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“It’s
a cold day when the ‘Half Acre’
doesn’t pan out a cutting or
shooting scrape among the male
denizens.” |
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| A
haven for gamblers, outlaws and
prostitutes, the Hell’s Half Acre
guestbook reads like a who’s who of
western folklore - the Earp brothers,
Doc. Holiday, Bat Masterson, Sam
Bass, and of course, the Wild Bunch
among others. |
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| In
his book, Hell’s Half Acre: The Life
and Legend of a Red Light District,
Richard F. Selcer presents a
detailed history of the notorious
Fort Worth, Texas district. |
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Selcer spends a large portion of the
book detailing the life of Timothy
Isaiah Courtright, a former lawman
and longtime resident of Fort Worth.
The rise and fall of the man
alternately known as Fort Worth’s
First Citizen and Fort Worth’s First
Gangster neatly parallels that of
the Acre. |
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Known as “Long Hair Jim,” Courtright served three
consecutive terms as marshal beginning in 1876.
A gunfighter and gambling man by nature, Courtright
enjoyed a closer relationship to the Acre's favorite
vice than his bosses would have liked. Sometime
after his law enforcement career ended, Courtright
began a protection racket under the guise of a
detective agency, shaking down local saloon owners
and gamblers.
One man who refused to pay Courtright for his
"services" was Luke Short, an associate of the
Earp's and a respected gunfighter in his own right.
Unable to cope with the challenge to his authority,
Courtright confronted Short on February 8, 1887.
“Courtright, as was his custom, wore two .45s
holstered on his hips. He had never liked the
current fashion among so-called gentlemen of wearing
their guns hidden. Without any further exchange of
words, he reached for one of his six-shooter, but
his legendary fast draw failed him. Courtright’s gun
cleared its holster before Short got his own piece
out, but from that point on it was all Short. One
well-regarded historian has claimed that in the
process of drawing his pistol, Courtight caught the
hammer of the weapon in his watch chain, “giving
Short ample time to clear his own weapon and get off
the first shot.” Contemporary accounts do no support
this theory, but there is no doubt that Short got
off the first shot, striking Courtright in the body.
He squeezed off four more in quick succession, each
staggering the bigger man and knocking him backwards
through the shooting gallery doorway. He fell
heavily to the floor, half in and half out the door.
The infamous gunfighter had never got off a shot.”
(pg. 190)
With Courtright out of the picture,
Selcer goes on to chronicle the arrival of Chinese
railroad workers to the Acre, and with them the
introduction of opium. This latest in a long line of
vices proved popular and soon Hell's Half Acre found
itself home to a new breed of addict.
Regulated to a single chapter, Hell's Half Acre
doesn't offer anything new for aficionados of the
Wild Bunch, but the background of the area does make
for an interesting read. Selcer does take the time
to flesh out some of the auxiliary characters in the
Wild Bunch legend - folks like John Swartz, the
photographer of the infamous
Forth Worth Five
photograph, Mary Porter, the Fort Worth madam
often confused with San Antonio madam
Fannie Porter,
along with background information on several of the
outlaw's girlfriends.
Wrapping the book up, Selcer includes a whopping 44
pages of endnotes as well as an extensive
bibliography and numerous appendixes. |
