OUTLAWS Ep. 3 | “Clay Allison”

Summary

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Legends of the Old West — OUTLAWS Ep. 3: “Clay Allison”

Podcast: Legends of the Old West
Host: Chris Wimmer (Black Barrel Media)
Date: May 6, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the life of infamous Old West outlaw Clay Allison, tracing his journey from his troubled Tennessee childhood, through his violent exploits in the Civil War and Western range wars, to his legendary confrontations and final, unexpected demise. Host Chris Wimmer paints a nuanced portrait of Allison—not just as a fearsome gunfighter, but as a man shaped by injury, vengeance, and, ultimately, attempts at domesticity. The story weaves together historical accounts, personal anecdotes, and legendary encounters, most notably with lawmen like Wyatt Earp.

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Key Discussion Points and Timeline

1. The Dodge City Confrontation with Wyatt Earp

[01:36–05:01, 23:46–28:46]

• The Setup:
  In September 1878, Clay Allison arrives in Dodge City, reportedly to avenge the death of his friend George Hoy, who was killed after a shootout involving Wyatt Earp.
  • “Clay Allison was in his final year as a feared gunman of the west when he reportedly stalked the streets of Dodge City looking for Assistant Marshal Wyatt Earp.” (01:36)
• The Incident:
  Wyatt Earp recounts his wary face-off with Allison, describing a tense, measured encounter that ends without violence.
  • Allison: “So, you’re the man that killed my friend Hoy?”
  • Wyatt Earp: “Yes, I guess I’m the man you’re looking for.” (03:17)
  • Both men size each other up, hands near their guns, but Allison ultimately backs down:
    • Clay Allison: “I guess I’ll go around the corner.”
    • Wyatt: “I guess you’d better.” (04:27)
  • Tension remains as Bat Masterson prepares with a shotgun, and a dozen armed Texans lurk nearby, but the confrontation dissolves.
    • Wyatt Earp: “If this fight comes up, Wright, you’re the first man I’m gonna kill.” (28:01)

2. Early Life & Civil War Service

[05:29–08:15]

• Upbringing in Tennessee:
  Born near the junction of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi; father was a Presbyterian minister and farmer; grew up with eight siblings.
• Traumatic Injury:
  As a teen, Allison suffered a fractured and dented skull from a horse accident, which led to lasting behavioral changes—seizures, violent tendencies, withdrawal.
  • “He started having seizures and he became withdrawn, introverted and most concerningly, spontaneously violent.” (05:52)
• Civil War:
  • Joined the Confederate Army in 1861, but was medically discharged due to his volatile nature.
  • Re-enlisted as a cavalryman under Nathan Bedford Forrest, serving as scout and spy; surrendered in 1865, narrowly escaping execution in a dramatic jail break.
  • “He squeezed his hands out of his shackles, killed the guard and slipped away into the night.” (08:00)

3. The Cattle Frontier & Colfax County

[08:15–15:38]

• Cattle Drives:
  Possible involvement in the first major Texas cattle drive with Oliver Loving & Charles Goodnight.
  • “Clay Allison was one of the original 18 cowboys…” (08:32)
• Settlement in New Mexico:
  Hired as a foreman, he earned his own stake outside Cimarron, Colfax County—unknowingly settling in the heart of a brewing range war.

4. The Colfax County War & Vigilante Justice

[15:38–21:46]

• Maxwell Land Grant Dispute:
  Settlers, including Allison, find themselves at odds with new, wealthy landowners after decades of unclear land claims.
• Escalation of Violence:
  • The murder of pro-settler Reverend Tolby triggers further bloodshed; Allison participates in lynchings and gunfights.
  • “…they wrapped a noose around his neck and hoisted him up and lowered him down so that he repeatedly but briefly strangled…” (17:32)
  • Allison kills Francisco Griego in self-defense during a saloon confrontation.
    • “Allison was formally charged with murder, but…the shooting was ruled self-defense.” (18:47)
• Political Conspiracy:
  Governor Samuel Axtell’s plot to assassinate Colfax rebels, including Allison, is discovered and foiled.
  • “Kill all the men who resist. You do not hesitate at extreme measures.” (20:39)
• Aftermath:
  Allison is arrested and quickly released; his involvement in Colfax County wanes as tensions shift to neighboring Lincoln County.

