Big Nose George: An outlaw with a disturbing history

Wyoming claims several famous outlaws with wild stories, but none as strange as disturbing as the story of "Big Nose" George Parrott. The remarkable nature of his story has less to do with his life, however, and more to do with his death and what followed.

During his life, Parrott was a relatively common Wyoming outlaw. He was arrested for horse theft but acquitted. He was also believed to have kept headquarters in the Hole-in-the-Wall country west of present-day Kaycee with a number of other outlaws of the time.

Perhaps one of Big Nose George's most ambitious criminal enterprises was what led to his grisly end. Parrott and his gang planned a train robbery but botched the attempt.

They fled to Elk Mountain and were tracked by Carbon County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Widdowfield and Union Pacific detective Henry "Tip" Vincent. When the lawmen found the gang Aug. 19, 1878, Big Nose George and his men murdered them.

Parrott and his men committed other crimes before Big Nose George was finally caught in Montana two years later. Those in Wyoming hadn't forgotten about the murdered lawmen. Parrott was tried in Rawlins, where he was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to hang.

Ten days before his execution, Big Nose George tried to escape, using a pocketknife to saw through the rivets on his leg shackles and using the shackles to knock out the jailer, Robert Rankin. The jailer's wife, however, closed the door and fired her husband's revolver in the air, stopping the outlaw's plan. A group of men came running to help, but they didn't just secure Parrott. They decided it was time for him to die.

The mob tried to hang Big Nose George but the rope broke and the outlaw asked to be shot.

The men didn't listen, however, and simply replaced the noose and made Parrott climb a 12-foot ladder instead of the kerosene barrel they'd tried the first time. The men used leg irons to weigh him down, and this time the rope didn't break. One report estimated the crowd that gathered to watch was close to 200 people.

Parrott's biggest claim to fame, however, doesn't come from his crimes or his lynching. It comes from the disturbing fate of his body after his death.

Dr. John Osborne, a Rawlin's physician, had been asked to be present during the hanging to ensure the outlaw died. He and another Rawlins doctor, Thomas Maghee, claimed Parrott's body. Maghee removed Parrott's brain for study and gave part of the skull to his protégé, Lillian Heath, who later became Wyoming's first female physician. Osborne made a death mask from Parrott's face, then skinned large portions of the body, had the skin tanned, and incorporated it into a pair of shoes. Years later, he wore the shoes to his inaugural ball when he was elected Governor of Wyoming.

The Carbon County Museum in Rawlins has a Big Nose George exhibit which includes his death mask, a cast of his skull, and Dr. Osborne's shoes made from his tanned skin.

The Sweetwater County Historical Museum has Parott's handgun, a .44-caliber Remington New Model Army, as part of the "Firearms of the American West - Single Action Revolvers" exhibit.

The museum also has a new book on Parrott's life available in the book shop. "Big Nose George - His Troublesome Trail" was written by Mark E. Miller, who served for 30 years as Wyoming State Archaeologist. Dick Blust, a staff member at the museum, said this books is extensively researched, compellingly written, and easily the most authoritative work on the case yet produced.

A shorter summary of Big Nose George's life can also be found in the article "Big Nose George: A Grisly Frontier Tale" by Lori Van Pelt, available on WyoHistory.org.