Thomas "Tom" Davies (1845-) was a famous US Marshal of the Wild West who played a major role in the decimation of the Del Lobo Gang's leadership in 1898.
Biography[]
Davies in 1898
Thomas Davies was born in Texas in 1845, and he was appointed US Marshal for the Eastern District of Texas by President Grover Cleveland in the 1880s. Davies lost his right eye in the line of duty, but he became known as a no-nonsense and vindictive enforcer of the law who often resorted to unethical means to bring the outlaws of the Wild West to justice.
In 1898, Davies was entrusted with hunting down a band of killers affiliated with Alfredo Montez, one of the leaders of the infamous Del Lobo Gang of the American Southwest. Davies worked with the bounty hunter Lee Johansen to track down Montez, initially believing that he was holed up in the forest near Manzanita Post. His associate Samuel Horley had his proteges Clara Blaycock and the Arizona Kid join Davies in Tall Trees to help the Marshal hunt down his target, as Davies had to use hired guns to do his dirty work because of the unethical nature of his extrajudicial outlaw hunts. Johansen, Arizona, and Blaycock tracked down the Del Lobos to Swadbass Point by the Aurora Basin, and they proceeded to kill all of them in a shootout and bring back the head of their leader. Davies was somewhat dismayed to find that they had instead killed Alfredo's brother Jorge Montez after Johansen showed him the man's severed head, and he gave them partial pay for their efforts; however, he invited them to join him at Van Horn, Arkansas to resume the hunt.
There, Davies and his hired guns cleared the town and a nearby camp of outlaws before tracking down Montez to a convoy near Butcher Creek and capturing him in the ensuing shootout. Montez was taken to the Valentine, Nebraska jail, and, after it was reported that the Del Lobos were planning a raid on Valentine to free their boss, Davies - following an argument with Sheriff Curtis Malloy - executed Montez in his jail cell to ensure that he could not escape, later claiming that he was killed during the ensuing shootout with the Del Lobos.
Davies was later kidnapped by the Del Lobos and taken to Tumbleweed, Arizona to be lynched alongside Sheriff Sam Freeman, but his associate Old Man Jones alerted Davies' hired associates of his capture, allowing for them to rescue Davies before he could suffocate to death. They then helped Davies escape to the Scratching Post, where Davies paid his associates for their help and bade them farewell, having completed his task of hunting down the Montez brothers and their gang.