Tom Pickett

Thomas “Tom” Pickett: A Life of Ambition, Outlawry, and Endurance on the Frontier
In the harsh expanses of the American West, where opportunity and peril intertwined, Thomas “Tom” Pickett emerged as a figure of restless determination. Born on May 27, 1856, most accounts place the event at Camp Throckmorton in Wise County, Texas, though some traditions link him to the vicinity of Clarksville. He was raised in the rough settlement of Decatur. By the age of seventeen he had already tasted serious trouble, arrested for cattle rustling. Local lore holds that his father, a man of influence possibly connected to the Texas legislature (some identified him as Col. Edward B. Pickett, though no conclusive evidence has surfaced), mortgaged the family homestead to secure his release.
In April 1876, Pickett enlisted in Company B of the Texas Rangers under Commander John B. Jones, serving until August 1877. During this period an accidental discharge of his revolver damaged property and drew the attention of a local judge. A Ranger investigation cleared him of wrongdoing, yet the lingering friction with the magistrate proved decisive. Pickett left Decatur and joined a cattle drive bound for Kansas. There, amid the open plains, he turned to professional gambling, living by his skill with cards and the shifting fortunes of the frontier.
In Kansas he fell in with Dave Rudabaugh and a circle of hard edged companions. When Rudabaugh relocated to Las Vegas, New Mexico, Pickett followed. He allied himself with the Dodge City Gang, receiving an appointment as a police officer from Hoodoo Brown, the justice of the peace who effectively led the group. Pickett’s standing in Las Vegas soon deteriorated amid rumors of a bounty. After the killing of a deputy sheriff prompted Rudabaugh’s departure, Pickett again trailed him, this time to Fort Sumner. The pair found temporary employment at the Yerby ranch before casting their lot with the Rustlers, the outlaw band associated with Billy the Kid.
Pickett was present during the violent confrontations of December 19 and 23, 1880. Sheriff Pat Garrett’s posse struck with lethal force, killing Tom Folliard and Charlie Bowdre. At Stinking Springs the remaining Rustlers, including Pickett, were captured and transported to Las Vegas. He posted $300 bail and promptly vanished, riding into Arizona. There he joined another cattle rustling operation that later included Billy Wilson, who had recently escaped from Santa Fe. In time he separated from the group and took work with the Hash Knife Outfit.
Trouble continued to pursue him. In 1886 a barroom fight left him with a bullet wound in the leg. Even while recovering he tended bar in Holbrook, Arizona. Two years later he married Kate Kelly; both she and their newborn child died in childbirth, a loss that marked him deeply. He later remarried…the identity of his second wife remains uncertain, and may have fathered two children with her.
By 1890 Pickett was driving the Fort Apache/Holbrook stage and taking whatever work the fort offered. In 1909, while visiting his ailing mother in Texas, he was arrested on cattle rustling charges dating to 1879. He pleaded guilty, paid a $137 fine, and avoided imprisonment. Returning to Holbrook, he became a familiar and popular figure by 1912, working as a bartender, joining the local gun club, and serving as a deputy. Those positions ended around 1914, after which he returned to ranch labor and cattle driving.
In the summer of 1923 he pinned on a deputy sheriff’s badge in Winslow under Sheriff John Earl. The old bullet wound from the 1880s finally forced the amputation of his leg, yet Pickett, undeterred, continued in the role. Nephritis claimed him on May 14, 1934. Some accounts place his death near Pine Tank, west of Winslow, though Bureau of Land Management records show no ownership of land there. He was buried in Desert View Cemetery in Winslow, Arizona, leaving behind the record of a man who moved fluidly between law, outlawry, and ordinary labor across the closing decades of the frontier.

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