The Crimes of "Buckskin" Frank Leslie


On this day in 1889, "Buckskin" Frank Leslie shot and killed his lover, Tombstone sex worker Blonde Mollie Williams. Leslie had taken up with Williams two years earlier but the relationship soured and he murdered her in a drunken rage. A ranch hand who had witnessed the shooting testified against him in court and he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Seven years into his sentence he was given parole after a young divorcee named Belle Stowe assisted him with his case. He married Stowe and it's reported that the two made a small fortune during the Klondike gold rush. After moving to San Francisco in 1904, he disappeared from the historical record. Some believe he committed suicide, although an official cause of and date of his death have never been confirmed.

Blonde Mollie Williams was not Leslie's first victim. Shortly after opening the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Tombstone, Arizona, he shot and killed Mike Killeen during a dispute over Killeen's wife. While the killing was officially ruled an act of self-defense, many Tombstone residents began to believe it was foul play after Leslie married Killeen's widow two months later. Leslie was also a suspect in the murder of gunslinger John Ringo. When Billy Claiborne, a friend of Ringo's, confronted Leslie, Leslie shot the young man dead. The people of Tombstone, many of them gunslingers and murderers themselves, considered Frank Leslie's behavior to be beyond the pale. When they had the chance to put him away for the murder of Blonde Mollie Williams, they were happy to take it.

Related Reading:

Inglorious Arizona: What's the truth about Tombstone's 'Buckskin' Frank Leslie?

Street Smarts: Tucson's Leslie Avenue named for Old West character with violent, colorful life

MEANDERING THE MESQUITE: Johnny Ringo: The myth meets the truth






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