Wild West Podcast
Welcome to the Wild West podcast, where fact and legend merge. We present the true accounts of individuals who settled in towns built out of hunger for money, regulated by fast guns, who walked on both sides of the law, patrolling, investing in, and regulating the brothels, saloons, and gambling houses. These are stories of the men who made the history of the Old West come alive - bringing with them the birth of legends, brought to order by a six-gun and laid to rest with their boots on. Join us as we take you back in history to the legends of the Wild West. You can support our show by subscribing to Exclusive access to premium content at Wild West Podcast + https://www.buzzsprout.com/64094/subscribe or just buy us a cup of coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/wildwestpodcast
Wild West Podcast
Whiskey pours as the true story of the man who inspired Lonesome Dove unfolds
Some monsters aren't fiction – they're buried in Dodge City Cemetery beneath stones that read "beloved husband and father."
The story of Print Olive might be the most shocking true tale we've covered on Whiskey and Westerns. While sipping Bullet Bourbon (a fitting choice given Print's remarkable ability to absorb lead throughout his violent career), we unraveled the brutal history of a man whose sadistic tendencies would make even fictional villains seem tame.
Print began as a Texas cattle baron in the post-Civil War era, accumulating wealth by gathering "maverick" cattle – a term derived from Samuel Maverick, who famously refused to brand his herds. But Print's legacy wasn't built on business acumen alone. His reputation for horrific violence preceded him across the frontier. He once tied suspected rustlers to trees, wrapped them in freshly skinned wet cowhides, and watched as the rawhide slowly dried and crushed them to death in the hot Texas sun. Those who crossed the Olives had a tendency to "leave the country" permanently.
When Nebraska farmers Mitchell and Ketchum killed Print's brother Bob in self-defense, Print's revenge was swift and gruesome. After capturing the men through a bounty, Print hanged Ketchum while Mitchell remained handcuffed to him, forcing Mitchell to dangle by his arm while watching his partner strangle. Print then shot both men repeatedly before burning their bodies, earning the nickname "The Man-Burner." This incident forced Print to relocate to Dodge City, where he eventually met his own violent end in a Trail City saloon.
Perhaps most fascinating is how Print's brutal story influenced American literature. Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lonesome Dove" contains characters and scenes directly inspired by Print Olive's life. Jake Spoon, the hanging scene, Dietz and PI – all have roots in the actual history of this forgotten frontier monster.
Want to learn more? Visit our website to download "Ladder of Rivers," the book that chronicles Print's complete story and likely inspired McMurtry's masterpiece. Our next episode will feature the Dora Hand story, another fascinating tale connected to Print's violent web of influence.
"Edward Masterson and the Texas Cowboys," penned by Michael King, takes readers on an exhilarating ride through the American West, focusing on the lively and gritty cattle town of Dodge City, Kansas. This thrilling dime novel plunges into the action-packed year of Ed Masterson's life as a lawman, set against the backdrop of the chaotic cattle trade, filled with fierce conflicts, shifting loyalties, and rampant lawlessness. You can order the book on Amazon.
Here we go again. I demand more.
Speaker 2:I want it, I need it and I'm gonna have it. This pot show is pleased to bring you Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday, direct from Dodge City, kansas, featuring rich topics on the legends of the old west. Whiskey to motivate Westerns to inspire. Get it, play it, drink it.
Speaker 3:My name is Mike.
Speaker 1:King, and I'd like to welcome you to Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday. I'm Brad Smalley and we're going to celebrate this Independence Day by drinking a little bit of whiskey and telling some good stories about the American West.
Speaker 3:All right, Brad, what do you have for us tonight as far as your choice, our choice of whiskey.
Speaker 1:Well, I figure, with all the treason successful treason, I should add that led to American independence, there were a lot of bullets flying around, so what better than a little bit of?
Speaker 3:Bullet Bourbon. Yeah, I would say that's probably a good name for Fourth of July is Bullet Bourbon.
