I have a newspaper account of an outlaw gang that had threatened people at Trinidad, Colorado and shot up Clayton, New Mexico before escaping into No Man's Land.
The article says "Word has been received that a number of Captain Murray's Texas Rangers, under the authority of the United States marshal, are coming and they will proceed to the Strip and regulate matters there, and if possible break up the gang."

Now that’s truly amazing!

Who is this Captain Murray and why is he under the command of a DUSM?

Why would Texas Rangers be running around in Colo., NM, and No Mans Land. If this were during the Civil War, I might think this was the military "Texas Rangers" but I don't they were around in June of 1888.

Why is a DUSM going into "No Man's Land" when no court has jurisdiction? The article did say there was a reward offered "dead or alive" but how much could it be since no one was killed or even shot.

Any idea as to who this DUSM would be? Take your pick of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, or Colorado.

That comment about "regulate matters" sounds sort of ominous which fits in with another recent discussion.

Captain Murray is possibly Samuel A. McMurry who was the Captain of Company B of the Frontier Battalion, Texas Rangers, from the summer of 1881 to January of 1891. Company B was stationed near Quanah in Hardeman County. Company B policed the Texas panhandle. In "Twelve Years in the Saddle with the Texas Rangers" by W.J.L. Sullivan, a member of Company B, Sullivan reported that the Rangers went outside their jurisdiction on a regular basis while in pursuit of or on the scout for outlaws. Sullivan enlisted in the Rangers on 16 April, 1889, so he would have missed the account you describe.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jim Avance,

I do remember the case of the Marlow brothers who had lived at Trinidad. They had been hunted into No Man's Land by DUSM Ed Johnson and a posse of Texas lawmen in 1886. They had a murder warrant on Boone Marlow.

I'm guessing these guys never came or were not successful. There's never any follow up on these newspaper reports. Still do it nowadays.

Here is some additional information on No-Mans land. This info comes from Albert B. Paine's book "Captain Bill McDonald, Texas Ranger". McDonald was appointed a Deputy Sheriff in Hardeman County, Texas in 1885. McDonald was successful in enforcing the law in Hardeman County, but was limited because his jurisdiction was restricted to Hardeman County. McDonald received an appointment as a Special Ranger by Captain McMurray that allowed him to operate in any county in Texas. A short time later US Marshal George A. Knight, US Marshal of the Northern District of Texas, headquartered in Dallas, appointed McDonald a Deputy US Marshal. McDonald's jurisdiction included the Northern District of Texas, Southern Indian Territory, and No-Mans Land.
From 1887 to the end of 1888 McDoald and fellow Deputy US Marshal Lon Burson made several arrests in No-Mans Land of cattle and horse thieves. Those arrested were transported to Dallas and tried in Federal Court.
According to the book, George Knight would have been the US Marshal with jurisdiction in No-Mans Land. McDonald, Burson or any Deputy US Marshal of the Northern District of Texas could have been operating with Texas Rangers in No-Mans Land. After McMurray resigned his position with the Rangers, Bill McDonald was appointed Captain of Company B in January 1891. I hope this sheds some light on jurisdiction in No-Mans Land.

When you say McDonald was given "jurisdiction" aren't you meaning that he could arrest someone who had committed a crime outside No Man's Land and bring him back? Doesn't every DUSM have the power to arrest some one in the US even though he has to turn him over to the proper authorities in that district.

How could the Northern District of Texas Court give him jurisdiction in No Man's Land when Congress hadn't given that district court or any other district such jurisdiction?

The Texas Rangers being a state law enforcement agency would have to have been made "special deputies" by the DUSM, is that what you are saying happened.

I do know of lots of cases after No Man's Land was attached to Oklahoma where marshals and commissioners made arrests on old crimes retroactive of the law change. They were very busy in 1889.

As to the authority of the U. S. Marshal, the area was called “No Man’s Land” because it was not claimed as any state or formal territory. But, it was still government property. The panhandle was under control of Texas, when Texas came into the union in 1845. The Texas legislature on November 25, 1850 withdrew ownership. The same year, the United States formally accepted the right to jurisdiction and the region became subject to all federal laws. As is outlined in prior discussions, the federal courts in the Hay Meadow Massacre case ruled the district of North Texas had jurisdiction over the area known as No Man’s land when the crime occurred basing its decision on the 1834 definition of “Indian Country” and assignment of legal responsibility to the Ft. Smith court and the 1883 transfer of jurisdiction to the district North Texas of everything not part of a state, not claimed and occupied by Indians, and not assigned to the district courts of Kansas and Arkansas and an 1885 Supreme Court decision stating this land was not a part of the Cherokee Outlet. The courts did not hold Indian Country and Indian Territory were separate entities, so when an act approved in June, 1888, provided any U. S. marshal from any district was authorized to enter the Indian Territory when necessary to execute process for the district or commissioner of circuit for which he was a marshal, all a deputy needed was a John Doe warrant for whiskey to go into the territory, and most carried a pocket full of them.
As to government, the federal government exercised a claim to region even if they didn’t provide a territorial governmental framework for those wanting to settle there. About the time of the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862, Judge N. C. McFarland, who was Commissioner of the General Land Office, had a survey of this area made. Consequently, about 1886 settlers began to go into the region more as a venture than for serious attempts at settlement, the settling of western Kansas at this time led to the former. Letters were directed to L. Q. C. Lamar, Secretary of the Interior, asking him the status quo of the land and the settlers’ rights in taking homesteads. He stated that it was public domain and claims were subject to “squatters’ rights”. The importance of Lamar’s response is that federal marshals have authority to enter public domain when necessary. So, in my opinion, the U. S. marshal’s had all the authority they needed.

