Don “The Lawman” Slatton, a colorful local promoter and home town
wrestling star during the 60s and 70s for matches every week at the
Taylor County Coliseum in Abilene, TX, passed away on 8/23, at the age
of 77.
He had been in bad shape from a recent stroke and had also been
suffering from Alzheimer’s, which one close friend said was likely due
to all the hard way shots with chairs, as his reputation was to take
brutal shots to the head with weapons in his role as the tough street
fighter who was regularly featured in some of the bloodiest gimmick
matches in West Texas history. At least six times between 1967 and 1978
he held the area’s Brass Knux title, which would be taped fist matches,
and later in his career he was known as the King of the Russian chain
matches as well as a specialist in Texas death matches.
In wrestling folklore, Slatton is best known for a May 10, 1978,
match, on a show he promoted in Abilene, where he faced Harley Race for
the NWA title in a chain match.
Slatton, better known as The Lawman, was billed locally as never
having lost a chain match, and because he was facing Race under his
rules, there was a big push that the hometown star was going to win the
world title, and the crowd was way up from usual.
Race’s version of the story is that he got a phone call earlier
in the day from Bob Geigel, the promoter in Kansas City, Race’s home
territory and Race’s business partner at the time, asking if he was
working with Slatton that night. When Race told him he was, Geigel told
Race not to show up, saying he had been tipped off that Slatton was
going to use the chain match rules of touching all four corners to try
and steal the title. Race told Geigel not to worry because he was
Harley Race. Some wrestlers might get double-crossed, but Race was one
of the most feared real street fighters in the game, as opposed to
Slatton, who was a tough guy in his youth, but was in his mid-40s by
that time and nobody messed in those days with Race.
Race joked to Geigel that surely Slatton wouldn’t be that stupid to try something like that on him.
Race’s version of the story is that the finish he got in the
dressing room from the runners (usually the officials, who would go
between the face and heel dressing room as in those days everyone was
kept separate) was that Slatton would drag him to three corners, and be
on the verge of winning, struggling to hit the fourth corner, when a
heel would come out and distract Slatton, who would cost Slatton the
match and the title, and lead to his next program. Terry Funk would
then come out for the save, but in the commotion Race would knock
Slatton out with the chain and touch all four corners to win.
Everything was going as planned. The heel came out. Nobody
involved seem to be able to remember who it was. Given who was on the
card, it would have been Roger Kirby, Mr. Pogo, Lord Jonathan Boyd, who
for some reason that name rings a bell with this story, or Rip Hawk, who
had been one of Slatton’s biggest career rivals a few years earlier.
Anyway, whoever it was came out, and Funk came out as well, but Slatton
made sure there was slack in the chain and Race was unaware, and
Slatton, instead of being distracted, touched the fourth corner. The
place exploded. Slatton had just won the world heavyweight
championship.
He quickly took the chain off and rushed off to the dressing
room, not even taking the belt with him, figuring being in the ring with
Race in that situation in his home town, where he was the local hero
and had a reputation to uphold as a tough guy, was not the best idea.
The fans were still celebrating and shocked, because Slatton was hardly a
guy anyone expected to win the world heavyweight championship, even if
this was his specialty match and it was noted he had beaten Race under
chain match rules several times when both were younger in the late 60s.
The referee, a young Tongan former sumo wrestler just getting
started and being trained for All Japan, using the name Tonga Fifita
(who later became a star as Haku and Meng) was smart enough to know that
the title wasn’t changing hands that night and even though Slatton was
the guy paying him that night, never signaled for the bell. Slatton was
gone and Race, first making sure the inexperienced ref wasn’t going to
call the match, took off after him.