Speaker 1:Well, not his fault. It's the man's actual name. But we'll go along with the story.
Speaker 3:Anyway, it is his actual name, mr Bullet.
Speaker 1:That's relatively modern on the market. I believe Bullet started in the late 80s, 1980s, 1980s, yeah. However, as the story goes, they are using as close to what they felt that they could of the original Bullitt Augustus, augustus Bullitt.
Speaker 2:Augustus Bullitt.
Speaker 1:His recipe one of the early bourbon makers in the state of Kentucky. Today, tom Bullitt is running the country Tom Jr I think and it's one of the more popular, actually great, whiskeys on the market there as far as kind of middle of the shelf, not really budget, not very hot, very drinkable, very approachable whiskey.
Speaker 3:So the story goes that the whiskey was asked. The actual recipe for this whiskey was created around 1860 by who you mentioned earlier, Augustus Bullock, Augustus, and one day he was traveling to New Orleans with his barrels of whiskey from Kentucky and New Orleans and he just vanished and mysteriously was never found again but his recipe for good bourbon was kept alive by his family.
Speaker 1:Not the first man hauling whiskey that's ever probably disappeared, I would imagine.
Speaker 3:Hard telling. Just couldn't find a whiskey, couldn't find Augustus. Well, what do you say about this one?
Speaker 1:Well, the bullet is known for being high rye and, just on the nose, definitely get that For being .45 ABV, that's 90 proof. It doesn't smell hot, mm-hmm, but I definitely get the rye, the black pepper. Do you get a little caramel in there? I didn't earlier, but I'm getting it now. We were drinking this earlier, I am now. I'm getting Some caramel. It's a caramel apple soaked in oak, I agree, which, being bourbon, comes with the territory.
Speaker 3:Well, let's have a toast to the 4th of July, to treason, and take a sip of this bullet bourbon.
Speaker 1:And that's where the black pepper comes in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it goes all the way to your nose, doesn't it it?
Speaker 1:does Not a lot going on in there, and that's where the black pepper comes in. Yeah, it goes all the way to your nose, doesn't it? It does it just not a lot going on in there. But I would say, for being 45%, it's very drinkable. I agree, it does not taste hot at all.
Speaker 3:No, it goes down real well. You don't get a little of that backlash in your throat.
Speaker 1:at least you do get it in your nose, though I'm telling you See, I've still got the caramel apple on the nose and I'm getting black pepper and oak on the palate. It's like two different experiences at the same time.
Speaker 3:Well, that's not a bad bourbon at all.
Speaker 1:It's actually pretty nice. As you breathe in just a little bit while you're taking a sip, you get the full experience. Not a lot going on, but that's a damn good whiskey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree. What would you rate this one, fred? Now we're going from one to five on this. We're going one to five. Okay, it's taking you a while, maybe, maybe, maybe I'd give it a sip and see what you got over there.
Speaker 2:Well, I wouldn't mind.
Speaker 1:Okay, I gotta give it a 3.7, 3.8.
Speaker 3:3.8. Okay, that's not bad. It's reasonably priced too and, oh, very accessible, yeah. And you can find it on the shelves. Some of the whiskey that we've been drinking on our show we couldn't even find on the shelves, but it's yeah.
Speaker 1:You can find that anywhere.
Speaker 3:But we're still looking for that rare eagle Eagle, rare yeah.
Speaker 1:That's why they call it rare. Supposedly this month it's supposed to be out. I've been checking. Pretty good. I did pick up a couple of other rare bottles, just because, well, they like me, out there we're going to have to try some of those out here pretty soon. Stay tuned.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely. We've got a couple more shows that we were going to do in July that we've had planned out. One of those is going to tie into tonight's story about Jim Kennedy and the Dora Hand story story about Jim Kennedy and the Dora Hand story, which we're actually going to do that story next week or the week after, with an author who has written about Dora Hand and we're going to invite her on the show with us pretty soon and then we'll taste out another one of those rare whiskeys. I'm excited for that one. Well, brad, today we're going to talk a little bit about I don't know how to describe this guy. I mean he's. He lived in Dodge City for a while. He lived in Nebraska, he lived in Texas.
