Buckskin Frank Leslie
Buckskin Franklyn Leslie was a U.S. Army scout, gambler, bartender, rancher, miner, gunfighter, and con-man. He was known for his fringed buckskin jacket. He became famous in Tombstone, Arizona, for killing two men in self-defense. He married the widow of one of his victims eight days after killing her husband. Following their divorce, Leslie later shot and killed a woman he lived with at his ranch while drunk and in a fit of jealousy. He was sentenced to life in prison, but only served six years before he was pardoned. He was last listed in the U.S. Federal Census on January 27, 1920 in Sausalito, California. No public records of him have been found after this date and it is not known when he died.
Early life
Born in Texas
Leslie was born Nashville Franklyn Leslie near San Antonio, Texas. Conflicting accounts of his early life exist. In 1913, Leslie wrote on his marriage certificate that he was the son of Bernard Leslie from Virginia, and Martha Leslie of Kentucky. The Tombstone Daily Prospector reported on July 15, 1889, that Leslie was born in Galveston, Texas in 1842 where he supposedly grew up. They stated that his father was Thomas Kennedy and his mother was Martha Leslie. The story reports that he took his mother's last name as his after a falling out with his father, though they did not provide any sources.Imaginative personal history
Nothing has been documented concerning Leslie's first 36 years, although he told some colorful and improbable stories concerning those missing years. On two separate occasions Leslie told writers his version of incidents from his early life. In 1880, Leslie said that "in 1861 I joined the Southern Army, and continued with it till April 9th 1865, when I was attached to General Gordon's division as a First Lieutenant, in the 10th Cavalry." He claimed he "was Deputy Sheriff of Abalene... under the notorious J.B. Hickock or 'Wild Bill,' " and that he was a "rough rider in Australia," and a pilot in the Fiji Islands and that he "has exhibited, as a fancy rifle shootist in different parts of the world."In 1893, he related another story to W.H. Cameron of the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he claimed that the story of his life was a romance. Born in Virginia in 1842 of a good family he went to Heidelberg to study medicine, his brother at the same time going to West Point for a military education. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Frank returned to his old home in Virginia and entered the Confederate Army as a bugler, while his brother joined the Union forces.
Leslie also claimed that he served as a scout for the U.S. Army in Texas, Oklahoma and the Dakotas during the 1870s, but no documentation has been found.
San Francisco
Leslie was first recorded in San Francisco in 1878, where he was employed as a barkeeper in Thomas Boland's saloon at 311 Pine Street. He lived in San Francisco at 732 Howard Street. In 1879 he was a "bookkeeper," which may have been a typo for "barkeeper," since he worked at Kerr & Jurado's Saloon & Billiard Room. The next year he was again listed as a barkeeper in the same establishment and was living at 746 Folsom Street. In mid-1880, he moved to Tombstone, Arizona.Tombstone, Arizona
Leslie arrived in Tombstone, in July 1880 dressed in the buckskin attire of a scout. He was tall and weighed about. When he arrived in Tombstone, he traded in his frontier clothing for gentleman's attire like that worn in San Francisco. He complimented his city dress with a fringed buckskin vest that furthered his reputation as "Buckskin Frank" Leslie. In Tombstone, he partnered with William H. Knapp, and opened the Cosmopolitan Saloon next door to the Cosmopolitan Hotel at 409 Allen Street.Kills Mike Killeen
Leslie was attracted to a chambermaid at the Cosmopolitan Hotel named Mary Jane "May" Killeen. He attended her wedding to Mike Killeen on April 13, 1880, in Tombstone, and was one of two witness listed on the marriage record. Mike Killeen was jealous of the relationship between May and Leslie.Late in the evening of June 22, 1880, Leslie had his arm around May as they sat on the front porch of the Cosmopolitan Hotel. George M. Perine, a friend of Leslie, saw her husband approaching, and warned Leslie, but not before Killeen fired his gun twice. The bullets grazed Leslie's head, and stunned him. Killeen attacked Leslie, and began clubbing him with his revolver when Killeen was shot, and mortally wounded. Before he died five days later, on June 28, he told E.T. Packwood that Perine had shot him. Both Leslie and Perine were charged with murder, but Leslie claimed he had fired in self-defense, and that Perine had not fired his weapon. The court accepted Leslie's explanation, and dismissed charges against both men.
