When Buckskin Frank Leslie arrived in Tombstone, he was called Nashville Franklin Leslie. His fringed buckskin jacket — and the lack of information on his earlier life — gave him his new nickname.
He was in Tombstone from 1880 to 1889. When he made the news as far away as Tucson, it was generally because he killed someone. It appears he managed to get away with killing quite a few people before a murder charge stuck. Some accounts put the number at a dozen or more.
The first death in Tombstone attributed to Buckskin Frank was Mike Killeen, according to many reports. The Star gave a slightly different name to the deceased, but the account of the shooting is too similar for it to be a different man.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Friday June 24, 1880:
Jealousy and Pistols.
Last Tuesday night an affray occurred at Tombstone which is likely to have a fatal termination. Mike Galeen, a bar-tender at the Palace, who is separated from his wife, a chamber-maid at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, having heard that she had gone to a ball, became exceedingly excited about it, and made threats against her life. He was heard to say that she was wearing her burial clothes, and used other expressions which showed that he meditated some rash action. After the ball Mrs. Galeen requested a young man named Frank Leslie to escort her as far as the door of the hotel, which he did. As they were approaching the Cosmopolitan Hotel, Galeen, who was standing on the balcony, opened fire without a word of warning, and shot Leslie twice in the head, only inflicting scalp wounds, however. Leslie then pulled out his revolver and returned the fire, hitting Galeen in the breast and again in the head, the bullet of the last shot entering the lower jaw and coming out on the opposite side just under the eye. Galeen then fell and was carried in by his friends. He is now in a very precarious condition. He made a statement that a Mr. Perrin inflicted the shot through the breast, by shooting him from behind during the affray, but this is denied both by Perrin and Leslie who is willing to assume all the responsibility for the shooting. Both were arrested but have been released on their own recognizance, pending their examination before the Justice of the Peace.
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Mike Galeen did die of his injuries and Frank Leslie was deemed to have shot him in self defense. Leslie married Galeen's widow soon after, but she divorced him a couple of years later and left the area. Frank Leslie was known around Tombstone as a big drinker and this probably drove her away.
Another "victim" of Frank Leslie is much better known historically than Mike Galeen or Killeen. At least his name is the same whenever he is mentioned.
He is remembered as one of the participants in the Earp/Clanton gang dispute that lasted considerably longer than the famous gunfight in Tombstone.
From the Star, Wednesday Nov. 15, 1882:
KILLING IN TOMBSTONE.
Special Dispatch to the Star.
TOMBSTONE, Nov. 14.—William Clayborne, alias Billy the Kid, was shot and killed this morning at the Oriental saloon in this city by Frank Leslie, alias Buckskin Frank. The parties quarreled, when the Kid went and armed himself with a Winchester and returned to the saloon, where he waited outside for the appearance of Leslie. As the latter emerged from the door the Kid opened fire at a distance of fifteen feet, but missed his man. Leslie drew his revolver, and returning the fire shot the Kid through the body, mortally wounding him. He lived but half an hour after being shot. The Coroner's jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. Both parties have heretofore killed their men.
The reader might notice the Clayborne liked to be called "Billy the Kid," but one must not confuse him for the better-known outlaw, William H. Bonney, who died less than two years earlier.
By the time Buckskin Frank committed a murder for which he would have to pay, it is likely that most of Tombstone was ready the heavy drinker to leave. Leslie spent time working as a scout and also had a ranch and spent considerable time with a woman named Mollie, often called "Blonde Mollie."
From the Star, Sunday, July 14, 1889:
A Terrible Tragedy.
Word comes from Tombstone that Frank Leslie, the famous Indian Scout, shot and killed a girl named Mollie, and seriously wounded James Neil, at Leslie's ranch, in the Horseshoe valley in the Swisshelm mountains.
Leslie had been drinking heavily, and the girl Mollie was setting talking to Neil, when Leslie entered the house drunk. He pulled his revolver, and without a word of warning said: "I'll settle this!" and fired at the woman, who fell without a groan. Leslie then fired two shots at Neil, hitting him in the left breast and in the left arm; Neil was unarmed and got out of the way as fast as possible, but became so weak that it took the remainder of the night to walk the mile and a half to where aid could be procured, and where his wound in the breast was found to have bled internally, until his chest was nearly full of blood. Dr. Goodfellow left for the scene and a carriage was also sent to convey the living, if any, to Tombstone. Very little hope is felt for Neil's recovery, and as Leslie is known to be a good shot it is supposed that the woman is dead.
More news was released a couple of days later. From the Star, Tuesday, July 16, 1889:
FURTHER PARTICULARS.
_____
The Woman Found Dead and the Man Brought In.
Dr. Goodfellow returned from the scene of the recent shooting at Frank Leslie's ranch yesterday. He found that the woman had been shot in the left breast, the bullet passing through the chest and coming out on the right side causing nearly instant death. The doctor found James Neil at Reynold's ranch, severely wounded, one ball having passed through the left breast and lodged under the skin on the back. The left arm was shattered by a bullet and was in a bad condition. The doctor dressed the wounds and brought the injured man to this city, where he is being cared for at the Cochise Hotel. He will probably recover. Justice Easton summoned a coroner's jury yesterday and went to the ranch. He will probably return today.
Last evening Ben James and a deputy started out to search for Leslie and met him a few miles out of town in company with J.S. Taylor and a young man named Hayne, whom Leslie had told that he was coming to Tombstone to surrender to the authorities. He quietly accompanied the officers to the jail and was locked up.
Neil was able to talk last evening and his story is substantially the same as published yesterday. Leslie shot at the woman twice and probably three times and then turned and shot at Neil three times, two of the shots taking effect as stated above. Leslie denies any knowledge of the shooting.—Epitaph.
This time, Frank Leslie was tried and convicted of murdering Mollie. He was sentenced to 25 years in the territorial prison in Yuma. He was paroled after six years and left Arizona.
