Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-11-06
A DEsPERADOs CAREER.
A maH Who Shot Ten Wen I'm Ten
Minutes Single Handed

an account OF the shooting of eight
Texans by Matt Riley in Kansas some
years ago. The article concluded with
the statement that Riley, some years
after the tragedy described, was attacked
with paralysis, and died in the eastern
States. Riley did not die in the east.
but, on the contrary, is alive and a resi-
dent of San Francisco, where he has
lived the greatest portion of the time
since his celebrated adventures in Kansas
caused asensation throughout the south
west. At that time the sparse
population and peculiar conditions of
lie in Kansas offered great inducements
to desperate man, and Riley made the
great State his abode. He filed several
positions-was sheriff of Ellsworth. and
was deputy marshal at Newton at tie
time of the sensational adventure with
the Taxans. McClusky, the marshal of
the town, was Riley's partner.
Riley had formed McClusky's acquain-
lance at Laramie, where he met him in
company with some of the most desper-
ate characters that ever infested the
West. Subsequently McClusky and Ri
ley met on the Atkinson and Topeka
road, and they became partners in the
preservation of the place, and the pro-
prietors of hurdy-gurdy and gambling
house at Newton. On the day of Nc
Clusky's death Riley had been out hunt
ing horse thief, and got back in the
afternoon. While standing outside the
dance house talking to some one he no
iced that the place was doing a lively
trade. McCluslly was sitting on chair
with his back to the wall looking at the
proceedings, when of sudden party of
Texans who had planned to kill him
sprang forward from the crowd and began
to shoot at him McClusky had killed one
of their men some time before, but was
wholly unsuspicious of an attack, and he
was riddled with bullets before he could
draw his pistol. The desperate charac-
ter of the man asserted itself in the
death agony, and his last movement was
to cock bis pistol and point it at his as
saiants. He had not strength to press
The trigger, however, and fell on his face
dead.
At the first report of the TexNns' pis-
tolls, Riley started for the dance house.
His quick eye took in the tragic situation
of his partner at glance, and in an in
slant he had seized the nearest Texan by
the neck, and, holding him up before
him as living target, opened fusillade
on the assassins. When the firing ceased
there were nine men lying on the floor
dead and wounded. When Riley loos-
ened the grasp of his herculean arm from
the neck of his human shield the tenth
victim of the terrible encounter dropped
lifeless to the boards He had been dead
before the encounter had we'll begun,
but if he had not succumbed to the pis
tolls of his comrades there was cartridge
left in Riley's third pistol at his service
Eight of the dead and wounded men
were of the party of Texans who had
murdered McClusky. The other two
men who had been killed in the affrav
were railroad hands aud onlookers at the
tragedy. 1t spoke volumes for the
closeness of the shooting that only two
bullets had flown so wide of the intended
mark as to bring down innocent victims
in the crowded dance hall. Riley re-
NAMED in Newton three days after the
sensational affray, and then found it ex-
pedient to leave for parts unknown. He
subsequently figured in several desperate
affairs on the line of the Union Pacific
railroad and through Colorado, Utah
New Mexico, and Nevada. Orders had
been issued on the Union Pacific rail-
road to allow no monte gamblers to ride
on the trains, and in obedience to this
command CAPITA Payne of the Omaha
depot police tried to eject Riley and his
partner, Sullivan, while travelling from
Council Bluffs to Omaha. He put off
Sullivan, but Riley refused to leave the
train, and in the struggle which ensued
the captain was knocked senseless by a
blow from the desperado's pistol. After
this the trains of the Union Pacific were
uncomfortable for Riley, and he moved
his headquarters. His partner, Sullivan,
like almost every partner he ever had,
met tragic death, another gambler,
named Duval, shooting him in Chicago.
After parting with Sullivan Riley
formed partnership with the notorious
Jack Virgins, and opened large sa-
loon in Salt Lake City. On the open
ing night Norman known as Dutch
John, who figured as destroying angel,
entered the saloon and intimated to
Virgins that no Gentle would be al
lowed to run such an establishment in
the city. Some hot words following,
the destroying angel seized a bottle and
hurled it through the large mirror be-
hind the bar, shivering the glass into
fragments. Virgins had his pistol out
almost before the destroying angel swung
the bottle, and the crash of glass was
drowned in the report of shot that sent
Dutch John to eternity. For the lnaus-
pious incident of the opening night Wig
gins was arrested and sentenced to death.
With that lofty consideration which
distinguished Mormon Justice, Virgins
was given the choice OF death by hang
ing or shooting. He choose the rope,
although exhorted by his rough friends
to select the bullet as the most expedi-
ent and respectable agent of extinction.
When reasoned with by Riley, he stated
that he preferred to be hanged. "for,' y
said he, ''Ive seen many a good man
shot, ana L want to see one hanged"
A few days before the day of execu-
ton Riley managed to secure an oppor-
tunity for Virgins to break Jail, which
that worthy improved with aarcrity.
The fugitive was concealed for eight
days in the cellar under the Walker
house. Riley had sold his saloon and
spent all his money to secure the escape
of Virgins. He had hired notorious
character named Bill Bean to take the
fugitive to Evanston, Wy. t., on horse
back, as from that point he could get
East in safety. On the night that Bean
was to have taken Virgins away the lat
ter asked Riley to give him his pistol, as
he had only two of his own, and he
wanted another for Bean, whom he ex-
expected to fight for him if necessary.
Riley refused at first, as the pistol was