Speaker 1:Well, he's one of those characters, that a lot of people they sort of know his story but they don't know that they know it and we'll get more into that later.
Speaker 3:That's true, because there's a lot of literature that is tied into this story, but his name is Print Olive Print Olive and a lot of people don't know the story of Print Olive no not until you start telling the story and they keep thinking well, that sounds awfully familiar. If you were a Western, if you watched Westerns on TV, you'd see a lot of similarities. Oh yeah, you're going to recognize a lot of the story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3:So let's talk a little bit about Prince Olive. Let's talk about some of his background, where he came from and how he got to Dodge City.
Speaker 1:Well, Primm was his nickname. We probably ought to start there. His full name was Isom Prentiss IP Olive. He occasionally went by. I suppose if my name was Isom Prentiss I'd probably go by Prentiss as well. Part of a big family, the Olives were, after the Civil War, big ranchers, cattlemen in the state of Texas. Prince himself and one of his brothers also served in the Civil War, though I'm not sure if they were regular army.
Speaker 3:That's always a question. But we do know that he was in. He tested his iron first in the Civil War. He did, and his bullet he did out of Texas, out of Texas.
Speaker 1:Returned home and got into the cattle business which, of course, after the Civil War the South was destitute. There was very little going on economically. As far as the railroad's concerned, there weren't any, and where they were there was no standard gauge. You couldn't set one locomotive from one railway and put it on another one because it didn't fit. But the railroads were expanding, of course, in the north, as they were, which the north was known for with their industry. But what the south did have, especially in Texas, was a lot of cattle.
Speaker 3:Cattle. I think we need to talk a little bit about the cattle ranges back in that time, because around 1869, 1870, right in there, those cattle were just wild. They just were on the ranges everywhere.
Speaker 1:They're completely feral cattle, descendants of the Spanish cattle that the conquistadors and the Spanish settlers had brought over in the 14, 1500s and back. In those days the ranchers really didn't like to brand their cattle. Generally, there was no reason to until after on it, when they started forming ranches and driving their cattle to the market. It became more of an issue, but they called them Mavericks. That's right.
Speaker 1:And certainly the acceptance story is after Samuel Maverick, who was known for even after the practice of branding had taken over, he refused to brand his cattle. That that's how you will know they're mined because they're not branded Well. That created a whole other set of issues.
Speaker 3:That's right. So the name Maverick comes after Samuel Maverick and it was a name that was created because there was just no branding of cattle and people just gathered cattle anytime, even if it was on your land or somebody else's land, they would just round them up and they'd call them theirs.
Speaker 1:And of course we use the word still today maverick. Anyone who defies the accepted conventions or the rules. That's right.
Speaker 3:Okay, so we actually get a new word, created in 1869, a word called maverick. Now, one of the things that the Ollie's were good about well, of course they didn't like cattle thieves. That's what I understand.
Speaker 1:Does anyone?
Speaker 3:No, no, but if you did, I mean they were really upset.
Speaker 1:Oh, they were ruthless about it, yeah.
Speaker 3:Matter of fact, they were pretty harsh about it Very. I think ruthless is the most appropriate term for the Olive family. And the leader of that, of course, was Pratt, was Pratt, and he just didn't take much liking to the cattle fee?
Speaker 1:Not at all. On one hand it was their livelihood. Stolen cattle is just one step down from a stolen horse. That's right. If that, of course, print probably put it on an even higher level because that was their business. It was cattle Rounding up cattle mostly their own, sometimes other people's. Those mavericks Bringing them in the Olive family grew quite wealthy in Texas, had a lot of property they were good at rounding up cattle. They were fantastic at rounding up cattle. They were fantastic at rounding up cattle.
