Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881Gillett, James B.
History
Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881
Gillett, James B.
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Gillett, James B., 1856-1937; Texas -- History -- 1846-1950; Texas Rangers
Arriving at Kimble County the Company "E" detail arrested Role and
Dell Dublin, Mack Potter and Rube Boyce. In the running fight that
resulted in their capture Role received a bad wound in the hip. The
two Dublin brothers and Mack Potter when arraigned in Federal court
plead guilty to stage robbery and were sentenced to fifteen years at
hard labor. During their trial the mystery of the Peg Leg robberies
was finally cleared up. The Dublin boys were the guiding spirits in
the hold-ups and worked with great cleverness. Old man Jimmie Dublin's
ranch on the South Llano was their headquarters. From the ranch to
Peg Leg Station on the San Saba was not more than sixty miles across
a rough, mountainous country. As there were no wire fences in those
days the robbers would ride over to the station, rob the stage and in
one night's ride regain their home. Traveling at night they were never
observed. Dick Dublin, whose death while resisting capture has already
been described, was the leader of the bandit gang. Even the mystery of
the tiny footprints was disclosed; they were made by Mack Potter, who
had an unusually small foot for a man.
While Rube Boyce was confined in the Travis County jail he made one of
the most sensational jail escapes in the criminal annals of Texas. Mrs.
Boyce called at the prison with a suit of clean underclothes for her
husband. The basket in which she carried them was examined and she was
admitted into the cell of her husband. However, she had hidden a big
.45 Colt's revolver about her person and smuggled it in. Rube changed
his underwear, put the soiled garments in the basket and hid the pistol
under them.
At the end of her visit Mrs. Boyce started out and Rube accompanied her
down the corridor to the door. Mr. Albert Nichols, the jailer, opened
the door with his left hand to let the woman pass out, at the same
time holding his pistol in his right hand. As the door swung open Rube
reached into the basket he was carrying for his wife, whipped out the
hidden pistol, thrust it into the jailer's face and ordered him to drop
his .45 and step within the jail. Realizing that a second's hesitation
would mean his death, Nichols complied and was locked in by the outlaw.
Boyce then ran out of the back yard of the jail, mounted a pony that
had been hitched there for him and galloped out of Austin, firing his
pistol as he ran. He made a complete get-away. Three or four years
later he was arrested at Socorro, New Mexico, and returned to Austin.
At his trial for participation in the Peg Leg stage robberies he was
acquitted, and perhaps justly so, for Bill Alison declared to me that
Dick Dublin with his brothers Dell and Role and Mack Potter were the
real robbers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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