Show recent deaths of two men one in the west and one in the east recall days when gunfighters Gun fighters f wrote their names in blood in the wild west by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union HE old west lived again T THE recently and paradoxically all at it lived again because of the deaths of two men within th the e spa span n of two weeks one of them died in th the e west an and d the other in the east but both had once been closely associated SOC socia bated ted with events in what was once known as the wild west the west of roaring cow towns and rowdy mining camps of quick shooting peace officers and equally hair bair trig ger fingered outlaws of lusty action filled life and boot hill burials bu rials when death claimed the rev endicott peabody at the age of 87 in groton mass newspaper dispatches chronicled the fact that he had been the founder of the groton school and its headmaster for many years during which time he had molded the minds and characters of many an eastern notable including president franklin delano roosevelt but few if any of these dispatches mentioned the fact that this same rev endicott peabody had once lived and labored in one one of the wildest towns in the history of the american frontier tombstone arizona into such an environment in the summer of 1881 came a young episcopal minister recently ordained in boston and what happened thereafter is best told in the words of a man who knew him then and there that man was william M breake ridge who was one of sheriff johnny behaens deputies in tombstone at the time in his book belldo A 0 0 q ta I 1 I 1 e 7 DR ENDICOTT PEABODY rado bringing the law to the mesquite published by the houghton mifflin company in 1928 billy writes of the fearless preacher thus his name was endicott peabody he was about twenty four years of age and full of vim and energy lie he immediately got busy building up a membership for his congregation and getting funds together to build a church he was a good mixer a and nd soon got acquainted not only with the very best element of society in tombstone and there were some educated people there but he undertook d er took to get acquainted with everybody ery body with the mining magnates and managers the federal county and city officials the professional and business managers the miners and muckers duckers muc kers the ore haulers or teamsters and the saloonkeepers saloon keepers and gamblers he soon had a large congregation and had the money donated to build his hi s church when it was completed he had the money to pay for it and the church has never been in debt since I 1 now the money was raised an A n incident which breckenrid Brea kenrid ge relates sheds light on the young preachers money raising ability one day a group of mining men including E B gage general manager ma n of the grand central and contention co n mines was sitting in a back ba ck room of the prospector hotel benj enjoying 0 Y a stiff poker game in which f frequently re as much as a thousand dollars was in the pot gage was an episcopalian writes mr peabody came back where e they were playing and introduced himself and asked them for a donation to help build buila a church he explained that it was something needed badly and the only way it could be b e built was to get everybody he possibly could t to 0 sub subscribe scrib e toward building it gage counted out abo about U t a hundred and fifty dollars from his pile in front of him and everyone else in IR 2 7 ev h 1 MD k 4 4 episcopal church in in tombstone built by dr peabody the room followed his example peabody was dumbfounded for an instant and then told them that it was a much larger contribution than he had expected but it was for a good cause and he knew they would never regret it peabody was a fine athlete and was named the official referee in all baseball games and other outdoor sports that were carried on by the young men of tombstone one his decisions were never questioned as he was known as being absolutely square and he had no favorites he loved a good horse race and frequently attended the gymnasium where he ke kept pt himself in fine physical condition by exercise he never refused an invitation to put on the gloves with anyone and never was bested bad man backs down perhaps that fact had something to do with the back down of one of the bad men who infested arizona in those days when he tried to bluff the fearless preacher tells the story thus in the summer of 1881 the reverend mr peabody was invited down to charleston to deliver a sermon his subject was the evil of the cattle stealing rustlers and the drinking and carousing cowboys billy claybourn the would be bad man who had killed ona one or two in saloon fights in charleston and who was after afterwards wards killed by frank leslie in tombstone heard of the sermon and sent word to mr peabody that if he ever came to charleston again and preached such a sermon he claybourn would come to the church and make him dance peabody told the man who delivered the message that he expected to return to charleston in about two weeks and would preach a sermon that he thought appropriate and if mr claybourn would come to the church and listen to it and then thought ne he could make him dance to try it peabody was known to go into the saloons and gambling houses and go up to the gambling tables when they were in operation with a crowd around them and say gentlemen I 1 am going to preach a sermon on the evil of gambling sunday night and I 1 would like to have you all come to the church and listen to it all who could get away went to hear him he had large audiences always less than two weeks after the death of dr peabody the wires carried the news that albert bacon fall had died at the age of 83 in el paso texas the news of his passing served to recall briefly a great national scandal in the recent past how senator A B fall of new mexico was appointed secretary of t the he interior in president hardings cabinet how he was one of the chief figures in the teapot dome oil case and how he became the first cabinet officer in american history to serve a prison sentence for a crime again few if any of the news newspaper pa accounts gave much space pace to his career as a young lawyer in the southwest nor told of his association with some of the notables 0 of f the frontier yet he was the attorney for the defense who won freedom for the slayers of two famous gunfighters gun fighters both of whom illustrate the truth of the age old saying that he who takes the sword perishes by the sword one of these the e gunfighters gun fighters was john wesley hardin of texas possibly the most notorious killer in the annals of the wild west and popularly credited with 40 notches on 0 n his six gun 39 of them before e he was 21 years old the notch it was deputy sheriff charles webb of brown coun ty put hardin in the penitentiary tor for 15 years he employed them usefully studying law and after his release in 1894 he hung bung out his s shingle hingle in various texas towns ending up in el paso the follows following g year there he became involved in a dis with the young john a city policeman and old john a constable who had a record as a killer himself the result was that on the night of august 19 1895 hardin went down before the blazing six shooters of old john selman shot from behind so his friends said as he stood drinking at the bar of the acme saloon selman when tried for the killing denied that he had shot hardin in the back he insisted that hardin was looking him straight in the eye and apparently about to draw his gun when the constable fired A young attorney named fall who had just come to el paso agreed to assist in defense years later ex senator fall recalling the case told eugene cunningham author t of A gallery of gunfighters Gun fighters 1 I help being impressed by appearance when he assured me that he had been looking hardin in the eye I 1 knew selman well and I 1 felt that he lie to me and he had all the appearance of a man telling what he firmly believed it puzzled me so I 1 went down to look over the scene of the killing I 1 stopped at the acmes aames door and looked inside there was a man standing at the bar and he lifted his head then I 1 had the explanation of statement for as that man stared into the mirror I 1 had the illusion for an instant of looking him straight in the eye apparently falls explanation was colv convincing inching to the jury for selman was freed few of the gunmen of that era lived past the turn of the century 01 says an editorial on the passing ot of albert B fall which appeared in the chicago daily news recently an exception to that statement is pat garrett slayer of billy the kid the 21 year old gunman with the 21 notches that killing made garrett a national figure three times he was elected sheriff of donna ana county in new mexico in 1901 president theodore roosevelt appointed him collector of customs in el paso texas then he retired ed from public life and took up ranching in new mexico he had a dispute over some trifling matter with a comparatively unknown young 0 4 i ll 11 ALBERT ALBEKT B FALL man named wayne brazel and on february 29 1908 1908 a shot from brazel s six shooter ended the career of the great pat garrett brazel was tried for the killing killin ff and acquitted his attorney al was bert bacon fall few of the who knew these men gunmen or who taw saw them alive remain alive today finues the daily news edit orUl to rial con al AL bert fall knew a lot about many of them it was s popularly believed to in the southwest that he chose shed might if he light on mysterious cir ch comstance cum stances stance s surrounding the S udden sudden demise of a n umber number of them but if he could he an f and with wiss wi his of frontier death another Ss colorful segment history grows fainter and recedes si into the fabulous farther past and d s farther |