5. Showdown in Los Animas, Colorado

[21:50–23:48]

• Saloon Gunfight:
  In 1876, after refusing to disarm, Clay and his brother confront Marshal Charles Faber in a dance hall. Faber fires first; Clay kills him and is acquitted after a grand jury finds the marshal’s aggression responsible.

6. Legend, Reputation, and the Power of Stories

[23:46–28:46]

• The Making of Allison:
  By the late 1870s, Clay Allison’s exploits—real and fictionalized by newspapers—fuel his growing legend as a deadly shootist.

7. Later Years and Domestic Life

[28:48–31:49]

• Rancher and Family Man:
  Allison returns to Texas, registers the Ace brand, marries Dora McCullough, and has a daughter.
  • “…his reckless, hard-drinking ways slowly softened with age and marriage.” (29:48)
  • He settles down, handles business, and serves on juries.
• Tragic Death:
  In 1887, Allison dies in a freak wagon accident.
  • “Clay Allison had survived 46 years of dangerous adventures…But it was a freak accident that took his life.” (31:49)
  • He’s buried in Pecos; his second daughter is born posthumously.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Wyatt Earp describes Allison:
  “…for a whole day behaved like a veritable Chesterfield. But the next morning…[he] was loaded up with a pair of six shooters and a mouthful of threats.” (03:01)
• Clay Allison’s code, according to Earp:
  “His right hand was stealing round to his pistol pocket, but I made no move…ready to grab Allison’s gun the moment he jerked it out.” (03:14)
• Vigilante justice in Colfax:
  “…wrapped a noose around his neck and hoisted him up and lowered him down…” (17:32)
• Legend vs. Reality:
  “Unfortunately for future generations of writers and movie producers, legendary lawman Wyatt Earp’s showdown with legendary outlaw Clay Allison…did not result in a gun battle…” (28:33)
• On Allison’s death:
  “He survived 46 years of dangerous adventures, including the Civil War and the Colfax County War. But it was a freak accident that took his life.” (31:49)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------|-------------| | Dodge City Confrontation | 01:36–05:01, 23:46–28:46 | | Early Life and Civil War | 05:29–08:15 | | Cattle Driving & Colfax County Settlement | 08:15–15:38 | | The Colfax County War | 15:38–21:46 | | Los Animas, CO Shootout | 21:50–23:48 | | The Power of the Legend | 23:46–28:46 | | Ranching, Marriage, and Death | 28:48–31:49 |

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Tone and Storytelling Style

• Descriptive and Immersive: Wimmer’s narration is vivid, using sensory and period details to immerse listeners in the violence, chaos, and ambition of the era.
• Nuanced, Never One-dimensional: Allison isn’t painted as hero or villain; his story is filled with ambiguity, myth, and contradiction—reflecting the complexities of the Old West itself.

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Summary for the Uninitiated

This episode offers a fascinating look at both the notorious deeds—and quieter moments—of Clay Allison, an archetypal yet singular figure in Old West lore. While his documented violence is unsettling, the portrait here goes beyond gunplay and headline-grabbing exploits. It is about how injury, trauma, frontier politics, and the machinations of powerful men shaped not just one “shootist,” but the mythos of the American West. And in the end, even legends can meet an entirely ordinary fate.

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Transcript

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[Chris Wimmer (Host, Narrator)]

In September of 1878, Clay Allison was in his final year as a feared gunman of the west when he reportedly stalked the streets of Dodge City looking

for Assistant Marshal Wyatt Earp.

Back in July, a group of drunken

Texas cowboys had galloped down Front street,

the main street of Dodge, and fired

shots into the Kamique Theater. Inside, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and Bat's younger brother Jim were watching a vaudeville show. They and everyone else hit the floor

when the bullets blasted through the building. The lawmen ran outside. Wyatt Earp and Jim Masterson fired up the street at the cowboys. One of the cowboys, George Hoy, fell from his horse with a bullet wound to his arm. No one could be sure which lawman fired the shot, but the legend quickly arose that it was fired by Wyatt Earp. When George Hoy died a few days later, the legend took its final form that during the rowdiest years of Dodge City's existence, Wyatt Earp killed only one man, George Hoy. Clay Allison apparently knew George Hoy, and

Allison showed up in Dodge two months later looking to settle the score.

