Jim was one of those New Mexico gun toughs who slipped over into Arizona when the local marshals were on the prod back home. Old timers there have described him as being “the big dog with the brass collar”. Sometimes he called himself Six-Shooter Smith which has led to a wee bit of confusion with Six-Shooter Bill Smith from up near Deadwood. Six-Shooter Bill had a part in the arrest of Harvey Logan near Lavina, MT, but that was in 1897 and Six–Shooter Jim did not live that long. Historians have identified Six-Shooter Jim as being a man named John W. Hankins. It is said of him that he liked shooting as close as possible to people without hitting them. Clay Allison did the same thing sometimes when he was in jovial mood; make his friends dance by shooting at their feet. Clay shot himself in the foot one time doing that very thing. It made a clubfoot out of him to the end of his days. What seems far more likely, in the case of Six-Shooter Jim, is that he just had poor eyesight and was not really a very good shot at certain distances. Six-Shooter Jim was killed by 18 year old Burt Alvord in 1885 during a fight that nobody seems to remember much about. It would make sense though that Jim tried to bully a tough youngster who had a little sand and got himself killed before he could make much of a splash in Tombstone. Apparently he was more brass than he was big dog. The photo shows his grave in Boot Hill Cemetery.

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Photos

SIX-SHOOTER JIM
Boothill Cemetery is on the east side of Hwy 80 about a third of a mile north of Fremont Street.