The Hannibal Heyes Biography

Contributed by Lori

This is my personal take on the life and times of that beloved cowboy, Hannibal Heyes. It may or may not reflect your feelings on the man. Read it and do with it as you will. And if you enjoy it or it makes you smile, well, that’s a good deal.

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“The two most successful outlaws in the history of the west. And in all the” —  yada, yada, yada  —  you’ve heard all this before, but I’m here to tell you the rest of the story. Who am I, you ask? Don’t you recognize me from my wanted poster? No? Well, who can blame you really? Those things are practically worthless. I have no idea how anyone ever figured out who we are using those things. But it happened time and again, didn’t it?

I’m Hannibal Heyes — in the flesh. One of the two most successful outlaws in the history of the west. You know, I always wondered how Jesse James or Billy the Kid or any of those other ‘successful outlaws’ felt when they heard people say that over and over. It’s a wonder Kid and I are still alive. It’s not a good idea to get on the wrong side of types like those.

But me and my partner, Kid Curry — where is Kid, anyway? Me and Kid, we’ve changed our thievin’ ways. Gone straight as a couple of arrows. Wanna know why? You’ve probably heard the rumors. Yep, amnesty. If we stay out of trouble long enough, the governor of Wyoming is gonna wipe our slates clean.

I can see that you’re curious about how we ever got started in a life of crime so I’m here to tell you. It’s a long, sad story so you might want to sit back and get comfortable. We’re gonna be here for a while.

My parents moved west when I was real little and settled in Kansas, near the town of Lawrence. We had a little farm a ways out of town. It wasn’t easy living out there, but we got by. My pa farmed a patch of land and with my ma’s help, we managed okay.

Kansas was a wild land back in those days. We saw all sorts of weather living out there on the prairie. Winters so cold it seemed you never got warm, even in your own bed, piled high with blankets. Summers so hot, you’d feel like strippin’ down to your skivvies and jumpin’ in the crick; something me and Jed did most every day. We spent lots of days down there by that muddy ol’ creek, under that old shade tree, fishing and swimming. Yep, those were the finest days of my young life. But I’m getting ahead of myself … where was I?

Oh, right. I was telling you about Kansas. Ever been to Kansas? If you have, you know what it’s like. Too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and in between the wind blows across the prairie, hot and dry like straight out of hell, drying out the land and laying down the crops before they get a chance to head out.

I don’t really miss Kansas. Can you tell? But the inhospitable weather ain’t the only reason I don’t miss it. See, that’s where I lost my folks. So when the time came for me to move on, I got out of Kansas as quick as I could. Been back a few times; more times than I care to think about to be honest, but I don’t stay around any longer than I need to most times.

Here I am, jumping ahead of myself again. I was gonna tell you a little bit more about how it was, growing up back there on that little farm, back then before everything fell apart.

There was only the three of us in my family. My ma and pa and me. Pa was a quiet man, given to long periods of introspection. I always had the feeling that he had come through some hard times of his own, although he never talked about it. Just sort of fell into himself once in a while. Those times, he would immerse himself in his work, going out early in the morning and not returning to the house until long after sunset. I could tell Ma worried after him when he got in those moods, but she would just watch him quietly and wait for him to come back around. He was a good man and a good father. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him still.

Now, my ma, well, she was a wonderful woman. I felt so loved when I was around her. I always wondered why she didn’t have a whole passel of young’uns surrounding her, until I heard someone mention that she wasn’t able to have any more kids after me. I guess something happened during my birth to damage her so she couldn’t have any more. I remember feeling awful bad about that. Like it was my fault or something.

But my ma never made me feel that way. I remember how beautiful I always thought she was. Had these incredibly deep brown eyes. In some light, they looked more black than brown and when she looked at a person with those eyes, really looked at ya, well, you just felt like she was looking right into you.

And her smile. I could never get enough of her smile. I would do all sorts of silly things just to make her smile. Yeah, I know it’s hard to believe now that I ever did silly things, but if you knew my mother and her smile, you’d do whatever it took to get her to favor you with one too.

But it was a lonely life for a boy sometimes. I spent a lot of time on my own. That is, until we met our closest neighbors, the Currys. Damn, they were a family. When they were all in one place, they were a noisy bunch. All those kids! Each one of them louder than the one before. Oh, the whole bunch of them together could be a mite overpowering sometimes, especially for a boy who didn’t have any other siblings, but what fun they had together! I loved going over to their farm. There were days when I could barely stand to finish my chores before running across the meadow and through that old stand of trees that stood between our house and theirs.