Marries Mary Killeen
Eight days after her husband's death, Mary Killeen married Leslie. For the second time, within 84 days, 13 year-old Louisa E. Bilicke served as the bride's maid of honor. The Tombstone Epitaph reported:Confronts James Young
had two encounters with Buckskin Frank Leslie, and Leslie backed down both times. Young was an early arrival in Tombstone, Arizona, and had worked in the Contention mine, and staked a claim nearby. When he found that Leslie had jumped his claim, Young approached him with a shotgun, and beckoned him to go back to town quickly. Leslie shrugged it off, and explained that he had heard that some others were about to jump Young's claim, and he had gone there to help him stand them off. When the news about the stand-off went around town, James Young's prestige rose, and Frank Leslie's faltered some. Later, when Leslie met Young in a store, unarmed and with his back turned, Leslie pulled his gun out of its holster, and was about to use it. The woman store-owner screamed and jumped between the two men. Again, Buckskin shrugged it off, and said he was just checking his six-gun to see that it was in good working order.Kills Billy Claiborne
A major fire swept Tombstone on May 26, 1882, which destroyed Knapp & Leslie's Cosmopolitan Saloon. The partners decided against rebuilding, and Leslie took a job tending bar at the Oriental Saloon, one of the few buildings still standing.Leslie was tending bar at the Oriental on November 14, 1882, when Billy Claiborne, who was very drunk, began using insulting and abusive language. Leslie asked Claiborne to leave, but Claiborne continued his foul and abusive speech. Leslie grabbed Claiborne by his coat collar, and escorted him out. Leslie later testified, "He used very hard language, and as he started away from me, shook a finger at me and said, 'That's all right Leslie, I'll get even on you.' "
Within a few minutes, two men told Leslie there was a man waiting outside to shoot him. When Leslie stepped outside, he saw "a foot of rifle barrel protruding from the end of the fruit stand." He tried to talk Claiborne out of shooting, but Claiborne raised his rifle, and fired the weapon, missing Leslie. Leslie returned fire, hitting Claiborne in the chest. "I saw him double up and had my pistol cocked and aimed at him again... I advanced upon him, but did not shoot, when he said, 'Don't shoot again, I am killed.' "
Leslie had planned that day to travel to the Dragoon Mountains with George W. Parsons, but the trip was cancelled. Parsons described Claiborne's death, writing that "Frank didn't lose the light of his cigarette during the encounter. Wonderfully cool man." The coroner's inquest concluded that Leslie shot Claiborne in self-defense, which "in the opinion of the jury, was justifiable."
The Magnolia Ranch
At the end of 1882, Milton E. Joyce sold his share in the Oriental Saloon, and he and Leslie partnered to build a ranch near Arizona's Swisshelm Mountains. The "Magnolia" was located from Tombstone in a very desolate section of southeastern Arizona. Milt Joyce sold Leslie his share of the ranch in 1885.Becomes cavalry scout
From May 20 to June 21, 1885, Leslie became a scout for the 4th Cavalry. In 1886, he applied for a job as a customs inspector, and continued some work as a scout. In the April, 1886 the San Francisco Chronicle reported:Divorce
Mary Jane "May" Leslie filed a divorce complaint, and alleged that Leslie had had sex with "Miss Birdie Woods" between July 4–6, 1886. She also charged that Leslie had choked and beaten her on March 9, 1887. The divorce was granted on June 3, 1887. Judge William H. Barnes ordered Leslie to pay her $650 in cash and to convey title to a one-fourth interest in the Magnolia Ranch, including 13 horses and 150 cattle. Leslie was also ordered to pay all legal fees.Murders Mollie Edwards
After his divorce, Mollie Edwards joined Leslie at his ranch as his "wife," but that relationship ended on July 10, 1889 when Leslie returned to his ranch drunk. He found Mollie Edwards sitting and talking with James Neil. The Tombstone Daily Epitaph reported:Neil was badly wounded, and was brought back to Tombstone where he was treated by Dr. George E. Goodfellow on July 12, 1889, one of the foremost surgeons in treating gunshot wounds in the United States. Leslie was arrested the same day, and jailed. After a two-day preliminary hearing, Leslie was ordered held without bail until his trial in Tucson. Four days after killing Edwards, the coroner's jury reported:
Leslie plead guilty "to murder in the first degree" on January 6, 1890. The Sacramento Daily Record-Union reported:
Sentenced to life
Leslie was sentenced to life in prison. Sheriff John Slaughter delivered him to the Yuma Territorial Prison on January 9, 1890, where he became convict number 632. The Mohave Miner, on January 18, 1890, reported "The eleven convicts who were brought here from Tombstone yesterday, arrived in an intoxicated condition. One of the number, a life prisoner, Frank Leslie, was so drunk that he could scarcely walk."Leslie was in prison less than three months when he joined five other convicts in an unsuccessful escape attempt. Leslie was sent to solitary for his part in the escape attempt. When he was released from solitary, he became a model prisoner, and worked as a pharmacist in the prison infirmary. W.H. Cameron, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, interviewed Leslie in late 1893.
