Life and marvelous adventures of Wild Bill, the Scout: being a true an exact history of all the sanguinary combats and hair-breadth escapes of the most famous scout and spy America ever produced.Buel, James W. (James William)
History
Life and marvelous adventures of Wild Bill, the Scout: being a true an exact history of all the sanguinary combats and hair-breadth escapes of the most famous scout and spy America ever produced.
Buel, James W. (James William)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Hickok, Wild Bill, 1837-1876
Promptly at the time appointed, the improvised court convened, and
Joseph Brown, who had been chosen sheriff, produced the prisoner. F. J.
Kuykendall, the _pro tempore_ judge, then addressed the crowd in a very
appropriate manner, reminding those present that the court was purely a
self-constituted one, but that in the discharge of his duty he would be
governed by justice, and trust to them for a ratification of his acts.
His remarks were greeted with hand-clappings of approval. The prisoner
was then led forward and conducted to a seat on the stage to the right
of the judge.
Never did a more forbidding countenance face a court than that of Jack
McCall; his head, which was covered with a thick crop of chestnut hair,
was very narrow as to the parts occupied by the intellectual portion of
the brain, while the animal development was exceedingly large. A small,
sandy moustache covered a sensual mouth, and the coarse double-chin
was partially hid by a stiff goatee. The nose was what is commonly
called “snub;” he had cross eyes and a florid complexion, which
completed a more repulsive picture than Dore could conceive. He was
clad in a blue flannel shirt, brown overalls, heavy shoes, and, as he
sat in a stooping position, with his arms folded across his breast, he
evidently assumed a nonchalance and bravado which were foreign to his
feelings, and betrayed by the spasmodic heavings of his heart.
The selection of a jury consumed all the forenoon, as it was next to
impossible to select a man who had not formed or expressed an opinion
concerning the murder, although but few who were in the panel had heard
of the tragedy until a few hours before. A hundred names were selected,
written upon separate scraps of paper, and placed in a hat. They were
then well shaken, and the committee appointed for the purpose drew from
the hat one name at a time. The party answering to the name then came
forward and was examined by the judge touching his fitness to serve as
an impartial juror. Ninety-two names were called from the panel before
the jury was made up. Following are those who were selected and served:
J. J. Bumfs, L. D. Brokow, J. H. Thompson, C. Whitehead, Geo. S.
Hopkins, J. F. Cooper, Alexander Travis, K. F. Towle, John E. Thompson,
L. A. Judd, Edward Burke and John Mann. The jurors being sworn, they
took their seats, and testimony for the prosecution was begun.
The first witness called was Charles Rich, who said that he was in
the saloon kept by Lewis & Mann on the afternoon of the 2d, and was
seated at a table playing a game of poker with Wild Bill and several
others, when the prisoner, whom he identified, came into the room,
walked deliberately up to Wild Bill, placed a pistol to the back of the
deceased, and fired, saying: “Take that!” Bill fell from the stool upon
which he had been seated without uttering a word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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