Wyatt Earp provided the first known account of their meeting when he narrated his version of events to the San Francisco Examiner.

And so Clay Allison came to town, Wyatt said, and for a whole day behaved like a veritable Chesterfield.

But the next morning one of my

policemen woke me up to tell me

that the bad man from Colorado was

loaded up with a pair of six shooters and a mouthful of threats. Straight away, I put my guns on

and went down the street with Bat Masterson. Now, Bat had a shotgun in the district attorney's office. He thought the weapon might come in handy in case of trouble, so he skipped across the street to get it while I went into Webster's Saloon looking for Alison. I saw at a glance that my man wasn't there and had just reached the sidewalk to turn into the long branch next door when I met him face to face. We greeted each other with caution, and there we stood, measuring each other with sideways glances. An onlooker across the street might have thought we were old friends. So, allison said truculently, you're the man that killed my friend Hoyt. Yes, I guess I'm the man you're looking for, said I. His right hand was stealing round to his pistol pocket, but I made no move, only watched him narrowly with my own right hand. I had a firm grip on my six shooter, and with my left I was ready to grab Allison's gun the moment he jerked it out.

He studied the situation in all of its bearings. For the space of a second or two, I saw the change in his face.

I guess I'll go around the corner, he said abruptly. I guess you'd better, I replied, and he went. But that was only the first half of the story. As Wyatt continued to explain, Clay Allison was leading a group of Texas cowboys who were primed for a fight.

Would it be all out war on

the streets of Dodge?

Or would it be all smoke and no fire?

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends

of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the stories of six outlaws their horse thieves, bank robbers, train robbers, and gunfighters. This is Episode three Clay Allison the Shootist.

Robert Clay Allison seemed to have a relatively normal upbringing in Wayne County, Tennessee,

until he suffered an accident with a horse when he was a teenager. He grew up on a farm like

most people in Wayne county, down near

the junction of Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. He was closer to Corinth, Mississippi, and

Muscle Shoals, Alabama, than he was to Nashville or Memphis.

His father was a Presbyterian minister and a farmer who raised crops, sheep, and cattle. His mother raised eight of nine Kids to adulthood. Clay Allison was near the middle of the pack of kids, and his fairly typical farm life changed when he either fell off a horse or was kicked by one. Externally, he suffered a fractured and dented skull. Internally, he suffered a severe brain injury, which altered his personality. He started having seizures and he became withdrawn, introverted and most concerningly, spontaneously violent. Frontier doctors had no treatment for such a calamity in the 1850s.

And then came the Civil War. Tennessee joined the Confederacy, and Clay Allison

joined the Confederate army in October 1861, one month after his 20th birthday. He initially served in an artillery unit alongside a couple of his brothers and his neighbors. But his volatile personality and his violent tendencies did not mix well with army life. Three months after he enlisted, he was declared unfit for service and medically discharged. That was in January 1862. But in September 1862, he re enlisted, this time as a cavalryman in a Tennessee regiment which served under feared cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest. With Forrest's ruthless, hard riding, hard fighting

horsemen, Clay Allison found a home. Allison was 6ft tall, with a pointed beard and a readiness to fight. He fit right in. He served as a scout and a spy for Forrest's cavalry for three years. He fought in 13 battles before May

4, 1865, when he surrendered with Forrest's

cavalry at Gainesville, Alabama.

According to later accounts, he was held as a prisoner of war, convicted as a spy and sentenced to death. The night before his execution, he squeezed his hands out of his shackles, killed

the guard and slipped away into the night.

Whatever the truth was, by May 10, 1865, he was free. Clay Allison and a few of his siblings lit out for Texas. Shortly thereafter, the group settled along the

mighty Brazos river, probably in Palo Pinto

county west of Fort Worth.

