Bounty Hunting began in England during the 13th century at that time a person named as the custodian of an accused was considered collateral for a fugitive who failed to appear for trial. In 1679 the British Government passed rules allowing the accused to be released on 'Monetary Bail'.
Bounty Hunting in the United States has been around since the 1700's and the Revolutionary War era, Skip-tracers hunting 'scoff-laws' was one verbal term used in those early days.
During the mid and late 1850's in the Old American West there lacked proper enforcement for criminals who failed to appear in court. Bounty Hunters were often employed as 'runaway slave catchers'. During the early 1860's and the Civil War period Bounty Hunters added 'military deserters to their growing list of clients.
Pat Garret, Tom Horn and John Riley Duncan spent time as Bounty Hunters. Charlie Siringo was a very successful Pinkerton Agent, he spent many years Bounty Hunting and is reputed to have arrested more than one hundred criminals, many of whom had 'skipped their bail'. Bounty Hunters were often hired and issued with arrest warrants from private detective agencies such as the famous Pinkerton's. Official Bounty Hunters were usually paid 10 to 20% of the Bail sometimes more, High Dollar ransoms offered for the arrest of Bank Robbers or Murderers were highly attractive employment for official Bounty Hunters, sometimes Sheriff's and Marshall's would supplement their often merger salaries by Bounty Hunting. In the early days of US Bounty Hunting unofficial Bounty Hunters were often hired by wealthy individuals, Bank's, Rail-road and Mining Companies, Cattle Ranchers and Private Companies. Successful un-convicted criminals were very good Bounty Hunters, History records that many successful Bounty Hunters had criminal records suggesting that the old saying 'it takes a thief to catch a thief' has a lot of truth in it.
What did an Old West Bounty Hunter look like? Well most but not all were tall, tough and skinny, with “steely nerves' it was a hard lonely and dangerous life being a Bounty Hunter, they would dress to suit the environment and conditions appertaining to the particular job in hand especially when it was time to make an arrest on a Dead or Alive Bounty Hunt. Most Bounty Hunters tried to carry out their hunting anonymously although Charlie Siringo used his name openly. It was usually in the Bounty Hunters best interests to try and capture a criminal alive because in some cases if a criminal was returned to the Law Enforcement Agency in a deceased state then the reward was split in half.
The Hollywood Film image of the Old West Bounty Hunter usually paints a very glamorous sometimes romantic picture of the Bounty Hunter, not 'as it really was at grass roots' level.
- This eer hombre jus gott'a bee ah Bounty Hunter. Please click on his picture, Thank's.
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Author: jhc © Picture with permission from North America Re-Visited Archives.©
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