The Story of the Outlaw: A Study of the Western DesperadoHough, Emerson
History
The Story of the Outlaw: A Study of the Western Desperado
Hough, Emerson
Crime -- West (U.S.); Criminals -- West (U.S.); Outlaws; West (U.S.) -- History
Mrs. McSween, meantime, kept up her work in the local courts. Some time
after her husband's death, she employed a lawyer by the name of Chapman,
of Las Vegas, a one-armed man, to undertake the dangerous task of aiding
her in her work of revenge. By this time, most of the fighters were
disposed to lay down their arms. The whole society of the country had
been ruined by the war. Murphy & Co. had long ago mortgaged everything
they had, and a good many things which they did not have, _e. g._, some
of John Chisum's cattle, to Tom Catron, of Sante Fe. A big peace talk
was made in the town, and it was agreed that, as there was no longer any
advantage of a financial nature in keeping up the war, all parties
concerned might as well quit organized fighting, and engage in
individual pillage instead. Murphy & Co. were ruined. Murphy and McSween
were both dead. Chisum could be depended upon to pay some of the debts
to the warriors through stolen cattle, if not through signed checks.
Why, then, should good, game men go on killing each other for nothing?
This was the argument used.
[Illustration: 1. MRS. SATURNINO BACA (In early life) 2. MRS. SUSAN E.
BARBER 3. MRS. SATURNINO BACA (At sixty)
The "women in the case" in the Lincoln County War. Mrs. Susan E. Barber
was known as the "Cattle Queen of the West"]
In this conference there were, on the Murphy side, Jesse Evans, Jimmie
Dolan and Bill Campbell. On the other side were Billy the Kid, Tom
O'Folliard and the game Mexican, Salazar. Each of these men had a .45
Colt at his belt, and a cocked Winchester in his hand. At last, however,
the six men shook hands. They agreed to end the war. Then, frontier
fashion, they set off for the nearest saloon.
The Las Vegas lawyer, Chapman, happened to cross the street as these
desperate fighting men, used to killing, now well drunken, came out, all
armed, and all swearing friendship.
"Halt, you, there!" cried Bill Campbell to Chapman; and the latter
paused. "Damn you," said Campbell to Chapman; "you are the ---- ---- of
a ---- that has come down here to stir up trouble among us fellows.
We're peaceful. It's all settled, and we're friends now. Now, damn you,
just to show you're peaceable too, you dance."
"I'm a gentleman," said Chapman, "and I'll dance for no ruffian." An
instant later, shot through the heart by Campbell's six-shooter, as is
alleged, he lay dead in the roadway. No one dared disturb his body. He
was shot at such close range that some papers in his coat pocket took
fire from the powder flash, and his body was partially consumed as it
lay there in the road.
For this killing, Jimmie Dolan, Billy Matthews and Bill Campbell were
indicted and tried. Dolan and Matthews were acquitted. Campbell, in
default of a better jail, was kept in the guard-house at Fort Stanton.
One night he disappeared, in company with his guard and some United
States cavalry horses. Since then nothing has been heard of him. His
real name was not Campbell, but Ed Richardson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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