Cullen Montgomery Baker left a trail of bodies across the American frontier, first as a Confederate guerrilla during the Civil War and then as a marauding outlaw who spent four years ambushing Reconstruction officials, murdering former slaves, and terrorizing Texas and Arkansas. Baker was born on June 22, 1835, in Weakley County, Tennessee, to John and Elizabeth Baker. His father was an impoverished farmer who moved the family to Clarksville, Arkansas, shortly after Cullen’s birth. By 1839, they relocated again, settling in Texas on a 640-acre property grant in Davis County.
Despite receiving the land, the family remained destitute. Baker was bullied at school for his homespun trousers and bare feet, but despite his frail and withdrawn nature, he began fighting back. He acquired an ancient handgun and a rusted but functional rifle and practiced until he became highly skilled with both. At age 15, he had his first drink and began challenging anyone who irritated him to duels.
Baker soon spent most of his time in saloons, where his quick temper led to frequent fights. He was described as a heavy drinker, a braggart, quarrelsome, and mean-spirited. One brawl ended when a man named Morgan Kulp knocked him unconscious with a tomahawk, temporarily cooling his temper. The calm did not last.
In 1856, Baker stabbed a man named Waram to death during an altercation over horses and fled to Texas. He quickly returned to Arkansas after learning he was still wanted for the murder of a man named Bailey. During his absence, his wife Martha gave birth to their daughter Louisa Jane on May 24, 1857. Baker went to Texas the following year to retrieve his wife and child.
On July 2, 1860, Martha died, and Baker took his daughter to Sulphur County, Texas, leaving her with his in-laws. He never saw her again. Baker then joined the Independent Rangers, a guerrilla force loosely affiliated with the Confederate Home Guard. Their mission was to track down Confederate Army deserters, but instead they took advantage of the war’s absence of men and committed intimidation, rape, theft, and brutality.
Anyone with property was deemed an enemy and declared a Unionist. In certain locations, the depredations became so severe that everyone who could fled. In November 1864, a small group of mostly elderly men, women, and children abandoned the chaos and set out west with their teams and goods. Baker and the Independent Rangers overtook them as they crossed the Saline River in the W Mountains.
Baker allegedly thought their attempt to flee was unpatriotic, though in reality they needed little justification to harass them. When the settlers refused to turn back, Baker shot and killed their leader. He then told the survivors that if they returned home, he would not kill anyone else. Once the settlers crossed back to Baker’s side of the river, he promptly led his Rangers in shooting and killing nine additional men and seizing their valuables.
The incident became known as the Saline Massacre. Local residents had enough and began aggressive measures to eliminate the gang. When the outlaws learned of this, they fled with their loot and the horses and mules they had seized. At the end of 1864, Baker was in a saloon in Spanish Bluffs, Arkansas, wearing a Confederate hat, when four African-American Union soldiers approached and asked for identification.
Baker turned, drew his weapon, and shot and killed a sergeant and the three other troops. According to one report, after the battle he came upon a group of travelers in Sevier County, Tennessee, on his way home. He began verbally harassing a Black woman in the group before shooting and killing her. Baker then moved to the Sulphur River area of southwestern Arkansas with his wife Martha, where he became manager of the Line Ferry.
It would be fleeting. Martha became ill quickly and died on March 1, 1866. According to numerous reports, Baker was devastated by her loss, but it did not stop him from proposing to Bell Foster, her 16-year-old sister, just two months later. Bell turned him down and married Thomas Orr, a school teacher and political leader.
Baker then began harassing Orr, picking fights with him, beating him over the head with a tree limb, and going to his classroom to mock, curse, and threaten him in front of his students. Reconstruction had begun in Arkansas and Texas by this time, and Baker despised it. He and another criminal named Lee Reams formed a gang in the Sulphur River bottoms near Bright Star, Arkansas. The gang was claimed to have killed at least 30 people while committing robbery and murder, many of whom were outnumbered, ambushed, or shot in the back.
Baker and his group also went to Texas, where he assassinated John Sammons, who had earlier killed Seth Reams, the brother of gang member Lee Reams. He also killed Reconstruction officer W. G. Kirkman and a man named George W.
Baron, who had previously been a member of a posse chasing him. The gang’s outlaw spree continued in Queen City, Texas, and Tarrana, Arkansas. On June 1, 1867, Baker returned to Cass County, where he went into the Rowden General Store, bought some products, and left without paying. The proprietor, John Rowden, rode to Baker’s house with a shotgun and demanded payment.
Baker promised to return and compensate him, but on June 5, he murdered Rowden instead. Baker escaped into Arkansas, where a Union sergeant recognized him as he boarded a ferry. Baker murdered the officer, but a private escaped and reported the killing. Union forces began fiercely pursuing him.
On July 25, 1867, Baker got into a fight with a group of Union soldiers at New Boston, Texas, which quickly turned violent. Baker was hit in the arm during the gunfight, but he killed Army private Albert E. Titus. A $1,000 reward was offered for his capture, dead or alive.
In December 1867, Baker traveled to Bright Star, Arkansas, where he linked up with five men organizing a raid on the plantation of Howell Smith, who had recently recruited numerous freed Black workers. One of Smith’s daughters was stabbed, another was clubbed, and a Black man was shot and died during the incident. But Smith resisted, and a gunfight injured several raiders, including Baker, who was hit in the leg. On October 24, 1868, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Major P.
J. Andrews, Lieutenant H. F. Willis, and an unidentified Black man were reportedly killed by Baker and his gang.
Sheriff Steele was hurt in the assault. By this point, Lee Reams had begun to question Baker’s leadership, believing his actions would bring down the entire gang. After Reams defied Baker, who eventually capitulated, the gang dispersed in December 1868. Every member except one, a man called Dummy Kirby, supported Reams.
In January 1869, Baker and Kirby traveled to Bloomberg, Texas, to the home of Baker’s in-laws. On January 6, 1869, Cullen Baker and Dummy Kirby died there. The exact manner of their deaths is unclear. According to one story, his father-in-law’s acquaintances poisoned the men with strychnine, placing it in a bottle of whiskey and some food.
Their bodies were then pierced by gunshots. According to a different version, Thomas Orr, with whom Baker had a long-standing dispute, led a small group of men who attacked Baker and Kirby at the Foster residence and shot them dead. The bodies were hauled through Bloomberg before being transported to the U. S.
Army outpost near Jefferson, where they were displayed in public. Some of the reward money offered for Baker was reportedly collected by Thomas Orr. Baker was laid to rest in Jefferson, Texas’s Oakwood Cemetery. His grave plaque features a Confederate Cavalry outfit, even though he deserted from Morgan’s Squadron.
Baker was later romanticized by some for defending Southern honor. However, his record demonstrates that he was a vicious killer who shot anyone who angered him, regardless of their allegiances. Authorities and historians alike regard him as one of the most brutal killers to have ever lived, with his death toll estimated at between 50 and 60 people.
