This Day…

1889-Buckskin Frank Leslie came home to his ranch bad drunk from a week long toot in Tombstone.  He got into an argument with his girlfriend, Blonde Mollie Williams, and in a jealous rage shot her dead.  He also shot Jim Neal, a hired hand, who witnessed the shooting.  Neal recovered and testified against Leslie, who was found guilt of murder and sent off to Yuma Prison.  Many years later Jim Neal hired Leslie as a swamper in a bay area saloon.

1900-After his supper the well known cow thief, Matt Rash, stepped out on the porch of his ranch house in Cold Springs Mountain, Colorado.  Stock detective Tom Horn was hiding nearby and shot Rash three times with a rifle.  Rash went back inside and died on his bed while trying to write a note in his own blood.

1854-The federal government opens a land office in the Kansas Territory to distribute propoerty.  Pro-slavery forces are already taking claims and fighting each other without regard for law.  Manwhile in Michigan, anti-slavery men are meeting to join the Republican Party.  Whigs, Free-soliers, and anti-slavery Democrats hold meetings demanding repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Law.

1827-Jedediah Strong Smith returns to the Great Salt Lake with three of his original party.

1902-Harry Tracy and his brother-in-law, Dave Merrill were escaped convicts and bank robbers.  While they were hiding out in Lewis County, Washington they got into a fuss and decided to have a duel.  They agreed to step off ten paces then turn and fire, but Tracy turned and fired early and shot his brother-in-law in the back.

1886-Fractious Joe Stinson was a mean drunk.  After a long night of hard drinking he got into an argument with his pal, Reddy McCann and shot him in the face, blowing off the base of his nose.  Reddy recovered.  Stinson operated a saloon in Santa Fe, NM.  He died of alcohol debilitation in 1902.

1880-Feared ex-marshal George Flatt was on a Saturday night toot in Caldwell, Kansas and got into a bit of trouble with new Marshal Frank Hunt.  Flatt was later ambushed and killed on his way to eat supper and witnesses identified hunt fleeing the scene.

1902-Another large gold discover is made in Alaska, this one at Fairbanks.  Alaska is soon over-run by ‘sourdoughs’ (miners and prospectors) in rough mining camps.

1918-Terrell County Sheriff D.L. Anderson was shot and killed at the train depot in Sanderson, Texas by a drunken cowboy name of Ed Valentine.  Within an hour of that shooting Valentine was lynched by citizens.  In his youth Sheriff Anderson was known as Billy Wilson and was a participant in the Lincoln County War.  He was arrested by Pat Garrett along with Billy the Kid at Stinking Springs.  Garrett later helped get him pardoned.

1878-The Sam Bass Gang was surprised in their camp on Salt Creek in Wise County, Texas by a possee led by Sheriff W.F. Eagan and some Texas Rangers.  The posse killed Arkansas Johnson and captured the gang’s horses, but the rest of the gang got away on foot.  They soon stole other horses and made good their escape.