Roy Bean was an eccentric U.S. saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in west Texas who called himself "The Law West of the Pecos". Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. was born in Mason County, Kentucky, in about 1825. After the Mexican–American War, he moved out of San Antonio, Texas where joined up with his older brother Sam. In 1848, the two brothers opened a trading post in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Soon after, Roy Bean shot and killed a Mexican desperado who had threatened "to kill a gringo." To escape being charged with murder by Mexican authorities, Roy and Sam Bean fled west to Sonora. By the spring of 1849, Bean had moved to San Diego, California, to live with his older brother Joshua (who was elected the first mayor of San Diego in 1850). A Scotsman named Collins challenged Roy Bean to a pistol-shooting match on horseback. Bean was left to choose the targets and decided that they would shoot at each other. The duel was fought on February 24, 1852, ending with Collins' receiving a wound to his right arm. After two months in jail, Bean escaped and fled to San Gabriel, California, where he became a bartender in his brother's Joshua's saloon, After Joshua was murdered in November 1852, Bean inherited the saloon. In 1854, Bean courted a young lady who was subsequently kidnapped and forced to marry a Mexican officer. Bean challenged the groom to a duel and killed him. Six of the dead man's friends put Bean on a horse and tied a noose around his head, then left him to hang. The horse did not bolt, and after the men left, the bride, who had been hiding behind a tree, cut the rope. Bean was left with a permanent rope burn on his neck and a permanent stiff neck. Shortly after that, he chose to leave California and migrated to New Mexico to live with Sam, who had been elected the first sheriff of Doña Ana County. In 1861 Sam and Roy Bean operated a merchandise store and saloon on Main Street in Pinos Altos in present-day Grant County, New Mexico. During the Civil War, Bean, a supporter of the Confederate Army, led a guerrilla band called the Forty Rovers. This group, based in San Antonio, was commonly known as the Forty Thieves, and it was claimed that Bean was more concerned with robbery than with fighting the Union Army. After the war, Bean became a trader and eventually took over a saloon in Vinegaroon, Texas. The tent town was built for railroad laborers and developed a reputation for wild behavior. In 1882 Bean was appointed as the town's justice of the peace. With the support of the Texas Rangers, Bean attempted to maintain law and order in Vinegaroon. Unless he was paid a bribe, people convicted of crimes in town were treated very harshly. When an acquaintance was charged with killing a Chinaman, and after studying his law book, Bean claimed he could not find a passage where "it says it's illegal to kill a Chinee". The man then paid a bribe and he was acquitted. On another occasion Bean fined a corpse $40 for carrying a concealed weapon. Bean moved on to Langtry, Texas, where he became the owner of the Jersey Lilly Saloon. He soon got himself elected as justice of the peace and continued to make a good living from his activities, including $4 for presiding over weddings and divorces and $5 for officiating at inquests. His marriage ceremonies always ended with the same pronouncement used when condemning men to death: "May God have mercy on your soul." Roy Bean died March 16, 1903, peacefully in his bed, after a bout of heavy drinking.
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