CONFIDENTIALLY TOLD IN BROWNS PARK
In the summer of 1917 two former employees of Ora Haley’s Two Bar ranch in far northwestern Colorado, Hiram Henry “Hi” Bernard and Francis Marion “Frank” Willis, were ranging cattle near the Green River west of the Bassett ranch in Browns Park. Bernard, Haley’s onetime foreman, opened up to Willis about his involvement in not only the hiring of notorious paid killer Tom Horn but also the aiding and abetting of Horn during his time in Browns Park around the turn of the 20th century. Bernard was aware Willis intended to write a history of the area and spoke freely to him that summer. He even agreed to answer Willis’ questions about Horn, the killings in Browns Park and related matters. He had one condition: Willis was not to say or publish a word until after Bernard was dead. Willis agreed. The working manuscript, “Confidentially Told,” was never published.
That said, the manuscript survives, though only a few later works about Horn have referenced Bernard’s account, including John Rolfe Burroughs’ Where the Old West Stayed Young (1962) and Chip Carlson’s Tom Horn: Blood on the Moon (2001). Other publications, such as Larry D. Ball’s Tom Horn in Life and Legend (2014), refer tangentially to Burroughs and Carlson in the footnotes.
Yet “Confidentially Told” is more than an interesting read. It is an invaluable firsthand account of the men and events surrounding the hiring of Horn. While Bernard recounts his dealings with the assassin—who posed as cattle buyer “James Hicks” during his time in Browns Park—he also explains why area cattle barons targeted smalltime ranchers and provides details about the killings of Madison Matthew “Matt” Rash and Isom Dart.
For a few years following his 1913 divorce from notorious Browns Park cattle rancher Ann Bassett, Bernard worked as
