George Redman Tucker's first years As Peace Officer was 1878-1889. Then, he was appointed U. S. Deputy Marshall.
He began his career at Spanish Fort and was involved in many fights with outlaws who rode down from Indian territory.
He along with an Indian Police OFficer Murry, the County Sheriff, deputies, and Posse-men went into Indian territory and confronted the Watson Gang who had stolen goods in Texas. Tucker and others opened fire on the gang and only shot one of them. They took the goods back to Texas but the shot gang member recovered and went to Fort Smith and put in a complaint. Judge Parker issued warrents and the entire law enforcement band was arrested and transported to Fort Smith to Parker's court. They were finall acquitted. It should never have happened but the probable with the warrents was the men did not get them "Validated".
When George Redman Tucker was appointed U. S. Deputy he talked about making trips to transport prisoners. From an interview he said:
"I suppose that I ought to mention the methods used in transporting the batches of convicted prisoners to the penitentiaries in the north. I never went on but two of these trips, and I went then only because I wanted to see the country. I had never been north before. One time I was a member of the group that took sixty prisoners to Detroit, Michigan. The other time we took eighty five convicts to Brooklyn, New York. We came back through Chicago from Detroit on the first trip On the New York trip we returned by way of Washington, D.C. I enjoyed both of the trips, but I would not have liked a steady diet of that sort of thing. I much preferred to work in the field. There was more spice to it.
On the Detroit trip, if I remember correctly, there were twenty-seven deputies and the marshal who constituted the escort. The prisoners were carried handcuffed and shackled in special coaches. We kept a pretty close watch over the. The biggest job was when we took them off the train to feed the. We had arrangements all made ahead of time as to where we would feed them. We would march them into the dining room, seat them and then go along and unlock them so that they could eat.
The only time that I ever ate between two negroes was at St. Louis when we were making the Detroit trip. I was going along unlocking the prisoners. There was a vacant seat where I finished unlocking my section. I flopped down into it before I noticed who my companions were. When I looked around, I was surprised to find that they were two big negro bucks. However, I was too hungry to stand on ceremony or social prejudice, so I rushed at the food the same as if I were seated among the boys. My recollection of these trips is that the deputies had a hard time getting enough to eat. They were so busy feeding and looking after the prisoners there wasn’t any time to eat their own meals.
On those trips, we had some pretty tough customers in the convoy. They were more desperate on the way to the penitentiary than they had been before. Some picked their shackles. They would use almost any kind of small wire or metal to do it. Most were not successful. I remember one old doctor who used the spring out of his watch to pick his shackles. He got the spring fast in the lock and broke it off, so that our keys would not work. We had to cut the shackles off him, but we gave him a new pair right away. We delivered every man whom we started with on each of the trips."
His first run-in was with Jim Melton from Indian Territory; a fellow he referred to as Old Man Dayton; his Skirmish With Watson Gang; riding with Indian Police Officer Bob Murray; being tried in both Texas and Fort Smith over the goods taken back from Watson gang; the sadnes over having to arrest a half-wit named Gid Beavers; a long story about the Woodworth Lynching; etc.
Tucker said "There are always those who do not understand the necessary facts in law enforcement. And especially were there certain important things to know about criminal law enforcement in Indian Territory before statehood came. It was a tough place. The crooks from other states came in large numbers, and they didn’t get any softer by coming out here."

George Redman Tucker was interviewed in 1937 in Oklahoma. He was born in Franklin Co., AR in 1854 and died 1945 in Ardmore, Carter Co., OK.

I am writing the entire story of this Pioneer Lawman.

Norm Brown