Texas cowboys go on New Mexico crime spree

All the High Fives Gang had to show on Aug. 6, 1896 for the comedy of errors they had the nerve to call a bank robbery was the posse hot on their heels. As far as anyone can tell, the original members of the band that borrowed the name of a popular card game were: Tom Harris, a 24 year old Texan whose favorite alias was Cole Estes; George Musgrave, 22, born somewhere in Texas but raised in New Mexico; escaped convict Sam Hassels of Gonzales County, who went by the name Bob Hayes; Will Christian Jr., originally from Fort Griffin and an Indian Territory fugitive, known simply as Black Jack; and Tom or Frank Anderson, who may have been Will’s brother Bob. The High Fives started out small with a twilight raid in July 1896 on Separ, a one-horse town in the southwestern corner of the New Mexico Territory. They relieved the post office and general store of $250 in cash and supplies without firing a shot...The quintet came out of hiding two months later for the purpose of plundering a passenger train 30 miles south of Albuquerque. The railroad robbery was foiled by a deputy U.S. marshal, who caught Cole Estes in his sights. “Go ahead, boys. I’m done for,” Estes called out in the darkness. His four companions heeded their mortally wounded leader’s dying words and fled the scene. With Will Christian, alias Black Jack, at the controls, the desperadoes finally got out of the red. The stagecoaches running between San Antonio, New Mexico and the mining town of White Oaks were such easy pickings the gang kept going back for more. George Musgrave was absent because two days earlier he had settled a personal score. Returning to the Circle Diamond Ranch south of Roswell, he chewed the fat with former co-workers until the cattle boss showed. “I have come all this way across this territory to kill you,” Musgrave told George Parker as he drew his pistol, “and now I’m going to do it.” Without another word he pumped four bullets into his tongue-tied target. Sam Hassels, a.k.a. Bob Hayes, held the dozen and a half witnesses at gunpoint, while Musgrave explained his motive. He claimed the dead man not only sicked the law on him for his own crimes but also swindled his poor old mother out of her herd...The final chapter in the High Fives story was written in 1910. George Musgrave was recognized on a street in Grand Junction, Colorado and brought back to Roswell to stand trial for the murder of George Parker. Musgrave swore he shot in self-defense, and no eyewitness could be found to contradict him. He was acquitted and lived to celebrate the Allied victory in World War II...more