Speaker 3:Matter of fact, their herd started expanding a lot during that time.
Speaker 1:About the same rate that everyone else has started decreasing De-illusion cattle, Yep, yep. Well, they of course, eventually, like everyone else, they had to sell them, otherwise they're not worth nothing.
Speaker 3:So they got to move down the trail, move them up to Kansas, yep, sell them, otherwise they're not worth nothing.
Speaker 1:So they got to move down the trail. Move them up to Kansas Yep, Get them up there. Move them into places like Park City, Ellsworth, eventually Dodge and uh, Of course, the more cattle you get there, the more money you're making, which, especially when you start having cattle disappear. Rustlers, that's an issue, and I think that the olives especially print. Oh, the squeaky wheel gets the grease sort of thing. The louder you accuse others of rustling, the less they'll notice that you're wrestling also. Wrestling also, and I think that was the case. He was probably.
Speaker 3:Well, he was probably noted for wrestling cattle as much as anybody else. No one dared accuse him of it, but you know one of the stories about and a lot of people don't know this but when you're droving these cattle across the land, there's these farmers. Oh sure, and these farmers. They started charging tolls for these cattle to cross their land and to water their cattle, and usually a farmer gets $25 for watering and crossing their land.
Speaker 1:The water rights have always been a huge issue.
Speaker 3:But Prent didn't like the old idea of tolls.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's not about to pay somebody else for the privilege of taking his cattle trucks.
Speaker 3:There's no fences, of course, but people had staked out their land. No fences, of course, but people had staked out their land, but Prent, he refused and sometimes sent.
Speaker 1:He wasn't about to pay. He had lackeys. Well, thugs might be a more appropriate word. I agree, most famous one being Jim Kelly. Just a big, big black man, apparently quite the gunfighter, very intimidating and pretty, used him like a bulldog.
Speaker 3:And you know a lot of people back in those days. They weren't familiar with black people in the first place.
Speaker 1:Especially the further north.
Speaker 3:You got Right and he was big, and what they said is when he rolled his eyes back in the back of his head and then spit out between his teeth some things that he desired, he'd get it for $5.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, prince, standing there talking to their landowner or whatever, yeah, I'd say $25, pick a a number Across the land, water your cattle. Well, I don't like $25, says Print Hollers back at Jim. Jim, come talk to these folks. Jim comes around the corner. Sanjur rolls his eyes back in his head and just Well, yeah, you did what Print wanted. Jim is not above using his gun. And well, yeah, he did what print wanted after that and Joe's not above using his gun.
Speaker 1:By this time, the Olives are already starting to rack up a body count. A lot of folks that the Olives had dealings with that were not necessarily in the Olives' favor. Well, they sort of left the country.
Speaker 3:They say they left the country. Well, they probably had some sand in the dirt. They disappeared. Maybe that's what happened to Augustus Bullock.
Speaker 1:He may have ran across. That's entirely possible. I never put that into perspective. That may be.
Speaker 3:In a particular story that we're going to tell later on. You're talking about the Kennedy incident.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he goes to Ellsworth, he's driving his cattle to Ellsworth At this time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Dodge City is not the railhead anymore. Ellsworth has taken over the cattle drives from Wichita Park City, who in turn took it over from Abilene. So Ellsworth is the end of the trail. That's the end of the cattle drives. It's Dodge City. Before Dodge City was Dodge City and Print runs a foul, as he often did with folks in saloons. Print liked to drink Yep, he was a violent drunk. I think he liked both he may have. Yep, he was a violent drunk. I think he liked both he may have. They certainly flew whenever he was drunk. Well, he ran afoul of a young Texas cattleman by the name of Jim Kennedy, who was the son of Mifflin Kennedy, one of the wealthiest ranchers, landowners in the state of Texas, Partners with Prince King, of whom King County is named after Kingsville. And of course, as you alluded to, the Kennedy, especially Jim will feature in the Dora Hand story later on. But Prince and Jim got into an argument.
