William Barclay "Bat" Masterson was born in Illinois in 1855. His family worked as farmers in Missouri and Kansas. In 1872, Bat and his older brother Ed left home and moved to Dodge City. They took up the buffalo hunting trade and lived the wild life, cashing in their pay for town sprees filled with women, whiskey, and gambling. In 1875, during one of these indulgences, Bat received a pelvic wound in a gunfight. In 1876, while walking around Dodge, with the aid of a cane (or bat), he ran into an old buffalo hunting acquaintance named Wyatt Earp. Earp was the assistant city marshal and hired on Bat as a deputy, which began his law enforcement career.¹²¹

The nickname Bat is reputed to have originated from two separate and distinct sources. One legend tells us that because he walked with the aid of a cane, this stick (bat) was used as a baton or impact weapon in his law enforcement capacity. It is universally understood that Masterson used this weapon with frequency and preferred the weapon to a pistol, in most situations, to convince resisting offenders that jail was their next destination. The other source of the nickname legend is that many of his friends, including Theodore Roosevelt, called him "Bart", which was short for Bartholomiew, a variation of his middle name Barclay. Each legend has merit and perhaps there is some truth to both. By any account, he was known as Bat to all that knew him or knew of him.¹²²

Wyatt Earp convinced Bat Masterson to run for sheriff of Ford County in 1877. After he was elected to the post he was anchored in Dodge City, where the county seat was located. One evening in 1878, he was summoned from his office by news that his brother, Ed Masterson the city marshal, needed assistance with a riotous pack of cowboys outside of the Lady Gay Dance Hall and Saloon. As Bat walked up to the scene of the disturbance he witnessed Jack Wagner and Alf Walker gun down his brother. Without hesitation Bat responded in kind and shot the duo on the spot, killing them both. Though Bat survived the battle without physical harm, this event would remain etched in his psyche for the rest of his enforcement career.¹²³

Bat often caroused in Dodge City with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Gambling was an important part of their lives, and for Bat and Wyatt their tin stars helped out with their gambling passion. Because of their status, they were exempt from the citywide ban on weapons. By being armed while at the tables, they had a dominant edge. Though Masterson had won the office of sheriff, he had done so by a slim three vote margin, and his sporting antics did not enhance his stature within the community. Bat and Wyatt spent so much time in Dodge City brothels seeking courtesy discounts, the two were known as the "fighting pimps". In 1879, the voters of Ford County overwhelmingly voted out Bat Masterson from his office, electing a bartender named George Hinkle to the post. Though Hinkle did not have any police experience, he had a better image than Masterson.¹²⁴

For the next few years, Bat moved from town to town in the West and was heavily engaged in sporting activities. By 1885, Masterson, who was getting restless and edgy, returned to Dodge City to work the faro tables at the Long Branch Saloon. He served briefly as a deputy sheriff and helped quell a mob that was out to tar and feather a prohibitionist who was determined to shut down Dodge's saloons. After about a year, Bat moved on and began promoting prize fights. He also wrote about the fight game and published several stories about prize fighting in various Western newspapers. Theodore Roosevelt spent considerable time in the West and valued friendships with cowboys, hunters, painters, and writers of the Old West. Remarkably, the favorite figure of the twenty-sixth president of the United States was the gunfighter, killer, gambler, saloon owner, and former sheriff - Bat Masterson. Their friendship lasted for many years and Bat was a frequent and welcome guest at the White House. As president, Roosevelt appointed Bat, the former fighting pimp, U.S. deputy marshal of New York. A year later, Roosevelt offered Bat the post of U.S. marshal of Oklahoma. Though Roosevelt knew about some of Bat's rather seedy background, he thought it would be fitting to place him back in the West. Bat contemplated the very real possibility that this position might put him in jeopardy, as his fame as a former gunfighter might inspire some "wanna-be" gunslinger to try and to make a reputation by gunning him down. Based on this, Bat declined the position and lived out the rest of his life in midtown Manhattan as a daily sports columnist, and never lost contact with Roosevelt.¹²⁵