Race’s version of the story as told to people over the years is
that he ran through the crowd, not even stopping to take the chain off,
went to the babyface dressing room and found Slatton hiding in the
shower. Race said he slapped him twice, dragged him to the ring and
punched him a few times, and then dragged him around the ring, even
though he no longer had the chain on, touching all four corners. Fifita
then ordered for the bell, and told the ring announcer to announce that
Race, and not Slatton was the winner, and still world champion. Some
of the fans had left. The ones who hadn’t couldn’t figure out what they
were just seeing. There had been no actual announcement made about
Slatton winning since he and Race were both in the dressing room before
the announcement could be made and Fifita never made the call.
In Race’s book, “King of the Ring,” the story differed slightly,
with Race saying that he got to Slatton before Slatton left the ring,
that he started throwing real slaps and punches, and then dragged him
around the ring and Fifita called for the bell.
Race in his book claimed he then went to the babyface dressing
room, where he heard Slatton and Funk laughing, opened the door and
started swinging the chain, smashed lockers and chairs while Slatton
curled into a ball saying, “Please, Harley, don’t hit me! Don’t hit me!
I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
He claimed Funk then yelled at Slatton for trying to double-cross
Race, but Race suggested that Funk may have been behind it from the
beginning.
In other versions, Race said that he went back to his own
dressing room, but ended up so mad, that he went back to the other side
of the building. This time Slatton had locked the door, so Race kicked
in the door. But Slatton was already gone, and he threw a few chairs
against the wall, went back to his side of the building, then took his
shower and went to the next town.
Funk said he remembered the story, but what he remembered is that
after Slatton double-crossed Race, that Race went to the dressing room,
knocked down the door, and Slatton was pleading with Race not to punch
him, saying he lost count and thought he was touching the third
turnbuckle and it was all a mistake. Race’s version was also similar,
saying, “Slatton lied through his teeth, claiming it was an accident.
After screaming a steam of profanities at Slatton and kicking him a
couple of times, I let the poor bastard go.”
Funk said that Slatton always stuck to the story to him it was an
accident, although what happened next would suggest otherwise.
Slatton had to know that he wasn’t going to be declared world champion, no matter how well the double-cross went.
The next day, the local Abilene Reporter story, likely coming
from Slatton, reported that The Lawman had beaten the world champion,
Race, but it had been changed to a non-title chain match.
Slatton then purchased himself a belt and billed himself locally
as the world chain match champion, and started defending it on his
cards. On his biggest show of the year a few months later, with a
triple main event of Andre the Giant vs. The Sheik, Dory Funk Jr. &
Terry Funk vs. David & Kevin Von Erich for the Texas tag team
titles, Lawman defended his chain match championship against Abdullah
the Butcher.
In 1979, Race was back in the territory on a card with Slatton
and saw a belt on the bench in the dressing room which read, “World
champion chain wrestler.” He said Slatton walked in and Race took the
belt and told Slatton, “You won’t be needing this,” and left with it.
He said Slatton begged him not to take it because he spent a lot
of money on it. By NWA bylaws, which could be ignored when convenient,
no NWA promoter could bill someone as world champion who wasn’t the
recognized NWA champion.
“There’s no earthly reason for you to have this, and I’m not
leaving here without it,” Race claimed that he said to Slatton while
taking the belt.
“To this day, I don’t remember what I did with the stupid belt. I just know Slatton never got it back.”
At about the same time, Abilene dried up as a wrestling city and
stopped being run weekly, and instead became an every-so-often stop on
the Dallas territory, with the Von Erichs replacing The Lawman and The
Funks as the big stars.
By that point, The Funk Brothers, ahead of the curve of what
wrestling was turning into, had sold the territory to Bob Windham
(Blackjack Mulligan), Dick Murdoch and Mario Savoldi, and it died in
1981, after the new owners had suffered heavy financial losses.
Known as The Lawman, because he was a local law enforcement
officer during the early part of his wrestling career, Slatton was a
longtime regular in the Funk family’s Amarillo territory.
During the heyday of the promotion, they would run Abilene and El
Paso, which was run by Gori Guerrero (the father of Chavo Sr., Mando,
Hector and Eddy Guerrero) on Mondays. El Paso was one of the best
drawing cities on the circuit, but it was a 440-mile drive each away.