Speaker 1:I think they were even calling him Spike Kennedy already at this point, as the story goes. And young Mr Kennedy put a bullet in print, I think he shot him in his hip, Shot him in his hip leg groin.
Speaker 3:Shot him in the hand In the hand that's right Shot him in the leg and shot him in the hip.
Speaker 1:He shot him three times before, before print even hit the floor, and print was known for his ability to absorb lead.
Speaker 3:That's why we're calling tonight bullet. It becomes more appropriate Talking about print and getting shot three times bullet is probably the best.
Speaker 1:Well the thing is that probably would have been the end of Print Olive's life, had it not been for Big Jim Kelly Right, who essentially scared him off, fired off a couple shots and Kennedy was gone.
Speaker 3:He didn't want to stay around to see the results of only to resurface in Don.
Speaker 1:City several years later.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so anyway, that's the story of Jim Kennedy, which we'll tell in the story of Dorahan later. Another bad seed print. Olive didn't stay in texas too long, but he moved to nebraska he kept moving his money and his cattle further north.
Speaker 1:And well, when you do that, the money itself winds up further north. Why waste time driving all your cattle from texas when you can just have the rangeland here so close to the railroad? And, of course, the Chisholm Trail, the western trail, the western branch of the Chisholm didn't stop in Dodge Right. It continued on through Ogallala all the way up into Montana really Eventually Into Montana, really Eventually Montana right.
Speaker 1:So he got himself a bunch of rangeland in Nebraska, bought some land along Plum Creek and started his ranching operation up there, brought up his brothers, ira and Bob, and of course these brothers were just like him, if not worse. The print just called the rest and of course these brothers were just like him, if not worse. Print just called the shots. Ira and Bob were sort of Print's enforcers. Jim Kelly is gone by this point. He must have stayed in Texas where he belonged. But Print already has a reputation again by this point, like we alluded to the folks that he disagreed with sort of disappeared.
Speaker 1:One thing we didn't talk about is the incident with those folks that he I'll say he accused of being rustlers. Certainly no evidence.
Speaker 2:Now this is back in Texas.
Speaker 3:This is still back in texas.
Speaker 1:Even before he he got to nebraska, there were a couple of fellas that he accused of being rustlers, caught up with him and tied him, tied them together to a big tree and the cattle that he accused them of rustling. He skinned the cow and wrapped that wet hide around their torso. While they were tied to the tree and sat back, and once that sun came out, that hide started to dry and shrink and he just sat there and watched it crush him to death. This is the kind of man we're dealing with. He took glory in other people's.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He enjoyed killing people, suffering, yeah, suffering, and watching them suffer. Wow, that's a mean hombre, that is something Mean, mean, that's a mean dude, I'll tell you. So you know, he does end up here in Dodge City. There is some stories about it, in fact. But you know, one of the most famous Western writers of all time, mcmurtry right, larry McMurtry? Yeah, lonesome Dove, lonesome Dove. Yeah, larry Murtry, lonesome Dove. There is some parallelism between what he writes in Lonesome Dove and what occurs in some of the Olive stories. So let's make a tie between those characters and how all of that comes about well, to do that, we need to back up just a little bit.
Speaker 1:Ok, we're still in Nebraska. A tie between those characters and how all of that comes about. Well, to do that, we need to back up just a little bit. Okay, all right. Now we're still in Nebraska, all right. Harry Prenton hasn't moved down to Kansas, trying to make his home base in Dodge City yet. Well, nebraska is known more for farmers than it is for ranchers. Well, farmers control land that is better suited as cattle ranch, at least in the eyes of the Brent and the Olive family. And he was again known for doing whatever he could to convince these farmers that they were not welcome anywhere near Olive land. And it worked. They weren't afraid of it, just deathly terrified of Prince Olive. Knowing his reputation, knowing, if you get crossways with Prince Olive, you'll be like your neighbor who just left the country, right.
