Harvey Logan [Laws E21]

DESCRIPTION: Harvey Logan, pool player, gambler, and brawler, comes to the attention of the police after a gaming fight. Arrested following a gun battle, be escapes from Knoxville by taking the jailer hostage and riding off on the sheriff's horse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Byrd Moore)
KEYWORDS: gambling prison escape
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 8, 1904 - Probable date of the death of Harvey Logan
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Laws E21, "Harvey Logan"
Morris-FolksongsOfFlorida, #41, "Harvey Logan" (1 text)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 326-328, "Harvey Logan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, pp. 195-196, "Harvey Logan" (1 text)
DT 790, HARVLOGN
Roud #2250
RECORDINGS:
Dock Boggs, "Harvey Logan" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Byrd Moore, "Harvey Logan" (Gennett 6549, 1928)
NOTES [2748 words]: If anyone was born to be a habitual criminal, it was probably Harvey Logan. Most of the little we know about his early years seems to come from census records, so there is a lot missing, but Wilson, pp. 2-3, says that the family came from Kentucky, where father William Henry Neville Logan was born in 1834 and mother Eliza Jane Johnson was born in 1838. Their first child, James, was born in Kentucky in 1860; soon after they moved to Iowa. Children born after that were Henry ("Hank") in 1862, Harvey in 1867 (O'Neal, entry on Logan, says 1865, in Tama, Iowa), daughter Arda ("Allie") in 1868 (although Wilson on p. 15 implies she was born in 1863), John in 1870, and Lorenzo ("Lonie" or "Lonnie") in 1872. They also had a number of children stillborn or died as infants.
The father then moved to a farm in Missouri -- possibly not all at once; father William and eldest son James may have departed, or even fled the family. We know that William and James were in the Albany, Missouri jail in 1880; the crime they committed is unknown, but William seems to have been both irresponsible and reckless.
Mother Eliza died in childbirth around 1876, not yet age 40. With an unreliable father and a dead mother, the children had to be taken in by relatives -- and may have had to locate them themselves; Wilson thinks that Arda Logan, not yet fifteen years old, may have reached out to an aunt. Because none of their relatives had much money, the children had to be split up, generally two to a household. Harvey and Johnny are believed to have ended up in one home.
James, the oldest brothe, despite his early troubles, became a successful businessman, dying in California in 1925 (Wilson, p. 4). Hank also seems to have been responsible (Wilson, p. 3). But Harvey, Johnny, and Lonnie all ended up in trouble. Harvey was "reserved and talked slowly" (unlike the outgoing Lonnie and the impulsive Johnny; Wilson, p. 3); O'Neal says he was very dour and a heavy drinker. It's hard to imagine Harvey playing fiddle, e.g. (although he proved to be deeply devoted to music while in prison, he once "squeaked with delight" when a fiddler played there; Wilson, p. 163), but Lonnie was a good fiddler and was popular as a result (Wilson, p. 24); he also played banjo (Wilson, p. 98).
Harvey turned violent at a young age, almost killing another child during a baseball game after the other boy apparently called him by a racial slur (Wilson, p. 5; the Logans were part-Welsh, and most of them had dark hair and eyes).
Although some have thought that Logan adopted the pseudonym "Curry" after George "Flatnose" Currie, a later associate, Wilson, p. 8, thinks he took it at this early date, when he and Hank started their travels -- Hank may have been trying to escape an unhappy marriage, and so started calling himself "Curry" so as to be harder to trace. Since Harvey was younger, and was with his brother, he became "Kid Curry" (Wilson, p. 12). Wilson adds, p. 57, that Logan also used the surnames Roberts, Howard, and Jones as an outlaw -- indeed, he seems to have used new names constantly.
Interestingly, in these early years, Harvey was actually saving lives, saving Jim Thornhill from drowning (a debt that was repeatedly repaid, as Thornhill seems to have helped Harvey for the rest of his life) and bringing home Robert Coburn after he had been crushed by his horse (Wilson, pp. 12-13). No doubt Harvey's strength helped get the horse off Coburn; he was said to be very strong and fast on his feet (Wilson, p. 12).
