Mysterious Dave Mather

Mysterious Dave Mather

Dave Allen Mather (August 10, 1851, date of death unknown, possibly May 1886), known as Mysterious Dave, or sometimes as New York Dave, was an American lawman and gunfighter in the American Old West. Little is known today of Mather's life; the gaps in his personal history and his taciturn personality may have been what earned him the sobriquet "Mysterious Dave." Historical records show that he was a lawman in Dodge City, Kansas, and Las Vegas, New Mexico, and was a frequent associate of Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp.

The date and circumstances of Mather's death are contested. The only account says that he was shot to death in Dallas, Texas, in 1886, and left on the tracks of a railroad. The body found matched his description and the bondsman holding a $3,000 bond on him was released of the obligation that same year on the assumption that the client had died. However, other accounts describe Mather leaving Dodge in the 1880s, remaining hidden with help from friends (to avoid paying a debt), and then traveling by boat to Canada, enlisting in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and living into the 1920s. Another account, according to a newspaper of the day, describes him leaving Dodge and becoming a Deputy Marshal in New Kiowa, Kansas.