In his small book The Wallace (New Mexico) Story, Francis Stanley Louis Crocchiola, who went by the pen name of F. Stanley, marveled that so many of the Wild West's scoundrels and lawless characters did not achieve more infamy. He writes:
It always amazes me why writers stick to the old standbys like Billy the Kid, the Daltons, Courtight, Allison and others when men like Conway offer far more fascinating reading. Perhaps it takes research and detective work to track such men down and many writers have neither the time nor stomach for real work, especially when the public enjoys a re-hash of the old stuff over and over again.
The Conway that Stanley is referring to is Ellis Conway, and his story certainly is an interesting one, even if he is not as legendary as Billy the Kid or Clay Allison.
Ellis Conway, also known as J.H. Conway, showed up in the railroad boomtown of Wallace, New Mexico and was later elected the town's third Justice of the Peace. From the very beginning of his tenure there, he was engaged in activities unbecoming a judge. The November 21, 1882 edition of the LAS VEGAS OPTIC reported that a new bunko gang was conducting a swindle at Wallace's Kentucky Saloon, bilking unsuspecting travelers of their money. The newspaper related that two men from Las Vegas, New Mexico had managed to pull out their pistols and were able to get their money back and escape with their lives. Others were not so fortunate, and had pistols drawn on them. Stanley suggests that Conway was at the center of this bunko ring. Even if he wasn't, the fact that it thrived while he was justice of the peace implies that he was in on it.
FE NEW MEXICAN reported that Conway was arrested in Silver City, where he and the men in his bunko group had fled. It turned out that Conway's real name was O. L. Hale, and he was wanted in Lucas County, Iowa, where he had been found guilty of an extensive forgery in 1876 and had been placed in jail. Hale had managed to escape and make his way to Wallace, where he assumed the alias of Ellis Conway. Sheriff Joe Landes of Lucas County had hired a detective who, using a photograph, managed to hunt Hale down and identify him. Landes then came to New Mexico and procured a requisition for the arrest and removal of Hale/Conway from the governor of the territory, Governor Sheldon (who Stanley misidentifies as Selden), so that he could be extradited back to Iowa.
But things didn't go easily for Landes. When the train stopped at Trinidad, Colorado, Bob Masterson, the sheriff there, boarded the train and demanded that Conway be handed over to him. Apparently, he had committed a murder in 1878 in Salida, Colorado when he got into an argument with a man named Walter Church and killed him. Masterson had a reputation of being the kind of sheriff who "shoots and smiles," but it seems he'd met his match in Landis, because when the train pulled out, Conway was still on it.
Landes still almost lost his man. In Dodge City, Conway managed to get away from the sheriff, who had to sprint after him. The sheriff wanted to take no more risks, so he then put Conway/Hale in chains and sent a telegram to the editor of the paper in Iowa that said. "Have Hale in chains. No band; no fanfare. Please." The telegram didn't work, and three hundred curious people met the train at the station.
Stanley says that it wasn't easy to trick a man like Sheriff Landes, and Conway or Hale must have been quite a boy. He then goes on to say that it is possible that Conway returned to Wallace, since a bunko gang was again in full operation by 1885.
Jennifer Bohnhoff is a retired New Mexico history teacher. Her Western Romance, On the Winding Road to Wallace was inspired by F. Stanley's little book and will be published in May of 2026.
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