After Bill’s return from the trip with the Wilson company of wealthy
“Yankees,” he resumed his duties as city marshal of Hays City. It would
be difficult for any one not familiar with the terrorism of border life
to form an approximate estimate of the condition of society in Hays
City when Bill became the custodian of its peace. Saloons and gambling
hells were the most flourishing branches of business, and never closed
their doors. The Sabbath was ignored, and the revelry of ruffians
continued day and night. The population, it is true, was not a large
one, but it was an exceedingly vicious and lively one. There were, of
course, many good citizens, but, to use a border expression, “they
never aired themselves,” yet it was through their instrumentality that
Bill became marshal. Among the most violent and dangerous of the rowdy
element in Hays City was Jack Strawhan, a large, double-fisted bully
who boasted that he could clean out the town, and who had his record
well made by killing several men.
Some months previous to the occurrence about to be related, Strawhan
had visited Ellsworth, and after getting fighting drunk, he and his
gang undertook to “clean out the place,” as they expressed it. Capt.
Kingsbury, the gentleman before referred to, was sheriff of Ellsworth
county at the time, and being a man of equally desperate pluck, he
called his deputy, Whitney, and Wild Bill, who was also in Ellsworth
on that day, to his assistance, and after a slight skirmish arrested
the gang. Strawhan was so violent and abusive that it became necessary,
owing to there being no secure jail in the place, to tie him to a post,
his arms being thrown around it and fastened in front. This position
was a punishment as well as a secure one, and he was kept there until
thoroughly sober and subjugated.
This severe treatment caused Jack to take a public oath to kill
Kingsbury, Whitney and Wild Bill at the first opportunity, and every
one who knew the man felt that he would keep his word.
[Illustration: Death of Jack Strawhan.]
The day of fate arrived in 1869, and under the following circumstances:
Wild Bill was in Tommy Drum’s saloon, in company with a crowd of
drinking characters, indulging, as was his wont, when Strawhan entered
by a side door. Bill’s eyes were always on the lookout for danger, and
they caught Jack the moment he stepped upon the threshold. Bill made
a pretence of not noticing his bitter enemy, but quietly grasped his
pistol and kept talking, unconcernedly, as before. Strawhan thought
his opportunity had come, and that Bill was off his guard, but the
moment Strawhan attempted to level his pistol, Bill wheeled and shot
him dead, the ball from his weapon entering Strawhan’s right eye,
felling him without a groan. Bill then turned back to the counter of
the bar, and asked everybody in the saloon to take a drink, never
giving the slightest heed to the body of the man which lay on the floor
dead, with his face smothered in a pool of blood. Everyone drank.
The coroner was sent for and the crowd gave their testimony. Bill was
acquitted the same day, and serenaded by the authorities at night.
Whitney escaped death at Strawhan’s hands, but was killed by a Texan
named Ben Thompson, in 1873.