Before Roy Bean became “The law west of the Pecos”, he had quite a life. He killed a couple of people, broke out of a jail where he was being held for attempting to kill another person, and he had a stiff neck with scars, the result of an unsuccessful hanging.
In 1882, at the age of 55, a bearded, rum-soaked, fat Roy Bean purchased a tavern in a place on the Pecos River called Vinegaroon, Texas, and he got elected justice of the peace.
Bean saw a picture of Lily Langtry, a stage performer from the east, and fell in love with her; changed the name of the town to Langtry and the saloon, which was also his courthouse, to the Jersey Lilly.
His pronouncements as a judge were often unique to say the least. Finding a pistol and $40 on a dead man, he fined the man $40 for carrying a pistol, and confiscated the gun.
He freed a man for killing a Chinese because the only law book he had didn’t say anything about a law against killing Chinese. Another time he let a friend off because, “the Mexican should not have gotten in front of the gun my friend happened to be firing.”
After a number of years handing down his unique brand of justice, Roy Bean was thrown out of office when the number of votes for him way exceeded the number of eligible voters.
During his time as a Judge, Roy Bean wrote Lily Langtry, asking her to visit him. Finally, in September of 1903 Lily Langtry came to Langtry, Texas.
Unfortunately, Judge Roy Bean didn’t get to meet her… He had died six months earlier, on March 14, 1903.
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