Clay found work on cattle ranches, and

he earned a reputation as a skilled

rider and cowhand when he was sober. It can't be confirmed with certainty, but there has always been a belief that

Clay Allison was one of the original 18 Cowboys who signed on with Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight in the spring of 1866 for one of the first major Texas cattle drives in the West. In the spring and early summer of 1866, the two soon to be famous

cattlemen and their 18 cowboys drove a

herd of cattle from Fort Belknap in Young County, Texas, to Fort Sumner in New Mexico territory. The Goodnight Loving cattle operation was straight north of the area where the Allison clan had settled, and the trail that Goodnight and Loving blazed went straight down through Palo Pinto county before it eventually

turned west at Fort Concho.

So it's entirely possible that Clay Allison was one of the cowboys on the drive. If he didn't participate in the Goodnight Loving cattle drives, he probably used their trail sometime in the next few years, when he moved from Texas to northern New Mexico, two drovers, Irwin Lacy and Lewis Coleman, hired Clay Allison to be the foreman of a drive to move 3,000 cattle to the area which would become Colfax County, New Mexico. They paid Allison with 300 head, which he used to set up his own ranch in Colfax county outside the town of Cimarron. Without knowing it, they had all built their ranches at ground zero of the first big range war in New Mexico.

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[Chris Wimmer (Host, Narrator)]

The best that can be said is that Clay Allison moved to Colfax County,

New Mexico sometime in the late 1860s or early 1870s. The year of the cattle drive which led him to the county is sometimes recorded as 1868 and sometimes as 1872.

It's not overly important, but one of

the stories about Clay Allison that seems

to have some merit happened in 1871, which means he was probably established in the county before that time.

In April of 1871, Clay Allison and a couple buddies stampeded a bunch of army mules at Fort Union, south of Colfax County. Allison and his buddies had probably been drinking heavily and they intended the escapade as a prank.

Apparently it worked so well and they

enjoyed it so much that they did it again a few months later. But that time Clay Allison ended up shooting himself in the foot. The wound was bad, but a doctor managed to save the foot. One of the surviving photos of Clay Allison shows him sitting in a chair with two crutches and a heavily bandaged left foot. After the accident, he he walked with

a limp for the rest of his

life and was forced to use the crutches when needed. And it was within the next year or so that things started to heat up around him in Colfax County.

The heart of the problem was the massive tract of land known as the Maxwell land Grant. By 1875, when Clay Allison became involved in the troubles, the land Grant already had 30 years of complicated history behind it, and it was leading to two range wars which would dominate the next 30 years of New Mexico's history. In the early 1840s, right before the

outbreak of the Mexican American War, the Mexican provincial governor who controlled the land that would become New Mexico territory, issued the largest land grant of his time in office. He gave nearly 2 million acres to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda. Then the claim was mired in the war from 1846 to 1848. Over the next 16 years, a man named Lucien Maxwell used a series of complicated and controversial maneuvers to acquire or

buy all of the land in the original land grant.

By 1864, Maxwell owned most of the territory of New Mexico and a good

portion of southern Colorado. The area was so enormous that few people who hurried west after the Civil War had any idea that he owned the land on which they built farms and ranches and towns and started mining

for silver, gold and copper. In 1870, Maxwell sold all of his land to a group of investors. That group sold the land to a second group. When the second group of investors started kicking people off the land, there was instant trouble.

Miners and ranchers who thought they owned their land and had been working it for years were told to leave. Suddenly, the land belonged to someone else, and not just anyone, but rich investors. Naturally, settlers were irate, and right in the heart of the Maxwell land grant was Colfax county, where Clay Allison was ranching. On May 30, 1873, settlers in Colfax county held a meeting and decided to arm themselves and defend their properties. Sporadic violence dotted the landscape for the next 18 months. But the first real turning point happened in September 1875. On September 14, a Methodist preacher, Reverend Franklin Tolby, was found shot in the

back in Cimarron Canyon.

