The morning of June 22, 1882, Caldwell Marshal George Brown and Constable Metcalf headed for the infamous Red Light Saloon and Dance Hall to disarm a band of rowdy cowboys. At the top of the stairs, Marshal Brown met Jess Green with a pistol in his hand. In the flash of reflexes, the marshal grasped Green’s gun hand and threw the man and gun against the wall.

At the same time, Jess Green’s brother, Steve, grabbed Constable Metcalf by the throat and backed him into a corner. A third cowboy pulled a pistol and ordered Metcalf to throw up his hands.

When a fourth cowboy stepped from a room to Brown’s right, the marshal turned his head toward the distraction. In that moment, Jess Green pivoted his wrist to bring the muzzle of the pistol around toward Brown’s head and pulled the trigger. The newspaper reported that Marshal Brown “fell to the floor dead, without a struggle or a groan.” In the resulting chaos, the cowboys left the Red Light, mounted horses and easily escaped into Indian Territory.

Nothing was heard of the Green brothers for the next four months until Oct. 19, 1882, when they were caught up in a wild gunfight in Wise County, Texas. Steve Green was killed. Jess was severely wounded and was not expected to live. As it turned out, Steve was actually Ed Bean and Jess was Jim Bean. From this point on, we will use Bean.

On the news that Jim Bean was captured, Sumner County Sheriff Joseph Thralls dispatched Deputy Sheriff Frank Evans to Texas to bring him back to Kansas. That was accomplished in short order and Bean was placed on a pallet, for he could not even sit up. He rested on a pillow to keep the bleeding wounds from soiling the bedding.

“A Winchester ball struck him in the back to the right of the spinal column and lodged near the skin under his right arm. Another Winchester ball cut the extreme point of his chin, thence to his collar bone, and lodged under his left shoulder blade.”

A shotgun blast pelted him with 14 buckshot pellets in his chest and scattered around promiscuously in various parts of his body. One “ball” of buckshot struck him just to the left of the center of his forehead. “This ball is supposed to have knocked him out of time.” In other words, Jim Bean fell unconscious and remained that way for hours.

Texas officers had loaded him in a wagon and hauled him six long miles to the railroad station at Decatur, Texas. That is where Deputy Evans found a desperate, defiant man, even with all of his wounds.

Deputy Evans, with his prisoner reclining on the pallet, boarded a train at Decatur on Wednesday morning Oct. 18, 1882. The train rolled into Parsons Thursday afternoon Oct. 21. For six hours, curious onlookers pressed into the waiting room of the Gulf Depot.

Bean’s voice was weak, but he talked freely according to the Paola Times. The Times continued, “With all the lead he carries in his body, he said if he was then on a horse with two good revolvers he would defy the town to take him.”

However, the Times editor, W. E. Brayman, took the opportunity to embellish the story. His report is a case study for the need to consult more than one source for information.

According to the Times, Deputy Sheriff Evans “soon followed and tracked them to Texas.” Finding an organized band of outlaws, Evans devised a plan to infiltrate the gang. There was a great deal of detail in the Times account, such as a dramatic tale of suspicion in which Evans’ clandestine scheme was almost discovered. “He had tact enough to disarm suspicion even under such circumstances.”

Evans was said to have notified authorities of an intended train robbery. At Dennison, the sheriff organized a large posse to proceed to the remote location where the train was to be stopped.

In time, the gang was “met by a volley of musketry” from the posse. The gang was able to get away, but Evans followed them and learned that the Beans were in a hideout near Decatur. Evans telegraphed the Dennison sheriff of the Beans’ whereabouts, relating that he would return with a requisition to take them to Kansas.

The problem was that the Times narrative recounting Evans’ relentless undercover operation was not true. There are statements in newspapers placing him in Kansas during the described secret operation.

In truth, a Texas posse caught up with the brothers in a lonely camp after being notified that they had killed a rancher’s cow. The Beans fought through two wild shoot-outs before being brought down. Ed was killed with two bullets to the head. Jim received the wounds previously described.

Sumner County Sheriff Joe Thralls was in contact with Texas authorities and sent Deputy Evans to Texas to bring Jim Bean back to Kansas. Thralls later asked Kansas Governor St. John to satisfy the reward “for the Texas officers who have done good work in the case.” No mention was made of the dramatic events attributed by the Times to Deputy Evans in his “relentless” pursuit of the Bean brothers, on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.