Let's Talk Westerns

William M. Pickett was born on December 5th, 1870, near the Jenks-Branch community of Williamson County, Texas. He was the second of thirteen children, born to Thomas Jefferson Pickett (a former slave) and Mary ‘Janie’ Pickett. He had four brothers and eight sisters.

Bill Pickett, billed as the Dusky Demon, on his horse Spradley before his performance at the 101 Ranch Show. He was the creator of the sport of Bulldogging which later evolved into the rodeo event of Steer Wrestling.

He quit school in the fifth grade and took a job as a ranch hand. He watched the old cowboys work cattle with the help of a bulldog. He was amazed watching the smaller animal bite a steer’s nose and bring it to a halt. From his observations, he developed the art of Bulldoggin’, where a man would dive from a running horse, grab a bull’s head and twist it up and bite the nose or upper or lower lip and bring the animal to an abrupt stop.

Bill and his brothers established the Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders Association in 1888. They would travel around the southern states breaking horses for the big ranches. They also participated in rodeos, performing as far north as North Dakota and Wyoming. In 1889 he married Maggie Turner a former slave and daughter of a white plantation owner. They had nine children. He performed at America’s most famous rodeo, The Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, in 1904 and gave an extraordinary performance. In 1905, he appeared with Will Rogers at Madison Square Garden and performed before a packed audience. He even had to catch a bull that escaped and got into the stands. He joined Zach Miller’s 101 Ranch Wild West Show and performed under the moniker The Dusky Demon. In 1908 Miller, took the show to Mexico and nearly started a riot. Miller wagered $5,000 on Pickett’s ability to bulldog a Mexican fighting bull. Pickett held the bull for a full seven minutes and the crowd of over 25,000 became offended at what they perceived to be a desecration of their national sport, threw bottles, stones, knives and cans at Pickett and his horse. He managed to escape under military protection. During his career, he performed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, and England.

Bill was one of the first movie actors of color and starred in two short films. The Bulldogger in 1923 and The Crimson Skull in 1924. A copy of The Bulldogger is at the Library of Congress.

While working at the 101 Ranch he met Buffalo Bill, Tom Mix, Bee Ho Gray and, Zach and Lucille Mulhall. He appeared in two early silent pictures The Bull-Dogger and The Crimson Skull. He was billed as The World’s Colored Champion and The Colored Hero of the Mexican Bullring. He retired from the 101 Rodeo outfit in 1916, bought a small ranch of his own and eased into retirement.

In 1932, he heard that the 101 Ranch was in financial difficulties and signed back on to help his former employers. He was kicked in the head while roping horses and lay in a coma for eleven days before he finally succumbed to his injuries on April 2nd. Humorist Will Rogers announced Bill’s funeral on his radio show. In 1971, he was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, honored him in 1989. In 1993, The United States Postal Service created a stamp in his honor. The family informed the postal service that the stamp depicted Bill’s brother, Ben Pickett. In 1994 the postal service released a corrected stamp. Bill was inducted into the Texas Trail of Fame in 1997 and was honored by the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame in 2003. In August of 2018, Bill was inducted into the Jim Thorpe Association’s Hall of Fame.

Jesse Stahl performing one of his famed suicide rides. He would often perform this stunt with a suitcase in his free hand.

Jesse Stahl was born in Tennessee, Texas, or California between 1879 and 1883 (no one is certain of his place or year of birth). His past was a blank slate, nothing was known about his childhood. He had a brother named Ambrose and both entered professional rodeo at the same time, but only Jesse went on to become famous.

He rode a horse named Glass-eye at The Salinas rodeo in 1912. He placed third in the event, although most of the spectators present thought the judges should have given him the top prize. He never finished better than third place in any rodeo in which he performed. He and his partner Ty Stokes came up with the idea for ‘Suicide Rides.’ They would ride a bronc sitting back to back, or Jesse would ride the bronc facing backward or with a suitcase in his free hand.

Some rodeo enthusiasts consider Jesse Stahl to be the greatest of all Bronc riders.

He invented the sport of ‘Hoolihandling,’ which is close to the sport of ‘bulldoggin’ or ‘steer wrestling.’A man jumped from a running horse onto a twothousand-pound bull and grabbed the beast by the horns, overpowering the animal and rooting it to the ground, tethered by the horns. The sport never really caught on in the professional rodeo circuit and was abandoned in the twenties.

Jesse performed across the United States, from California to New York and retired from professional rodeo in 1929 and died in 1935 in Sacramento, California. He was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 1979.

—Terry Alexander is a western, science fiction and horror writer with a vast number of publishing credits to his name. He's also a connoisseur of all things related to the Hollywood Western. He and his wife, Phyllis, live on a small farm near Porum, Oklahoma.