Reverend Tolby had been a vocal supporter

of the settlers and a critic of

the land company interests and their powerful allies. Those allies were the loose network of judges, lawyers, politicians and merchants who would be known as the Santa Fe Ring. One way or another, they controlled just

about everything in New Mexico territory, and various members had no problem using violence to gain or maintain control. The murder of Reverend Tolby triggered the series of events which drew Clay Allison into what would later be called the Colfax County War. Reverend Oscar McMains, a friend of the murdered Reverend Tolby, was convinced that a man named Cruz Vega was involved in Tolby's murder. On the night of October 30, 1875, McMains and a masked mob, which reportedly included Clay Allison, captured Cruz Vega. The mob hauled Vega to a telegraph pole and began a brutal interrogation. They wrapped a noose around his neck

and hoisted him up and lowered him down so that he repeatedly but briefly strangled.

Vega eventually accused Manuel Cardenas of killing Reverend Tolby, and Vega named others, including men tied to the Santa Fe ring, who were involved in the murder.

When the mob was Satisfied with the information, they finished hanging Cruz Vega until he was dead. Two days later, on November 1st, Francisco Griego, Cruz Vega's uncle and a known gunman, walked into Henry Lambert's saloon at the Hotel St. James in the town of Cimarron looking for the man he blamed for his nephew's death.

Francisco Griego blamed Clay Allison for the death of Cruz Vega. Clay was in the saloon that night and according to the Daily New Mexican newspaper, the two men ordered a drink, walked to a corner of the saloon and talked for a bit. At some point during the conversation, Griego fanned his sombrero with one hand as

a distraction while he reached for his

revolver with the other. Clay Allison didn't fall for the distraction. He drew first, fired three shots and killed Francisco Griego in Henry Lambert's saloon.

Allison was formally charged with murder, but

after an inquiry, the shooting was ruled

self defense and the charges were dropped.

On November 10, 1875, ten days after Clay Allison killed Francisco Griego, lawmen arrested Manuel Cardenas for the murder of Reverend Tolby. Reverend Oscar McMains and his mob of masked men broke into the jail, pulled Cardenas out and beat him until he confessed to the murder of the Reverend. Like Cruz Vega, Manuel Cardenas named members of the Santa Fe Ring as the men who paid him to do the killing. The mob allowed lawman to take Cardenas

back to jail, but later that night

some men returned to the jail, hauled

Cardenas out a second time and shot him. That made two vigilante killings and a self defense killing in less than two weeks.

And Clay Allison's name was associated with all of them.

He increasingly became the most prominent man

of action among the Colfax county settlers,

which made him a top enemy of the Santa Fe Ring.

Throughout some portion of December 1875 and January 1876. It seems as though members of the ring, led by New Mexico Governor Samuel Axtell, plotted to kill Clay Allison and

others in Colfax County.

The plot was revealed two years later

when a private letter from Axtell to a district attorney named Ben Stevens found its way into the hands of a lawyer who supported the Colfax county settlers. Stevens told people in Colfax county that the governor would come to town to meet with the settlers privately. The governor was never going to show up.

The goal was to herd all of

the leaders of the Colfax Rebellion into one place and arrest them. But that wasn't really the goal either. The real goal was to get them into one place and kill them.

Two different parts of the conspiracy letter from Governor Axtell to Ben Stevens said, kill all the men who resist. You do not hesitate at extreme measures. Everyone knew Clay Allison would resist arrest, and Ben Stevens testified later that Clay Allison was one of the specific people whom the Governor wanted killed. But the conspiracy didn't work. The Colfax county men sniffed out the

trap and didn't show up for the governor's meeting.

When the conspiracy failed, a posse, including

a sheriff and 47 cavalrymen rode out

to Clay's ranch and arrested him without incident. He was released from jail a few

hours later and the governor's plot to

eliminate his enemies fizzled out. The the rest of 1876 passed with little fanfare as the tension between the Santa Fe ring and small ranchers and merchants started to shift south to Lincoln

county, where it would explode into a

much hotter and more famous war in 1878.

By that time, Clay Allison was long

gone from New Mexico territory.

By December 1876, Clay Allison's part in

the Colfax county war was pretty much done.

That month, Clay and his brother John traveled north to Los Animas, Colorado to sell cattle.

After 150 miles on the trail, the

brothers were thirsty and they didn't much care about the law in town that

said they had to check their guns

with the Marshal's office.

