Could you give me some information on a Bud Ledbetter?
Howard Ledbetter
Rathdrum, Idaho
James F. “Bud” Ledbetter was one of the great lawmen of the Southwest.
He was born in Madison, Arkansas, and was deputy sheriff of Johnson County, Arkansas, and served in the lawless Indian Territory in the 1890s. He single-handedly captured four members of the Al Jennings Gang and was the nemesis of many desperados in that part of the country.
During an interview when he was 80, Ledbetter said, “I was only a green country boy, but they always wanted me in on every case. I wasn’t afraid, for one thing. Maybe I should have been. But I never got hurt much. I don’t see how I could have kept from being killed if just by accident. I always got through to come back on the next case. Some of those ‘cases’ were pretty bad.”
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