Dan Tucker (lawman) facts for kids

Dan Tucker, better known as "Dangerous Dan" Tucker, (1849 – after 1892), is a little-known lawman and gunfighter of the Old West.

Arrival in New Mexico Territory and early career

Early career and reputation

Tucker first ventured into New Mexico Territory in the early 1870s. Born in Canada, Tucker was said to have been soft-spoken and laconic, and with a slight accent often mistaken for being southern. Famed New Mexico sheriff Harvey Whitehill was, at the time, serving as the Grant County, New Mexico, sheriff. Whitehill first met Tucker in 1875, when the latter drifted into Silver City, New Mexico, after managing a stage station near Fort Selden. Although some were suspicious of Tucker, Whitehill took a liking to him, and hired him as a deputy sheriff.

By 1878, Tucker was legendary in the area, and had acquired the nickname "Dangerous Dan".

Involvement in the Salt War

In late 1877, deputy sheriff Tucker was appointed captain of a company of thirty mercenary gunmen from Silver City, that were hired to fight for Charles Kerber of the "Salt Ring", the sheriff of El Paso County, in the Salt War. The mining interests funding them were interested in a reliable supply of salt for refining their silver ore. Included among the company members was the outlaw John Kinney. Tucker's unit along with elements of the Texas Rangers and U.S. Army was involved in fighting at San Elezario where suspected members of the Mexican "mob" of the "Anti-Salt Ring" there were killed and a large portion of the population fled across the border into Mexico. After being stationed for a time at Ysleta, the mercenaries were disbanded. Tucker resumed being a deputy sheriff.

Later incidents

In 1878, although remaining a deputy sheriff, Tucker had accepted the position of Silver City Marshal, the town's first, and a position he would hold through several terms. By later accounts, Tucker brought the town's violent crime rate under control quickly, and was feared due to his lack of hesitation when he deemed violence was necessary to solve a problem.

In 1881, Tucker assisted Sheriff Whitehill in a double hanging, had previously acted as the hangman in several other hangings for Grant County, and later accepted the position of Marshal for Shakespeare, New Mexico.

Tucker was sent to Deming, New Mexico, on November 27, 1881, due to several outlaws causing disturbances and basically taking over the town. He began patrolling the streets with a double-barrel shotgun and within three days, according to journalist C.M. Chase who was in the area doing a story on the Southern Pacific Railroad, Tucker shot and killed three men and wounded two more. In 1882, James H. Cook became the manager of the "WS Ranch" and later would comment Tucker was, to his personal knowledge, involved in several gunfights as a shotgun rider while working for Wells Fargo.

Gage train robbery, later life and disappearance

On December 14, 1882, Tucker was ambushed by a Mexican man and was shot in the shoulder. After Tucker recovered from his injury, he found he could not tolerate the rough ride aboard a stagecoach and got a job as Special Officer for the Southern Pacific Railroad. For a time after this, Tucker operated a saloon in Deming, but in 1885 he was appointed as a Deputy US Marshal for that region. In November, 1885, he and friend William Graham were involved in a gun battle with marauding Apache warriors 11 miles west of Deming, but they were able to drive the warriors off.

Tucker had resigned his position by 1888, and moved on to California. The last time anyone who knew him saw him was in 1892, when he made his last known visit to Grant County. Where he went following that, or when or where he died, remains unknown. A 1931 newspaper article on his life, claimed he had died in a hospital in San Bernardino, California. However recent research could not find any confirmation of this.

Legacy

Although little known today, Tucker is considered by some historians to have been one of the most dangerous, albeit underestimated, gunmen in the history of the Old West. Author Bob Alexander, who wrote the biography Dangerous Dan" Tucker, New Mexico's Deadly Lawman, proclaimed Tucker was more dangerous and more effective than better-known lawmen, including Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp. He was supported in this claim by historian Leon C. Metz. He was also a subject in the book Deadly Dozen, by author Robert K. DeArment, who included Tucker as one of the twelve most underrated gunmen of the Old West.