Cattle Kate Watson

Harlot bandit or a good woman done wrong?

Ella “Cattle Kate” Watson

Maybe you’ve seen this photo of Ella “Cattle Kate” Watson at some point. I certainly have. Matter of fact, the picture takes up an entire page in my old worn-out copy of Time Life Book’s The Gunfighters.

Sadly on July 20th, 1889, Ella and her man-friend Jim Averell were taken from their homes, led into the Wyoming wilderness, and hanged. Their crime? Stealing cattle.

Allegedly.

Story goes that Cattle Kate would trade sexual favors for stolen cows and horses, operating a brothel that catered to rustlers while Jim just wholesale stole as much cattle as he could get his thieving hands on. Both were branded as “tireless mavericks who defied the law” just days after their lynching.

Ella Watson especially was dragged through the mud following her death. Described by one Wyoming resident as “a cowboy harlot who took her pay in stolen cattle and yearlings. She is without shame, had a vile tongue, and had to be killed for the good of the country”.

But how true were these accusations?

Both she and Jim were originally from Canada. Jim migrated to the U.S. as a young man and ended up enlisting in the Army. Did a ten year hitch before settling in Wyoming. He was a widower when he met Ella, and had his own little homestead. He also held the respected positions of notary public, post master, and justice of the peace.

As for Ella, she married at a young age. Her husband was an abusive drunk so she obtained a divorce and drifted to Colorado where she obtained employement as both a cook and maid; eventually traveling to Wyoming where she met Mr. Averell.

The two hit it off almost immediately and obtained a marriage license within a very short time and even adopted an orphaned 11 year old.

I don’t know about you, but so far these two aren’t sounding like the rank outlaws that history has made them out to be.

So why kill them?

Turns out the answer was a little something known as greed.

Cattle baron Albert J. Bothwell coveted both Averell and Watson’s land; considered it all his own. He routinely sent in his cowboys to try and frighten the pair into selling out to him and when that failed he simply had them lynched as rustlers.

There was zero evidence either had stolen so much as one cow and - not only was Ella Watson not a prostitue - she was never even known as “Cattle Kate” in real life. It was all a fabrication of the cattle barons, the WSGA, and the corrupt newspapers.

This would be the killing that would kick off the Johnson county war, something I will be covering in full on the next episode of The Wild West Extravaganza, this coming Wednesday, November 30th.

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