Albert Nard was a cowboy of Dutch heritage who arrived in Wyoming around 1884 when he was in his early 20’s. Throughout the years, he was known by many names in the press as both outlaw and lawman: Deputy Nard, Sam Bernard, Al Slicknard, and “Slick” Nard.
After coming up the Chisholm trail from Texas, Nard had become well-known for his ability to pick up stray mavericks. This practice had just been made illegal the same year he arrived by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and the Wyoming Legislature.
He eventually drifted into the Big Horn Basin where he made many new acquaintances on both sides of the law. In the summer of 1888, Nard courted and married Angene “Jennie” Hollywood, a sixteen-year-old from a reputable family in the cow town of Hyattville.
Nard, however, did not settle down into a domestic life on a homestead with his wife and young family. He found other means to provide for his family that were not as legal as his law-abiding in-laws would have wanted.
Slick The Outlaw
By 1890, Nard and his close friend Jack Bliss were part of the same loose-knit band of horse thieves that roamed around the Big Horn Basin. Although branded as outlaws, the men were not considered part of the infamous Wild Bunch.
The Worland Grit claimed that “Nard hung out in the Hole in the Wall country but generally played a lone hand. He had earned a right to be called ‘Slick’ through his cattle and horse rustling. For a time, he rode with the Curry gang of train robbers and was supposed to have been an actor in several of the big looting deals that gang was responsible for.”
The press reported Nard’s friend, Jack Bliss, was a desperate outlaw who had ousted peaceful settlers from their ranches, stole their horses – and sometimes their daughters. In 1889, Bliss had been accused of being involved in the murder of Nelson Bump, an Idaho rancher. He was a member of Teton Jackson’s gang of horse thieves and, after the murder charge, had moved his operation to the Big Horn Basin where he had met Nard.
The press called Bliss the King of Rustlers and stated that “he was a remarkable large and powerful man, bold and courageous as a wild beast.” He was the most wanted outlaw by the Montana and Wyoming stockmen-turned-vigilantes who had declared War on the Horse Rustlers by 1891. Further down on this list were Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer.
The Informant
One of the most outspoken leaders of the vigilantes was Rancher John Chapman who had a personal vendetta against Bliss. Chapman owned the Two Dot ranch near the Montana line on Pat O’Hara creek, north of present-day Cody, Wyoming. He claimed that Bliss has stolen four hundred of his finest horses and offered a $500 reward for his capture and that of other horse thieves.
In October 1891, when Otto Franc of Pitchfork Ranch filed a theft complaint against Cassidy and Hainer for Grey Bull Cattle Company, Chapman volunteered to track down the bandits. He was unsuccessful and returned home in late December empty handed. However, he had made a valuable contact in the person of Slick Nard, a horse thief at Lost Cabin.
It is not known exactly when and where Chapman “met” Nard, but Chapman gave the outlaw an ultimatum. Help put the gang out of business or enjoy a long stretch of prison in Laramie. Nard accepted the “offer” and became an informant.
Thanks to Nard, Chapman now had intelligence on the rustlers, including the last known whereabouts of Butch Cassidy. On March 1, 1892, John Chapman arrived in Billings and boldly told the press that he was there to “prepare for the spring campaign!” against the outlaws.
Deputy Nard
Two months before, in January 1892, Sheriff John Ward of Uinta County had spotted Jack Bliss near the Utah border. The rustler disappeared before he could be arrested. In March, shortly after Chapman’s declaration of war, Sheriff Ward discovered that Bliss was staying at the Marx Hotel in Evanston, registered under the name John Walker.
Ward fired off a telegram to Sheriff Charles Stough in Fremont County. It was well-known that a $500 reward was being offered by Chapman and Stough immediately formed a posse to board the train for Evanston. This posse included his new Deputy Sheriff, Albert “Slick” Nard. Nard’s wife and children were living in Lander as he joined the posse to chase down his former friend.
The lawmen followed the Bear River north for twenty-five miles to a cabin just across the Utah border. Nard and the other deputized lawmen arrived at three that morning and hid until dawn.
Bliss’s fellow horse thief, James Ervin “Kid” Collier, appeared first with a bucket of oats. The posse held their fire as the Kid strolled toward the picketed horses to tend to his chores.
Next, Bliss came out of the cabin into the crisp morning. The lawmen leveled their Winchesters and ordered Bliss to put his hands up.
