Roy Bean

Roy Bean was born circa 1825 in Mason County, Kentucky, and was the namesake and youngest of five children (four sons and a daughter) of Phantly Roy Bean Sr. (November 21, 1804 – June 13, 1844) and the former Anna Henderson Gore. The family was extremely poor; at age sixteen Bean left home to ride a flatboat to New Orleans, hoping to find work. After getting into trouble in New Orleans, Bean fled to San Antonio in order to join his elder brother Sam. Samuel Gore "Sam" Bean (1819–1903), who had earlier migrated to Independence, Missouri, was a teamster and bullwhacker. He hauled freight to Santa Fe and then on to Chihuahua, Mexico. Sam had moved out of San Antonio after fighting in the Mexican–American War. 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". The bride, who had been hiding behind a tree, cut the rope, freeing him and saving his life. This experience left Bean with a permanent rope burn and a stiff neck for the rest of his life. ==Move to Texas==

During the Civil War, the Confederate Army had invaded New Mexico. During the Battle of Glorieta Pass in March 1862, the Confederates lost their supply wagons and were forced to retreat to San Antonio. After taking money from his brother's safe, Bean joined the retreating army. For the remainder of the war, he ran the naval blockade by hauling cotton from San Antonio to British ships off the coast at Matamoros and returning with needed supplies. On October 28, 1866, he married eighteen-year-old Virginia Chavez. Within of the tent city were 8,000 railroad workers. The nearest court was away at Fort Stockton, and there were few means to stop illegal activity. A Texas Ranger requested that a local law jurisdiction be set up in Vinegaroon, and on August 2, 1882, Bean was appointed justice of the peace for the new Precinct 6 in Pecos County. One of his first acts as a justice of the peace was to "shoot [...] up the saloon shack of a Jewish competitor". By December 1882, railroad construction had moved farther westward and Bean moved his courtroom and saloon to Strawbridge (now Sanderson). He sent for his children, who then lived with him at the saloon, with his youngest son Sam sleeping on a pool table. She did, however, send to Bean a pair of Colt .45 pistols. Langtry did not have a jail – although it is reported that outside The Jersey Lilly was a large oak tree with a heavy log chain that served as a "jail" for those unable to pay their fines; fines settled all cases. Bean refused to send the state any part of the fines, and kept all of the money. Bean presided over an inquest concerning the train wreck of the G.H.& S. Railroad between Bean and Langtry finding one man had formerly been a fireman on the Southern Pacific Railroad. The dead man was identified as Robert Beckman; Bean had him brought to Langtry and buried in the Langtry graveyard. • During his term as a judge, Bean is known to have sentenced only two men to hang, one of whom escaped. Horse thieves, who were often sentenced to death in other jurisdictions, were always let go if the horses were returned to their owners. ==Later years and death==

In 1890, Bean received word that railroad developer and speculator Jay Gould was planning to pass through Langtry on a special train. Bean flagged down the train using a danger signal. Thinking the bridge was out, the train engineer stopped the train. Bean then invited Gould and his daughter to visit the saloon as his guests. The Goulds visited for two hours, causing a brief panic on the New York Stock Exchange when it was reported that Gould had been killed in a train crash. Bean died peacefully in his bed on March 16, 1903, after a bout of heavy drinking in San Antonio. He and his son, Sam Bean (1874–1907), are interred at the Whitehead Memorial Museum in Del Rio. In 1965, as part of the Civil War Centennial commemoration in Texas, an official Texas Historical Marker honoring Bean was erected on the museum grounds. ==In popular culture==