I posted your question on another board and Chuck Parsons responds: In the 1880s there was a rash of train robberies in Texas, the most noted gang being the Cornett-Whitley gang. Captain Frank Jones wrote the following in his monthly report, dated February 29, 1888: "Dec. 28th Shiff Olive of Williamson Co rec'd a telegram from the Indian Territory that John Barber & Bill Whitley (the train robbers) was there & come immediately with sufficient force to capture them[.] Sergt [Ira] Aten accompanied Shiff Olive to the Indian Territory but the parties had left before their arrival & was impossible to trail them any distance."

I don't know if this helps anyone in their research re: to the below question, but obviously a Texas Ranger could cross the state line to go after a wanted fugitive.

Exactly as I said, a DUSM can arrest some one anywhere within the US, States, Territories, or Possessions. No court has to give that to him. (Indian Nations are a whole different discussion). He does however work for a judicial district and does primarily their business. One of his main jobs in fact s transporting prisoners from one jurisdiction to another. There is a problem to this in No Man's Land because the law says a man must be tried n the district in which the crime was committed. If he arrests someone in No Man's Land for a crime committed there, there is no District, no Court, no local law enforcement to provide a jail cell or good posse members. He can't even bring the guy out unless they are wanted somewhere else. Thus he can track some one into No Man's Land and bring him back but anything else is a waste of time and very dangerous.

You said "As is outlined in prior discussions, the federal courts in the Hay Meadow Massacre case ruled the district of North Texas had jurisdiction over the area known as No Man’s land when the crime occurred basing its decision on the 1834 definition of “Indian Country” and assignment of legal responsibility to the Ft. Smith court and the 1883 transfer of jurisdiction to the district North Texas of everything not part of a state, not claimed and occupied by Indians, and not assigned to the district courts of Kansas and Arkansas and an 1885 Supreme Court decision stating this land was not a part of the Cherokee Outlet." I know that some had argued this but It wasn't accepted. DeArment's book "Ballots and Bullets" says that "on March 3, 1889, the United States Congress, prompted by the nationwide publicity over the case, enacted legislation establishing a federal court at Paris, Texas, with jurisdiction over the Neutral Strip." citing Neville, "The Red River Then and Now" This question came up in the US Supreme Court appeal of the Hay Meadow Massacre case when the defendants said that the court didn't have a right to try the retroactively since the court didn't have jurisdiction at the time the crime was committed. The Supreme Court said they could be tried retroactively in this case because of he wording of the law establishing the court. Protection from retroactive prosecution is allowed because the protecting Articles in the Constitution speak of States and Territories of which No Man's Land was neither. As far as the Supreme Court was concerned he trial was always "on" just waiting for Congress to give a court for it to be held.
This had already been established to the satisfaction of he Paris Court before the trial. In fact it caused a 3 month delay in the trial because the first judge, who was in poor health anyway, realized this would open up a huge backlog of cases and resigned. They had trouble finding a replacement and a temporary judge was assigned. This became another bone of contention in the appeal saying the temporary judge had no right to pass such a judgment.

McFarland's survey was not in any way useable to establish a legal claim on a piece of land. These was the famous Zinc Pot markers that the settlers used. The survey was only to establish the Range and Township corners. The settlers would tie a rag around a wagon wheel and count the revolutions multiplying the circumference of the wheel to find their section lines one way then the other way for the other two t isolate their section. It might have been good enough for the counterfeit "claims board" but not a land office. Secretary Lamar should have kept his mouth shut about "Squatters Rights". The term only meant that the US had allowed others the privilege before but the Congress was in no way bound by the precedent. He likely got a lot of people killed by Cattle Regulators and organized claim jumpers such as the "claims board" which became the Cimarron Territory "government". When Chase and others went to Washington they are lucky they didn't get arrested. Organizing a unlawful government on US soil was treason. They had done the same thing as the Confederacy. It is probably this weariness of Civil War that protected them. If they had been an independent nation there would be no problem but they were usurping Congress. In reality Congress did listen but most didn't trust them. Most just considered them land grabbing con-men while still others just considered them a nuisance.