Over the next few years, younger brothers Johnny and Lonnie also headed west (Wilson, p. 14; O'Neal, gives the simpler story that, at age 19, Harvey headed west with Johnny and Lonnie). They opened a ranch in 1888, with what O'Neal describes as stolen cattle, although their land claims seem to have been legitimate (Wilson, p. 24). O'Neal suggests they worked as hired guns for a time (fighting in the Johnson County War, for which see the notes to "The Blood-Stained Diary"), although the chronology in Wilson does not take Harvey to Wyoming until after the fighting was over in that area. There is a photo of Harvey, Lonnie, and Johnny in the photo insert preceding p. 113 of Wilson; it of course has several other photos of Harvey as well, including one with his girlfriend Annie Rogers. (Probable real name, Beulah Phinburg; Wilson, p. 167.)
(It's not clear exactly what Logan's relationship was with Rogers; Wilson, p. 122, says he encountered her at "Fanny Porter's local bordello." Did he hire her service? Did he help guard the bordello? Little is known about her, as we shall see.)
Johnny Logan got into a fight in this time, and was shot so badly that his arm had to be amputated; there are stories that Harvey committed his first murder to avenge his brother, but this cannot be proved (Wilson, pp. 26-27).
Apparently there were several criminal complaints filed against one or another "Curry" in this period, but juries would not convict. Did the jurors like the Logans? Were they afraid of them? There is no way to know (Wilson, p. 30). But it seems as if Hank was keeping his younger brothers under relative control -- until he contracted tuberculosis. He died at the age of 31, and the rest of the Logans were on their own (Wilson, p. 31). The other brothers would have been in their early to mid-twenties.
In 1895, Harvey's brother Johnny was killed in a very Logan way -- he ordered a neighbor to leave the area. When the neighbor didn't, Johnny came a-shooting, on horseback, with a revolver in one hand and his reigns tied to his stump; little surprise that his intended victim, John Winters, shot more accurately! (Wilson, pp. 42-45). Thereafter Harvey became even more brutal, killing three sheriffs around the west and joining the gang" of outlaws associated with "Butch" Cassidy. Captured at least once, charged with a botched bank robbery, he escaped before he could be tried (Wilson, pp. 63-64).
The Cassidy/Sundance gang was known as "The Wild Bunch," It was not a fixed group, but "One was Harvey Logan, a rough cowboy and cattle thief originally from Iowa, but who had lived in Missouri, Texas, Colorado, and numerous other parts of the West. In 1895 Logan fled to Wyoming from Landusky, Montana, after killing the man for whom the town had been named. One story was that Pike Landusky had started a brawl over Logan's attraction to his daughter -- only for her to acknowledge after her father's death that she was pregnant by Logan's brother Lonnie. Also known by the alias Kid Curry, Logan was the smallest of the bunch -- at five feet seven and a half inches and about 145 to 150 pounds -- but he was also the most violent, and before he joined up with the Wild Bunch he and Lonnie had ridden with the feared train robber and murderer Tom 'Black Jack' Ketchum" (Riffenburgh, p. 226).
Logan certainly took part in many robberies alongside other members of the "Wild Bunch." In 1897, in Montana, they were planning a raid, but were overtaken by a posse and Logan was wounded. Several, including Logan and Sundance, were taken captive, but raiders broke them out on October 31 (Riffenburgh, p. 227). Some of the freed men were recaptured, but Logan and Sundance stayed free (Riffenburgh, p. 228). Ironically, the charges against the others were dropped.
It is believed, although it can't be proved, that Logan was one of the robbers involved in the Wilcox Train Robbery of June 2, 1899, one of the most famous of all time, in which the robbers damaged a train bridge and blew up the safe in a mail car, then made their escape (Riffenburgh, pp. 229-230; Wilson, pp. 80-83)).
