Charles Angelo Siringo

Charles Angelo Siringo was born in Dutch Settlement (also called German Settlement), Texas on February 7, 1855. By the time he was eleven, Siringo was working as a cowpuncher and breaking bronco’s.

Six years later, at seventeen, Siringo ventured to Dodge City, Kansas where he reportedly met the notorious outlaws John Wesley Hardin and Billy the Kid. Siringo claims to have developed a friendship with the Kid and in later years go on to know Pat Garrett, the man who killed William Bonney.

In 1883 Siringo moved on to Caldwell, Kansas where he opened an ice cream parlor. Advertisements for the shop encouraged customers to try “Genuine Cowpuncher Coffee.”

Two years later Siringo published his first novel, A Texas Cowboy: or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Back of a Spanish Pony.

The book sold well and Siringo sold his ice cream parlor to seek out work with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

One of his many assignments for the Pinkertons was to track down members of the Wild Bunch following the Wilcox, Wyoming train robbery. Along with W.O. Sayles, Siringo tracked the outlaws through Colorado and into New Mexico. In New Mexico, Sayles split with Siringo to pursue leads in Montana. Siringo stayed in New Mexico to continue searching for the outlaws. Neither detective were able to bring back their man.

In 1910, Siringo wrote A Pinkerton Cowboy Detective. Before he could publish the book, he found himself embroiled in a feud, and eventual lawsuit, with the Pinkertons. Siringo was forced to change the title and some of the contents of the book. He eventually published the book as A Cowboy Detective.

In 1927 Siringo published a third book entitled, Riata and Spurs: The Story of a Lifetime Spent in the Saddle as a Cowboy and Detective.

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