But it had the advantage of being a border town so the wrestlers could
raise hell in Mexico after the matches. Abilene was a 287-mile drive
each way, but didn’t pay nearly as well. So Slatton was usually left
with a secondary crew, although talent traded where they worked to keep
things fresh and every major territorial star appeared frequently in
Abilene.
Slatton wasn’t always the headliner or the top babyface, but he
headlined frequently and at one time or another worked on top with every
top heel in the territory. At times he worked the entire circuit,
doing angles on Amarillo television, and at other times he just worked
Abilene and cities in the area. While he was protected on TV, in
Amarillo and many of the other cities, he often worked in prelims,
although he had his secondary title matches at times. For all the time
he was there, and all the headline matches he had, what is notable is
that the famous Race match is the only one I could find a record of, in
the West Texas territory, he ever had for the NWA title.
Terry Funk once categorized The Lawman as one of the original of
what would later be called hardcore wrestlers. He was 6-foot-5, and
both tall and lean for a wrestler of that era.
His reputation was that he could have heated brawls, had great
hands from having a Golden Gloves boxing background (whether that was
legitimate or not, who knows) but wasn’t particularly skilled as a
wrestler. He was considered an excellent promo. Outside of Abilene, he
wasn’t pushed as much of a star in the territory after the mid-70s,
because he was older, and his role as the local cowboy street fighter
was being used by Dick Murdoch, who was younger and a far superior
performer.
He had a reputation from his youth in town of being a tough
street fighter. He started wrestling in 1961 as a part-timer while
working in law enforcement.
He got his photo in newspapers around the country shortly after
his pro wrestling debut, as the tall, thin Slatton, arresting Billie Sol
Estes, who became a national figure in a series of embezzling scandals
who also had close business ties to future president Lyndon Johnson.
There was belief that President John F. Kennedy was considering dropping
Johnson from the Democratic ticket in 1964 because of his ties with
Estes, before Kennedy was murdered on November 22, 1963. Years later,
after Johnson died, Estes claimed that he had inside knowledge that
Johnson had ties to the assassination of Kennedy, as well as seven other
murders, but would not reveal the information unless he was given
immunity from prosecution. The government refused, and few took
seriously his allegation.
How much, if anything, Slatton may have had to do with the
investigation that brought Estes down is unknown. A lot of the
investigative work came from Oscar Griffin Jr., a reporter in Pecos, TX,
who won the Pulitzer Prize. Slatton brought him in and Estes was
convicted on charges related to fraudulent ammonia tank mortgages and
sentenced to 24 years in prison. Some of his charges were overturned by
the Supreme Court in 1965, on a 5-4 vote, by which time Johnson was
president. As far as the other charges went, he was released from
prison in 1971 on parole.
As Slatton became a full-time wrestler, he was known mostly as The Lawman.
He was a notorious ribber.
One of the most famous involved talking local star Jerry Kozak
into driving from Amarillo into Abilene all night (a four-and-a-half
hour trip although in those days wrestlers, who drove about 100 MPH
could make it in three hours) for a 6 a.m. (some versions have it 5:30
a.m.) deer hunt. Kozak had all kinds of state of the art hunting
equipment, but was never much of a hunter, almost never being able to
shoot anything. He was also nicknamed Mr. Neat by the wrestlers,
because he was always nice and clean in public to the point of almost
ridicule.
Slatton had called him in the middle of the night, telling him to
hurry to Abilene as he found a place crawling with deer. Slatton as
part of the rib, had taken a stuffed dead deer and placed it on the top
of a hill and tied it upright to a tree. Kozak was crawling on his
belly in the mud and brush around the deer. Slatton figured Kozak would
find the deer on his own, but he never did, even though he walked Kozak
into the area time after time. Finally Slatton had to discover it for
him but let Kozak take the shot.
