Vanishing act of the “mysterious” outlaw

On or about Mar. 16, 1882, “Mysterious” Dave Mather posted bail, walked out of the Dallas County jail and skipped town. The gunfighter, outlaw and opportunistic lawman was born in Connecticut the decade before the War Between the States. He was a rotten apple on a famous family tree that boasted Cotton Mather, the New England Puritan best known for his part in the Salem witch trials. The murder…