Films • The Westerner, a 1940 film directed by William Wyler and starring Gary Cooper, features Roy Bean (played by Walter Brennan) as one of the main characters, for which Brennan won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. The movie gives Bean an entirely fictitious death scene. • A Time for Dying was a 1969 film portraying his time in Vinegarroon; Audie Murphy starred as Jesse James and Victor Jory played a half-crazed Judge Roy Bean. • The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), a heavily fictionalized comedy-drama film, starring Paul Newman as Bean. Television • Judge Roy Bean, a fictionalized 1955 syndicated television series. Edgar Buchanan portrayed Bean. • In the episode "Law West of the Pecos" (June 7, 1959) of the ABC/Warner Brothers western television series, Colt .45, Frank Ferguson is cast as Judge Bean. Lisa Gaye portrays June Webster and Douglas Kennedy is cast as Jay Brisco. • The western anthology series Death Valley Days episode "A Picture of a Lady", first broadcast on December 30, 1965, depicts Lillie Langtry (Francine York) traveling to Langtry after the death of Judge Bean (Peter Whitney). Paul Fix was cast in the episode as Bean's friend Doc Lathrop. • In another Death Valley Days episode, "A Sense of Justice" (1966), Tom Skerritt played a young Bean while he was in San Diego, California, with his older brother, Joshua, played by Tris Coffin. In the story line, Roy is jailed after he gets into a fight with a local man; Joshua is unsympathetic at his brother's plight. • In a second-season episode of The Monkees, "The Devil and Peter Tork", Billy Beck played Judge Bean, presiding over the trial between Peter and the Devil. • Lillie (1978), Tommy Duggan played the role in this British miniseries biopic of Lillie Langtry. • In the Fantasy Island episode "Legends" (1982), Bean was played by Andy Griffith. • The Gambler: The Luck of the Draw (1991), a television movie starring Kenny Rogers and Reba McEntire, features Brad Sullivan as Judge Roy Bean. • In the Mathnet episode ""The Case of the Galling Stones" (1991), Pat Tuesday is framed for jewelry theft and her trial is presided over by Judge Roy A. Kidney Bean. • Streets of Laredo, a 1995 TV mini-series starring James Garner and based on the Larry McMurtry novel of the same name, includes a portrayal of Bean by Ned Beatty. • Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, a television series in which episode 16 (April 24, 1998) features a segment inspired by an actual event, in which the ghost of Judge Bean and his dog were claimed to have cleaned out a cheat's money. • The Sopranos - Tony refers to one of his capos as Judge Roy Bean in Season 6 because of a rush to judgement about an associate being homosexual. Literature • Echo Burning (2001), a novel by Lee Child, has the main character looking for a grave and sees a replica of Judge Bean's courthouse. • West of the Pecos (1937), a novel by Zane Grey, features Bean as a minor character. • Streets of Laredo (1993), a novel by Larry McMurtry depicts a fictionalized version of Judge Roy Bean. • Roy & Lillie: A Love Story (2010), a novel by Loren D. Estleman, which has the fictitious "lost letters" that Judge Bean and Miss Langtry exchanged. • Vinegarroon : The Saga of Judge Roy Bean "The Law West of the Pecos"(1936) by Ruel McDaniel • Four Against the West: The True Saga of a Frontier Family That Reshaped the Nation - And Created a Legend (2024), a true saga by Joe Pappalardo. Comics • Le Juge (The Judge), by Morris and Goscinny, is a Lucky Luke Belgian comic book from 1959. • Bean encounters a younger Scrooge McDuck in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. Video games • Roy Bean's House of Justice and Jelly Beans in the comedy adventure video game West of Loathing, made by Asymmetric Publications. Namesake locations • The wooden roller coaster Judge Roy Scream at Six Flags Over Texas is named for Bean. • A bar in Daphne, Alabama, named Judge Roy Bean was open from 1976 until 2005, when it was destroyed in a fire. Guests and performers included local artists Wet Willie and Mac McAnally, as well as more popular musicians, such as Fairhope native Jimmy Buffett, as well as Stephen Stills, Leon Russell, Karla Bonoff, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Emmylou Harris, George Thorogood, The Marshall Tucker Band, and The Allman Brothers Band. • A bar in Simi Valley, California, is named "Judge Roy Bean's". • The Judge Roy Bean Saloon in Bristol, Rhode Island. • A barbecue restaurant in Brentwood, Tennessee, is named Judge Beans, and features Texas-inspired recipes. • Judge Roy Beans is the name of a steakhouse, bar and music venue in Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. ==References==