outlaws and crimes – Texas History Notebook

Rains County

Emory B. Raines (1800 – 1878) was the son of James (or John) Rains and Mary Ann Duncan Rains and was one of at least a dozen children born to the couple. Emory was born May 4, 1800 in Caney Branch, Warren County, Tennessee. In 1817, when he was a teenager, the family moved to Texas, first settling in the Nacogdoches area. When he was in his 20s, he married the former Marana Anderson. Rains was 29 years old before he learned to read. As was the norm at that time, Rains did not attend a law school, but independently studied the law and was admitted to the Texas Bar. He later became a Texas legislator, serving in Shelby and Wood counties.

George (Red) Bingham, Texas Ranger

Little is actually known about the personal life of Ranger George R. “Red” Bingham. His date of death is July 3, 1880. A member of Company D under Captain D. W. Roberts, Bingham died in a gun battle in far West Texas. He is said to have been about 28 years old. His story is intertwined with that of an outlaw named Jesse Evans. In those days, most Texas Rangers were single men, which was most likely a requirement for employment at that time. Bingham was among a group of five rangers who were tasked with locating and arresting a group of outlaws believed to hide out in the area south of the territory of New Mexico and southwest of Fort Davis, Texas. Bingham was killed in a gun battle with the outlaws on July 3, 1880.

Richard Clayton Ware, Texas Ranger

Richard Clayton “Dick” Ware was born November 11, 1851 near Rome, Georgia to Benjamin Franklin Lafayette Ware and Mary Jane Price Ware. Ware is the Texas Ranger traditionally credited for giving outlaw Sam Bass his fatal gunshot wound in Round Rock, Texas in July, 1878.

Geronimo Parra

Geronimo Parra was the name of a long time criminal who was known around the Texas-New Mexico border area. He was one of the last outlaws executed by hanging in El Paso in early January, 1900. Some ten years earlier, Parra had been accused of killing Texas Ranger Charles H. Fusselman some ten years earlier.

United States Marshal Harrington Lee “Hal” Gosling

Marshal Hal Gosling was killed in an escape attempt aboard a train in Comal County on February 21, 1885. James Pitts and Charles Yeager were convicts who were in the process of being transported back to San Antonio and then on to Federal prison to serve their sentences. Gosling was the son of William Gosling (1812 – 1876) of England, and Lucinda Harrington Gosling (1825 – 1896). Hal was one of several siblings in the family. He was born to the couple on June 2, 1851 in Tennessee. William was listed as a manufacturer in the 1850 and 1860 census reports. The 1870 census referred to the cotton industry. William died in 1876 of unknown causes and Lucinda appears to have survived him for many years.