The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1894-08-16
THE KILLING OF WILD BILL.
How = Noted Weatern DesperadO Was
% Shot Down by His Pal.

= MI. AuloE nus kuOWU HlWOSt I'LL Cu0
pioneers of the west, says the Denver
Republican, 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
infinitely than it 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 notoriety he had been acquiring
in all the border towns. He was a
gambler by profession and desperate
by nature. He was the surest shot
with a 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 shout
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.
Bat Bill was man to 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 patched to-
gether in cabin. McCaull had just
as bad character as Bill. but he had
nevor the opportunities to prove it,
and if 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 bis legs under
the table with them. While this proc
ess OF fleeing was going on Bill and
his partner pretended to be perfect
strangers to each other.
One day they were at their usual
tricks with a greenhorn in a canvas
saloon on the main street. McCaull
broke out and quit the game. Direct
~ he came up TO Bill and said: ".Say.
Bill, gimme a quarter to buy drink. "
Bill looked up at him as if he had never
seen him before. II don't know you,"
he said. II guess you're good at the
bar" McCaull went to the bar and
asked for drink, but the barkeeper,
thinking he was joking, would not let
him have it. T.
Then McCaull sulked about tho stove
for little. Finally he went to Bill
again and said:
Gimme 50 cents, Bill; I want to got
a meal" And 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 q 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 a flash stuck the
muzzle of the gun against Bills head
and pulled the trigger. There was a
leap of fire from the barrel, q resound-
ing report, and Wild Bill fell over with
his face among the poker chips stone
dead.
McCaull was arrested and tried be-
fore a miners court and acquitted, for
the story he told was a plausible one.
But one day when in his cups he
boasted of the deed, detectives investi-
gated his story and found it false, and
Eventually he was hanged,