They Called Him Buckskin Frank: The Life and Adventures of Nashville Franklyn Leslie by Jake DeMattos and Chuck Parsons (review)

In the 1880s everyone in Arizona knew of Wyatt Earp and Buckskin Frank. They were equally notorious, with their exploits reported regularly in the state's newspapers. But while Earp remains well known throughout the United States, Buckskin Frank does not. In their new book, authors Jack DeMattos and Chuck Parsons delve into newspaper accounts, old biographies, and other sources, not only to bring Buckskin Frank, whose real name was Nashville Franklyn Leslie, to the attention of today's readers, but also to fill in the gaps of the past and correct false stories that misled his contemporaries and biographers.

Leslie's early life remains mostly unknown, although evidence indicates he was born near San Antonio, Texas, on March 18, 1842. In 1880, after spending the previous decade in San Francisco, California, apparently working as a barkeeper, he moved to the boomtown of Tombstone, Arizona, where he gained his nickname by wearing buckskin outfits, often working as a scout. Through the decade he also worked in saloons, sometimes as an owner or co-owner. He served as a special deputy sheriff with the power to arrest lawbreakers in his saloon. One of the stories for which no proof exists is that he served for a time with George Armstrong Custer in his Seventh Cavalry Regiment. In 1881 he did ride in a posse with Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp and Bat Masterson chasing after stagecoach robbers.

Leslie's notoriety began when he killed Mike Killeen, who had come after Leslie when he reportedly found Leslie with his arm around Killeen's ex-wife, May. Eight days after Killeen's death, Leslie and May married. After John Ringo's body was found near a canyon in 1882, Leslie was considered the possible killer, although they had apparently been friends. Some, however, believed the death was a suicide. But the story added to Leslie's growing notoriety. Later that year Leslie shot and killed a friend, William Floyd "Billy" Claiborne, over an argument. Head injuries were considered the cause of Leslie's increasingly severe mental issues. Two bullets had grazed his head in the shoot-out with Mike Killeen, and he also had fallen headfirst onto a pile of rocks.

For the next few years, Leslie worked as a scout for the United States Army, but in 1886 after hunting Geronimo he was discharged because of "his inability to tell a trail from a box of flea powder" (102). His wife May divorced him in 1887, accusing him of choking and beating her and of committing adultery with a singer. In 1889 a woman named Mollie Edwards lived with Leslie for several months. After drinking heavily on July 10, 1889, Leslie shot and killed her. He claimed that because of his head injuries, he suffered "insane impulses" (122). He was sentenced to life in prison.

Buckskin Frank's stint in prison did not put an end to either his love life or his tendency to violence. Belle Stowell began corresponding with Leslie while he was at Yuma Prison in 1894, and soon launched a successful campaign to get him released. Later that year they married. A few months later they separated. In 1902 in San Francisco he accidentally shot himself, grazing his scalp and possibly contributing to his mental illness. At some point in the 1920s he died. He may have passed peacefully, or perhaps his death was by suicide or murder. As the authors state in their fascinating account, many of the claims about Buckskin Frank cannot be confirmed or dismissed.