The mark of a huge hand on her little throat pointed him out as the ravisher as no other man had such a hand, but though all suspected, no one charged him with the crime. His desires was blood and women, and terrible stories were circulated in camp of horrid crimes committed by him when bearing another name, in the Cherokee nation and Texas and before we left Fronteras a little girl of ten years was found in the chapperal, foully violated and murdered. But when a quarrel took place and blood shed, his hog-like eyes would gleam with a sullen ferocity worthy of the countenance of a fiend. Who or what he was no one knew but a cooler blooded villain never went unhung he stood six feet six in his moccasins, had a large fleshy frame, a dull tallow colored face destitute of hair and all expression. The second in command, now left in charge of the camp, was a man of gigantic size who rejoiced in the name of Holden, called “Judge” Holden of Texas. Illustration by Chamberlain in his book showing Judge Holden In Samuel Chamberlain's autobiographical My Confession, he describes Holden: He is also the chief proponent and philosopher of the Glanton gang’s lawless warfare." Historical basis He was popularized as the main antagonist of Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian (1985), where he is described as "a massive, hairless, albino man who excels in shooting, languages, horsemanship, dancing, music, drawing, diplomacy, science and anything else he seems to put his mind to. "Yet nothing could be more gentle and kind than his deportment towards me he would often seek conversation with me." Chamberlain described Holden as the most ruthless of the roving band of mercenaries led by Glanton, with whom Chamberlain had traveled briefly after the war: ' had a fleshy frame, a dull tallow colored face destitute of hair and all expression ' 'a man of gigantic size' 'by far the best educated man in northern Mexico' 'in short another Admirable Crichton, and with all an arrant coward'.Ĭhamberlain disliked Holden intensely: "I hated him at first sight, and he knew it," Chamberlain wrote. To date, the only source for Holden's existence is Samuel Chamberlain's My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue, an autobiographical account of Chamberlain's life as a soldier during the Mexican–American War. Judge Holden is a purported historical person who partnered with John Joel Glanton as a professional scalp-hunter in Mexico and the American Southwest during the mid-19th century. Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West
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