SHOTGUN JOHN: NEGLECTED GUNSLINGER

Every first Friday in August the Frontierado Holiday is celebrated. Frontierado is about the myth of the old west, not the grinding reality. Here’s another seasonal post.

SHOTGUN JOHN COLLINS – This overlooked gunslinger was like a talented session musician whose name isn’t better known to laymen mostly because of his time with assorted big-name rock bands. Shotgun John was born Abraham G. Graham in South Carolina on November 22nd, 1851. His great-grandfather had served under General Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, during the Revolutionary War.

In 1859 he and his family moved by wagon to Limestone County, Texas. As a teenager, this figure started getting in and out of trouble with the law and began using aliases like George Graham, John Graham, and John Collins. It was as Shotgun John Collins that our subject became best known.

During his teen years Shotgun John was in and out of jail for assorted offenses, but to that point not fatal ones. This time period saw our man forge casual friendships with future notorious figures like Johnny Ringo and John Wesley Hardin.

Once he started getting involved in cattle rustling, gunfights and horse theft it was a different story, and for a time Collins took it on the run to Mexico to lie low until the heat settled down. By the early 1870s Shotgun John was back in Texas working as a cattleman.

He joined up with Tom Leakey, Henry Patterson, J.J.H. Patterson, and W.B. Nichols to form the infamous quintet called the Uvalde Minutemen. This group worked as a law unto themselves to protect their own interests against rustlers, Mexican bandits, Comanches, rival ranchers and home-grown outlaws.

The Uvalde Minutemen were known for their violence and the words most associated with them are “they did what the Texas Rangers couldn’t.”

In December, 1875, Shotgun John was in Silver City, NM where he killed a man named James Smith in a gunfight. He was arrested and jailed by the iconic Sheriff Harvey Whitehill, boss of Dangerous Dan Tucker. Collins paid his $60.00 bail and skipped town before trial.

Resurfacing in Lincoln County, NM our man joined the wealthy Murphy-Dolan organization, which got most of their cattle through rustling and became a major power in the area. They owned many New Mexico Territory politicians and through violence and bribes had acquired lucrative government contracts for beef, plus held influence over a few banks.

Among Shotgun John’s fellow rustlers and gunmen for the Murphy-Dolan faction was one Billy the Kid. Sometime before February 18th, 1878 the Kid had switched sides to the upstart Tunstall-McSween faction, fierce rivals of Murphy and Dolan. As is well known, on that date John Tunstall’s murder by gunsels from the Murphy-Dolan side unleashed the Lincoln County War. 

That range war is too well known to need further coverage here, but when it ended on July 20th, 1878, Collins and Billy the Kid resumed their friendship amid the aftermath. Together and separately, Shotgun John and Billy went on to get into even more trouble throughout the region from rustling cattle, stealing horses and/or hell-raising in saloons and brothels.

In April 1879 Collins was on trial in Lincoln County for various offenses, but ultimately his ties to the richer and more powerful Murphy-Dolan side ensured he went free. Deciding to leave criminal activity behind him, our subject became a Wells-Fargo guard riding along on their stagecoaches back and forth between different locations in New Mexico and Arizona.

Shotgun John developed a reputation for deadly precision in dealing with robbers trying to prey on the valuable Wells-Fargo cargos. During 1879 and 1880 this career led to Collins interacting with Wyatt Earp and his brother Morgan, who also had jobs with Wells-Fargo. 

On November 1st, 1880, Shotgun married Tabitha Cox. Those sources which mention this wedding call it John’s FOURTH, but I can’t find any information anywhere about any previous marriages. At any rate, the couple had six children.

By March 1881 our gunslinger had settled down with Tabitha in Wilcox/ Willcox, where he had accepted a job as a Constable. Shotgun John supposedly served honestly and bravely, and got into a few more shooting scraps.

On April 17th, 1882 the one and only Bat Masterson was appointed City Marshall of Trinidad, CO and Collins was among the men he hired to help tame the dangerous place. It is unknown if John shared his boss Masterson’s fondness for moonlighting as a Faro Dealer at Trinidad saloons and gambling hells, but scandalous fallout from Bat’s extracurricular activities led to Masterson’s electoral loss on April 3rd, 1883.

Bat and Shotgun John then traveled to Dodge City, KS to fight alongside gambler-gunfighter Luke Short during the famed Dodge City War. Masterson was an old friend of Luke Short so he and Collins stood by Short against corrupt Mayor Larry Deger and his men.

Other gunslinging friends of Luke Short also arrived in Dodge City to help out their pal, among them Wyatt Earp, Charlie Bassett, Texas Jack Vermillion, Bill Tilghman, W.F. Petillion and others. By June 10th of 1883 the “war” was over and the triumphant Luke plus several of his allies posed for an iconic photo as “The Dodge City Peace Commission.”

Short, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and others were in the photo, but Shotgun John, Texas Jack and Bill Tilghman chose not to pose for the picture. Confusingly, there is a second photo of the Peace Commission with Tilghman posing in place of W. F. Petillion, who IS in the first photo but not the second.

Some say that for the remainder of 1883 and all of 1884 Collins did some bounty killing, gunning down at least two men in Montana and possibly more in other states.

Shotgun John Collins was next heard from on February 3rd, 1885 in Cañon City, CO. He killed a man named William Norris in a gunfight but did not have the benefit of a badge or a position as a Wells-Fargo guard to protect him from legal consequences this time.   

John was tried and found guilty, then on July 11th he was put behind bars in the Colorado State Prison (lower right). Tabitha remained supportive of her husband throughout all this, and on November 10th, 1891, Shotgun John was pardoned by Colorado Governor John Routt. (I can’t find why.) 

Things get unclear for a while, with some sources claiming that Collins worked as a buffalo “hunter”, and as a Cavalry Scout. Whatever Shotgun John was up to, he somehow made enough money to own four ranches in Socorro County.

The year 1903 saw our man and his family move to Cananea, Mexico, where Collins worked managing security for the American-owned Greene Gold & Silver Mining Company. In 1910 labor unrest and the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution forced John and his family to return to the U.S.

By December 3rd of 1922 Collins was in El Paso, TX, where he was shot to death in an argument started over unknown reasons. This is disputed as well, because some sources say he died in 1926. Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know how common it is for such confusion to reign over the fate of these Wild West figures.

Supposedly Collins Park, NM was named in honor of Shotgun John Collins.

FOR MY LOOK AT DANITES, THE GUNSLINGING “KNIGHTS” OF THE OLD WEST CLICK HERE.