A few of the ranchers who had lost their cattle to Roddy were in the courtroom. Cattle can fetch several hundred dollars at auction, depending on size, age, and health of the animal. In. Sure glad you enjoyed it. Hutchison says the economic downturn makes thieves desperate for easy money, but he adds the cattle system if not foolproof makes it hard for them to get away with it. "working" cattle or "running cattle through" in terms of processing "Unfortunately not. There will always be someone who will give cattle rustling a try, especially when he learns the kind of money he can make. He works in several of the auction barns, so he hears and sees things. Married into a family of five boys, so weve had a big family. Some ranchers even grow fond of the animals they raise, no matter how abruptly these relationships may end at the stockyard gate. Because of his diabetes, he didnt look good at all; his blood sugar levels had been fluctuating wildly, and he had suffered a number of life-threatening seizures. Forget the Trailer. In other states, the crime carries a lighter sentence. He was invariably polite, never failing to raise his Resistol upon meeting a lady. This was a cow whisperer, cattle people told themselves. Not long after that, Roddy paid a visit to his buddies David and Darrell Malone, whom he had first gotten to know when he was in kindergarten. Throughout rural Texas they are known as the cattle rangers, and they are famous for their ability to hunt down cattle thieves. The cowboy did not have any paperwork attesting to his ownership of the calves. why was cattle rustling a hanging offense. We are a community-supported, non-profit organization and we humbly ask for your support because the careful and accurate recording of our history has never been more important. Texas is an open-range state, but counties may hold elections to become closed range and require livestock to be fenced. (Some cows are sold and resold so often that they have multiple brands.) In all the talks I had with him after his arrest, he was completely well mannered and courteous, never using one word of profanity, said Scott Williamson, a respected field inspector for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) who works throughout northwest Texas investigating livestock theft. Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Many cowboys' herds increased so rapidly that some ranchmen refused to hire any hand who had stock of his own. Enough was enough; these cattle didnt just wander off to take in the night air. They knew the cattle country and were adept at roping, branding, and trailing. If, at that point, Roddy had kept his mouth shut, he probably would have been booked on a single charge: theft of livestock under ten head, a fourth-degree felony. The vast distances to town, hence law enforcement, often prompted ranchers to take actions of their own. Find out everything you need to know about it here. Frontier justice. Arkadalk; stihdam; Liderlik . Sponsored by The Penny Hoarder What companies will send people money when they're asked nicely? We must be a boring family. When he finished high school, he enrolled at Sul Ross State University, in Alpine. I romanticized about living a different life, about being someone else . Lee threw on his clothes and caught up with Roddy, while the Vernon police caught up with Darrell and Melissa. You dont exactly come across anyone these days who studies all his career options and then announces, By God, Im going to start a cattle rustling operation, said Dan Mike Bird, the burly district attorney of Hardeman and Wilbarger counties, where Roddy did most of his rustling. Still, Easter got off easy compared to another Texan who was sentenced to 99 years in prison for swindling a rancher out of 400 head of cattle back in 2011. Doug Perkins, Brave Men and Cold Steel: A History of Range Detectives and Their Peacemakers (Fort Worth: Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Foundation, 1984). And because he had no prior criminal record, it was likely he would get probation. He wants to apologize again to the people he stole from and, finally, to be buried in a pinebox in Oklahoma, "on a sublime highly elevated hill overlooking the Red River Valley.". In fact, Roddy said, when he took David out for his first rustling jobhe always used David one night, Darrell the nexthe drove to the ranch of a millionaire whom David and Darrell despised. He has even brought down country con artists who lease out pastures to other ranchers, promising to watch over those ranchers cattle, but then sell the cattle instead, disappearing with the profits. Hed drop by the Medicine Mound Depot, Quanahs best restaurant, and order a medium-rare steak, fried okra, a baked potato with all the trimmings, a garden salad with ranch dressing, and a glass of milk with ice, and hed talk in an almost courtly manner to the waitress about the weather and country music and the cattle business. Convicted cattle rustler Roddy Dean Pippin has asked a Texas court to string him up in the Hardeman County square and let him hang for his crimes instead of continuing to keep him locked up in prison. It was never a hanging offense to begin with, at least nowhere in the US. He was caught only after taking to auction a stolen calf with a distinctive barbed-wire scar, which someone noticed. Techniques of theft in the later twentieth century included anesthetizing cattle with hypodermic darts, using trained bulldogs to bring the animals down, and herding the booty with helicopters. He worked nearly three decades for the Travis County Sheriffs Office; the last 15 years as a detective, and 10 of those years he worked with a multi-jurisdictional auto theft task force. It's just a frivolous motion to attempt to draw attention to himself," Heatly said. A while back, for instance, there was a story about a group of Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees, apparently unhappy with their low pay, who had decided to steal some cows off their own prisons farm. accessed March 02, 2023, A judge allowed Pippin to serve two years under his mother's care so that he could get the medical care he needed for his diabetes. Do you have a family story youd like to share? He then persuaded a high school friend to follow him to a ranch owned by a wealthy man who rarely set foot on the place. Then he got another job, making $12 an hour hauling fifty-gallon drums of hazardous waste for a chemical company. Like horse thieves, cattle rustlers could be hanged without benefit of trial, judge or jury. The white satin curtain drapes blew in the window as I twisted in my blue silk sheet and rolled to my left to find Alexcias warm body compressed against mine, he wrote. . On average, special rangers with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association investigate roughly 1,000 cattle theft and stray cattle cases every year. He bought a used