Dick Liddil - Later Years

Later Years

Liddil co-owned the Bank Saloon with Bob Ford in Las Vegas, New Mexico during the mid-1880s, and later leased the saloon/billiard room at the Las Vegas Plaza Hotel. Liddil returned to Missouri in the 1890s and became a regular on the Midwest racehorse circuit. Liddil worked as a horse trainer at Kentucky's Newport Park from 1896-1901. In 1901, the Cincinnati Post reported that Liddil owned several of the area's finest thoroughbreds and was one of the best-known horsemen in the West.

In April 1891, Liddil was arrested for the murder of Wood Hite. The New York Times reported on the arrest as follows:

"Dick Liddell, once a member of the famous James gang, now a wealthy horse owner on the Eastern tracks, was arrested and lodged in jail at Richmond yesterday. He is charged with the murder of Wood Hite, a cousin of Jesse James. The crime was committed in 1882 and was the outgrowth of a feud existing among several members of the gang. When the James gang was broken up, Liddell came East and raced horses at Brighton Beach, Clifton and Guttenberg."

Liddil died of a heart heart attack three months later while attending the Queen City Races at the race track in Latonia, Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati, on July 13, 1901.