Startled, Bliss dove back into the cabin as shots rang out. With nowhere to run, the Kid immediately gave himself up. Sheriff Ward grabbed the outlaw as a human shield and moved toward the cabin with his six-shooters on the shoulders of Kid Collier.
Bliss surrendered. It was reported that the lawmen recovered 62 head of stolen horses in the corral.
This was the first battle of the War against Horse Rustlers and it had ended in success. After the shootout, the Salt Lake Tribune noted, “There are a few more of the gang yet to be captured.”
Leaving the cache of stolen horses at the nearby town of Randolph, Sheriffs Stough and Ward took their prisoners to the Evanston jail. In the meantime, Deputy Calverley headed towards the Jackson Hole area to arrest the next horse rustlers on the list – Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer. After a shoot-out, they too were arrested, in part thanks to the intelligence provided by the former outlaw, Slick Nard. Butch and Cassidy joined Bliss in the Evanston jail.
Escaped Prisoner
In April, Bliss and “Kid” Collier were taken to Lander to face charges of horse theft and murder. The jail did not hold Jack Bliss for long. He escaped on May 16 by knocking down and disarming Deputy John Houghton. Collier escaped with him but was captured that evening. Bliss, however, remained free.
Bliss followed the Badwater up to the Lost Cabin country and it was there that he stole – or was loaned - Manuel Armenta’s famous racehorse, Red Bird. Armenta was a suspected horse thief that, like Nard, had been deputized. Armenta joined the posse to supposedly capture his former associate Bliss and rescue his prized horse.
Red Bird carried Bliss 90 miles north along the east bank of the Big Horn River, past Hyattville. At the cow town of Alamo, Bliss reached the ferry landing just ahead of the posse.
Armenta and Deputy Sherman Long dismounted at twenty-five yards and fired. Bliss shot back and ran to the willows for cover. Hearing the gunshots, the ferryman, Jack Shaffer, rowed across the river.
Bliss was able to steal the ferry in the confusion, stranding the men on the other side of the bank. He then stole Shaffer’s horse and Winchester and escaped. Armenta recovered Red Bird who, unharmed from her adventure, continued to win races across Wyoming.
Deputy Nard Chases His Former Friend
Sheriff Stough led another posse to recapture the “notorious” outlaw. Once again, Slick Nard was employed to track down his former friend. The press reported that during the pursuit “there were a couple of scrimmages without result. Once the posse fired on Bliss at thirty paces but missed the outlaw and the rustler escaped to the sage brush.”
The trail eventually took them to a mining camp above the town of Arland, near present-day Meeteetse. Bliss was barricaded in a stone fortress twenty-three miles from the mining camp and supplied himself with food by pillaging miners’ cabins.
Deputies Nard and David Shuck arrived at the hideout first and according to the men, they had to act fast. They said they first discovered Jack Bliss’s horse, and afterward perceived smoke coming up from behind a large rock.
Nard said he made a hasty survey of the situation. On one side was timber, and on the other was a rocky bluff. Nard stationed himself near the bluff and Shuck was in position to cut off escape into the timber should Bliss attempt to run.
After waiting a short time Bliss came out from his place of concealment. When about eighty yards from his fire, at which place he left his gun, he stopped a moment when he was called on to surrender, which he refused to do and at the same time starting on a run for his gun.
There was no time to lose, and the boys opened on him, firing five shots which took effect and the desperado fell forward on his face when he made a little more than half the distance to his gun.
At first Nard said he was suspicious that Bliss might not be dead but on approaching the prostate form of his former friend, he found him cold in death. Nard and Shuck took charge of the camp, ate supper, and slept soundly all night.
The next morning, they notified Deputy Sheriff Irey and Detective Benbrook, who after viewing the body, wrapped it in the blankets composing his bed and left the remains amid the “eternal snows of the Rockies” within ten miles of the top of the main range.
The killing made national headlines and was sensationalized… “Died with his boots on!” “The ‘King of Rustlers’ Killed by a Deputy Sheriff” “End of a Notorious Desperado in Wyoming”
The shooting death of Jack Bliss came as a shock to Wyoming locals, however. The press noted that, “This astonished many people, as Nard and Bliss had been friends, chums and boon companions for years, and why Nard should have a desire to kill his best friend caused considerable comment.”
