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 TALL BIRD BIOGRAPHY
Created by Michael L. Fleisher and Russ Heath



PERSONAL DATA


Marital Status: Widowed
Known Relatives: Jonah Hex (common-law husband; deceased, 1904)
Base of Operation: Cheyenne, WY
Gender: Female
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black, later grey
First Appearance: DC Special Series #16 (fall 1978): "The Last Bounty Hunter!"
Creators: Michael L. Fleisher and Russ Heath


"We will not need the police. Not so long as we have the restless spirit of Jonah Hex to protect us." - Tall Bird
Quote taken from Secret Origins Vol. 2 #21

HISTORY

Little is known of the Comanche woman named Tall Bird. Younger than her common-law husband Jonah Hex, they were together as early as 1903 when American history teacher Michael Wheeler sought to write a book on the famed bounty hunter and lived with the couple for a few months.

In 1904, Tall Bird was briefly taken hostage by the bank robber George Barrow and his gang. Though Hex and Wheeler were able to free her, Barrow himself escaped to gun down Hex the next day.

Though Tall Bird wished to see Jonah laid to rest in a funeral pyre, his body was stolen by Lew Farnham, the owner and operator of a Wild West Revue. Wheeler was killed trying to defend his friends, and Tall Bird was left to die in the fire which consumed their home as Farnham and his assistant took Hex's remains. Farnham had the body stuffed and mounted as a display for his show. -DC Special Series #16

Over the decades the body was lost, only to be discovered in the Frontier City Amusement Park in Laramie, WY. Tall Bird made a claim for her common-law husband's remains, but others were interested as well.

Professor Lawrence from Princeton University, a modern day expert on the life of Jonah Hex, was sent to interview Tall Bird. Unfortunately, an unscrupulous Wild West collector known as Mr. Lewellyn also wanted Hex's body as the ultimate prize for his collection. Whether Tall Bird objected or not mattered little to him, as he would kill her and Professor Lawrence to get what he wanted. In a bizarre turn of events, echoing the death of Farnham's assistant decades earlier, the gun in Jonah Hex's hand fired. Lewellyn was killed, and Professor Lawrence was able to hold off the collector's goons until the police arrived. - Secret Origins Vol. 2 #21


CHRONOLOGY

For a definitive list of appearances of Tall Bird in chronological order click here