Marshal James Horace Frisbie

James Horace Frisbie

Marshal James Frisbie was shot and killed by a man wanted for train robbery in Malta, Colorado, and shooting and robbing the station agent at the Rio Grande Depot in Leadville.

Marshal Frisbie was serving as the Night Marshal when he asked two suspicious acting men what they were doing in front of the Lamar Union Hotel. One of the men pulled a gun and fired at Marshal Frisbie. Even though he was struck in the heart, Marshal Frisbie managed to draw his weapon and fire it as he fell to the ground.

Two weeks later a posse trapped the suspect, and a man with him, in a schoolhouse in Astor, Kansas where they shot it out with officers before surrendering.

The suspect was convicted of Marshal Frisbie's murder and sentenced to hang on May 4, 1907. On August 24, 1907, Colorado Governor E. R. Harper commuted his sentence to life in prison at the behest of Marshal Frisbie's widow. The suspect later died during a failed prison escape.

Marshal Frisbie was survived by his wife and three sons and is buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Lamar.