“He (Kozak) had never killed a deer before in his life,” said
Dory Funk Jr. “Kozak brought his gun up to eye level and fired the
first shot.”
The deer never went down, nor moved, nor appeared was hurt. He
shot the deer again, and again, the deer didn’t even move. Kozak
freaked out.
Slatton told him that he must have missed him, and needed to get
closer. Kozak, trying to make as little noise as possible so as not to
scare the deer, crawled on his belly in the bed and brush, ruining his
Mr. Neat look. He ended firing two more shots. With each shot, Kozak
was getting more freaked out that the deer never went moved or went
down. After three more shots, Kozak was out of ammunition. Kozak asked
Slatton to go back to the truck and get more ammunition. Slatton
returned with a new box of shells and Kozak put them in his rifle.
He was back crawling, now within 50 feet, thinking he was close
enough that it was a can’t miss shot. He fired three more shots. Again
nothing happened. He freaked out, lost his cool, ran at the deer and
fired a perfect shot. Nothing happened.
Slatton was rolling on the ground laughing by this point and
Kozak realized he was set up. He then looked at Slatton and said, “Don,
please don’t tell the wrestlers about this.”
Slatton wasn’t about to let one of his finest moments be kept a
secret. Within hours, wrestlers as far away as Tokyo were laughing
about the story.
But his all-time classic was in 1973, involving then world
champion Jack Brisco. At that point, Abilene had moved from Mondays to
Fridays so it would have its own night and not have to share talent with
El Paso. Dory Funk Jr. had been NWA world champion from 1969 to 1973.
From 1971 on, Jack Brisco was the perennial top contender and was
supposed to win the title on March 2, 1973, in Houston. However, Dory
Funk Jr. suffered a separated shoulder in a ranch accident when a jeep
overturned a few days before the title was to change hands. To this
day. people debate whether or not Funk Jr.’s injury was legit. The
Funks have always maintained it was legit, and Sam Muchnick, the NWA
President, did get full documentation of the accident and the injury.
Still, Muchnick was skeptical. Houston promoter Paul Boesch was
livid and never believed the story, nor did Eddie Graham, the Florida
promoter and Brisco’s sponsor, or Brisco himself.
Funk Jr. returned from his injury and in his second week back, on
May 24, 1973, he was ordered to drop the title to Race, in Kansas City,
with Race picked partially due to his reputation as a street fighter.
Race was to be a short-term champion, and Boesch got his promised title
change when Brisco beat Race on July 20, 1973, at the Sam Houston
Coliseum.
Whether this was planned by the Funks or just a silver lining
from the dark cloud of the serious injury, Jack Brisco never beat Dory
Funk Jr. in a world championship match. This made them natural
opponents all over the country, but in West Texas, where the Funk family
owned the promotion and were the top babyfaces, it was the strongest
match possible. Dory Funk Jr. had been groomed from the start of his
career to be a headliner, working on top against the biggest names in
the business from early in his career.
A former college football star at West Texas State in Amarillo,
who starred in the Sun Bowl, he was positioned in the area as the most
skilled pro wrestler in the world. From the start of Funk Jr.’s career,
his father would bring in wrestlers with legitimate backgrounds and
Dory Jr. would hang with them in long technical matches. As the years
went by, fans in Amarillo saw Funk Jr. outwrestle the biggest stars in
the game. Dory Funk Sr. was positioned as the toughest old guy alive,
the King of the Texas death matches.
With more than four straight years as world champion, Dory Jr.
was the Texas native who made it good, only losing based on a disputed
referee decision in Race’s home town. Everyone knew Brisco had faced
Funk Jr. countless times, both in that territory and all over the
country, since it was the most famous wrestling program of its era. And
Brisco had never beaten Funk Jr. in a title match, meaning that for
Texas fans, they believed, as good as Brisco was, Funk Jr. had proved
for years he was superior.
