He arrested desperados like the Jack Taylor Gang and brought them to justice. He also became a prominent poker player, often playing all night long. He was reportedly good at bluffing. He often played with the cattle baron John Chisum. Once, in San Antonio, Texas, he was cheated by cattle rustler Bryan Gallagher. Slaughter claimed the pot but Bryan fled. Slaughter tracked down Gallagher all the way to New Mexico at Chisum's ranch and shot him down. Personal life Slaughter married Eliza Adeline Harris on August 4, 1871. Of their four children, only two, Addie and Willie, survived until adulthood. Eliza died in 1877 of smallpox in Tucson. On April 16, 1879, Slaughter, at the age of thirty-seven, married eighteen-year-old Cora Viola Howell at Tularosa, New Mexico Territory. The Slaughters had no children of their own, but they adopted several children, including Apache May, whom Slaughter encountered in 1896 while chasing the Apache Kid in Mexico. Years later, when he became ill, the Slaughters moved to an apartment on Twelfth Street in Douglas, Arizona. Previously believed to be Slaughter's former slave, John Swain (Slaughter), an experienced cowboy, settled in Tombstone and became one of its oldest and longstanding residents, dying at the age of nearly 100 in 1945. However, John Slaughter hired Swain on as an employee in Texas in 1879 prior to moving to Arizona. Swain was employed by Slaughter for a brief period before leaving the San Bernardino ranch and moving to Tombstone where he remained until his death. John Horton Slaughter never owned a slave. Death Slaughter was found on the morning of February 16, 1922, in his Douglas apartment, having died sometime during the previous night. He was buried at the Calvary Cemetery in Douglas. References General Baird, Clayton. "I Knew John Slaughter." Real West, September 1972. DeMattos, Jack. "Gunfighters of the Real West: John Slaughter." Real West, March 1982. Erwin, Allen A. The Southwest of John Horton Slaughter 1841–1922, Pioneer Cattleman and Trail-driver of Texas, the Pecos, and Arizona and Sheriff of Tombstone. Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clarke Company, 1965. Farfan, G.B. "Patchy Slaughter." Frontier Times, September 1963. 1841 births 1922 deaths Cowboys People from Sabine Parish, Louisiana People from Sabine County, Texas People from Caldwell County, Texas People from Douglas, Arizona Members of the Texas Ranger Division Confederate States Army soldiers History of Arizona Arizona folklore Arizona pioneers Lawmen of the American Old