1800's
JACK SLADE
THE WEST
Ask Virginia Slade, and she would say her husband Jack was intelligent, kind, and devoted. But Virginia also knew that her man was a diehard alcoholic who sometimes killed others for no particular reason when drunk. Even Jack's early years were fraught with violence. Author Jan Murphy states Jack was a bully in school, killed his first man at age 13, was dishonorably discharged from the Mexican-American War, and killed dozens of men. He did have a soft spot for Virginia, whom he met in a dance hall and married in 1857. When the couple managed a stage station (pictured) in Colorado, Jack named it Virginia Dale after his lady.
Jack was a bully in school, killed his first man at age 13, was dishonorably discharged from the Mexican-American War, and killed dozens of men
Jack Slade soon proved himself to be "capable of defying floods, droughts, blizzards, outlaws and hostile Indians," according to Colorado Country Life. But after another drunken spree, he was fired in 1862. The Slades moved to Virginia City, Montana. Jack ran a successful freighting business, opened a dairy, and established a toll road. But his drunken escapades continued. Author Richard Erdoes writes of him tying one on in the local dance halls, sometimes pointing his pistol at the girls. Following one last two-day bender in 1864, 400 fed-up men gathered and strung Jack up at a local corral. Virginia, who rode her horse at breakneck speed from the couple's cabin eight miles away, hoped to save him. But by the time she got there, evil Jack Slade was dead.