Vertical File Biographies

This is an individual biography from the vertical file of biographical information, primarily newspaper clippings, created by the Kansas State Histocial Society Library and Archives division. This is a concise version--there may be more information in this or other sources.

Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton

Frank “Pistol Pete” Eaton was a famous Indian Territory lawman who began his career by tracking down and killing five of the six men who murdered his father in Osage County, Kansas in 1868. The onetime cowboy was alleged to have had 15 notches on his gun and was very fast on the draw.

Eaton was born in Connecticut and came to Kansas with his family when he was eight years old in 1868. His father, a Union Army veteran, had a dispute with six former Quantrill Raiders. They came to the Eaton house one day and killed “Pistol Pete’s” father right in front of him. Young Frank vowed then to avenge his father’s death.

He practiced drawing and shooting through his teen years and was said to be faster than Buffalo Bill Cody by the time he was seventeen. That year Frank Eaton became a U.S. Marshal and started out to find the six men who killed his father. He claims he got five of them and another person killed the sixth in a disputed card game. All had lived lives of crime.

Frank Eaton’s territory as a marshal was from south Kansas through the Oklahoma Indian territory to north Texas. He worked for Judge Isaac Parker, the famous “hanging judge.” Most of the gun battles that Eaton had were with cattle rustlers and robbers and it‘s not certain whether all of his enemies died of their wounds. As an example, Eaton encountered Bud Wells, a notorious desperado at Webber Falls and was fast enough on the draw to shatter Wells’ shooting hand. Wells was said to be so grateful that he wasn’t killed that he went straight for the rest of his life.

Eaton lived in a world of violence, but one day he fell in love and his girlfriend placed a steel crucifix around his neck. In a gun battle, “Pistol Pete” was shot in the chest, but the bullet hit the cross and he was saved. He later wrote, “I’d rather have the prayers of a good woman in a fight than half a dozen hot guns: she’s talking to Headquarters.”

Frank Eaton carried loaded guns and was either a marshal or deputy sheriff until late in his long life. He was still said to be fast on the draw well into his nineties. He died in 1958 at age 97. He had been married twice, had nine children, 31 grandchildren and three great-great- grandchildren.

Sources:
“Pistol Pete: Veteran Of The Old West by Frank Eaton,” reviewed by John Edward Hicks, Kansas City Times, 30 June 1952.

“The Avenged Kansas Killing -- ‘Pistol Pete’ Eaton Dies At 97,” Topeka Capital, 9 April 1958.

The vertical file is on forty-three microfilm reels arranged alphabetically by name. These reels are available through interlibrary loan, or you may contact the reference staff . Please note that many of the clippings had yellowed and it may be impossible to produce a readable photocopy.

Completion of this biography was made possible by volunteer Frank Sotrines.