Judge Roy Bean: The Law West of The Pecos

By the late 1870s,  Bean was operating a saloon in a slum area of San Antonio and a business owner in the city was so anxious to have him out of town that she reportedly bought all his belongings for $900 so he would leave.  He used the money to buy a tent and 550 gallons of whiskey and opened a saloon in a tent city near the Pecos River where 8000 railroad workers were billeted.  A Texas Ranger wanted local law enforcement in the area and in August, 1882 Bean was appointed Justice of the Peace.

He turned his tent saloon into a courtroom and called himself the Law West of the Pecos.  He had only one book–the 1879 edition of the Revised Statutes of Texas.  He never referred to any other.  He did not permit hung juries.  He did not allow appeals.  The jury pool came from his best customers who were expected to purchase drinks during court recesses.

Odd rulings were the order of the day in Bean’s court.  Paddy O’Rourke killed a Chinese laborer and Bean, after referring to his law book, determined that homicide was the killing of a human being and that he could find no law against the killing of a Chinese person.  This satisfied the mob of 200 Irishmen outside that had threatened to lynch the judge if the verdict had been otherwise.
                                                        
image via wikipedia

With railroad construction moving ever westward, Bean moved his saloon and courtroom twice, ending up in Eagle’s Nest, soon renamed Lantry.  Bean had become enamored with the British actress Lillie Langtry but the town was not named in her honor.  Bean’s saloon, The Jersey Lilly (sic), was, however.

Langtry had no jail.  All cases were handled by fines which Bean kept for himself sending no monies to the state.  Fines assessed were the exact amount of money the accused had on him at the time of the trial.  He was not the hanging judge some would have us believe having sentenced only two men to death and one of them escaped.  Horse thieves were released upon the return of horses to their rightful owners.  Bean illegally granted divorces and ended all weddings by saying, “and may God have mercy on your souls.”

Bean was defeated for re-election in 1886 but refused to surrender his seal and law book and continued to try cases whenever he could.   As he got older he spent much of his saloon profit helping the poor and made certain the school house had free firewood every winter.  He died in his sleep on March 16, 1903 after a bout of heavy drinking at the age of 77.  He is buried at the Whitehead Memorial Museum in Del Rio, Texas.