A former Texas Ranger named Woods had been helping Henry Baylor, long time sheriff of Uvalde County, to round up horse thieves. He ended up going under cover to work for Edwards County sheriff, Ira Wheat, to catch members of the gang that included Will and Alvin Odle, George Chisum, and others.
He would ride through the little towns of Edwards County posing as a drunk and shooting his pistol, etc., all the while gathering evidence on the gang. Later, he worked under sheriff Corder in Kimble County and was successful in breaking up a ring of thieves in that area. Soon, members of the gangs began to suspect Woods. He disappeared on the way home from Chicago to Ballinger, Texas, after last being seen on a cattle train.
Woods was killed on the Dry Frio River and his body, horse and saddle thrown into a cave where they were found many months later.
The story of Woods’ untimely end later came to Baylor by the name of Jim L— (1) who lived on the Dry Frio and who was in jail in Uvalde County on a charge of having killed a suitor of his daughter. (2) Lafferty made bond through some of the men whom Baylor suspected of belonging to the gang Woods had turned in. Some time later while Lafferty was working on the Jack Burt ranch south of Uvalde, he was seen in company with one of his former bondsmen, who, as it later turned out, was also implicated in the thievery. Baylor went to the Burt ranch and arrested Lafferty as he was saddling his horse preparatory to leaving the country. He was convicted and given seventy-five years in the penitentiary.(3)
Some months after he was taken to the penitentiary, Lafferty wrote Baylor and offered, in exchange for his freedom, to carry Baylor to the spot where Woods was murdered and his body hidden. Baylor was unable to get his release on that condition, but Lafferty drew a plot of the place where Woods’ body was supposed to be hidden on the headwaters of the Dry Frio where his body was thrown in a ravine and covered with brush.
Several years later, his [Woods’] remains, which consisted of a skull and one leg, were found ten miles from the spot where they were supposed to be buried. It was then that the remains were carried to Rocksprings, where they were identified by Ira Wheat as those of the murdered deputy.
Baylor later remarked that he knew some of the men who were implicated in the crime, but had insufficient evidence to bring about a conviction. Baylor concluded by saying that there was no doubt in his mind that Woods had been murdered by Lafferty. These men, no doubt, had Woods a prisoner and sent for Lafferty to come up the Frio and kill Woods, promising in return to help him out of his trouble.(5)
Stovall notes that Bill Chisum was a large cattle rancher in the area who had many legitimate business interests.
- See Documents & Notes for information from Hardin on Stovall’s use of “L—” for Lafferty in the book.
- If Lafferty was in jail in Uvalde for killing a suitor of his daughter, that information has not heretofore come to light. In fact, no actually marriage information has been encountered for Lafferty, nor the births of any children. He was imprisoned (Rusk Pennitentiary) perhaps between 1893-1891 for killing a U.S. Marshall in Yselta.
- Stovall has the story somewhat confused at this point. Lafferty was convicted of murdering Ben Maples in September 1892, and for that crime he was sentenced to 75 years imprisonment.
- Stoval cites as his sources the following issues of Frontier Times Monthly: Vols 5, 3, 14, 25, 15, 22, 6, 12.