Speaker 2:Unexpectedly never to be seen or heard from again, that's right.
Speaker 1:Well, eventually it got so bad that there were a couple of farmers by the names of Mitchell and Ketchum Ketchum Mitchell, ketchum Mitchell. They were a co-business owner. They farmed together. They were families-business owners. They farmed together, right, their families, joint farmers, and their homestead and their families kind of became the home base for all the people, all the farmers who were in the area, who were trying to resist the all of violence.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And eventually it just it got too much Print got his brother, Bob, who was actually wanted for murder by this point, with, I think, a $400 prize on his head.
Speaker 3:And always getting off too. I mean those guys, they.
Speaker 1:Of course they got off. Even the wall was afraid of the odds. Yeah, they got caught, they'd get off. But anyway, go afraid of the odds.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they got caught, they get off. But anyway, go ahead with your story.
Speaker 1:Well, brent got his brother Bob appointed stock examiner, I believe, at a government job. That's a good one.
Speaker 1:So that he could— Examine the brand Right exactly. And they wanted these farmers gone and the farmers weren't leaving. So finally, bob and some of the other olive outfit, while these two farmers, mitchell and Ketchum, and their families were going into town to just conduct some city business, bob Olive wrote down on them and started shooting, and Ketchum and Mitchell. They started shooting back. One of them got shot, I think it was. Ketchum got shot in the arm and Mitchell actually shot Bob with a rifle, knocked him off his horse and didn't kill him instantly, but he died shortly thereafter His 24th birthday.
Speaker 1:It was Pretty young to be a war soldier Well, even on his nicest days, print is a mean SOB, right, yeah Well, they just killed his brother. Oh, that could be bad Well. Mitchell was terrified because he had just killed Bob Olive. He'd been wounded in the arm. Didn't dare go to see a doctor because he knew that the doctors, any doctor in the area would be watched. They'd catch him, they'd kill him, and they were on the run for a while, knowing that as soon as they were found. They were dead men.
Speaker 1:They were dead men walking, kind of like gangsters, you know.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely, the Olives was a mob.
Speaker 1:They really were. Well, they eventually the Ketchum, mitchell and Ketchum and Mitchell, mitchell and Ketchum. They put their women and children, put them in a safe spot and they took off, hoping for the best. Well, they were caught Because the print had put a price on their heads. They were caught by a bounty hunter, turned in, went to the sheriff Well, the sheriff was. Went to the sheriff Well, the sheriff was in the olive pocket. Even the law was completely buffaloed by a parade of olive, kind of like the Dodge.
Speaker 3:City Gang in a way, but yeah, If not worse, far more violent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, certainly. I guess the Dodge City Gang never really had to back it up, right? But yeah, print wasn't afraid of them. He paid Sheriff $700, and Catchum and Mitchell turned them over to Print.
Speaker 3:But they weren't going to pay the bounty until they handed them over. Until they got them over Right. So he had the bounty and the bounty hunter said I want my money.
Speaker 1:And he says no, you can't have your money until you give them over to me. And so, when they gave them over to him, yep, they paid the bounty and $700 was a sizable chunk of change.
Speaker 1:Oh, man, yeah, and if that doesn't convince you to turn people over on, I'd take $700 for about anything now, but in the 1880s that was a big sum. That was a chunk of change. Well, this is where Brent Olive's evil reputation was forever submitted. You remember back in Texas where they took those guys and let them? Let that rawhide squeeze them to death?
Speaker 3:Squeeze them to death.
Speaker 1:yeah, pop them in my house. They took Ketchum and they hung him. Just wrapped a lariat around his neck, threw it around the end of a tree, hauled him up and hung him. Cowboy justice. Except Mitchell was still handcuffed to Ketchum and they hung. They hung Ketchum, they hauled Mitchell up. He's sitting there hanging by his arm while Ketchum is being throttled to death. So they shot him. They just shot Mitchell and Ketchum, shot their, shot their dead bodies full of holes and then they set him on fire more of that bullet, yep.
