Blackwater Massacre



The Blackwater Massacre was a bloody gunfight involving the Van der Linde gang, the Blackwater Police Department, and agents of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency that took place in the town of Blackwater in May 1899. By 1911, the massacre had gained wide publicity due to the number of men killed and the fact that it took place in such a highly populated and modernized town.

Events
What would become known as the Blackwater Massacre began as a robbery. The Van der Linde gang, at the time operating in the Great Plains territory of West Elizabeth, heard that a steamboat was carrying a substantial sum of money and was scheduled to dock at Blackwater. Most of the gang, with the known exception of Arthur Morgan, Hosea Matthews and Josiah Trelawny, participated in holding up the steamboat. According to several members of the gang, the robbery was going smoothly up until Dutch van der Linde abruptly shot and killed Heidi McCourt. Shortly afterwards, a large contingent of Pinkertons unexpectedly appeared on the scene, catching the gang completely off-guard and resulting in an intense firefight.

At some point either before or during the fighting, the Van der Linde gang was able to conceal the money from the robbery in their hideout in Blackwater, but were forced to leave it and their other funds behind and hastily flee the state. With the Pinkertons hot on their trail, the gang forged deep into the mountains of Grizzlies West in Ambarino, where heavy snowfall and low visibility allowed them to escape their pursuers and hold up in the abandoned mining town of Colter.

In the aftermath of the Blackwater Massacre, all of West Elizabeth south of the Upper Montana River brimmed with local police and Pinkertons, and wanted posters of Dutch van der Linde and Hosea Matthews were plastered throughout Blackwater, making it extremely difficult for the gang to return to collect its money.

Casualties
According to accounts of the incident, as many as 37 men were killed, consisting of 22 outlaws and 15 members of the Blackwater Police Department. Although no exact number is known, it is believed that civilian casualties were minimal. However, only 3 members of the Van Der Linde gang are known to have been killed in the massacre, suggesting that the casualty list was inflated to make the BPD and Pinkertons look better.

Heidi McCourt was reportedly the first victim of the massacre. At least three members of the Van der Linde gang died as a result of the fighting, with the third succumbing to his wounds after the gang had fled to Grizzlies West.

Survivors
Landon Ricketts is supposedly one of the only survivors of the incident. The massacre apparently led him to move south of the border to Chuparosa. His status as one of the only survivors has made him popular and given him a legendary status through West Elizabeth and beyond. Judging by the quotes of Willie Oats, he too could have been a survivor.

Trivia

 * Another possible yet unconfirmed victim of the Blackwater Massacre is Maybelle, Archer Fordham's mother. Dialogue from Red Dead Redemption game files states, "I hear that Bureau fella's never been the same since his mother got shot in the massacre." Maybelle appears to have survived being shot during the massacre, but she died not long afterwards on July 24, 1900 and was buried at Blackwater Cemetery.