The Murder Maverick of Big Bend

Big Bend country in Texas

In the Big Bend area of Texas, the rugged mountains, valleys, and plains seem to go on forever. It's a place of harsh desolation, a place where it seems everything either bites, kicks, stings or sticks in a desperate attempt to live. In the summer months, the heat can feel like a blast-furnace and even the rattlesnakes seek shelter from the unrelenting sun. In the winter, the bone-chilling wind can take your breath away and sometimes brings ice, hail or sleet storms so bad you can do nothing but hunker down and wait for a thaw. But the Big Bend country also has its own beauty for those who care enough to look. From blooming cactus flowers to sheer canyon walls hundreds of feet tall, its stark landscape has drawn a few humans for thousands of years. If a person desires to get away from it all, to find solitude and peace away from other humans, this would be their destination as the whole area is sparsely populated and the landscape hasn't really changed from when the first man wandered into it 10,000 years ago.

By the 1880's, a few hardy men had established ranches in the Big Bend country. Because the land is so harsh and rugged and the cattle needed lots of land to roam to find enough to eat, there were no fences erected. The ranchers were used to their cattle sometimes mixing together and strays were born which, of course, were not branded. For years though, this didn't cause problems as the cowboys simply waited until round-up time when the cattle would be sorted out and ownership of the calves would be determined. In 1889, however, during the winter round-up on January 28, a young unbranded longhorn bull was driven from the open range into the corral with about 3,000 other cattle. This yearling was not following a mother cow which would normally provide proof as to who owned the calf.

Dusk in Big Bend, the time when the cursed phantom bull is said
to make his appearance

One of the ranchers at the round-up was a Confederate veteran named Henry Powe. A true war hero, he had lost an arm on the battlefield and after recuperating, had gone home to Alabama, gathered up his family and established a small ranch in Big Bend. Even though he kept mostly to himself - due to the horrors he had seen in the war, it was said - he was respected as a good man who worked hard to provide for his family who loved him dearly. With him that day was his son, Robert, to help drive the family's cattle back home after the gather. Two cowboys who worked for a different ranch were also there; Manny Clements, a cousin and best friend of the outlaw John Wesley Hardin, and his friend and running partner Finus "Fine" Gililand, who also had a bad reputation.

Archive photo of a cattle round-up in Texas

Several cowboys told Henry that although the unbranded yearling's mother cow was not in the herd, they had seen it several times following a cow with his HPP brand. With that information indicating the yearling belonged to them, Henry's son Robert rode over to cut out the calf to the Powe gather. Gililand noticed this and rode up to Robert telling him unless he produced the mother with an HPP brand, then he considered the calf to belong in his gather. Robert told him what the cowboys had said, but Gililand bumped his horse into Robert's and proceeded to herd the calf back to his gather.

At this point, Henry rode up to defend his son and after words were exchanged between him and Gililand, Powe again cut the yearling back to his gather. While he was doing this, Gililand roped the calf and began dragging it back to his side. Even though Henry wasn't carrying a gun, he decided enough was enough. He rode up beside Manny, reached into his saddlebag where everyone knew he carried a revolver, drew out the pistol and fired at the calf. However, being one-armed, it was virtually impossible for him to ride a horse and shoot too and his bullet cleanly missed the bawling calf. Apparently, Gililand thought the shot had been meant for him so he jumped off his horse, pulled his pistol, got down on one knee, took aim at Henry and shot. Amazingly, his shot went high and didn't hit anything but air. Knowing he couldn't shoot straight while riding his now skittish horse, Henry jumped down and started to return fire, but unfortunately for him, the reins was still wrapped around his only arm and just as he fired, his horse shied and jerked so hard Henry fell to the ground. As he started to get back up, Gililand fired again, but as before, his shot missed, this time plowing into the ground beside Powe. Henry was finally able to untangle himself from his horse reins, stood up, took careful aim and pulled the trigger. Once more, luck was not with him as his gun jammed. With only one arm, there was no way he could get his pistol to work and as the other cowboys looked on in astonishment, Gililand ran up to Henry, grabbed his only arm, and with the Confederate war hero now helpless to defend himself, put his gun against his chest and fired into his heart, killing him instantly. Gililand mounted his horse and lit out.

After Robert left for home with his father's body to bury him in the hard, rocky ground, the remaining cowboys roped the calf who had caused everything. Nobody wanted this cursed animal so they branded the word "MURDER" on the calf's left side, "JAN 28'89" on the other side and turned it loose to roam forever.

The law went after Gililand since he had murdered a man who had been rendered defenseless. About a week later, Deputy Sheriff Thalis Cook and Texas Ranger Jim Putnam were searching for their man in a canyon when they spotted a cow above them on the rim. They were just able to make out the word "MURDER" on its side. Not more than an hour later, they came upon a stranger riding a horse. When they got within hailing distance of him, Sheriff Cook called out, "Are you Fine Gililand?" The man replied, "I am," pulled out his pistol and began shooting. Sheriff Cook was hit in the knee and his horse was killed, but as he was going down, he fired a shot which killed Gillihand's horse. Ranger Putnam jumped down off his horse, pulled Cook behind some rocks and while Gilihand took cover behind his dead horse and fired in the direction of the lawmen, rested his Winchester on a large rock and waited. Several minutes later, Gilihand, being curious as to why there was no return gunfire from the lawmen, stuck his head up over the body of his horse and that was just what Ranger Putnam was waiting for. His aim was true and a moment later, Gilihand lay dead with a bullet between his eyes.

Since then, the "Murder Maverick" has roamed the land in Big Bend. In a hard land of hard men, death is not uncommon and many times, the cursed bull has been seen just before foul play and death occurred. The cowboys and Mexican vaqueros who today work the isolated Big Bend ranches claim he is still out there portending death for anyone who sees him. Before their passing, the unfortunate ones have said his eyes of fire looked straight at them as if looking into their very souls, and then he simply vanished like smoke on the wind.