According to locals who knew him, Nard took the scalp and ears as proof of his kill to Chapman, expecting the $500 reward which was not paid out. Instead, Sheriff Stough paid the two men a smaller amount.
Falling From Grace
Slick continued to work as a Deputy for Sheriff Stough although it wasn’t without its problems. In December of 1891, Deputy Nard was arrested for stealing sheep with his partners Dick Dirk and Ed Nye. He was released before the trial and was back to work as a Deputy for Sheriff Stough in Lander.
Meanwhile, rumors of mistaken identities began to fly. Sheriff Red Angus of Johnson County claimed that the notorious desperado Jack Bliss was still alive and under cover in Idaho. He also said that it was Billy Nutcher, another horse rustler, who had been Nard’s partner during the shootout, not Shucker. Angus said that Nutcher had confessed to him that the dead man was not Jack Bliss.
In November 1894, after the vigilantes finally ended their War on Rustlers, Stough stepped down as Sheriff of Fremont County. The new Sheriff, Democrat Orson Grimmett, did not rehire Nard as a lawman. Leaving Jennie and his family in Lander, Slick wandered up to the Hot Springs in what was then Johnson County and the new town of Thermopolis.
He was hired as a laborer by Mike McGrath, a local businessman, and spent his time working, playing with the McGrath children and hanging out in the local saloons. He had a reputation as a heavy boaster and often related his killings to anyone who would listen.
Slick Nard happened to be at the springs one day when a sheep shearer William Jack Ewing was there. Nard saw Ewing take a roll of money from his pockets and overheard him telling someone that he was leaving town the following day.
This spelled the end for Nard. He decided to rob Ewing and nearly killed the sheepman in the attempt. Nard was quickly captured, the evidence piled high against him.
Since there was no jail in town and the Hole-in-the-Wall gang were loitering around, intimidating the townsfolk, the choice was made to chain Nard to a log. His captors knocked the chinking out between the logs in a small cabin and looped a chain around the exposed log. The other end was placed around Nard’s ankle. He protested against the treatment and begged for his freedom. When none was given, he cussed out his jailers and called them every name he could think of.
Nard’s trial was set for three days hence and held out in the open air, in front of Henry Sheard’s saloon. The locals were nervous because the entire time, members of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang such as Jakey Snyder and Bob McCoy, were present, talking quietly among themselves as they watched the proceedings. Some even remained mounted on their horses and made quiet jokes.
Ed Farlow, who was in charge of the proceedings, kept an eye on them. He later stated that although he was well acquainted with and on easy and friendly terms with all these outlaws, he didn’t trust them. At any moment they could free Nard.
That night, the town folk snuck Slick Nard out of Thermopolis and in the morning, the gang were shocked to find the prisoner gone. They demanded to know where the outlaw was.
When they were told what had happened, Hole-in-the-Wall gang member Mike Brown responded with heat, “If you had said the word, we would have helped you hang him. We may rob a bank, or hold up a stage or railroad pay car now and then, but we are not killing working men for their money. We are not that damn low yet.”
Sentenced
In Buffalo, the county seat for the area at the time, Slick Nard was tried before Judge Percy Metz and found guilty. The judge, in sentencing him, said, “The legislature of this state has been too lenient for offences of this kind; they have fixed the extreme penalty at fourteen years. I will sentence you to fourteen years imprisonment and, you scoundrel, I am sorry I cannot give you more.”
The same day Nard was sentenced, his wife was granted a divorce. The 21-year-old was through with being the wife of an outlaw. She moved her family back to Hyattville and eventually remarried to a rancher without any known ties to rustling.
Furthering Nard’s bad humor, Butch Cassidy, who Nard had turned on, was serving time at the Territorial Prison in Laramie when the disgraced deputy arrived to begin his own sentence.
At first, Slick Nard was listed as “Bad” and his conduct while in jail as “Not very good.” All long-term inmates were expected to work in the broom factory and he refused. Within two years however, Nard found salvation. He repented of his evil ways, hoping to make amends for his previous deviltry.
Now a model prisoner, Nard earned time off for good behavior. He was released from prison in 1907, having served eleven years of his fourteen-year sentence, and left Wyoming for Goldfield, Nevada.
With his parting was the end of an era in Wyoming as the people there bid him good riddance.
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at Jackie@cowboystatedaily.com
