by Don Tripp
(Bismarck, ND)
I always felt Chester was there more for the children. He was also a jailor, not a deputy. He didn't carry a six-shooter. That way the prisoners couldn't take it away from him. But a crippled jailor wasn't believable in 1873 Kansas.
Festus was a much more believable character to me. There were deputy Marshals who couldn't read or write then.