This Day…

1878- New Mexico Territory- lawman John Beckwith was involved with a number of shoot-outs, one, on this date, in the home of his hard case father, Henry, who killed his son-in-law, William Johnson, during a wild argument in the ranch house, a fight where John tried to intervene and was almost shot to death by his own father. Earlier in the year John and Robert Beckwith were with a group of deputies who killed rancher John Tunstall and setting off the infamous Lincoln County war.