The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1885-12-11
MATT RILEY.
a Once Active Person Who Shot Ten Men
in Ten Minutes Single Handed.

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 resident of San Francisco,
where he has lived the greatest por-
ton of the time since his celebrated
adventures in Kansas caused sensa-
ton throughout the Southwest. Matt
Riley, or Matt Foster-the latter be-
ing his right name-was at the date
of the occurrence referred to one of
the most noted and desperate of
the professional fighters and gamblers
OF the West. He was about thirty
years old and in physique the counter
part of the redoubtable John L. of
Boston. His whole life has been
passed in scenes of rough adventure.
When boy he entered the civil war
on the Confederate side, being native
of Arkansas, and finally graduated as
O. full-hedged bushwhacker. At the
| burning of Lawrence, Kan, he OBJ
tanned a considerable share of booty,
and, growing tired of fighting for his
party, concluded to do something for
himself. At that time the sparse pop
ulation and peculiar conditions of life
in Kansas offered great inducements
to desperate man, and Riley made
the great state his abode. He filled
several positions-was sheriff of Els
worth and was deputy marshal at
Newton at the time of the sensational
adventure with the Texans. McCluskv,
the marshal OF the town, was Riley's
partner.
Riley had formed McClusky's ac-
quaintance at Laramie, where he met
him In company with some of the
most desperate characters that ever
infested the West. Subsequently Nc
Clusky and Riley met on the Atchison
and Topeka road, and they became
partners in the preservation of the
peace, and the proprietors of a hurdy-
gurdy and gambling house at Newton.
On the day of McClusky's death Riley
and got back in the afternoon.
| While. standing outside the dance
house talking to some one he noticed
that the place was doing lively busi-
ness. There was eight women dancing
on the floor and as many more ped
ding drinks, and the cowboy element
was numerous and uproarious. Nc
Clusky was sitting on a char with his
back to the wall looking at the pro-
ceedings, when of a 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 riddIed with bullets before
he could draw his pistol. The desper-
ate character of the man asserted it
self in the death agony, and his last
movement was to cock his pistol and
point it at his assailants. Hehad not
strength to press the trigger, however,
and fell on his face, dead.
At the first report OF the Texans
pistols, Riley started for the dance
house. His quick eye took in the
tragic situation of his partner at
glance, and in an instant he had seized
the nearest Texan by the neck, and,
holding him up before him as a living
target, opened fusillade on the as
sassins. When the firing ceased there
were nine men lying on the floor dead
and wounded. When Riley loosened
the grasp of his herculeau arm from
the neck of his human shield the tenth
victim of the terrible encounter drop
ped lifeless to the boards. He had
been dead before the encounter had we'll
begun, but if he had not succumbed
to the pistols. of his comrades
there was cartridge in Riley's third
pistol at his service. Eight of the dead
and wounded men we've of the party of
Texans who had murdere McClusky.
The other two men who had been
killed in the affray were railroad
hands and on-lookers at the tragedy. 1t
spoke volumes for the closeness of the
shooting that only two bullets had
flown SO wide of the intended marks
as to bring down innocent victims in
the crowded dance hall. Riley re-
manned in Newton three days after the
sensational affray, and then found it
expedient to leave for parts unknown.
He subsequently figured in several des-
perate affairs on the line of the Union
Pacific railroad, and through Color
ado, Utah, New Mexico and Nevada.
Orders had been issued on the Union
Pacific railroad to allow no monte
gamblers to ride on the trains, and in
obedience to this command Captain
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 leaYe 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 un-
comfortable for Riley, and he moved
his headquarters. His partner, Sulli-
van, like almost every partner he ever
had, met a tragic death, another gam
bier, named Duval, shooting him in
Chicago.
After parting with Sullivan, Riley
formed partnership with the noto-
rious Jack Wiggins, and opened
large saloon in Salt Lake City. On
the opening night d Mormon known
as Dutch John, who figured as a de-
stroying angel, entered the saloon and
intimated to Virgins, that no Gentle
would ba allowed to nm s,1cb an as