Tom Horn Lawman Symposium - Buffalo, Wyoming - September 23-24, 2011
For immediate release
Contacts: Mike Mestemaker, 307-684-7793 and/or Bob Edwards, 307-684-7064
A symposium on famous Wyoming lawmen Tom Horn and Ed Cantrell will be held in Buffalo September 23-24 at the historic Occidental Hotel on Main Street, with two authorities covering the events that marked Horn's and Cantrell's history in Wyoming.
Author and historian Chip Carlson will relate the key events in the Tom Horn episode of the late 1890s-early 1900s, with emphasis on Horn's controversial trial and conviction for the 1901 murder of Willie Nickell. Carlson has authored three books on the episode, and is considered a leading expert on Tom Horn.
The most famous statement made by Horn was, "Killing men is my specialty."
Ron Roberson, a former Wyoming state highway patrolman and range detective, worked closely with Ed Cantrell in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1978 Cantrell, then chief of public safety in Rock Springs, shot one of his deputies between the eyes while they were sitting in an unmarked police car in the lot of the Silver Dollar restaurant and saloon in Rock Springs.
Roberson, who was the first state-deputized range detective in Wyoming, will recount his activities with Cantrell when both were highway patrolmen and range detectives.
Horn was hanged in Cheyenne after his conviction for the murder of 14-year-old Willie Nickell. Historians still debate whether he actually murdered the boy and the scandalous nature of his trial.
Jackson trial lawyer Gerry Spence defended Ed Cantrell and gained an acquittal in the 1979 controversial trial, which was held in Pinedale.
Cantrell was quoted in the Denver POST as saying, when he confronted a group of suspected rustlers, "Next time I see you I'll just shoot. You be ready. I won't talk."
Maybe I will see you there......
