Sheriff Robert Guy's Deadly Chase

On Sunday, June 2nd, 1907, Rosebud County Sheriff Robert J. Guy was alerted by Forsyth resident James Anderson that three horses had been stolen from his pasture. Anderson discovered the trail of his stolen horses three days later, six miles southwest of Forsyth. That next morning Sheriff Guy deputized Anderson and the two began a chase that ended with the formation of a posse, one man's death and inglorious burial, and another's daring escape and later arrest.

The two lawmen left Forsyth the morning of June 5th. There had been significant rain the night of the theft, and Anderson had picked up the trail of his horses heading south. That night they stayed at Charles Davis' camp on the head of Sheep Creek, where they learned the men they were pursuing had also stayed overnight. On Thursday they traveled down Cottonwood, up Eagle Creek and over the divide to the head of Graveyard Creek. They crossed the Tongue River and found an unattended hot stove at Little Ed McGehee's place on Lee Creek, an indication that they were catching up to their quarry.

On the 9th of June, when Guy and Anderson caught sight of the two thieves leisurely riding their stolen horses and using the third as a pack horse, their own horses were exhausted. Luckily, they were near John B. Kendrick's OW Ranch on Hanging Woman Creek in the southernmost point of the county. They quietly proceeded to the ranch house to procure assistance, which they received. Along with two fresh horses for themselves, Sheriff Guy formed a posse of himself, Anderson, and OW hands Joe Hertzler, James Burdick, Marian Fisher and John H. Reavis. They caught up with the thieves as they maneuvered through a coulee, with Sheriff Guy and Anderson approaching them from the south while the remaining members of the posse rode up the north side to cut off their escape.

Guy and Anderson dismounted as they approached the two men, who were unaware they were being followed. Proceeding on foot, they identified themselves as lawmen and demanded at least three times for the suspects to throw their hands up and stop. The two men immediately spurred their horses into a run, with the trailing outlaw firing two shots from a pistol. One of these bullets came within inches of the Sheriff's head. Guy fired his pistol once above their heads as a warning, which was not heeded. Both Guy and Anderson then opened fire with deadly purpose, dropping the trailing outlaw from his horse. Sheriff Guy soon gained this position, found his victim dead, and continued the pursuit. The dead man's partner dismounted and ran some fifty yards to refuge in the coulee behind some rocks. The other members of the posse recovered the stolen horses along with the outlaws' pack.

The remaining horse thief was not in any mood to be captured and had armed himself with a 30-40 Winchester rifle. From behind the rocks, he took at least two shots at Guy and Anderson. Sheriff Guy recalled to the coroner's jury that "one of the bullets from the Winchester 30-40 was so close I could feel the effects of it near all the afternoon." The surviving horse thief held them off until nightfall. Sometime during the night, he removed his spurs, allowing him to quietly slip away under the cover of darkness by crawling away on his hands and knees.

At daylight the next morning, Sheriff Guy deputized Joe Hertzler, John Reavis and Otter Creek legend Charlie Thex to assist him in bringing in the second outlaw. They soon discovered their target's escape (including the discarded spurs) and examined the body of the fallen outlaw. He appeared to be a young man, around twenty years old. Among the supplies recovered were approximately 250 rounds of ammunition for a 30-40 Winchester, a majority of which were poisoned lead cartridges. In addition they found around 30 rounds of pistol cartridges and a pocketbook containing a small number of mail items from various parts of the country. Two spent 30-40 cartridges along with the spurs were found in the rocks were the remaining outlaw had sheltered.

Mary Kendrick took a photograph of the corpse before it was placed in a coffin of planks that had been hastily constructed at the ranch. The coffin was buried where its occupant met his end. Sheriff Guy stated that the coffin should not be buried too deeply, as the coroner would soon come to collect the body. For unknown reasons, this did not occur, and the body was soon dug up by coyotes and the remains scattered. Some years later the remains were collected and again buried in the same place, only deeper.

The escaped outlaw was eventually captured in Northern Wyoming on Dutch Creek. Because of the contents of the pocketbook, Sheriff Guy suspected that the horse thieves had been involved in a heavily publicized train robbery of the Northern Pacific at Welch's Spur near Butte, which had resulted in the murder of the engineer. Newspapers throughout the eastern part of Montana repeated Guy's supposition until it was eventually debunked by the authorities investigating the robbery. The NP robbers had not accessed the mailroom, and the recovered mail was the primary reason for Guy's initial suspicion.

The man who escaped was named Robert Phillips, and he was convicted of stealing the horses and sentenced to two years in prison. The dead outlaw's name was Floyd Smith, from Arizona. In 1901, thirteen-year-old Floyd Smith was captured by a posse as part of a horse-thieving gang that had killed at least one man and seriously wounded an Arizona Ranger. The Graham Guardian of Safford, Arizona also reported that "one of the boys had since escaped." When Phillips was captured, he was reported to have said, "it's a good thing that you killed him. If you'd have killed me instead of him, he'd have got some of you."