Spotlight

Welcome to the "Spotlight" page.  In this section, we highlight

the rich history of various members of our cemetery.

Walter W. Pitman

Wharton City Constable 1916-1920

Wharton City Marshal 1920-1935

First Place - 1932

Ripley’s Believe It or Not

National contest

End of Watch:
Saturday November 9, 1935 Buried in the Historic Wharton Texas Cemetery Section F Lot 206

Pitman Died in the Line of Duty

Suffered a fatal heart attack after dragging a drunken man to jail

Buried in the historic Wharton Texas Cemetery is the one and only Marshal W. W. Pitman. Pitman was born January 14th, 1884, west of Muldoon in Fayette County, Texas. In 1910 Pitman, his wife and two children moved to Wharton, Texas.

In 1932 Ripley’s Believe It or Not had a national contest to uncover astonishing facts for use in its syndicated newspaper column. Pitman got wind of this and decided he had a story to tell that would win him first place out of the 5 million entries.

 According to a story by Tom Correa, “W.W. Pitman & His Against The Odds Shot” featured in the Feb 4, 2017, The American Cowboy Chronicles, the story goes.... In the evening of Sept 15, 1917, the local outlaw Franscisco Lopez got drunk and started shooting up the town. Pitman found Lopez on Main Street and walked up to him and told him he was under arrest and needed to come with him peacefully. Lopez was not having any of this and told Pitman “I’m not under anything”! With that the shootout began. Pitman fired at the exact same time as when Lopez fired and Against All Odds, Pitman’s bullet went inside Lopez’s gun cylinder.

Pitman wrote: “I undertook to arrest one Francisco Lopez, a drunkard, and as I approached him he jumped from the sidewalk into the street and opened fire on me with a little .38 Cal revolver and I returned the fire as quickly as I could, pull my single action 45 Colt my first shot being immediately after his 2nd and as luck would have it my first shot put his gun out of commission 1⁄2 of my bullet entering his cylinder and the other 1⁄2 hitting him in his left hand as it split and glanced off. My first shot hit his pistol barrel on the left side about one inch in front of the cylinder and glanced up into his cylinder. It came in contact with a loaded cartridge and the two bullets are now stuck in the cylinder. I have the pistol in my possession and will never remove the two bullets as long as I live.”

Pitman won an all-expense-paid trip for two to New York and Cuba.

Lopez’s .38 Cal pistol (pictured above) is on display in one of Ripley’s Odditoriums.