On December 21, fully armed, the brothers

took themselves on a saloon crawl in Los Animas.

They were loud and their reputations for violence preceded them.

John's reputation was nothing like Clay's, but it was still unwise to test him. At the Olympic dance hall, Marshal Charles Faber demanded their guns. The Allison brothers refused on account of the other men in the hall having guns. They poked fun at the marshal and turned the incident into a spectacle. Marshall Faber left the saloon humiliated and angry. He quickly deputized two men, grabbed a double barrel shotgun and marched back to the saloon. When the lawmen stepped through the door, they opened fire. John took bullets to the side and the arm and fell to the floor. Clay, standing at the bar, spun around and fired four quick shots. Two bullets hit Faber in the chest and killed him. The two hastily sworn in deputies fled the saloon. Clay chased him for a moment, then returned to his brother who lay bleeding on the floor. According to later accounts, Clay was hysterical and he dragged Faber's body over to John and told his brother, this is the son of a bitch that shot you. Everything's going to be all right. John survived the ambush and both Allison brothers were arrested and charged with manslaughter in Faber's death. John's charges were dropped. Clay's case moved forward, then crumbled when witness testimony made it clear that Faber fired the first reckless shot into the crowded hall.

The grand jury declined to indict and

Clay Allison walked free. Three months later, in March 1877, Clay sold his Colfax county ranch to his brother John and moved out of New Mexico. He drifted east to Missouri and then Kansas where he heard that a cowboy named George Hoy, whom he seemed to have known during his time in Texas, had been killed in Dodge City by an assistant marshal named Wyatt Earp. Hoy had been one of a couple cowboys who had been hurrahing. At three o' clock in the morning on July 26, 1878, they galloped their horses up Front street and shouted and fired their pistols for the fun of it. That night the cowboys fired a few shots into the Comique Theater while Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson and Jim Masterson were watching a vaudeville performance. When the shooting stopped, the lawmen ran outside and Wyatt and Jim fired up the street at the cowboys who were riding away from the scene. One of their bullets hit George Hoy in the army and George died a few days later. Two months after the shooting, Clay Allison showed up in Dodge, apparently looking for revenge. By that time he was famous. There was credible evidence to say that he participated in the killing of four men and the real total was likely much higher. Newspapers all over the west printed and reprinted stories which were almost entirely hearsay. But the stories were entertaining and they sold copies, which was why the newspapers kept printing them. Many of those stories, which were exaggerated at best and wholesale fiction at worst, made Clay Allison famous. In September, Dodge City and Ford county newspapers reported that Clay Allison was in Dodge and he was gunning for the man who killed his friend George Hoy. Allison was also mad in general about the heavy handed tactics of local lawmen. Allison was backed by a group of cowboys sometimes noted as high as 25 in number. He went looking for Wyatt Earp and in Wyatt's version of events, Wyatt went looking for Allison. Twenty years later, Wyatt told his story to the San Francisco examiner newspaper. He said he had been awakened by one of his policemen who said, quote, the bad man from Colorado was loaded up with a pair of six shooters and a mouthful of threats. The bad man from Colorado was Clay Allison and the description was a reference

to the killing of Marshall Charles Faber two years earlier.

In Wyatt's telling, he and Clay found each other on the boardwalk in front of the Long Branch Saloon.

They talked for a few tense moments and then Clay stepped away from the confrontation.

At the same time, Bat Masterson had

retrieved a shotgun from the District Attorney's office and he was moving into position to support Wyatt. That was how things stood when Wyatt continued his story.

In the meantime, Wyatt said, 10 or

a dozen of the worst Texans in

town were laying low in Bob Wright's

store with their Winchesters, ready to cover

Allison's retreat out of town or help

him in the killing if necessary. From where he had stationed himself, Bat Masterson could see them, but I did not know they were there. After the encounter with Allison, I moved

up the street and would have passed Bob Wright's door had not Bat, from across the street signaled me to keep out of range. A moment later, Allison, who had mounted his horse, rode out in front of Webster's Saloon and called to me.

Come over here, Wyatt, he said. I want to talk to you. I can hear you all right here, I replied. I think you came here to fight with me and if you did, you

can have it right now. Several friends of mine wanted me to

take a shotgun, but I thought I could kill him alright with a six shooter.

