Enemies Become Partners The strange story of Dave Rudabaugh and J.J. Webb.

In the spring of 1878, Deputy J.J. Webb helped Sheriff Bat Masterson arrest Dave Rudabaugh for an attempted train/depot robbery at Kinsley, Kansas. Rudabaugh turned states evidence and was released.  But he and Webb would meet again—and work together to beat the law.

Both were in the Las Vegas, New Mexico jail on criminal charges (Webb for murder when he was marshal of the town). On September 19, 1881 the pair break out. Rudabaugh supposedly died later in Mexico. Webb died of smallpox in Arizona seven months after the jailbreak.