JIM LEAVY: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER

I was out most of the day today with a loved one in for surgery. Anyway, here is another seasonal post for the Frontierado Holiday, coming up this Friday, August 4th.

JIM LEAVY/ LEVY – This gunslinger’s last name shows up under both spellings at times. He was definitely from Ireland. Some accounts claim he was Jewish, but those sources may have jumped to conclusions if they were going by the Levy spelling.

Jim was born in 1842 and when he was 8 years old his family moved to America, arriving in New York Harbor on board the Huguenot on May 14th, 1850. By 1860 Jim was living in Sacramento, CA as either a miner or bartender.

In early 1868, a Silver Rush began to eastern Nevada and our subject moved there with hopes of striking it rich. Trying his luck here and there, Jim was eventually prospecting at Pioche, NV, one of the most underrated of the deadly boom towns of the old west.

Legend has it that Leavy fell in with fellow Irishman Morgan Courtney and his handful of gunslingers who were hired by the Ely-Raymond Mining Concern to take back their Washington & Creole Mine from hired gunmen who had seized it for the Newland Brothers.

The Washington & Creole Mining War started in earnest on November 9th, 1870, and ended with the Ely-Raymond Mining Concern’s gunmen, led by Morgan Courtney (aka Richard Moriarty), winning out. 

Come late May of 1871 and a man named Tom Casey shot to death Tom Gorson in a dispute over money. While dying, Gorson had offered up a $5,000 reward for anyone who would kill Tom Casey, so Jim Leavy, thirsty for that kind of money, wanted to cash in.

On May 30th Jim got into a gunfight with Casey and his friend David Neagle on the streets of Pioche. Leavy killed Casey and injured Neagle, who in turn shot Jim in the cheeks and jawbone, leaving our man with an ugly scar on the lower half of his face for the rest of his life.

Jim was arrested and tried for the slaying but was acquitted. He collected on the $5,000.00 reward and continued serving in Morgan Courtney’s gang. January of 1873 saw more bullets flying over another silver claim dispute in which Leavy gunned down Tom Ryan.

On August 1st, 1873, our subject’s mentor Morgan Courtney was shot to death by George McKinney in a fight over a woman. By December, the silver mines were mostly played out and Pioche started shrinking, population wise and action wise. 

Jim took to traveling as a gunman for hire and part-time gambler. He played cards and engaged in gunplay in Virginia City, NV for a time.

In 1876 Leavy joined the crowds rushing to Deadwood, South Dakota during the Black Hills Gold Rush. He also started frequenting opium dens. In the hills outside Deadwood, Jim and his acquaintances Mike Goldman, Henry Lyons and Charley Storms clashed with Prescott Webb’s gang of outlaws, killing at least 3 of Webb’s men. 

In 1877 our subject moved on to Cheyenne, Wyoming, which had become the jumping-off point for many travelers bound for Deadwood. On the night of March 9th, Jim was gambling with Charley Harrison in Shingles & Locke’s Saloon in Cheyenne.

Leavy accused Harrison of cheating and shot him to death in front of Frenchy’s on Eddy Street in the resulting gunfight. Once again, Jim was found Not Guilty.

The year 1878 found Jim Leavy in Leadville, Colorado, playing cards and slinging lead. From 1878 to late 1880, when he arrived in Tombstone, Arizona, Leavy engaged in at least 16 gunfights. Jim was sometimes tried for a killing here and there but was never convicted. 

In Tombstone, our subject fell in with the Doc Holliday/ Earp Brothers clique but played no part in their clash with the Clanton-Mclaury Crime Faction. Spring of 1882 found Leavy living in Tucson, AZ.

On June 5th, a very drunk Jim Leavy was playing Faro at Tucson’s Fashion Saloon. He accused dealer John Murphy of dishonesty and the two agreed on a time and place to hash out their differences.

When Leavy was on his way to the designated locale, Murphy and his friends David Gibson and Bill Moyer ambushed Jim and shot him to death. In October 1882 all three men escaped from Pima County Jail while awaiting trial.

Bill Moyer wasn’t recaptured until July of 1883 when he was identified while gambling in Denver. On December 14th he was found guilty in the Leavy slaying and sentenced to 99 years in Yuma Territorial Prison.

That same December, John Murphy and David Gibson were apprehended in the California mining town of Fenner. Gibson had even been working as a stagecoach driver between Fenner and Providence.

Murphy was acquitted in early 1884. Gibson’s trial started on April 29th and he, too, was acquitted. The public clamored for clemency for Bill Moyer, and on March 22nd, 1888, Arizona’s territorial Governor C. Meyer Zulick pardoned Moyer.

Fans of this blog post’s probably not Jewish gunslinger tend to subscribe to Albert Franklin Banta’s recollection of the man:

“Jim Leavy had more sand in one of his fingers than those three yellow-streaked curs had in their three bodies combined.”

FOR LEGENDARY OLD WEST FIGURE CHARLEY SIRINGO CLICK HERE.