Historic Homes of Denver: People Who Shaped Denver’s History - Noisy Tom Pollock

Tom Pollock filled an outlaw named George Steele with buckshot when he tried to kill William Byers after a failed kidnapping attempt.

Tom Pollock or "Noisy Tom" as he was known around Denver in the mid 1800's was a blacksmith who had little tolerance for the type of behavior that was becoming more and more common around town.  I have talked about the Judge Lynch period in Denver's History. Warnings were doled out to the thugs in the form of pieces of paper with a crude sketches of a hangman on it.  Things did calm down a bit, but Denver needed a lawman, and eventually Noisy Tom Pollock was appointed Denver's town Marshall.

Noisy Tom Pollock was paid 50 cents for every criminal that he caught.  Yet, Noisy Tom had a problem.  He needed a place to put all the outlaws that he caught.  Keep in mind, that at this point, Denver was a fledgling town, and Colorado was not yet a state.  There was no formal jail in town.  Noisy Tom locked up the bad guys in a makeshift hotel that he had built.  But, Noisy Tom needed more room and a more secure site.  After begging the town for an actual jail and being repeatedly denied, Noisy Tom Pollock quit after only 5 months on the job.

After the resignation of Noisy Tom Pollock, the number of homicides rose dramatically.  The crime rate rose and it was the Byers kidnapping incident that firmly installed the Judge Lynch period of justice in Denver.

In 1861, the Colorado Territory was formed and the Federal Government took over the responsibilities of law enforcement.  Legitimate courts were set up in Denver and Judge Lynch was retired in Denver.  However, even though Judge Lynch lost his power in Denver, he continued his work in the outlying mining communities that were scattered across the Rockies during the Gold Rush.  All the Judge in those mining camps needed was:
                                                                                                                                                      

-  a man like Noisy Tom Pollock to go out and catch the bad guys
-  a rowdy group of residents that were looking for retribution
-  a rope and a big ol' tree.

That my friends was justice in the Old West...