cattle trailer and a horse, and he eventually made a down payment on a home in nearby Odell. I truly hope that someday I can visit churches and schools and speak to children about the temptations of rustling and of the outlaw life in general.. . So to But I believed I could pull off one last big rustle and then get out of the business for good., Roddys plan was to steal an eighteen-wheeler filled with several dozen steers. Then hed return every few days to visit again with the cattle and see if the stick had been knocked overhis way of finding out how often the ranch hands came by. His work took him to a Caldwell County property last year after a ranch-hand noticed a jerry-rigged horse trailer carrying two young calves near the farm. A West Texas Roundup, Without All That Hoopin and Hollerin, Texans, Meet Your Adorable, Bloodthirsty New Neighbors. What, I wondered, was this young man doing way out in this little community, and how was he really making a living?, The TSCRA headquarters, in Fort Worth, ran Roddys name through its computers, which keep records of everyone who has sold cattle at any auction barn in Texas. You need to stand up and take your punishment like a real man.. . Not my smartest decision, rustling in such a public place, Roddy said. That background has certainly lended itself to his job investigating reports of stolen cattle. Weldon Wilson Drove Cattle the Old-fashioned Way. Judge Isaac Parker was called the hanging judge for a reason. Jessie James came by to visit my Great Grandfather he held in high Regard and highly respected my Grandfather. You Can Lead Cows to Water, But Can You Make Em Swim Across the Colorado River? Talk soon turned to the recent spate of cattle rustling. Receive small business resources and advice about entrepreneurial info, home based business, business franchises and startup opportunities for entrepreneurs. It was a beautiful spring morning. Im lucky my truck was fast. Antagonist of the novel. We dont take kindly to any cattle rustler, no matter how pleasant he may be. A plea bargain was arranged in which Roddy received four consecutive two-year sentences with no chance of parole. They don't hang rustlers these days, but Montana's Legislature has passed a bill this session to jack-up the penalties not only for the theft of livestock but for illegal branding as well. He was also a severe diabetic who injected himself up to six times a day with insulin to avoid debilitating seizureshardly the kind of condition associated with a Texas outlaw. The doctors told me he was a brittle diabetic, because his blood sugars would drop without any warning, and his jaw would lock up and hed collapse to the ground., Roddy would spend many evenings in his room, lying on his bed, leafing through picture books about the Old West. Leave them blank to get signed up. We found a hole in one of the fences that led us to believe that some cows had gotten loose and wandered off into the brush. stella luchetta photos. At the ranch, David, wearing tennis shoes, stood by the pickup and held a spotlight while Roddy, wearing his cowboy clothesnew leather chaps and leather glovesgrabbed a few calves. Whats more, Roddy always took his stolen cattle to a livestock auction barn that was at least a couple of counties away, where there was almost no chance the brands on the cattle would be recognized. Please stay safe. Im But he didnt exactly buy and sell cows. He becomes a cattle rustler and when caught, he refuses to speak to his friend. is hanging still legal in texas for cattle rustling is hanging still legal in texas for cattle rustling. That night, after his mother had gone to bed, he slipped out of the house, stuck his homemade crate back in his pickup, drove toward the cattle, and wrestled a calf into his crate. TDCJ interprets the judge's ruling that allowed him to serve the probation differently. Thats when Roddy and I began corresponding. No family stories that I know in my family. He requests a 72-hour conjugal visit with his wife and two hours to play with her two young children. But he never thought that the polite young man in the truck was rustling cattle. Murchison is one of 30 special rangers deputized as law enforcement by the Texas Department of Public Safety. And I said, Okay, Im going to give it a go.. Required fields are marked * Comment:* Name:* Email Address:* Website: Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Livestock who forged well were called rustlers by cowmen; meaning the animals could graze or rustle up nourishment on marginal land. He is killed by the Virginian in a gunfight. Train robberies closed in on it. The stolen cattle are generally calves weighing between 350 and 500 pounds. yes it is legal. By the summer of 2004, a few ranchers had called Scott Williamson to say that they were missing cattle; a couple of other ranchers had called to say that their trailers or saddles had been stolen. If you havent read him, sir, hes a very fine writer. The man who was after me had his rifle out the window., On another evening, Roddy came across a couple hundred cattle that were penned in order to be sold the next day. Some modern-day cattle ranchers wish they still were. It was exactly the kind of morning that Roddy liked to write about in his stories. One day, sitting in the kitchen, he watched some cattle grazing in the distance. (Spectrum News), California Consumer Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information, California ConsCalifornia Consumer Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Display TSCRA member sign on gates and entrances, Brand cattle and horses, make sure the brand is recorded with the county clerk, Put drivers license number on all saddles, tack and equipment, Videotape horses and tack. Williamson also received a phone call from a woman who had seen a pickup carrying a trailer full of cattle racing past her home in the middle of the night. The reality may be closer to. Roddy gave interviews to a few newspaper reportersOne hundred years ago, I would have gotten the rope, he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram,explaining his decision to accept such a harsh sentenceand then off he went to state prison. I would be honored to tell a few of my stories and intrigue the Texas Public, he wrote in his first letter. Thousands of Rangers patrolled the frontier, fought in military battles, and arrested cattle rustlers. (B) the use of force other than deadly force to protect or recover the land or property would expose the actor or another to a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury. The mother cow, sensing danger, suddenly rushed at Roddy, pushing him into a barbed-wire fence before runningaway. Thieves equipped with fast trucks stole cattle at night, butchered them in nearby thickets, and sold the meat the next day in markets perhaps several hundred miles away. 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