GameFowlBreeders.info

    At least once or twice a year for the past several years I have received phone calls asking about the Witch Doctor fowl, who made them, how they were bred and if still have any for sale. Just this past week I have had three phone calls seeking the same information so I have decided to set the record straight and write what will most likely be the last story about this great strain of black-brown red fowl that were in the eyes of many the greatest slasher cocks that were ever made. Excellent gaff cocks, they were even better in the long knife (slasher). Their record and fame in the islands became so great that editors of the game fowl journals wrote me and requested that I write their origin. Here then, is the true story and breeding of the mighty Witch Doctor fowl and due credit is given to all breeders whose blood made this strain.

    I got married in November of 1950 and moved to Austin, Texas with my wife Mozelle. As a wedding present she bought me a trio of Bill Shaffer Mugs from William McCullough of Kinnington, PA. The cock weighed about 5 and one half pounds, was brown red in color, stood up like a fighting cock and, indeed was fought once as a stag after I bred him, winning in one fast pitting. On hen was coal black and one hen was the same color as the cock. I mated them and raised 37 stags, all looked alike and were the best sparring fowl that I had ever seen. However, I lost four of the first seven that I fought and was quite disappointed as they out-fought the other roosters but were not cutting, which in fast company is fatal. I wrote to my good friend Randall Burkey, San Antonio, Texas, and told him my problem. In turn he told me that Bill Shaffer used the Burkey #61 Derby gaffs when he won the Orlando Tournament 13 out of 15 fights. (This could have been St. Augustine, however, both were the majors and nothing but the very best matched steel there.) I ordered a pair of the #61's, 2 1/8" long and put up another show of stags.

    Using these gaffs I won 37 out of the next 41 fights. Witnesses were cockers like Gus Frithiof Sr., Si Memen, Bubba Reeves, Brownie Davis, Ernest Puryear, Jack Everhart and the list could go on for an hour. I won so many fights in the first pitting that it was unbelievable. One the greatest cocks I ever owned was "One Round Hogan" who won seven, one pitting fights in my hands and two other fights for Shorty Awalt while I was away in the Army. In 1952 I was drafted into the Army and sent to France. I "left" my brood fowl with a local cocker for safe keeping and put a frying size trio on the yard of my good friend, John DePew, of Austin with instructions not to breed any pure but with permission to cross if he wouldn't sell any of the offspring. One other cock I left on a walk at Bee Caves, Texas. The cocks that I had left I "loaned" to Shorty Awalt and he was to fight them at Shelly Clay's Pit at Waco, Texas, the following year. The brood fowl were not to be bred and no fowl to leave his hands. I had one cock that had never quite gotten over the roup and my wife and I took him to Dick Williams' Pit, Kingburry, Texas, to get him whipped as I hated to kill him. He won in one pitting and I rematched him winning the second time in three pitings. As I told the crowd to which I brought him to get whipped I couldn't refuse when I was offered four ounces of weight to fight him the third time against a fresh cock. This fight lasted over an hour but the little Mug won giving him three victories for the day. I refused one hundred dollars for him and pulled his head off not wanting this blood to "get out". The next year, while I was in France, Shorty and J.D. Cantwell took the Shaffer Mug cocks that I left and went to Waco and won the biggest derby of the year 5-1. Jr. Whitted handled these cocks and tried to buy them just as did most everyone there. Shorty turned him down. Jr. took his winnings and purchased a trio of Mugs from Bill McCullough, being the same person I got mine from, as he couldn't buy mine.

    The second trio didn't look like my Mugs and couldn't fight like them either and Jr. disposed of them after I got back from the Army. The original brood cock died while I was in the Army but I got back the original hens and one of their sons. There was a big misunderstanding about the terms of how I left these fowl and Shorty killed the off springs and obtained new fowl of a different strain; we never fought together as an entry after that. So much for the Mug blood. John DePew returned my Mug trio and told me that he had borrowed a Texas Ranger hen from Gus Frithiof and bred the Shaffer Mug stag to her. He had some beautiful hens from this mating and years later I bought two of the last hens from this mating. They were coal black and had the best bodies that one can find on a hen, weighed over five pounds each and had beautiful shoe button black eyes. Enter the Texas Ranger blood.

    Jr. Whited had moved out on a road close to me and had over 300 cocks in his back yard. Jr. paid top, top dollars for the very best fowl that money could buy. In the yard was Duke Hulseys, Billy Ruble, Grady Hamilton, Cecil Davis, D.A. Morton, Tom Spurrier and other fowl too many to recall. I told Jr. that I wanted to buy a top Hatch cock and he told me to "take my pick". We discussed the mating at great length and he recommended a beautiful Mill Mimms Hatch cock explaining to me that he gave $500 for the trio and that the fowl came from Owen McGuiness who got them from Duke Hulsey and in turn let Bill Mimms have them. Carl Malls had brought the Mimms fowl to Austin and Jr. called them the greatest Hatch fowl in America. This Mimms cock was the Daddy of the Witch Doctors. I raised a yard full of these fowl from this mating and was looking for a name that would excite the Island people in case I wanted to ship my surplus to the Philippines. I settled on Witch Doctors believing that all the Island folks were superstitious and that the name would drive them crazy; little did I know. Later I found out that they sometimes order cocks with thirty scales on each leg calling such a cock 30-30 as in a repeating rifle.