Brisco wasn’t scheduled to come to West Texas until late
September for a week stay. But Terry Funk and Slatton had an idea to
convince Brisco and Sam Muchnick to get him in early, because of the
feeling Brisco vs. Dory in their territory would do the biggest business
possible with the dynamic at the time.
Brisco had moved from Tampa to Atlanta when he won the title. It
was a more convenient airport to fly out of and he would be constantly
traveling. Plus, Atlanta was in the middle of a nasty wrestling war.
Brisco was given a percentage of ownership (which later played a part in
1984 when the Briscos got other owners to sell their stock to Vince
McMahon) of Georgia Championship Wrestling to ensure he’d want to work
the territory as much as possible, because he’d get a cut of the profits
as well as a world champion payoff.
That week, Brisco was scheduled to work Georgia all week, with
Atlanta, the state’s major city, on Friday, as well as a show with
jacked up prices that Saturday night at the Bayfront Center in St.
Petersburg against Funk Jr.
The idea Slatton had concocted was that the Texas Governor at the
time, Dolph Briscoe Jr., wanted to meet Jack Brisco, his namesake, and
there was some conjecture that the two were actually related. The idea
is Slatton, with all his connections, would be able to set up a public
meeting that would garner Brisco and the NWA all kinds of mainstream
publicity.
So Muchnick, who booked Brisco, agreed for publicity that Brisco
would be pulled from his home town and go from Georgia to Abilene, TX,
early Friday morning, on August 31, 1973, for his afternoon meeting with
the Governor, wrestle Funk Jr. in Abilene, and then the next morning,
the two would fly to St. Petersburg.
The deal was made six weeks in advance, and with Slatton having
that much time to promote the Brisco vs. Funk Jr. title match, billed as
Funk Jr.’s first shot at Brisco (it actually was Funk Jr.’s first shot
we can find a record of since Brisco had won the belt six weeks
earlier), they sold out the 5,000 seat arena, impressive considering the
population in the area was only 127,000 at the time and Abilene really
wasn’t that strong of a city for wrestling for the most part. The big
blow-off stip matches or world title matches only on rare occasions
would hit 2,000 to 3,000 fans. Often, the Coliseum, was fairly empty.
The idea was they would do a 60-minute draw, which would build up
a return match three weeks later, when Brisco was scheduled for his
first full week in the territory, where they would do a 90-minute draw
in the rematch, and keep the program going as long as they could in the
city.
As the story goes, as told by Dory Funk Jr., Slatton thought
Terry would contact the Governor’s office. Terry figured Slatton would.
A few days before the show, Muchnick’s office called and they wanted
publicity photos of Brisco with the governor. Muchnick also confirmed
to the Amarillo office that Brisco asked if he could make a speech, and
present the Governor with an honorary Brisco Brothers Body Shop T-shirt.
Slatton contacted Martin Pryor, a Ford car salesman in Abilene,
for a favor. Pryor would masquerade as Governor Briscoe, provide a Red
Lincoln Continental limousine as the Governor’s car, and one of
Slatton’s ring attendants would dress up as the Governor’s Chauffeur.
All the wrestlers in the territory were told to keep quiet. They
were also told to make sure Brisco was kept away from any fans or
people in the city, for fear he’d find out the Governor wasn’t in
Abilene for a big ceremony with Brisco. The fly in the ointment was
that Ivan Putski was flying in for the show from Dallas, on the same
connecting flight Brisco was on, and it was possible the two may talk on
the flight and if Brisco brought up Gov. Briscoe, Putski may describe
what he looked like, which was nothing close to what Pryor looked like.
Luckily, that didn’t happen, and when Putski got off the plane,
Slatton grabbed him and told him the rib they were playing on Brisco to
draw the full house.
Brisco came off the plane in a suit and tie. While Funk Jr.
always dressed like that as champion on the road, learning from mentor
Gene Kiniski, who learned how a champion should look from Lou Thesz,
that wasn’t Brisco’s style.
