Who Is Mysterious Dave Mather?

There was a lot of reasons for Dave Mather to be coined Mysterious, and it’s telling that he was known by this name even while he was alive and running in the wild ‘n wooly circles. Some say it was because of the way he would stay so tight-lipped, some say it’s because no one knew for sure where he came, but for those of us reading about him today, it’s mostly about the fact that he just disappeared and no one knows where he went (though there was a claim in 1988 about his disappearance, but that’s in the timeline).

He seemed to be a good shot, and at times served as an honorable lawman, but yet also spent plenty of time as a shifty desperado. He appears to have been contemporary to Dodge City with Bat and Wyatt, but even that is not certain, and he could have even been involved in posses from Las Vegas out looking for Billy the Kid and his group of ne’er do wells. But even this is only surmising and not at all a certainty. Everything about him is hard to nail down; he just didn’t make it easy on us today.

What really makes Mysterious Dave Mather interesting is that he spent time in many of the significant towns and areas, but seems to be overlooked, which we may have to assume is the way he would’ve wanted it. He was most likely in Dodge during the late 70’s, and then again around the time of the Dodge City Peace Commission. He was in Las Vegas at the time of Doc Holliday and Billy the Kid, and he was in El Paso at the time of Dallas Stoudenmire; by some reports even possibly serving as a deputy. He was certainly prolific in his western travels and escapades, but yet he always seems to fly under the radar.

The timelines are drawn from information gathered from Colin Rickards book Mysterious Dave Mather published in 1968, and from Jack DeMattos book Mysterious Gunfighter, published in 1989.