Harvey Logan - Folklorist

“Harvey Logan”

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

Notes

According to Bill O'Neal, _Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters_, Harvey Logan was born in 1865 in Tama, Iowa, and he and three brothers were orphaned early and raised by an aunt. At age 19, he headed west with two younger brothers. They opened a ranch in 1888, with what O'Neal describes as stolen cattle. They reportedly worked as hired guns for a time, and Harvey, said to be very dour and a heavy drinker, apparently killed an important local in 1894.

In 1895, Harvey's brother Johnny was killed, and Harvey became even more brutal, killing three sheriffs around the west and joining the gang of "Butch" Cassidy. (There is a photo of Logan with Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and two others on p. 190 of O'Neal.)

The west became so hot for him that he moved back east to Knoxville, Tennessee, where in 1901 he was involved in a shootout with police. He killed three, but was wounded; he was captured a short distance away. Convicted, he escaped the Knoxville jail by taking the wrapping wire from a broom and using it to capture a guard. He fled to Colorado, where he was killed in 1904. - RBW

Historical references

June 8, 1904 - Death of Harvey Logan

Recordings

Dock Boggs, "Harvey Logan" (on Boggs1, BoggsCD1)
Byrd Moore, "Harvey Logan" (Gennett 6549, 1928)

References