As he got off the plane, Slatton grabbed him and told him, “Jack,
I’m sorry to have to tell you that Gov. Briscoe isn’t going to be able
to meet you today. He had to go to Mexico, you know, where they had
that earthquake.”
But as they were leaving, there was a twin engine plane with
propellers turning, and Slatton told Brisco, “Jack, I believe that’s the
governer’s plane over there warming up.”
Brisco was in a bad mood. He hardly wanted to fly from Georgia
to Abilene for one shot, since he’d make more money staying home, and
then do a grueling 60-minute match and have to fly back to Florida the
next morning. Brisco, Putski, Slatton and Slatton’s son, who drove the
car, took them in Slatton’s Ford station wagon from the airport into
town.
As they got into town, Pryor and the ring attendant as his
chauffeur were in the Red Lincoln, and Slatton said, “That’s the
governor’s car.” He waved down the limo, which slammed on the breaks.
Slatton got out of the car and said, “My gosh, Governor,” acting
like he knew him personally, “We thought for sure we were going to miss
you.” Slatton told Brisco to get out of the car and introduced him to
Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr.
Pryor got out of the car. Brisco, all nervous, tried to give his
memorized speech and gave him a Brisco Brothers T-Shirt while on the
side of a dusty road, just outside Abilene. In his excitement, Brisco
at first left the shirt in Slatton’s car, and then was so nervous, he
was fumbling with the car door that jammed trying to open it and get the
shirt.
Brisco talked about how their respective families were from
Oklahoma, had split, and one side spelled it Brisco and the other
spelled it Briscoe, believing they were related. Then he got so nervous
he forgot what he was going to say. While Jack lost his train of
thought, Pryor, impromptu, said he knew who Jack was and was proud of
him for just winning the world championship, and that in fact, they were
family. Then he warned Jack that being from Texas, those Funk Brothers
were two of the baddest hombres around and wished him luck with those
two chasing his title.
While some of this sounds like a tall tale, apparently Slatton’s
son recorded everything on 8 mm movie film, and for years, wrestlers in
West Texas watched Brisco and Pryor speaking, Brisco giving him the
T-shirt, while in the background, Putski was shooting photos with a
Polaroid camera.
Pryor apologized for having to rush out of there, noting that his plane was warming up at the airport.
“You know, Jack, I have just got to get down to Mexico to help
those people,” and he got in the limo and drove in the direction of the
airport.
Brisco, Putski, Slatton and his son got into the car. As they
were driving, Brisco was so happy that the Governor told him that they
were family and that the Governor of Texas was so proud of him winning
the world title.
Then he said, “Lawman, I just gotta tell you, that rib that you
pulled on Jerry Kozak, where he shot that old dead deer over and over,
was one of the funniest ribs I’ve heard. I’ve really got to hand it to
you.”
At that point Brisco, Putski and the Slattons were laughing hysterically in the car, but for different reasons.
For the next few months, Muchnick’s office kept calling for the
photos of Brisco meeting Gov. Briscoe, and had to be staved off. Brisco
had talked about how he was tight, and family, with the Governor of
Texas, for months. The story had gone around wrestling to a degree,
particularly to just about anyone who had worked West Texas or worked
with someone who had left West Texas about it being a rib, but nobody
wanted to be the person to tell either Muchnick or Brisco.
Eventually, in early 1974, Race told Muchnick and Brisco the truth.
“Jack, I don’t want to have to tell you this (I did, of course, I
couldn’t wait to see the reaction on his face),” Race wrote in his
autobiography, “But Funk and Slatton were jerking you around. That
wasn’t the Governor.”
Brisco was furious, and after that, it became known as the subject that you never bring up to him.