My original question was about crimes that had been committed in New Mexico and Colorado. Still it does seem more likely that a DUSM fro the Texas Panhandle, particularly accompanied by Texas Rangers, would head them off in No Man's Land. I was hoping there might be some mention in a Texas newspaper. Now that I think about it, if he was a Marshal with the Paris Court this may be another of those "destroyed by fire" problems I keep encountering.

Interesting info on Texas Rangers possibly operating outside of Texas. This is not the first time I've run across this though. There were 2 Rangers who were arrested by the Ft Smith Court in the 1880s for having used their Ranger authority in apprehending a criminal I believe in the Chickasaw or Choctaw Nation.

Another instance I found in the Kiowa Agency papers at OHS showing that former-Ranger J. Lee Hall while serving as Indian Agent in SW I.T. in the 1880s, called on his old compadres to ride and patrol the southern boundary of the Comanche, Kiowa Reservation in a massive law enforcement effort at that time. It is not known if the Rangers crossed over to the I.T. or remained on the south side of the Red River.

Regarding the Marlows, DUSM Johnson held his commission out of the Graham, TX federal court which had jurisdication over the Comanche/Kiowa Reservation in the 1880s [after 1883] and at the time of the Marlow incident which actually occurred (their arrest) nearer to Fort Sill in the southwestern part of the I.T. rather than in No Man's Land.

Again interesting info and I look forward to reading more responses on the whole Rangers-infiltrating-the-IT issue.

Here is more Rangers-inflitrating-the I.T. In W.J.L. Sullivan's book "Twelve Years in the Saddle with the Texas Rangers" Sullivan tells of taking three other Rangers to Greer County, Texas and camping on the North Fork of Red River, about three miles from Navajoe. This would be in present day Jackson County, Oklahoma. The Rangers were hunting Bill James who was wanted in Texas for murder. Sullivan had information that James was hiding out in the Comanche Strip. Sullivan said they rode every day for five months. They didn't find James, but according to Sullivan "we arrested a number of criminals and put a stop to some of the lawlessness that occurred on the border."

In 1891 the North Fork of the Red River separated Greer County Texas from Indian Territory. Greer County Texas later, 1896 or so, became a part of Indian Territory and after 1907 the state of Oklahoma. Greer county was split into Jackson, Harmon, Greer, and part of Beckham County Oklahoma.

I just talked to the editor of the paper at Boise City today and he says that Charles Goodnight led a bunch of Texas Rangers up through No Man's Land up into Colorado. There is a lot written about Goodnight but I sure don't recall that part.

Rick Miller replies to the query: Mike, I think the "Captain Murray" was Ranger Captain S.A. McMurray. My expertise with the Rangers is in the 1870-period, so I have no information about the incursion into "No Man's Land." The Rangers worked quite frequently with all levels of what they termed "civil authority," whether a local sheriff, federal law enforcement, or even the military when it came to Indians and border incursions by Mexican bandits. When pursuing the Sam Bass gang in 1878, the Rangers worked very closely with Dep. U.S. Marshal Walert Johnson and the federal court in Tyler. I am not familiar with any biography of McMurray (there is none in the Texas Handbook), but he was prominent as a Ranger Captain in the 1880s and I believe the 1890s. Hope that's helpful. Rick Miller

Hey Jim,

Regarding the Greer County incursion, that was considered to be a part of Texas throughout the 1880s and I think it really became an issue when the U.S. was wanting to open up the territory to settlement.

I have found several accounts in the Fort Sill Archives of Greer County referred to as "Texas" throughout the 1880s and I know from the Graham, Texas Federal Court in the mid-1880s that DUSMs were operating up into that area and considered it a part of Texas.

Greer County was a part of Texas until sometime in the late 1890's. I don't know the exact date. The reason was that the Red River was the dividing line between Texas and I.T., and the North Fork of the Red was wrongly thought to be the main branch of the Red River. When it was determined that the North Fork was not the main branch all of Greer County Texas became Indian Territory. As late as December 1895 Louis Tittle was the Sheriff of Greer County Texas. Which reminds me of another Rangers-in-filtrating IT incident. It has been previously discussed here on another post. Ranger Sgt Sullivan led a large posse into IT to a dugout somewhere east of present Frederick and north of Grandfield. The posse was searcing for Red Buck, Hill Loftos, Kid Lewis, and former Texas Sheriff Joe Beckham. They were wanted for a series of armed robberies in Vernon, Tx and surrounding communities. After a shoot out Beckham and several mules were killed. The other outlaws escaped. I worked with an agent whos grandfather was born near Hollis, Texas in Greer County. His grandfather never moved, but he died and was buried in Hollis, Ok, Harmon County.