Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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TOM KETCHUM

Tom bore a striking physical resemblance to Black Jack Will Christian. Both men were outlaws operating in the Arizona and New Mexico Territories at the same time. Tom was sometimes mistaken for Will until the appellation “Black Jack” got itself attached to Tom’s name also. It was not a thing that Tom cared much for; he preferred to be feared and respected for his own misdeeds. As bad men go Will Christian was the case-hardened, spit-in-your-eye, genuine article. Tom was the sort of bonehead who relied upon his menacing persona rather than an organized plan where some sort of criminal activity was concerned. Consequently Tom rarely met with grand success. The booty he took was generally such a disappointment that he disliked giving the outlaws who rode with him a fair cut. Bronco Bill Walters and Harvey Logan were men who briefly rode with Tom’s outfit. They both left him cold when he tried to cheat them of a fair cut. Logan probably would have shot Tom on sight had their paths ever again crossed. By September 3, 1897 Tom’s gang was down to just him and his older brother, Sam. The two of them tried to rob the Colorado and Southern Train near Twin Mountain in New Mexico. They failed to control the passengers and were driven off empty handed. In the summer of 1899 Tom and Sam joined up with Elza Lay and Will Carver. Elza and Will were members of the Wild Bunch and knew how to rob a train. When Tom insisted that he be made leader of the robbery and get a 50% share he was driven off at gunpoint by the others. On July 11, 1899 Elza, Will and Sam robbed the same train at the same spot near Twin Mountain and made off with booty amounting to several thousand dollars. The next day, however, the merry band of rogues was tracked down by a posse and in a vicious shootout Elza and Sam were wounded. When darkness had fallen the outlaws and posse escaped in opposite directions. Sam was wounded too badly to travel and was quickly apprehended. He died of infection at the Territorial Prison in Santa Fe. Elza was captured a few weeks later and Will escaped into Texas with the loot. On August 16 Tom, being the genius he was, decided to rob that train all by himself. Where he stopped the train happened to be on a sharp curve where the express car could not be disconnected from the passenger cars. While he was standing there threatening the crew, Frank Harrington, the harried conductor who had been held up three times in that same spot, removed Tom from the engine with a shotgun blast. The train went on its way and reported the incident at the next station. Tom was picked up by a freight train the following morning and taken into custody at Folsom. His right arm was amputated up in Trinidad, Colorado and then he was held for trial at the county seat Clayton, New Mexico. In due course he was convicted of train robbery and sentenced to hang. Train robbery was a capital offense back then, even though he never took any money and nobody was ever hurt except himself. On April 26, 1901 Tom Ketchum dropped through the gallows in front of the sheriff’s office in Clayton. The good folks of Clayton had never had to hang anyone before and did not know precisely how best to do it. They tested their gallows with a 200 pound bag of sand and it worked fine, but they neglected to remove the sand. The rope stretched just enough so that when Tom dropped into eternity his head popped off. It was a gruesome execution and because of it the Territory removed the death penalty for train robbery. The photo shows the site of the three train robberies near Twin Mountain.

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Photos

TOM KETCHUM
Horseshoe Bend, where the three train robberies took place is about 3.5 miles southeast of Folsom, New Mexico. Take Hwy 325 southeast of town about a mile and a half to Co Rd B026. Turn right about 2 miles.