A few years later, when The Lawman was in the middle of his feud
with Rip Hawk & Swede Hanson, he was supposed to have surgery on his
nose and elbow at Hendrick Memorial Hospital. He snuck out of the
hospital, headed to the Coliseum for his show, had a bloodbath brawl
with Hanson, and snuck back into his room. After nurses noticed he was
gone from the room, and then a few hours later, saw his face covered
with blood, the nurses asked what happened, and he said that the
medication made him disoriented and he got lost roaming the halls and
fell down the stairs. He did eventually tell them the truth.
In 1965, Slatton, having a hard time making it as a wrestler,
took out a loan for $1,500 from the Amarillo National Bank, co-signed by
Dory Funk Sr., to buy rights to promote in the city from Benny Wilson.
He was able to get a local clearance for the Amarillo television show,
on a strong station that broadcast into San Angelo, Sweetwater,
Brownswood and Fort Stockton.
In the 60s, his specialties were the boxing match, taped fist
match and Texas death match, with his biggest local rival being Mike
DiBiase, who he also debuted the chain match with in 1966. His shows
were heavy on blood and stipulation matches.
Slatton himself was an expert deer hunter, Dory Funk Jr.
remembered often going to the Coliseum in Abilene where Slatton brought
fresh deer meat for the wrestlers for dinner.
Once, when he went in for knee surgery years after their feud was
over, while being sedated, he started hallucinating he was in a brawl
with DiBiase and it took several nurses and orderlies to calm him down.
In 1967, he had two quick runs as North American heavyweight
champion. He beat Dick Steinborn for the title on February 20 of that
year in Abilene, and lost it back two weeks later on March 6. The next
week, he won it back in a title vs. title match where he put up his
Brass Knux title, before Steinborn took it back a second time.
Over the years he headlined his home city against every major
heel that came through the territory, with the programs usually
culminating in Texas death, taped fist or Russian chain matches. His
most frequent tag team partner in the gimmick matches was Terry Funk.
He headlined against Wahoo McDaniel, Don Jardine (and years later The
Masked Spoiler), Dory Funk Sr., Magnificent Maurice, Killer Karl Kox
(who feuded with him year after year, particularly hot in 1971), Brute
Bernard, Thunderbolt Patterson (which is the feud that put the Brass
Knux title on the map), Kinji Shibuya, The Von Brauners, Gorgeous
George Jr., The Infernos and J.C. Dykes, Gypsy Joe Rosario, Buddy Colt,
Race (a frequent rival before he was world champion), Rufus Jones (who
was a heel at the time battling in a series of African death matches),
The LeDuc Brothers, Dick Murdoch, Dusty Rhodes, Apache Bull Ramos, The
Beast, Pak Song, Kintaro Oki, Bobby Duncum, Lorenzo Parente & Bobby
Hart, Buck Robley (whose first successful run as a booker was picking
the city up for his feud with Lawman), Masio Koma & Motoshi Okuma,
Ciclon Negro, Hank James, Karl Von Steiger, The Fabulous Fargos (Don
& John, John later became Greg Valentine), The Patriots, J.J.
Dillon, Mike DuBois (Alexis Smirnoff), Black Gordman & Great
Goliath, The Masked Interns, Ray Stevens and Frank Goodish (Bruiser
Brody).
Dillon recalled a program he worked with Lawman in Abilene. At
the time, the city wasn’t doing well and then-booker Art Nelson was
furious with Slatton. The Amarillo office would send promotional
posters to hang up in shops around town, and they found all the posters
laying in the back of Slatton’s pick-up truck, with Nelson blaming
Slatton’s “laxy” promoting for why the city wasn’t drawing well.
For his and Nelson’s entertainment, Dillon cut a promo for
Abilene talking about the Lawman’s wife, an avid doll collector, who
liked to dress them up. He recounted it in his book, “Wrestlers Are
Like Seagulls,” saying, “Do you people think the Lawman’s tough? I went
by his house the other night to call him out. I yelled and yelled, but
nobody would come out, so I went up to the house to see if anybody was
home. When I looked in the window, there was a room full of dolls.
