Big Jim French, possibly
There is nearly nothing known about Regulator Jim (Big Jim) French. The date and location of his birth remains unknown. In a 1927 interview with Regulator Frank Coe, Coe said that Big Jim was half-Cherokee Indian. Big Jim was a particularily cold-blooded Regulator. He was said to drink a lot and kill without compunction. He was involved in most of the battles of the Lincoln County War. He was one of the six Regulators that assassinated Sheriff William Brady and Deputy George Hindman in Lincoln on April 1, 1878. When he and Billy the Kid exited the Tunstall store's corral (where they and the other four were when they ambushed Brady and Hindman), Billy was shot in the thigh by Deputy Billy Mathews, hiding in a nearby house and the same bullet went into Big Jim's thigh. While Billy and the other four escaped, Big Jim stayed behind and was bandaged up by the Tunstall store clerk, Sam Corbet. Big Jim was also in the McSween house during the Five-Day Battle and managed to escape with Billy and some others. He later became known as one of Susan McSween's (Alex McSween's widow) lovers, but this is false. After the war, Big Jim disappeared. There are four possible versions on what happened to him after the war. First, that he was shot and killed near Lincoln on June 21, 1879, but this is almost certainly false since Big Jim wrote a letter to Sam Corbet in late 1878 from Keota, Indian Territory. Second, that he vanished into South America. Third, that he was shot and killed during a store robbery at Catoosa, Oklahoma in 1895. Fourth, that he was shot and killed in 1924. The third seems most likely since Catoosa is near Keota. The man in the above photo is the Jim French that was killed in the Catoosa robbery, so it may or may not be Big Jim.
