Outlaws of Carbon County
The most notorious Outlaw that graced the City of Rawlins, was none other than George Manuse.. a.k.a Big Nose George Parrot. George was a cattle rustler, and had a predominately large nose to grace his physical characteristics... hence, his name.

George and his buddies decided one day to rob a train. Story has it that it was George's idea to somehow manipulate the tracks, so the train would derail, and make their job a whole lot easier than trying to board a moving train.

These are photos of the museum and the Big Nose George display

As they were working on moving the track, a railroad foreman came around, saw the guys and notified the authorities. During the attempted arrest, Big Nose and his buddies shot and killed two lawmen.

When Big Nose was caught, he confessed to his part in the attempted robbery and was sentenced to hang. While in jail in Rawlins, he attempted an escape, but failed, managing to beat up a guard in the process. When news of this beating spread through Rawlins, a lynch mob stormed the jail, took Big Nose out to a telegraph pole on what is now Front Street in Rawlins (right in front of Fred Wolfe's Saloon), and hanged him. The year was 1881.

That was the end of old Big Nose George, but not of his story. It seems that a young doctor, by the name of J.E. Osborne took possession of George's body. He proceeded to saw off the top of his skull, to "see if his brain was any different than normal folks". Obviously it wasn't. The top of his skull was used as a doorstop for Dr. Lillian Nelson, Wyoming's first woman doctor.

Next, Osborne had George skinned, and sent the skin to Denver. Dr. Osborne instructed the tanner to include the nipples when making the shoes. Maybe it's hard to make a pair of shoes with nipples on them cos when he received the finished pair, they were nipple-less. He also had a medicine bag made from the skin of George's chest. Dr. Osborne was quite proud of his man-shoes and wore them all the time, including special occasions. One occasion in particular was when this Mengele-in-training was elected governor of Wyoming!

As for the rest of what was left of Big Nose George, Dr. Osborne stuffed his dismembered corpse in a whiskey barrel, and buried them under his house. In 1950, a construction crew, tearing down the remains of Osborne's house, found the whiskey barrel and George's remains. It is not know exactly where the newly found remains were finally buried.

The shoes, his skull, and the top of his skull can be seen still today at the Carbon County Museum in Rawlins. No one knows what happened to the medicine bag.

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