Did the Dalton boys ever visit Lavaca County, Texas. (original) (raw)

The Gonzales Inquirer - June 27, 1895 [Headline: �Supposed Desperado�]

The Hallettsville Herald gives the following account of the killing of a supposed member of the Dalton gang near that city: Tuesday evening a suspicious character carrying a Winchester appeared at the depot. He told several citizens he had met Martin Fisher, a well-known fugitive from Lavaca County, in Nebraska; he told of a brush with an officer at Waco(and a scar bore him out) but he did not wait to see if the officer survived.

When our officers were put on his trail he fled. Officers O.T. East and Frank Miller and Dr. Jesse Burford armed themselves with Winchesters and rode after him. On the railroad trestle near Rabb�s pasture, eight miles east of here, they overtook the desperado, who was ordered to surrender, and told he would not be hurt. To this the man replied: �I�ll be g�d�if I do,� and throwing down his coat he cocked his Winchester and started to raise, when Officer Miller sent a bullet through his body.

When the men reached the wounded man he said he had something to tell them, but he changed his mind and cursed them. He gave his name as Moore, Doore and Gore, and then said he didn�t give a d� what his name was but that he had relatives in San Antonio.

He positively refused to say a word more, although he was told he would die before daylight. He died at 4 o�clock yesterday morning. He was about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds, dark hair, florid complexion, and wore a brown, sandy mustache, goatee and a very small chin beard. Had a 12-inch scar on back and stab in breast. The ball that killed him entered near the right kidney.

Fey & Braunig took a photograph of the corpse. The rifle is in possession of the officers, who say if Miller had not shot when he did one of them would no doubt have been killed. Marshal Criswell came in from Yoakum but failed to identify the man.

A man named Beck was shot by a gang at Hope, Friday, and a Victoria county merchant was robbed of $250 in broad daylight, and it is thought the man killed here was one of the Dalton gang which the Victoria county officers claim they chased to the Lavaca river in this county. His features were one of a desperado.

They are said to be hiding in Devil�s Pocket, 23 miles below here, and some kind of a raid is expected.

When the desperadoes shot Beck on the Chicolete he rushed into a Mr. Hester�s house, where a young girl was down with typhoid fever, and the shock killed her in an hour.� Murray Montgomery
Lone Star Diary

June 4, 2010 columnSee Texas Outlaws