Now Kid — Jed — he was the baby of the Curry family. Quite a few years between him and his next older brother, James, as I recollect. He was the quietest one in his family too, but that ain’t too surprising. Hard to sneak a word in edgewise, ‘specially when you’re the littlest one around. Didn’t help none either that he was sorta small for his age. People didn’t pay him much mind.

Wasn’t too long after we first met that he sort of attached himself to me, you might say. Don’t rightly know why he took such a shine to me and at first I wasn’t totally sold on the idea either. I mean, he was a couple years younger than me, after all, and I didn’t really welcome his company all that much; not right off anyway. But he did have a way of growing on a fella. And I guess it didn’t hurt none that he just seemed to think I could do no wrong. Imagine that. Yep, he pretty much hung on my every word as if it came straight from the mouth of God.

Although, if ya think about it, it ain’t really all that surprising. From the start, Jed and I were just sort of drawn together somehow. I believe he admired my intellect and well, you‘d never suspect it now, but as a little boy, Kid needed someone to look after him. I guess I became that someone.

So, early on, we became a team … partners even back then. Funny how things turn out sometimes…

Let’s see, where was I? Oh, right. Well, anyway … after I got to know Jed, the prairie wasn’t such a lonely place to live anymore. It was like I all of a sudden had a little brother. We’d spend most of our free time together, doing what boys do: fishing, swimming, playing cowboys and Indians … innocent stuff like that.

Mind, it wasn’t all completely innocent. We got in our share of mischief too. Like for instance, playing tricks on Jed’s older brothers and sisters. Kid never tired of making himself an irritant to them. I think later, he really regretted some of the pranks we pulled on them. Hm. Yep, I truly do think he felt bad about that for a long time.

But our lives were pretty good back then. Too bad we didn’t know what was ahead of us or we might have appreciated what we had even more. Even then though, Lawrence was a pretty volatile place to live. It wasn’t uncommon for disputes to get stirred up along the border between Kansas and Missouri.

I’m sure you know that Missouri was a slave-owning state and Kansas was settled mainly by people from back East who were opposed to slavery. And everyone had strong feelings on the subject, that’s for sure. Took to settling their disputes with violence. And violence only begets more violence, leastways that’s always been my experience.

The war didn’t make matters any better. Things just got worse and worse in that part of the country. And then, the unthinkable happened for me and Jed. Our folks were all killed in the Border Wars.

Worst day of my life …

After that, well Jed was never really quite the same boy that he’d been before. He didn’t talk at all for days and then, even when he started coming around, he was just a lot quieter. More introspective. It was a terrible thing to see.

Oh, it marked me too; to my very soul; without a doubt. But I’ve always been more likely to keep things in check than Kid was. Never was one for getting too emotional about things so it was harder for folks to see what losing my family did to me. Maybe I would have been better off if I’da just let loose after they died, but I never did. I had Jed to worry about. Poor kid was in tough shape.

But I swore to him and to myself that I’d take care of him … and I have too; just like he’s taken care of me and probably don’t even realize it. We’ve really only had each other to lean on since that day. He’s the only family I’ve got left.

‘Course, I don’t mean family by blood, but in a way we are that too because, even before we knew our families were killed, we made a pact to always be brothers. Sealed it with our blood. You can still see the scar in my hand, if you look hard enough; Kid’s too.

Getting back to the story, after our folks died, we were taken in by a wonderful woman in Lawrence for a while. A school teacher … a really wonderful woman. But the local authorities didn’t think it was proper for a young, single woman to be raising up two boys not far from becoming young men. So they more or less forced her to send us away.

We were sent to the Valparaiso Home for Waywards. What in God’s name is a wayward anyway?

See, she promised she’d come visit and try to find a way to get us back. We waited for her a long time, but she never did. It wasn’t until years later that we found out why. Seems that shortly after we were taken from her, she was killed in a buggy accident. Funny how things turn out sometimes, huh?

Valparaiso was a hateful place. Not a place for children, to be sure. Especially not a place for a couple of kids like us, although I’m not sure our situation was all that different from most of the other kids sent there. But Jed and me, we had been so happy, so satisfied with our lives up until then and it was yanked away from us so sudden, we just weren’t prepared for the life in store for us in that place.

Hm. Look at me, going on so long. This might be a good time for me to take a break. Mind if I stretch my legs a while? Oh don’t worry, I’ll be back. I’ve got lots more to tell you before I’m through.