Law West of The Pecos

Duane's take

The marker tells it this way, and I'm just along for the ride. Now, there are legends, and then there are legends — and Roy Bean managed to become one while he was still breathing. Judge Roy Bean lived a life, the marker says, where fiction got so tangled up with fact that by the end, even he might not have known which was which.

And that, friend, is a rare achievement. His courthouse was this building right here — the one he called the Jersey Lilly, named for the famous English actress Lillie Langtry, a woman he admired something fierce, and for whom he claimed to have named the town itself. Court was held inside when the mood struck, and out on the porch when it didn't — spectators sometimes grouped around on horseback, watching the whole proceeding from the saddle like it was a rodeo.

And if things slowed down, well, Bean wasn't above breaking off proceedings entirely to serve customers looking for the other kinds of business he ran out of that same building. The courtroom was also, among other things, a place where a man could get a drink. Now, his law library — and I use that phrase loosely — consisted of one volume.

A single book. An 1879 copy of the Revised Statutes of Texas. He seldom consulted it, the marker tells us, preferring instead to call on his own ideas about what brand of justice ought to apply out here west of the Pecos.

He dispensed that justice, the marker says, together with liberal quantities of bluff and bluster. Since Langtry had no jail, every offense became a finable one — and Bean pocketed the fines. Drunken prisoners got chained to mesquite trees out front until they sobered up enough to stand trial.

Now, all of that would be plenty for most men's legacies. But Bean had one more card to play. On February 21, 1896, he staged the banned Fitzsimmons-Maher heavyweight title fight on a sandbar in the Rio Grande River — a stone's throw from his own front porch.

Texas Rangers had been sent to stop the match. Bean outwitted every last one of them by holding the fight on Mexican territory. He turned a handsome profit for his shrewdness, and his notoriety reached its peak.

As for Lillie Langtry herself — the actress this building was named for — Bean composed letters to her by lamplight, his lamp burning into the night. But he never saw her. Her only visit to Langtry came in 1904, less than a year after Bean died.

She arrived to find the legend already complete, the man already gone, and a building bearing her name standing in the desert. That's the Law West of the Pecos.

What the marker says

Judge Roy Bean lived a life in which fiction became so intermingled with fact that he became a legend within his lifetime. Basis for his renown were the decisions which he reached in this building as the Law West of the Pecos. Court was held as frequently on the porch, spectators grouped about on horseback, as within the building. Nor was Bean above breaking off proceedings long enough to serve customers seeking services dispensed by the other businesses carried on in his courtroom-home. The Judge's "law library" consisted of a single volume, an 1879 copy of the Revised Statutes of Texas. He seldom consulted it, however, calling instead on his own ideas about the brand of justice which should apply. This he effectively dispensed together with liberal quantities of bluff and bluster. Since Langtry had no jail, all offenses were deemed finable with Beam pocketing the fines. Drunken prisoners often were chained to mesquite trees in front of the building until they sobered up enough to stand trial. Bean reached a peak of notoreity when, on February 21, 1896, he staged the banned Fitzsimmons-Maher heavyweight title fight on a sand bar in the Rio Grande River, a stone's throw from his front porch. By holding it on Mexican territory he outwitted Texas Rangers sent to stop the match -- and turned a handsome profit for his shrewdness. This building was named the "Jersey Lilly" for the famous English actress Lillie Langtry whom Bean admired and for whom he claimed to have named the town. His lamp frequently burned into the night as he composed letters to her. But he never saw her since her only visit to Langtry occurred in 1904, less than a year after Bean died.