At that moment, Bob Wright came running

down the street to urge Allison to

go out of town. He had experienced a sudden change of

heart because Bat had crossed over to him with these portentous words. If this fight comes up right, you're

the first man I'm gonna kill. Allison listened to the legislators entreaties with a scowl. Well, I don't like you any too well, he said. Earp, he continued turning to me and raising his voice, I believe you're a pretty good man from what I've seen of you. Do you know that these coyotes sent for me to make a fight with you and kill you? Well, I'm gonna ride out of town and I wish you good luck. Unfortunately for future generations of writers and

movie producers, legendary lawman Wyatt Earp's showdown

with legendary outlaw Clay Allison on the

streets of Dodge City in 1878 did

not result in a gun battle that

would have made the shootout in Tombstone

look like a mild skirmish.

Clay Allison left town and finally settled down. He went back to Texas, reunited with his brothers, and returned to ranching. By 1880, Clay and his brothers were ranching in the panhandle along Gageby Creek in Hemphill County. The closest settlement was Mobidy, south of

them in Wheeler County. Four years earlier, Mobidi had been called Sweetwater, and that was where Bat Masterson had been badly wounded in an event

which became known as the Sweetwater Shootout. While Batt had recovered at his family's home in Kansas, he received an offer from his old friend Wyatt Earp to join the new collection of lawmen that Wyatt was assembling to tame the rowdy

town of Dodge City. And thus the wheels within wheels of the Old west rolled on again. In Mobidy in 1880, Clay Allison registered the Ace cattle brand and began building a serious ranch the following year. On February 15, 1881 to be exact, Robert Clay Allison married America Medora McCullough, a young woman from Mobidi who saw something worth loving beneath the scars, the limp and the notorious reputation. CLAY Allison was 40 years old and his reckless, hard drinking ways slowly softened with age and marriage. Allison devoted himself to ranching. He served on juries, handled business and carried himself like an established cattleman rather than a gunfighter.

In 1883, he sold the Gageby Creek ranch and moved with Dora to a rock house in southwest Texas near the Texas New Mexico border.

Their daughter, Patty Dora was born in 1885 and sadly, she didn't have much

time to spend with her father. In July of 1887, Clay's wife Dora was two months pregnant with their second child. On July 3, Clay Allison was in

the town of Pecos to buy supplies.

He loaded his wagon with goods and

set off on the 40 mile journey home. When he reached the Pecos River, a freak accident happened. There were no witnesses, so the exact

circumstances will forever remain a mystery.

But later in the afternoon, a cowboy

was riding the same trail when he discovered a wagon and a mule team standing idle nearby.

He searched the area and he found Clay Allison dead on the ground with a broken neck.

The most plausible conclusion that anyone could reach was that a wagon wheel must

have struck a rock or a big clump of grass. At the exact moment that Clay was

reaching into the wagon bed to do

something with the supplies. The wagon jumped and tossed Clay off of the driver's bench. The mules panicked and lurched forward as

Clay fell to the ground and one of the wagon wheels rolled over his neck. The heavily loaded wagon broke his neck instantly. Clay Allison had survived 46 years of

dangerous adventures, including the Civil War and

the Colfax County War. But it was a freak accident that took his life. He was buried in the Pecos cemetery the following day.

Seven months later, on February 10, 1888, Dora gave birth to her second child with Clay Allison.

She named her second daughter, Pearl Clay in honor of the famous father whom

the girl never knew. Next time on Legends of the Old West. It's the story of the Reno Gang,

the outlaws who are credited with the first classic train robbery of the Old west era. Trains had been burglarized before as they sat in depots, but the Reno Gang is believed to be the first outlaw group who stopped a moving train in the countryside to rob it. That story is next week on Legends of the Old West. To binge all the episodes of a new season and to listen to every episode of the podcast with no commercials. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts or sign up through the link in the Show Notes or on our website blackberrymedia.com this series was researched by Mandy Wimmer and written by me, Chris Wimmer. Original music by Rob Valliere.

Thanks for listening.

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