SWEETWATER AND CARBON COUNTIES – A revolver currently on display at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in Green River belonged to an outlaw killed by a lynch mob, but his afterlife was even more cruel than his death.
After a failed train robbery attempt in 1878, George Parott, known as “Big Nose George”, and his gang murdered two lawmen near Elk Mountain Carbon County’s Deputy Sheriff Robert Widdowfield and Union Pacific Special Agent Henry “Tip” Vincent . Parott was captured in 1880 and returned to Rawlins, the seat of Carbon County, where he stood on trial and was convicted.
Sentenced to execution, he tried unsuccessfully to break into Rawlins prison on March 22, 1881, injuring a prison guard, Robert Rankin. Rankin’s wife, Rosa, held Parott at gunpoint until help could arrive.
An angry mob gathered, took Parott out of his cell and lynched him. Parott was not the first outlaw to end this way, nor was he the last, but his story was not over.
Two Rawlins doctors, John Osborne and Thomas Maghee, took possession of Parott’s body; They were particularly interested in studying a criminal’s brain and sawed off the top of his skull to remove and examine. They presented the skullcap to their assistant, a young woman named Lilian Heath who would later become the first Wyoming woman to be admitted to practice, but they weren’t quite finished. Parts of Parott’s body were skinned – according to some reports, his chest and thighs – and the skin was tanned. Osborne then had the skin incorporated into a pair of shoes he wore to his inaugural ball after he was elected governor of Wyoming in 1892.
Osborne was later a member of the US House of Representatives from Wyoming and was appointed Assistant Secretary of State in the Wilson administration from 1913 to 1916. He died in Rawlins in 1943 at the age of 84.
Parott’s remains, including his skull, were stuffed into a barrel, buried, and then forgotten for 70 years. In 1950, construction workers discovered the barrel and its skeletal contents during excavations in Rawlins. The skullcap was missing, and Lilian Heath, at the time Dr. Lilian Nelson, the wife of Dr. Lew Nelson, paid a visit, and the skull and top matched the remains of George Parott perfectly.
Parott’s handgun, a .44-caliber Remington New Model Army, is part of the Firearms of the American West – Single Action Revolvers exhibit at the Sweetwater County Historical Museum and has two notches in the handle.
The Carbon County Museum in Rawlins has a fine exhibit by George Parott showing his death mask, a cast of his skull, the gold watch given to Rosa Rankin for her quick action to prevent Parott’s escape, and Dr. Osborne’s shoes from his tanned shoes contain skin.
The Sweetwater County Historical Museum is located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. The opening times are Tuesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission is free.
The Carbon County Museum, 904 West Walnut St. in Rawlins, is currently open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the summer. Entry is free.
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