Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-03-10
To be oontlnued.l
THE KILLING OF WILD BILL.
How Noted Western Desperate Wa
Shot Down by His Pal.

Mr.. Adler has known almost all the
pioneers Of the west, says the Denver
Repubiican. and was a friend of that
picturesque figure in western history,
Wild Bill. He was within half dozen
PAGES OF Bill when Jack McCaull shot
him in the back Of the head in Dead
wood saloon. He tells the story more
minutely than il has ever been told in
print.
To paraphrase the quaint wording
of the old pioneer, the killing fell about
in this way: Bill and McCaull occu-
pied the same cabin together at Dead
wood in 1876. Bill came into camp
with hotoriety he had been acquiring
in all the border towns. He was
gambler by profession aud desperate
by nature. He was the surest shot
with pistol in the west. He had been
marshal OF Hayes City IN its palmy
days OF lawlessness, and was afterward
marshal Of Abilene when that little
city had almost as hard name. He
had killed so many men that he had
lost the count. So when he rode into
Deadwood one day. with his long yell
low hair pouring down on his shoul
ders. his sombrero cooked sideways
on his head, and with two ivory-hand-
led pistols in their holsters swinging
at either side. people were naturally
very respectful.
But Bill was a man 10 be feared
rather than respected. He was an in
veterate card player, and cheated and
robbed at the tables with the pleasant
est grace imaginable. He and Nc
Caull became chums and batched to-
gether in a cabin. McCaull had just
rs bad character as Bill, but he had
never the opportunities to prove it,
and il he had he would probably have
been dead before Deadwood came into
existence. AT any rate. he and Bill
used TO play brace against every one
they could get TO put his legs under
the table with them. While this proc
ess of heecing was going on B.)! and
mis- partner pretended 10 be perfect
strangers to each other.
One day they were at their usual
tricks with a greenhorn in canvas
saloon on the main street. McCaull
broke out and quit the game. Direct
ly he came up 10 Bill and said: Say,
Bill, gimme quarter TO buy drink"
Bill looked up at him as il he had never
seen him before. IL don't know you,"
he said. 81 guess you're good at the
bar" McCaull went 10 the bar aud
asked for drink. but the barkeeper,
thinking he was joking. would not let
him have it.
Then McCaVll sulked about the stove
for little. Finally he went TO Bill
again and said:
Gimme 80 cents, Bill; l want to get
u meal" Aud Bill, still carrying out
his role of stranger, said, with pre-
tended heat: go to - for your
meal"
McCaull's face flushed He was not
willy enough TO see what Bill was driv-
ing at. He went straight out of the
saloon down TO his cabin and got six
shooter. When he came back he had
it cooked in his coat pocket with his
hand upon it. He walked right up to
Bill and quick as fash stuck the
muzzle of the gun against Bills head
and pulled the trigger There was
leap of fire from the barrel, resound-
ing report. aud Wild Bill fell over with
bis face among tho poker chips stone
dead.
McCaull was arrested aud tried be-
fore n miners court and acquitted, for
the story he told was plausible one.
But one day when in his cups he
boasted of the deed. detectives investi-
gated his story and found it false, aud
eventually he was hanged.