Daily camera., 1898-02-19
A GUN WITH A HISTORY.
It Belonged to a Desperate Who
Held Up Trains.
Sixteen Notches in the Grip Show the
Outlaws Deadly WOrk-The
Property of a Wichita
Citizen.

Some time ago an Oklahoma man who
has had wide frontier experience and
is well acquainted with the records OF
western bad man promised Hal S. Ray,
OF Wichita, Kan, gun with history.
the gun has 16 notches carved on the
handle and every western man kno"
that each of these notches represents
The victim of shot from the gun. With
it his friend sent Mr.. Ray AN interesting
outline of its history and of the des-
perado who once carried it. The let
ter reads in part:
''The gun | send you is As, which, by
some, is considered the best cailbcr,
owing to the accuracy with which they
shoot. This particular gun was car
ried by George Newcomb, alias Bitter
Creek alias Slaughter Kid lie was
given this last alias on account of the
many men he shot while yet Il kid.
Il used to work with this fellow on
the range along in 10 OR 80. He was
in those days what was called 'horse
rustler' for the COW outfit. After he
drifted into Oklahoma he made the run
during the opening, settled on claim
in portion of Oklahoma known as the
notorious cowboy flats. l say notoriou!
for the reason that of the seven Gov
punchers who settled in the flats al, o
them turned out to be train robber:
and all were eventually killed.
"Ihe first affair of note in which this
gun figured in the hands of Bitter
Creek was at Cimarron, on the line OF
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rail
road, where he, with Bill Dalton, 'ful-
sa Jack Dynamite Dick Bob and En-
met Dalton, held up passenger. They
shot the conductor and some two OF
three of the passengers, but procured
but little money.
"The next affair was the Coffeyville
bank robbery, where he was working
under the direction of Bob Dalton. All
the robbers in this case were killed
with the exception of Bitter Creek
he being the only man out of seven who
escaped after having killed the city
marshal, barber and one other.
"After being set adrift by having his
companions killed he disappeared for
awhile, afterward joining gang led by
Bill Dalton. This gang robbed the
Santa Fe train at Wharton, the Mis-
souri, Kansas G. Texas at Prior Creek
and the bank at Southwest City, Mo-;
the bank at Mound Valley, Kan, and
the Longview bank in Texas, etc. After
one or two other robberies they re-
turned to Oklahoma, finally drifting to
ingalls,, in the eastern portion of that
territory, at which place they had a
fight with six United States deputy
marshals. In this fight there were nine
people killed and wounded, including
the deputy marshals, who were all
killed. Bitter Creek was very badly
wounded, but managed to get away.
This fight took place on the 1st day Of
1898.
I'm April of the following year the
Dalton gang being practically broken
up Bitter Creek joined new outfit,
which was headed by Bill Doolin, and
OF the evening of April 4, 1894, they
robbed the Rock Island train at Dover,
O. T., and had fight the following even
ing, in which Tulsa Jack was killed.
Bitter Creek again escaping, with his
clothing shot full of holes.
'On May 5, 1894, Bitter Creek hav-
ing separated from the rest of the gang,
ran on to some of the deputies on the
eastern line of the territory and in the
fight which took place was killed. The
railroad and express companies and the
government paid an aggregate reward
Of S. ,000 on this noted outlaw.
You will note that there are several
rough places or notches on the handle
of this gun which l send you. 1t is
presumed that Bitter Creek intended
to enumerate the people he had killed
by making notch for everyone, as it
is known that he had personally killed
quite number of men during the fights
In which he was engaged" Chicago
Chronicle.