Bat Masterson, The Writer
by I’ll bet you didn’t know the old wild west killer was a writer-
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Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp.
Bat Masterson worked as a sports writer, editor and columnist. His career as a writer started around 1883 and ended at his death in New York City in 1921.
He wrote a letter published in the Daily Kansas State Journal, on June 9, 1883, that mentioned his arrival in Dodge City, the famous Long Branch saloon, and his famous cohorts who made the Long Branch their headquarters during the so-called “Dodge City Saloon War”. It was during this time that Bat met newspapermen Alfred Henry and William Eugene Lewis. Both journalists were destined to play a role in Masterson’s future as a scribe. Masterson published Vox Populi, a single edition newspaper focusing on local Dodge City politics in November 1884. Masterson penned a weekly sports column for George’s Weekly sometime after his arrival in Denver, Colorado, in the late 1890s.
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Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and others.
Masterson spent a year as marshal of Trinidad, Colorado as well as serving as Sheriff of South Pueblo, Colorado. In 1883, he participated in a bloodless conflict and gunfighter gathering later called the Dodge City War. By 1889, he was living in Denver, Colorado, where he was good friends with and involved with Soapy Smith in the infamous election ballot stuffing scandal. He purchased the Palace Variety Theater and married actress Emma Walters, on November 21, 1891. In 1892, he managed the Denver Exchange Club in Creede, Colorado, and continued to travel around the boomtowns of the West, gambling and promoting prize fights.
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