Speaker 3:And they said what just?
Speaker 1:shooting him wasn't bad enough, shot their dead bodies full of holes, and then they set them on fire. More than a bullet Mm-hmm Yep. And they did what? Just shooting them wasn't bad enough, and then they set them on fire.
Speaker 3:Wow, you know that reminds me of a scene, mm-hmm, lonesome Dove.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. Exactly, they called it. Thereafter, a print was known as the man Burger, man Burger, wow. Well, so back to your Lonesome Dove allusion. You remember Jake Spoon? I do the former Texas Ranger Right. And of course, two major Rangers in the story were themselves based on Charles Goodknock and Oliver Loving. I mean, their story is almost parallel. Well, jake Spoon is essentially Prince Olive in his hatred for farmers and his violent attacks on them. Enough that they put it down.
Speaker 3:That scene in the Lonesome Dove of the two farmers crossing land. Of course they were stealing horses at that time and running those horses.
Speaker 1:It goes beyond that, dietz and PI.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, dietz Dietz and PI. Dietz, the man that crosses the desert barefooted, right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's in the story. Of course, the names were changed to protect the innocent. As far as largened mercury is concerned, dietz and PI were real men. In fact it was Ira, another one of the Olive brothers, who had essentially murdered another cattleman by the name of Dietz, who in real life was a white man. And by the time he went to court, there was a witness, an old man known as PI PI PI, who was a witness for the prosecution. Well, pi, before the trial was over, wound up dead in his wagon. His wagon rolled into town and they found PI's dead body in the back of his wagon.
Speaker 2:So he wasn't driving the wagon, ira, essentially got off on lack of evidence.
Speaker 1:I got you, got you. It's easy when you kill the witnesses.
Speaker 3:Right, this is the family we're dealing with. Yeah, the All In family, right yeah?
Speaker 1:So we've got Dietz, we've got PI, we've got Jake Spoon, who was essentially print alt Right. Now I think this is just my theory now, but I think where all of this came from is there is a book called the Ladder of Rivers that was published in 1962. Martin I just lost his name, the author's name, christian Chrism Chrism, chrism Chrism Martin, chrism Right, who is actually a member of the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, despite being a native Nebraskan Right, where Printol has spent a lot of his career. Ladder of Rivers, 1962, about the time that Larry McMurtry was starting his literary career. I think Molson Dove came out in 1982, 83, thereabouts. So I firmly believe that that book was fresh on McMurtry's mind.
Speaker 3:I agree when he wrote Lonesome Duck. And one of the things I could mention if you go to our website, which is World Famous Gunfighters of Boot Hill you go to Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday you're going to find a copy of that book that you can download. If you're interested in following the story of Prince Ali and his life entirety, you can download that book off our website.
Speaker 1:It is available for free online.
Speaker 3:I had to pay $80 for my hard time several years ago, but that's it. You can get it in PDF format and you actually download it off our website.
Speaker 1:It is a fantastic read and, beyond that, absolutely check out the author's other works Lost Trails of the Cimarron.
Speaker 3:Right and the.
Speaker 1:Cattleman by Murray Zandos yeah, who also wrote the Buffalo Hunters Cheyenne, autumn Right. A fantastic historian in her own right.
Speaker 3:The Cattleman, yes, has a wonderful section on print olive, and then also Shooters, Shooters which I'm not familiar with, but you were telling me about it. Right, that's also another resource that you can read in order to get the history of print olive and some of his corrupt beings. Do we have all of the links for these books.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll have all of them on the website, especially go to Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday, and you'll see all of the links along with this program itself. But let's go back now to the demise. The demise when the end of the story ends up here in Dodge City and the grave and the memorial is actually here in Dodge City. But let's take it from the time where he was challenged in a saloon.