There were dolls everywhere. Every size. Every shape. And there’s The
Lawman, Don Slatton wearing a frilly apron. His wife was standing
there saying, `Now, Donald, I want you to take the dress off this one
and put it on this one,’” and it went on from there. Dillon admitted he
was doing the promo more to entertain himself than to draw at that
week’s show.
Slatton was furious when the promo aired on television. His wife
was even madder, afraid that if people found out about their valuable
doll collection that someone would try to break into their home.
During the match, a woman in the front row dumped a big bucket of
water all over Dillon, getting him so mad he nearly punched her. He
didn’t, and later found out it was Slatton’s wife.
Slatton wrestled less frequently after the Funks sold the
territory, and Abilene dried up. Years later, when the Von Erichs were
on fire, even then Abilene was one of the weakest cities on the circuit.
Slatton worked part-time on shows in his area until the territory
folded in 1981, as well as for Southwest Championship Wrestling, which
was at the time the most successful regular promotion running in the
state before Dallas took off with the rise of the Von Erich Brothers.
He worked very little outside Texas. Before he became the
promoter in Abilene in 1965, he spent much of 1964 working elsewhere.
He worked in Detroit for The Sheik and Indianapolis for Dick the Bruiser
and Wilbur Snyder in the early part of the year, as well as did a few
dates in St. Louis, all in prelims.
He worked a lot of main events later in the year for Gust Karras’
Central States promotion, including getting a shot at Lou Thesz for the
NWA world title on October 1, 1964 at Memorial Hall, which he lost. He
beat Bob Orton Sr. on October 31, 1964, in Waterloo, IA to become the
area’s United States heavyweight champion, but he lost it November 21,
1964, in Waterloo, to Rocky Hamilton, who later became the Missouri
Mauler. He also held the North American tag team title that year,
teaming with Moose Evans.
Slatton worked some for Florida Championship Wrestling in 1981,
and for Southwest Championship Wrestling, all underneath without any
kind of a push, with his final matches coming in 1982 or 1983.
Toward the end of his career, and long after his career was over,
he remained well known in Abilene for running a bail bonds business
that advertised heavily on television with him in the ads. The business
was apparently very successful for him and he had continued it until
Alzheimer’s got the better of him in recent years. Still, in a 2002
news story in the Abilene Reporter-News that called him a genuine West
Texas celebrity due to his fame from wrestling, he said there was
nothing he enjoyed more than talking with fans about the old days of
wrestling.
***************************************************************
THE LAWMAN CAREER TITLE HISTORY
NWA NORTH AMERICAN HEAVYWEIGHT: def. Dick Steinborn February 20, 1967
Abilene; lost to Dick Steinborn March 6, 1967 Abilene; def. Dick
Steinborn March 13, 1967 Abilene; lost to Dick Steinborn April 1967
NWA UNITED STATES HEAVYWEIGHT (Central States version) def. Bob
Orton Sr. October 31, 1964 Waterloo; lost to Rocky Hamilton (Missouri
Mauler) November 21, 1964 Waterloo
NWA NORTH AMERICAN TAG TEAM: w/Moose Evans def. Pat O’Connor
& Sonny Myers June 1964; Title vacated when Lawman left the
territory
NWA TEXAS BRASS KNUX: First billed as champion March 13, 1967;
Title held up September 14, 1967 Amarillo; def. Thunderbolt Patterson
September 28, 1967 Amarillo; lost to Thunderbolt Patterson October 5,
1967 Amarillo; Announced as champion late 1969; lost to Dick Murdoch
January 1, 1970 Amarillo; def. Dick Murdoch January 30, 1970 Abilene;
lost to Apache Bull Ramos June 1970; def. Ray Stevens August 28, 1975
Amarillo; lost to Ray Stevens September 18, 1975 Amarillo; Held title
August 1978; lost to Killer Karl Krupp August 23, 1978 Abilene
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