The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1922-10-13
wild Bill Hckk Greatest Gunman West Bring
Order Sway

le Bad Men of the Sc
could not seduce Wild Bill to Join
their number. He told them to
come and take the horses if they
could; and on the afternoon of De-
cember Is, 1861, ten of them led
by the McCandlas Brothers, rode
up to his dugout to do so. Bill
was alone, his stableman being
away hunting. He retreated to the
dark interior of his dugout and got
ready his weapons, rifle, two Six
shooters and a knife.
THE assailants proceeded to bat
ter in the door with a log, and as
it fell. Jim McCandlas, who must
have been brave man to under
take so foolhardy thing against
"a man already known as killer,
sprang in the opening. He. of
course, was killed at once. This
exhausted the rifle, and Bill picked
up the six-shooters from the table
and in three quick shots killed
three more of the gang as they
rushed in the door. Four men were
dead in less than that many Sec
onds; but there were still six others
left, all inside the dugout now, and
all firing at him at range of three
feet. It was almost miracle that,
under such circumstances, the man
was not killed. Bill now was crowd
ed too much to use firearms, and
took to the bowie, thrusting at one
man and another as best he might.
I'm this chance medley the knife
wounds inflicted by Bill and his
swarming foes did not at first drop
their men; so that it must have
been several minutes that all seven
of them were mixed in a mass of
shooting, thrusting, painting and
gasping humanity. Then Jack Nc
Candlas swung his rifle barrel and
struck Bill over the head, spring.
ing upon him with his knife as well.
Bill got his hand on a six-shooter
and killed him just as he would
have struck. After that no one
knew what happened, not even Bill
himself, who got his name then
and there. I just got sort of wild,
he said, describing it. 4 thought
my heart was on fire. I went out
to the pump to get a drink, and I
was all cut and shot to pieces
Wild Bills Deadly Work
Az Z Sharpshooter
'They called him Wild Bill after
that, and he had earned the name.
There were six dead men on the
floor of the dugout. He had fairly
whipped the ten of them, and the
four remaining had enough and
fled from that awful hole in the
ground. Two of these were bad
ly wounded. Bill followed them
to the door. His own weapons
were exhausted or not at hand by
this time, but his stableman came
up just then with a rifle in his
hands. Bill caught it up from him,
and, cut up as he was, fired and
killed one of the desperadoes as he
tried to mount his horse. The
other wounded man later died.
Eight men were killed by one"
After a year he had recovered
sufficiently from his injuries to
take service as a wagon master un-
der General Fremont, and while
near Sedalia was attacked by a
force of Confederates. In a rum
ming fight he killed four men. He
then Joined the army as an indie
pendent sharpshooter, and in four
hours at the Battle of Pea Ridge he
killed IS men, one of them the Con-
federate General cCullough.
Wild Bill never enlisted in the
army, but after his sharp-shooting
experiences he went with General
Curtis as a spy and took the dan
gerous work Of going into General
Prices lines among the hot-blooded
Arkansans and Missourians among