On May 27, 1900, Harvey and two companions lulled two deputies and killed them. On August 29, he robbed and blew up another train (RIffenburgh, p. 237).
Harvey's brother Lonnie was among the first gang members to be taken out. In early 1900, he went to visit an aunt in Dodson, Missouri, where the Pinkertons located him and came to gather him in. He spotted them and fled but was killed as he ran (Riffenburgh, p. 233; Wilson, pp. 100-101).
Harvey Logan, meanwhile, continued his wild behavior. On November 21, 1900, he, Butch Cassidy (real name Robert Leroy Parker), the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh), Will Carver, and Ben Kilpatrick posed for a photo (which can be seen on p. 190 of O'Neal and in the photo inserts in Riffenburgh and Wilson). That may not have been so smart, since the Pinkertons discovered it and used it to make wanted posters (Riffenburgh, p. 240).
The posters didn't cause any problems for most notorious of the Wild Bunch. On February 20, 1901, "Sundance" and his partner Etta Place fled to Argentina; Cassidy probably went with them (Riffenburgh, p. 240). The Pinkertons traced them down, but no one was willing to pay them to try to bring them home; had they been content with their takings, they could have lived out their lives. Instead, they went back to their criminal ways and were killed in 1908 (Riffenburgh, p. 241). At that, they outlived many of the other gang members, including Logan.
Logan had had the chance to go with them, but seemingly refused. He apparently wanted to stay with Annie Rogers and continue as a robber (Wilson, p. 124). This was of course a plan that was effectively guaranteed to result in his eventual death or imprisonment. A Pinkerton named Lowell Spence was now assigned specifically to Logan, although he took a long time to catch up with him (WIlson, pp. 128-129).
In March 1901, Logan killed Oliver Thornton, a neighbor of fellow Wild Buncher Ben Kilpatrick's family. In July, they robbed another train (Riffenburgh, p. 240). Logan appears to have headed south after that, picked up Annie, and gone on on a tour of the South with her, disposing of his captured (non-negotiable, since unsigned) notes on the way. In October 1901, he and Annie took a room in Nashville, registering as "Mr. and Mrs. Logan" (Wilson, p. 143), though there is no record of an actual marriage ceremony. Wilson blames her for taking a lot of the stolen money to a bank to exchange it for clean money. The bankers were immediately suspicious and called authorities (Wilson, p. 144). She was promptly taken into custody, giving her name as "Maud Williams." She was arrested and charged (Wilson, pp. 144-145). There was pretty strong evidence against her -- some of the signatures that had been forged on stolen bank notes appeared to be hers -- but Logan (by then in prison himself) gave a deposition that admitted knowing her but denying that she took knew where the money came from; that plus evidence of ill-treatment in prison caused her to be judged not guilty and released (Wilson, p. 164). It's not clear what eventually became of her; she seemingly tried to sneak Logan a hacksaw blade through an intermediary (Wilson, p. 166), but that failed and she seems to have stopped trying after that. There are no certain records of her thereafter (although there are a lot of contradictory reports); it is at least possible that she gave up on prostitution and went back to her family (Wilson, pp. 166-167).
Logan, who was still free when she was captured, apparently didn't even see her after this, but skipped town to get more of the (stolen) money to hire a lawyer for her (Wilson, p. 145; on p. 146 he lists some of the statements she made -- some true, mostly not -- because a lawyer wasn't around to tell her to keep quiet). But even with Annie in custody, more of the stolen money was being spent -- some in Nashville, some in other places. So it was clear that Logan was still on the loose.
Later in the year, back in Tennessee, he was in a bar in Knoxville when he got into a fight over a game of pool. Two officers moved in to break up the fight. He shot and injured two policemen, both of whom suffered problems for the rest of their lives (WIlson, p. 162), but was injured himself (Wilson, pp. 150-151). With bloodhounds on his tail (Wilson, p. 152), he was eventually captured in Jefferson City, Tennessee (Wilson, p. 154). He was found with about $2300 in cash, almost all of it stolen (Wilson, p. 155).
