Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-02
ONE BLACK DEED
For Which the Responsible
Person Was Elevated.
A VETERAN STAMPEDER
And a Member of the Butte Legal Bal
Tells the Story of an
Assassination.

Not having much business on hand, the
officers at the county attorneys head
quarters and those who sometimes make
the place their temporary headquarters
while resting from the effects of a hard
cent mood today. Among the latter was
an old attorney who has for many years
ollowed fleeing fortune wherever it led,
sometimes biting off a liberal chunk of it
en- route, but more often letting it slip
through his grasp. He %recounted the va
rlous western stampedes in which he had
been a participant and the vicissitudes
of life incident thereto. Being an old
timer, he possessed a fund of stories of
early days on the frontier and mining
camps. Among other stampedes in which
he engaged was the one to the Black Hills
of South Dakota in 1906. After speak
ing of the general conditions that existed
in the Hills in the '7Os, he brought up the
subject of the assassination of Wild Bill,
whose true name was William Hickok.
He had a great admiration for Bill.
ut Is just % years ago today" said
he, that Bill was shot and killed by a
%scoundrel known as Jack Mccall. but the
assassin did not live long to gloat over his
deed. Bill had been a scout in the Union
army during the civil war, and as such
had many narrow escapes. He was a
daredevil fellow and would fight at the
drop of the hat if he had anything worth
fighting against him. After the civil war
he came west and engaged in work
against the Indians, being a partner of
Buffalo Bill Cody in many of the exploits
of the latter o n the frontier When the
Black Hills gold excitement broke out
| Wild Rin ininnd Tho CT a ,rno6orc q nd I n nd
ed in Deadwood early in the game. Like
nearly all frontiersmen, Bill liked to play
poker, and after arriving in the Hills fire.
quently played at the game. On August
2, 1876. he, Captain Massey and one or
two others, were seated at a table in
Cool & Mann's saloon playing. when a
| ruffian, Jack Mccall by NAME, slipped up
behind him with a large revolver and shot
him.. The bullet entered the back of his
head, came out in front and broke one of
Captain Massey's arms. Bill fell dead
and the assassin backed out Of the room
with the gun in his hand, daring anyone
to modest him. He then walked up and
down the opening which afterwards be-
came a. street. exhibiting similar mani
festations of his disapprovaI at interfer-
ence, but by and by became tired and
surrendered to a crowd of men. At that
time old Jack Langrishe, well known in
Montana, had a theater in Deadwood.
and the house was speedily transformed
into a court room. Mccall was tried and
acquitted on the claim of Mccall that Bill
had killed his (McCall's) brother. Mccall
lost no time in getting out of the country,
as Bill had friends there who would rave
killed him in short order had an oppor-
tunity offered. From Deadwood he went
to Laramie, and there boosted of his deed,
and said his story about Bill having killed
his brother was a fake; that he never had
a brother. AS the Deadwood court was
only a fake concern itself, Mccall was
arrested at Laramie, taken to Yankton,
the territorial capital, where he was given
a legitimate trial and hanged for his
crime.
1.-The body Of Wild Bill was buried in
the old cemetery on the hillside, but the
town grew into the place of burial and
Bills body. with others, was exhumed
three years to the day after the fatal
shot had been fired and re-interred far
Their up the hill. 1t was petrified. A
wooden h%eadboard bearing the inscrip-
ton William Hickok wild Bill, killed by
the assassin, Jack Mccall marked the
grave, but it was afterwards cut to
pieces by tenderfeet relic hunters. Later
a stone was erected over the
grave. To the name of the dead man on
the wooden headbOard was added the
sentence: Goodbye. pard. We will meet
in the happy hunting grounds, to part
no more and to the whole was added the
name Charles Utter, alias Colorado
| Charley"
NOTICE.