Tom McClure was interviewed in the 1930's in Fort Worth,TX. He was age 70 and claimed to be a prior sheriff of Wise Co. and Jones Co., TX. He said he never carried a gun. He claimed to be a Deputy US Marshal out of Fort Smith until resigning in 1898 or 1899. He did not say when he put on the badge. From what I can gather this was raw data, not footnoted or supported by facts; only what the man is reported to have said.

One of his stories:
"The worst assignment I ever got was to get Bully July, an negro ex-slave, that turned out to be a murderer, and a bad one, too. I guess Bully was about the worst character that ever run loose in the territory. He was a fast shot, and a champion saloon brawler. Many's the time he'd killed a man that he'd agged on 'til the man jumped him, then killed him in the brawl. That was an old stunt of the bullies that killed many a good man just because the bully wanted to show out.
"Bully July had murdered a man and a woman, in this case, and threw their bodies in a cave in the Arbuckle Mountains. That cave is now a tourist spot, and is called 'Dead Man's Cave'. It's located near where Ardmore, Okla. is now. Ardmore wasn't a city in those days. Some way, or other, we had to have those bones of the couple, to connect the murder up, and it fell to me to get them.. I went down and raked them all up, and put them into a sack. I then took the sack to the court.
"There are some things connected with the capture of Bully that I don't want to mention, because they would drag some good men's names into the mud, and that's a practice I try to avoid when the men have really reformed and trying to make good citizens. The court's records will show that I brought the negro in, and everybody knows I never used a gun.

On just one trip alone, Frank Mackinac, J.W. Milliard, Bruce [Quigley?], and myself, brought back 41 prisoners. The other fellows’ toted guns, but I went unarmed all the time. I took my share of these prisoners, though, even if I didn't have a gun. We put them all into five wagons and went on in into Fort Smith without a hitch.

In the bunch were eight murders, (two of them were hung and the rest sent to the pen for life) whiskey peddlers (it being a Federal offense to sell whiskey to the Indians), and cattle and hoss thieves. The two murders who were hung were Jim[?] and Albert Odell. They were hung on a scaffold that was used to hang 14 in one day. That scaffold still stands at Fort Smith, and a person can go out to see it at any time he wants to.

Norm, once again we have an old timer stretching the truth. Martin “Bully” Joseph and his cohort, Henry Loftus, did indeed kill a young couple. They were Bud Stevens, a Texas horse thief and suspected murderer, and a sixteen year old girl he ran off with. But they tossed Stevens body in the brush after luring him away from his cabin and killing him with a shot to the back of the head. They then returned, convinced the girl Martin needed her and took her out and raped her, then killed her. It was her body, along with a saddle bag of clothes which was tossed into the bottom of a cave. Henry Loftus told his brother William what he had done. Sometime later Henry was killed by Loftus who then left the country. According to the Fort Smith Elevator, April 13, 1883, William told his father of the murders and Mr. Loftus contacted Henderson, a local merchant. They searched and found Stevens body and the cave Henry Loftus had described. Henderson notified Deputy James H. Mershon and he led his posse to the cave. John Spencer, a guard for Mershon, was lowered into the cave with a lamp. About halfway down the lantern illuminated a cave full of rattlesnakes with one big one fairly close. Spencer let loose with his revolver, blew the snake in half, the top half coiling around his arm. The shot also put out the lamp. Screaming to be hauled up, the young man arrived at the top with the rattler still hanging off his arm, spooking the posse. Spencer was later lowered and bagged the decaying corpse. Spencer’s bones, the ones left by wild animals, were also bagged and both bags of bones were later used as evidence.
Bob Hutchins, a posse for Heck Thomas and later a deputy for the Ft. Smith and Indian Territory Court, told his biographer he was used by deputies to get Bully Joseph drunk and once he succeeded in doing so, listened in as Joseph, terrified of the ghosts of his victims, confessed to the whole thing.
The story is also told in “Hell on the Border” and “Law West of Ft. Smith.”

Does anyone know where that exact cave is located in the Arbuckle Mountains?

Thanks Mike.
I figured if anyone could set the record straight, I'd hear from you. Your knowledge of the Territory is amazing..."A walking Library" you are.
I just knew he had to be blowing smoke because I think anyone going into that area back then or, actually, anyone living there, who did not carry a gun was not of sound mind. He reminded me of "Dee Harkey" from his book "Mean as Hell" and I found he used a "board strecher" also in telling his tales.

There are several good candidates for the "Rattlesnake Cave" but I can't remember ever seeing the exact location named. I'll do a little research...

Hi,

If Martin "Bully" Jospeh was the bandits real name, why does his last name appear as "July," most of the time. Was it a bogus name he used or lawmen called him by???

M. Koch:
You raise an interesting question here. Where does the July come in?

I only know what the truth spinner stated but history gives his true name as Joseph. Was he really called July? I suppose he was but I cannot determine why he was tagged with this munker.
Maybe he was born in July? Well, it's a thought!

Hi,

A possibility! "Well done Watson!"