Speaker 1:Well, after the man-burning incident Nebraska was getting a little hot for Print Olive, his brother Bob was dead was getting financially strapped making sure, had internally paid out all the bribe money just that $700 alone to the sheriff for the. During that incident he moved his family Brent did moved his family back to Kansas to Dodge City, got some land along Saw Log Creek and just made Dodge City his home base. Right Planned on retiring there. Much smaller operation than he'd had in the past. I think honestly he was just after a life of violence. He might have been a little bit done. I think his wife and family were starting to.
Speaker 3:Maybe curve off the rough edges a little bit. They wanted to settle in.
Speaker 1:By this time, Dodge is becoming more metropolitan, even cultured 80s.
Speaker 2:It's a great place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at this point, to run a business, raise your family Right. Except for Prince never got over his love of drinking and gambling, and gambling, and nor did his constitution change once he'd been drinking. He was still an idiotic, violent drunk, liked to make threats and while he was out on a trip to Trail.
Speaker 3:City Right.
Speaker 1:Trail City, which at the time was right on the border, like border town. Half the town was in Kansas, half the town was in Colorado. Right town Half the town was in Kansas, half the town was in Colorado. He was at a saloon there and got in a scuffle. Nobody really knows or understands what started it. Lots of stories. Pick a story of what started the fight.
Speaker 3:One story is that Jake owed him $3.50 and he was going to be forgiven for that.
Speaker 1:Irregardless. Print was running off with the mouth, drunk as usual, and Swallow, Swallow yeah, swallow was his name Shot him dead, took a couple of shots at him and by this point in his life and career, print olive had simply absorbed too much lead and lead poisoning took its fatal effect.
Speaker 3:Well, that's those bullets.
Speaker 1:He was on the ground Just like this, by all reports he actually begged the man, not to kill him, but he shot him dead. The saloon itself actually still stands. It was moved into, if I have the correct building, it was moved into Coolidge. It was in Coolidge, kansas, okay, which in itself was quite the wild little border town after the. What was the name of that saloon, do you?
Speaker 3:remember.
Speaker 1:I have no idea what the name of it was. It's been breakfast now. You can absolutely go and stay there. Built in 1887. Okay, I believe. But after his death, because Dodge City had become their home base, his wife, whose name escapes me, do you remember? It starts with an L, louisa, louisa, that sounds right. Louisa had his. What wrong with that? His wife moved, brought his body back home to Dodge City. He was buried in Prairie Grove Cemetery Right, which only existed for a short period of time, and eventually, after Prairie Grove was closed, they moved Prince into Maple Grove, the current Dodge City Cemetery Right. They moved print into Maple Grove, the current Dock City City Cemetery, erected a very nice tall spire tombstone. Beloved husband and father, you will be missed.
Speaker 3:Me. I'll miss In looking at that you missed by whom?
Speaker 1:He was a wonderful. The Olives were a wonderful family. Well, they were a great family yeah, they loved it.
Speaker 2:Family Anything outside their family.
Speaker 3:Well, they were a great family, yeah, and they loved it Family. But anything outside their family they'd probably just kill you, yeah.
Speaker 1:Don't talk outside their family. Yeah, so Prince, his wife, their children, all buried in Dodge City and I don't know how many people I've told that story to come up looking and they make that Lonesome Dove connection. You know, jake Spoon was buried in Dock City, right, right. And then they learn the real story behind Prince Olive. That didn't even scratch the surface.
Speaker 3:Well, what a great story. Prince Olive a lot of people don't know or didn't know about Prince Olive. He's not really truly one of those legends that a lot of people talk about.
Speaker 1:But for such a violent evil man that he was, I don't understand actually why he's not more popular.
Speaker 3:But he is the basis of a lot of Westerns. So let's take a toast to the 4th of July and to Brent Olive, brent Olive, a toast to the 4th of July, and to print out. Print out Western legends of the legends of the old west.
Speaker 2:God bless America. God bless America, thank you.
