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What can be done when the regular law enforcement officials are not doing their duty?
The answer is simple -- hire a couple of gunmen to clean things up. And that is exactly what five of Pampa's city fathers did back in 1915. Nobody was safe on the streets at night --or during the day, either. So M. K. Brown, E. E. Finley, Claude Ledrick, Henry Lippold, and Dr. W. Purviance took a trip over to Amarillo to see the chief of police. The chief recommended Jake Farrah and Pat Morrow. In a day or two, then, Jake arrived in town sporting a pair of spanking white shoes, two six-shooters and a grim desire to get things done. Several weeks later Pat showed up to give Jake a hand. The city floated a bond in order to pay them salaries of S125 a month, unreasonably high for the area. "A11 men," Dr. Purviance described them, adding that it wasn't too long till things were under control. Beside slapping a blanket of law and order over the area, the hired gunmen even cracked down on friendly-like gambling. Jake stayed around for a year and a half, but Pat left after three months. Finally, in the middle of the night one time, Jake took off over the hills and was never seen in these parts again. Nobody has ever explained convincingly why Jake went over the border to Arizona. |
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