The horse, sneaking in the Old West, was a serious insult. A person's life often depended on his ability to get quickly, and this was usually on horseback. In some cases, taking the horse of a person with you was like a bullet in the head. Because of their seriousness, the punishment for such crimes has always been the same - swift and merciless. The thief most often hung by a tall tree with a note attached to his shirt identifying him as a horse thief. It was a warning to other potential horse thieves to think twice before taking another person’s horse.
If he was lucky, the horse thief was shot by a full hole by a ranch squad instead of being hanged. Hanging was not a pleasant way to end life, and it usually bore the stigma of wrong behavior.
There were those who were stupid enough to think that they could get away from stealing horses. For them, it seemed like a quick way to earn money by selling stolen horses. To their way of thinking, someone can be caught, but not them. They were too smart, too brave, and too much to catch - and they would never be so stupid!
Take, for example, Charles Ford, known as the "one-armed" Charlie Smith, a horse who did not think he would be caught. He and his brother Tom were tired of the boring and boring life in Peoria, Illinois, and decided to come west. Little is known about their early life. They were considered illegal sons of the then Governor of Illinois Ford. Their desire for fun and adventure led them to Kansas. For reasons unknown, they abandoned Ford’s name and became known as Tom and Charlie Smith. Charlie did not get the name "One Hand" Charlie until 1871. In Topeka, Kansas, where he lost his right arm over his elbow as a result of the shooting. Later, he and his brother joined the brigade of curly Marshals outlawed and horse thieves. The gang operated around Topeka, Newton and Wichita, Kansas.
In the spring of 1871, Charlie Smith founded a small ranch on the Ninnesca River between Wichita and Caldwell, Kansas. The ranch was located near the route by which the stolen horses were brought into Indian territory. Charlie's involvement with famous criminals and the marshal's gang of horse thieves greatly influenced his already bad reputation. Shortly before the ranchers and settlers in the area decided to organize to get rid of Charlie and his lair of mare thieves. They came to his ranch and took Charlie and two friends at gunpoint. They rode into a grove of large flue trees along a nearby river, threw a rope on a strong limb, and took the criminals to a tree, one at a time, so that they would hang it.
The first person you could hang was LB Hasbruk, a young promising lawyer who had nothing to say and died calmly.
The second person you could hang was Billy "Bulli" Brooks, a famous fighter and the first city marshal of Dodge City, Kansas.
Charlie's “One Sleeve” was the last one to be hanged. When he was led to a hanging tree, he felt that everything was wrong, that the son of the eastern ruler was about to put an end to his career of adventure by being hanged. Now he felt that he should stay in Illinois and live in a peaceful life instead of the one he chose from fast horses, faster women and, frankly, fair justice. Charlie's melancholic thoughts about his exhausted life were interrupted by a heavy blow to the rump of his stolen horse. The horse galloped off, leaving Charlie swinging through the air from a hanging tree with a broken neck. He will go down in history, known as just another horse thief who died at the end of the rope.
The pages of western history are full of stories, such as Charlie's stories about people who were stolen and killed just for fun, for profit, or for adventure. They, like “One-armed Charlie,” often found themselves at the end of a hanging rope, with a note attached to their shirt telling about their crime.