Pardoned by Arizona Governor
After reading the story in the San Francisco Chronicle, a 36-year-old San Francisco divorcee named Belle Stowell began writing Leslie. The Tombstone Prospector reported "It is probable that Frank Leslie, who was sentenced from this county to Yuma for life for murder, is likely soon to be a free man, as the Gazette states that executive clemency is likely to be extended in his behalf by Gov. Franklin" On November 17, 1896, Governor Benjamin J. Franklin of the Territory of Arizona granted Leslie a full and unconditional pardon. Leslie quickly left the state, going to Los Angeles, where he checked into the Natick House.Later life
Marries Belle Stowell
Leslie later took a train to Stockton, California, and on December 1, 1896, Belle Stowell, went to the San Joaquin County Clerk's office, and obtained a marriage license. Leslie identified himself as "Nashville Franklyn Leslie, native of Virginia , age 55," and stated that he was a "resident of San Carlos, Territory of Arizona." His bride described herself as "Mrs. Belle Stowell, native of Warren County, Illinois, age 39, resident of Warren Co., Illinois." The Stockton Daily Independent reported that "their wedding trip was to be to China, the start to be made by the next steamer," but, they never made it to China. Four months later, the San Francisco Call, reported that "Mrs. Leslie is at present in this state, but it is said that her husband cannot be located... It is not known whether they have separated or not, but it is believed that they have." The marriage was not legally ended until March 19, 1903, when it was reported Belle was granted the divorce from "Leslie for failure to provide."Fort Worth
In April 1897, Leslie arrived in Fort Worth, where he joined an Arizona friend named John Ralph "Jack" Dean. Leslie worked for Dean as a bartender in the Delaware Cafe. On January 17, 1898, the newspaper reported that he and a group of men formed "the charter of the Copper River Gold Mining and Prospect Company of Fort Worth was sent to Austin in charge of F.A. Mason, Capt. N.F. Leslie and Silas L. King today. This is the company which has been formed there to prospect in the Alaskan gold fields." Leslie apparently never went to Alaska, for in early April 1898 he was in Mexico. He was reported to be with "Doctor George Goodfellow and Tom Selby of San Francisco, at Hermosillo preparing for a trip to the interior."Possible service in Spanish–American War
Leslie apparently didn't stay in Mexico long. He claimed that he enlisted, fought, and was wounded in the Spanish–American War. The San Francisco Call later published a lengthy story written by Leslie in which he claimed that "when Roosevelt commenced his recruitment I enlisted in one of the first companies formed in Arizona, and after arriving in Cuba was transferred by my own request to Lawtons's command and remained with him until the end of Spain's dominion in the western hemisphere. At the end of the War I returned to Arizona."Mining in Mexico
If Leslie actually served in the Spanish–American War, he then traveled to Tombstone early in August, 1898, serving as a guide for a geological survey party looking for coal deposits. An Arizona paper reported that "since leaving Arizona Leslie has been in Cuba and returned wounded. After recovery he joined this surveying party and it is expected they will be engaged hereabouts for several months." The geological survey party was led by Professor Edwin Theodore Dumble. According to one Arizona newspaper "Prof. Dumble and his right hand man, Capt. Frank Leslie, have been in Nogales several days making arrangements for a month's stay in the field." Leslie was in the vicinity of Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, during the late summer of 1899 when he had a close call. According to one report, "Captain Frank Leslie, well known all over Arizona, was held up by Yaquis and robbed. They took all his arms, mount etc., and turned him loose."Leslie briefly returned to San Francisco, but in 1900, he went to Mexico to work for the Mulatos Mining Company. Leslie wrote about the mining company's activities for a Nogales newspaper on March 14, 1902.
Return to San Francisco
Leslie was one of four well-dressed men, along with Harry Walters, T. Estrau and T.E. Gaitwere, who in November 1900, attempted to fleece J.P. Reynolds, a Nevada mining-man. The would-be victim sensed that the men were trying to defraud him, and got away before losing any money. "As Reynolds did not suffer from his experience with the bunko men, the officers were unable to hold them on any other charge except vagrancy." Leslie and the other men were arrested and charged with vagrancy at the city prison.In another incident in December 1902, Leslie asked George V. Fause of Humboldt County for directions to a park in San Francisco. He befriended Fause and led him to a room in a lodging house on the southwest corner of Bush and Kearney Street, where Leslie and other men got Fause to give them a check for $675, which they promptly cashed at the Anglo-California Bank. When Fause left the place he ran into two policeman and told them of the fraud. The officers went back to the house as one of the men came out the front door. "When he saw the officers he started to run, but was soon overtaken and conveyed to the City Prison. He gave his name as Frank Leslie and his occupation as a horseman. Leslie was booked on a charge of grand Larceny by trick and device."
On November 25, 1902, Leslie was in San Francisco when his pistol fell out of his pocket, discharged, and wounded him. According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
Homestead claim filed in Seattle
On March 13, 1913, while living in Seattle, Leslie filed a homestead for property on Orcas Island. The homestead was contested a year later as Leslie "failed to reside, or attempted to cultivate the land." Leslie had boarded with John Dean and his wife. They looked for him and John reported Leslie had gone to Mexico City for mining business. The homestead claim was canceled on February 14, 1914.Marriage and death
Leslie married Elnora "Nora" Cast in Napa, California on November 6, 1913. When he was married, Leslie gave his occupation as miner. At age 74 on May 20, 1916, Leslie was in Seattle where he was interviewed by a reporter from the Seattle Daily Times about a trip he was planning to Mexico.Leslie was living in Sausalito, California, on Water Street on January 27, 1920. He was 77 years old and single. No public records of him have been found after this date, and it is not known when he died. His last wife, Elinora, died in Omak, Washington in 1932; Leslie was not listed as a survivor.