Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh (2024)

Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh[]

Dave joined Billy's gang after the Lincoln County war. He is a lot like Billy in that he loves being famous. He resents Billy's fame and is always trying to find a way to control the gang. He is loyal to a point, if it benefits himself.

Dave has killed many men, "65 not counting Mexicans and Indians".

He escaped Pat Garrett's ambush at Stinking Springs and rode alone to Old Mexico not caring about the rest of the gang's fate. He soon found out that he was a known man there just as he had always wanted, but his fame came with a heavy price and he was soon beheaded by the towns people as a warning to other outlaws.

The Truth[]

Dave Rudabaugh was born on July 14th 1854 in Illinois. His father was killed in the Civil War when Dave was just a child. In the 1870s Dave began his career of crime, cattle rustling with a gang called 'The Trio'. The gang soon grew and became known as the 'Rudabaugh-Rourke Gang'. They tried to hit the big time robbing trains but failed in all their attempts. Dave was arrested but managed to elude jail or worse by testifying against his own partners.

After his release he joined the 'Dodge City Gang' and in an attempt to break one of his gang members out of jail in Las Vegas (New Mexico) he shot and killed a deputy. He fled to Fort Sumner and soon met Billy the Kid and became part of his gang.

Dave was captured at Stinking Springs by Garrett along with Billy the Kid. They were all taken to Las Vegas (NM) but the towns people had not forgotten Dave's killing of their well liked deputy and the threat of a lynch mob forced Garrett to move them to Santa Fe. In February 1881 he pleaded guilty to the murder of the deputy and was sentenced to death by hanging.

In jail Dave met some members of his old gangs and they broke out together, after which he was in the thick of the Earp feud. Dave soon moved to Old Mexico where he became a cowboy and a rustler. On February 18th 1886 Dave was involved in a gunfight in Chihuahua, Mexico over a card game in which Dave shot dead two men. He left but was unable to find his horse and returned to the saloon only to be shot several times and then decapitated, he was 31 years old. His head was paraded through the streets on a pole. Dave was never know as 'Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh' his nickname was 'Dirty Dave'.