Chris Franks was an American US Marshal who served in Arkansas during the Wild West era. In 1875, he and posseman Bass Reeves captured the rustler Charlie Storm, but he protested when Judge Isaac Charles Parker decided to make Reeves a Marshal after Reeves rescued him from Rufus Buck's gang, partly due to his racism, partly due to Reeves' illiteracy (which prevented him from reading warrants), and partly due to his concern that Reeves was too inexperienced to go after the territory's most wanted criminal, Bob Dozier. Ultimately, he was proved wrong when Reeves killed Dozier and brought his body back to Fort Smith.