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BIG NOSE GEORGE
"BIG-NOSE"
GEORGE PARROT
began his career
as an outlaw in
the Black Hills
of South Dakota
robbing
passengers on
stage coaches and
stealing horses.
With his gang,
one of whom may
have been Frank
James, he
attempted to
holdup a train
near Carbon,
Wyoming. The
plan was foiled
by an alert
railroad section
foreman and a
posse from
Rawlins set out
in pursuit.
Parrot ambushed
and killed two of
the pursuers.
It took lawmen two years to capture and return him to Wyoming for trial. A lynch mob was waiting for Parrot when his train arrived in Carbon. The mob tied a rope around Parrot’s neck, hoisted him onto a corral gate and attempted to beat a confession out of him. Sheriff Rankin managed to regain control and take Parrot back to Rawlins for trial. When word got out that the outlaw had attempted to escape from the jail, a lynch mob attempted to hang him from a telegraph pole. However, the rope broke and Parrot fell to the ground and managed to untie his hands but not his feet before the surprised mob could react.
A 12-foot ladder
was procured and
Parrot forced to
climb
it while wearing
a new, and this
time, stronger,
noose around his
neck. When he
reached the top
of the ladder, it
was jerked out
from under him
and he swung back
and forth
grasping desperately
at each pass for
the telegraph
pole. He managed
to grab the pole
and tried to
climb
it; to the
crowd’s delight
however, he lost
his grip and
swung free. When
he appeared to be
dead, the mob cut
him down; then
decided they had
better not take
another chance
with "Big-Nose"
George and hung
him again, this
time leaving him
to swing until
the next day.
A local rancher carried Parrot’s head home as a souvenir but returned it when his wife loudly objected. The top of the outlaw’s skull was made into a doorstop and then used for an ashtray. John Osborne, a Rawlins doctor, had Parrot’s skin tanned and made into a pair of dress shoes and a medical bag. Dr. Osborne was later elected governor of Wyoming and proudly wore the outlaw-hide shoes to the state house. In 1949, a whiskey barrel containing the rest of Parrot's body was found by workmen excavating a building site in Rawlins.