    When Buck Biggs came to my house with a box full of Redquill Stags to fight I found out that my wildest dreams had come true; I could hardly get one whipped! My percentage was something like 95%. Next came Bubba Reeves, Gus Frithiof, Preston Barrnett, Red & Joy Nalls, Ben Curry, Dudley Bryant, Si Memen, & Jr. Whited with the outcome always the same...too much Doctor. Then I took a show to Luther Watson's and won seven straight. I knew that I had hit the jackpot in Witch Doctor fowl. One stag won nine fights before 11 months of age and graced the May 1964 cover of The Gamecock. A few days later came a letter from Guam from a cocker named Sammy Lee wanting to buy the stag on the cover which was the famous "Dr. Dandy." I thanked him by return mail and declined to sell. Three days later I received a phone call from Guam from Sammy still wanting to buy Dr. Dandy. Once again I refused. Then he told me that he was being beaten badly in cock fights in Guam and had lost several thousand dollars. He offered to pay $300 for the loan of the stag for one fight and would return him if he won. A top trio in those days was bringing $100.

    I shipped Dr. Dandy and cocking history was made. Sammy hacked the stag for $4,700 and won in a buckle. Another phone call came and Sammy requested that I permit him to come to my house to see these fowl but first he wanted to take him to the Philippines and fight the top cocker of that time who was fighting Thunderbirds from Duke. He was willing to pay an additional $300 rental and I agreed. Sammy fought Dr. Dandy for $30,000 and he was called the greatest cock to ever fight in the Islands. He won in two pittings and was cut through the liver dying three days later. A marble stone marks his grave site. Sammy Lee showed up at my house a week later and took every stag I owned of Witch Doctors and started fighting them for huge amounts of money. Gamecock carried stories and the fame grew. They won mains in straight fights for ten and twenty thousand per fight. No one wanted any of their business. For five years Sammy ruled the roost. He loaned Raymon Rivera six of these stags and Raymon won six straight for a fortune. I have a copy of his letter trying to purchase more. Another great and famous cock of the Witch Doctor breed was called the "Christmas Cock". I sent him to Sammy Lee in Guam as a stag and Sammy won seven slasher fights with him before he was two years old. He was cut up badly during his seventh fight and Sammy gave him to a friend in Guam. The friend told Sammy that he was better than any Christmas present that he has ever received. The cock healed and when Christmas Day rolled around the friend couldn't resist and fought him believing that Christmas was lucky for this bird. He won and was repeated back every Christmas day until he had won 13 fights then totally and permanently retired. This cock was famous throughout all the Islands and a most sought after bird. I have no report on any offspring or if he was ever bred.

    I sent a trio to Paulino Ochoa in the Philippines and the reported record was 64 wins - 6 losses 2 draws. Over a hundred letters were received (still on hand) willing to pay any price for a feather. I never offered to sell any, no ads were run but Gamecock would give my address to all who inquired; I enjoyed the fame. The bubble burst when I lost both original hens due to old age and bred the cock over his daughters. The first one of these I fought was jerked out of a pen and carried to Ken Teeler's house and fought at Ken at nine months old, he quit and ran off after a few pittings. I was crushed not only because my famous Witch Doctors had run off but I had over 150 brothers and half brothers to this. I went home and fought the stags at each other and killed the winners. Eldon Molish and Randy Wallace aided me in this slaughter. I had 22 left and we were too tired to fight the rest so we quit. A month later I sold Gus Frithiof the 22 that were left and told him that when he shipped them that he was not to tell anyone where he got them. However, I had fought over a hundred brothers to the runner and all proved game. Gus shipped them to South America and the report came back that the first nineteen fought, won. I killed all the sisters and gave Gus the full sister to Dr. Dandy which I had turned down $500 for. He bred her to a Texas Ranger cock and the report is almost unbelievable. This family won 300 fights, lost 22, and drew 12. One man won 104 and lost or drew 10.

    No pure Witch Doctors exist to my knowledge and certainly not in the United States for I never sold a pair in the USA. However, I went to a man's yard in Texas to look at some White hens and he showed me a pen of pure Witch Doctors. I asked him if he knew who made the Witch Doctors and he replied Billy Ruble. I never told him any different or who I was. However, if a man can prove that I didn't make the Witch Doctors just as I say I bred them I will pay a 10,000 reward. I don't believe that I missed a Major Derby in the United States for a period of ten years and I am known to thousands of cockers as "Witch". My farm is listed as Witch Doctor Farms and I show and register Dairy Goats under that name. I need no fame...the Witch Doctors earned me that with their winning ways.