Possible Dirty Dave Rudabaugh

Comment by Steve McCarty on June 20, 2010 at 2:14pm

I love this picture! While I can't be absolutely positive it's Dirty Dave I believe it is most likely him. He is also wearing a new suit and hat, just as my latter picture of Henry McCarty shows. (He is not pictured with a hat, however.) They share a similar background which looks like the inside of a jail cell to me.

This image was found packaged with the picture of Billy and Frank Coe. They were in Sallie Chisum's collection which provides provenance to me. Also his heavy brow and "v" shaped mustache match the picture of Dave's decapitated head. That picture was taken six years after this one.

Comment by Steve McCarty on June 21, 2010 at 10:21am

I reversed this picture from the original Ferrotype, so here we see, who I believe is Dave Rudabaugh as he appeared in life. Note he has a split lip. When he was captured at Stinking Springs wore a full beard. Here he has been cleaned up for trial and wears what I think is a new suit and hat. Nor does he look very happy. See how he glares! He has also torn that paper collar as open as he could.

It's said that Dave was the only man that Billy the Kid was afraid of. It might have been the other way round. Of course Dave escaped and went into Old Mexico, something that the Kid should have done.

Comment by Steve McCarty on June 26, 2010 at 12:53pm

Historians and collectors have been searching for a picture of a living Dirty Dave (No one call him that to his face btw.) for decades. Here we have one and no one cares. Oh, well; enjoy it anyway.

He was a very bad person. His claim to fame was that he was arrested by Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Pat Garrett. That's kind of neat. No tell'n how many people he sent to the Happy Hunting Ground; several at least.

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