Thomas Black Jack Ketchum

From most accounts, Thomas “Black Jack” Ketchum and his brother, Sam, had been
welcomed by the ladies at dances and social gatherings.  But that was before he and
his brother decided that their need for cash outweighed their ability to acquire it
through legitimate means.  Tom had worked on his brother’s ranch, but decided that
cow punching was not for him. He turned to banks and the railroads for revenue.

His first train robbery was outside of Deming, New Mexico, where he netted about
$20,000.  Robbing trains was so appealing to him that he extended his range through
the rest of New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming.  But it was New Mexico
where he built up his best, or perhaps his worst, reputation.

The brothers rode with Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, but Black Jack had shown
himself to be so ruthless that it appears that he was invited to leave Cassidy’s gang.  
Back Jack and Sam had their own gang that met with various level of success.
Eventually, Thomas “Black Jack” and his brother had a falling out and they went their
separate ways.  Sam ended up getting himself apprehended and sentenced to the
Santa Fe State Prison where he later died. Black Jack on the other hand had
managed to escape capture.

Acting now as a lone train robber, Tom decided to rob the same train he and his gang
had previously robbed near Folsom, New Mexico.  As he made his approach to the
train, Frank Harrington, the train’s conductor, saw and recognized Ketchum and
greeted him with a blast from a shotgun.  The wound nearly severed Ketchum’s arm.
He fell back, and unable to get onto his horse and escape, he found a nearby
tree where he propped himself up and waited for rescue.  When a couple of men
saw him and went to render aid, Black Jack drew down on the men. One of them
said, “If that’s the way you feel about it, we’ll just leave you here.” Ketchum threw his
gun aside and allowed himself to be taken into custody.

He rode the train to Trinidad, Colorado, where his arm was amputated and was
then sent to Santa Fe.  From Santa Fe he was sent to Clayton, New Mexico, to face
trial for train robbery, where he was convicted and sentenced to hang.

At the hanging, Black Jack allegedly made two statements.  He is credited with both
telling Sheriff Garcia to hurry up and get it over with.  He is also credited with telling
the sheriff that lunch was served promptly at noon in hell and to hurry up as he didn’t
want to miss lunch.  Garcia struck the hanging rope twice with an ax and the deed
was done. However, Clayton’s only hanging did not go quite as smoothly as hoped.

The inexperienced hangman had left a 200-pound bag of sand attached to the rope
overnight, causing the rope to become as stiff as a wire cable.  When the rope was
cut and Ketchum fell through the trap door, the stiff rope decapitated him.

Ketchum is buried in the Clayton Cemetery.  As you enter the cemetery and go down
the main road you will find his plot all by itself, separated from all other graves by two
roads, one running into and the other out of the cemetery.  It seems that no one
wanted to be buried next to Black Jack. His grave is located just a few hundred feet
into the cemetery. You can’t miss it.

If you visit his grave, you might find coins tossed onto his grave.  When I visited
his grave there was a couple of dollars worth of quarters, nickels, and dimes.