Western Aficionado

26/06/2021

12/04/2020

Historical Artwork of the Week: Dallas Stoudenmier was the marshal of El Paso, a wild and woolly border town made notorious as "Hell Paso." On April 14, 1881, he entered into the history books when he emerged victorious from the "Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight." He had only been on the job for three days. While not an illustration of Stoudenmier's fracas, "A Fight in the Street" by Frederic Re*****on depicts two antagonists moments before the gunshots ring out and death follows.

On the day of the shootout, crowds of Anglos and Mexicans were milling angrily in town due to the recent murders of two vaqueros named Sanchez and Juarique. The dead men had been searching for stolen cattle when they met their ends. Constable Gus Krempkau was approached outside a saloon by rancher and suspected cattle rustler John Hale and ex-marshal George Campbell. The constable had served as translator during the inquest concluded earlier in the day, and Hale and Campbell were both critical of his work. They also considered Krempkau sympathetic to the Mexicans. After a exchange of heated words, Hale shot the constable.

Stoudenmier had been eating lunch in the nearby Globe Restaurant when he heard the gunshot. Running into the street and seeing the downed Krempkau, the marshal unlimbered his two Smith & Wesson .44s and opened fire. His first bullet missed Hale and struck an innocent bystander named Ochoa. Attempting to flee the scene, Ochoa had been hit in the back; he died the next day.

Hale took shelter behind a thick adobe pillar, and when he peered out from behind his cover Stoudenmier's next bullet caught him in the head. Campbell, his courage faltering, backed down the street, waving his handgun and shouting, "Gentlemen, this is not my fight." Laying in the dust, the dying Krempkau leveled his six-gun and fired repeatedly at the former lawman. One slug broke Campbell's right wrist, then, as he caught up his fallen pistol in his other hand, another of Krempkau's bullets smashed into his foot. Pivoting to face Campbell, Stoudenmier's third bullet tore into his stomach. Campbell clutched his mortal wound and rasped, "You big so**********ch, you murdered me." In a matter of a few seconds, four were dead or spilling their lifeblood into the street.

07/04/2020

Historical Artwork of the Week: Frank “Cockeyed Frank” Loving was a twenty-five-year-old cowboy-turned-professional gambler who hailed from Missouri and Texas. As the cattle industry boomed in Dodge City, Kansas, he came to town to ply his trade in the Long Branch saloon owned by Chalkley McArtor “Chalk” Beeson and William H. Harris. On April 5, 1879, a dispute Loving had with Levi Richardson, a Wisconsin-born freighter and former buffalo hunter, ended in bloodshed. “Gunfight at Long Branch Saloon” by Andy Thomas depicts the two antagonists as they each do their best to kill the other. The quarrel was said to be over a woman, possibly Richardson was making unwanted advances toward Mrs. Mattie Loving. Her husband was described as “of the cool and desperate order, when he has a killing on hand.” This boded ill for Richardson.

On Saturday the fifth, at 8:00 p.m., Richardson, who was known as “a hard working, industrious man, but young and strong and reckless,” came into the saloon to confront Loving. His rival not being present, he waited by the pot-bellied stove for approximately an hour. Richardson was moving to leave when Loving entered and sat down at a gambling table. Richardson followed the new arrival and took a seat on the table. Loving stood up, and the two began exchanging heated words. According to the Dodge City Globe, Richardson snarled, “I don’t believe you will fight.” Loving replied, “Try me and see.” Richardson abruptly pulled his pistol, and the gambler responded by snatching his own weapon. The freighter fired first at point-blank range but missed. Loving squeezed his trigger, and the Re*****on handgun misfired. He took cover behind the stove with Richardson in pursuit. The latter fired two more times as the crowd scrambled for cover. Still unscathed, Loving carefully emptied his pistol into his assailant’s body. The muzzle blast set Richardson’s coat on fire, and he was struck in the chest, side, and right arm, but he continued to shoot.

As Richardson staggered and fell to the floor by the billiard table, Deputy Sheriff William Duffey, who happened to be a bystander, sprang forward and took the pistol from the freighter’s hands. Richardson died minutes later, while Loving, despite the eleven gunshots exchanged in the fracas, suffered only a scratch on his hand. There were no other injuries. City Marshal and Ford County Undersheriff Charles E. Bassett responded to the scene and disarmed Loving. As per normal procedure, the gambler was arrested, and a coroner’s inquest ruled the killing to be a case of self-defense on April 7. Although both men had been in violation of the city’s prohibition on the carrying of fi****ms, Loving was released from custody.

16/01/2020

https://www.thekansan.com/lifestyle/20200116/pilgrimage-to-birthplace-of-john-wayne?fbclid=IwAR09KRDkFe0J0EhK_khB7ufCQvdSbnXSUwQ9Ks0cLN-fUe3wDm1FRUiMStk

“Whoa, take ‘er easy there, Pilgrim,” is a famous John Wayne quote (Tom Doniphon in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,”