Logan doesn't seem to have expected to survive. To two policemen who had been relatively kind to him, he gave away a gold ring and his pocket watch (which contained a photo of him with Annie; it would be used against her). He also described his world view to a Knoxville Sentinel reporter: "I never harmed an innocent or helpless man or woman. I believe those large corporations are squeezing the life out of people, and it does no harm to take a few thousand or even a few million from them. When a man gets out and takes his life in his hands and on his nerve robs an express car, he earns what he gets" (Wilson, p. 156).
But Logan got lucky, in a way; he was wanted in several states and on Federal charges, which led to conflicts of jurisdictions (Wilson, p. 165). I would guess that the fact that he went on trial in Tennessee saved him from the gallows. The defense lawyers, in fact, apparently expected him to get off on the Federal charges, but he was found guilty on 10 of 19 counts (Wilson, p. 168). Given a long prison sentence, he escaped in 1903 shortly before being moved to a federal prison, tricking one guard, catching him with the wrapping wire taken from a broom, and then pulling a gun on a second and on a prison employee, using one of them as a human shield, then getting away on the sheriff's horse (Wilson, pp. 168-170).
What happened to Logan after that is not absolutely clear (not that his deeds in the period before his imprisonment are entirely known!); Wilson, p. 175, says, "There are several versions regarding what Logan did next and how and when he died."
The most accepted version is this: On June 7, 1904, he tried to rob another train. He and his confederates were hunted down, and Logan was injured in a shootout. Rather than be taken captive again, he shot himself in the head and died (Riffenburgh, p. 240; O'Neal, p. 184, also mentions him dying after this unsuccessful train robbery attempt, although he omits the suicide and mentions stories of other possibilities). Wilson, p. 182, mentions the same story but says it leaves loose ends -- and it's certainly true that Logan doesn't seem like the type to commit suicide. The body of the man who killed himself was photographed four times, and a death mask made; Pinkerton agent Spence said it was Logan (Wilson, p. 191), and once he came to that conclusion, found others to corroborate the identification. The body, which had been buried, was exhumed and examined -- and was said by some to be missing scars that Logan was known to have had (Wilson, p. 192). But the body was significantly decomposed; some say that this made identification by means of scars impossible (Wilson, p. 193). I think the bottom line is that we just don't know what happened to Logan, though it is not unlikely that he was the man who died on that day. There is no substantial evidence of his existence after 1904 -- but, of course, he was always changing the name he used. If everyone was convinced he was dead, then they would never identify him....
It doesn't really matter in the context of the song anyway, since it opens with Logan in Knoxville in the gambling fight and ends with his escape. At a very basic level, it has the details right, although a lot of the song sounds like it comes from generic bad man ballads. It's not obvious, to me at least, why anyone wrote a song about this little fragment of his life.
The above doesn't begin to cover all of Logan's robberies and murders. Wilson, pp. 204, says that "the National Criminal Investigation Bureau describes him as having had the longest criminal record ever known in the United States until 1910, and that he had accumulated rewards of forty thousand dollars for his crimes." There seems no pattern to his actions, other than the desire to make money; he was just *mean*. But this will give the general idea.
There are at least five books about Logan: Donna B. Ernst, Harvey Logan: Wildest of the Wild Bunch; Frank Bruce Lamb, Kid Curry: The Life and Times of Harvey Logan and the Wild Bunch; Gary A. Wilson, The Life and Death of Kid Curry : Tiger of the Wild Bunch (cited here); Sylvia Lynch, Harvey Logan in Knoxville; and Mark Smokov, He Rode with Butch and Sundance : The Story of Harvey Kid Curry Logan. There are obviously even more about The Wild Bunch. I haven't read most of them; these were not gentleman robbers or in any way interesting. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 6.0
File: LE21

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