1856 Indian Territory – 1896 Huntsville Prison, Williams Farm, Riverside, Walker County TX
Jim was the troublesome brother of John Henry. The Lafferty/Cox Agreement gives his age as having been born in 1856, yet his prison records indicate that he was born in 1849. There are no census records found (to date) that would corraborate either date.
Jim is well known to Lafferty/Cox researchers for having murdered Ben Maples, wife of Serilda Cox, in 1892 after a quarrel whose boundaries are a little vague. Trial testimony points out a couple of things about Jim’s life — his brother states that “he had left the country before this to go to New Mexico, and had returned two days before the killing. “ Additionally, John Henry testifies, “My brother was in the penitentiary at Rusk several years, and I did not see him.”
If Jim was born in 1856, he would have been about three years old at the time we believed that he lost his mother, who was likely killed or captured by the Comanches from the ranch along the Pendencia Creek.
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