What was bat masterson known for

Masterson had been entertaining Brennan after hours and alone in the club when King came looking for Brennan. The shot knocked the young faro dealer to the ground. Wounded and bleeding badly, Masterson drew his pistol and returned fire, hitting King in the heart. Both King and Brennan died; Masterson recovered from his wounds, though he did use a cane sporadically for the rest of his life. Masterson, Earp told him, would make a good sheriff of Ford County someday, and ought to run for election.

Right away, Masterson was tasked with cleaning up Dodge, which by had become a hotbed of lawless activity. Murders, train robberies and Cheyenne Indians who had escaped from their reservation were just a few of the problems Masterson and his marshals confronted early in his term.

But on the evening of April 9, , Bat Masterson drew his pistol to avenge the life of his brother. This killing was kept apart from the Masterson lore. Then he left the saloon. A few moments later, Walker and Wagner staggered out of the Lady Gay. Wagner had his gun, and Ed tried to take it from him. A scuffle ensued, as onlookers spilled out onto the street. A shot rang out and the marshal stumbled backward, his coat catching fire from the muzzle blast.

From 60 feet away, Masterson emptied his gun, hitting Wagner in the abdomen and Walker in the chest and arm. Bat then tended to his brother, who died in his arms about a half hour after the fight. Wagner died not long afterward, and Walker, alive but uncharged, was allowed to return to Texas, where Wyatt Earp reported that he later died from pneumonia relating to his wounded lung.

Newspapers at the time attributed the killing of Jack Wagner to Ed Masterson; they said he had returned fire during the melee. Clavin tells the story of an out-of-towner who insisted on buying Masterson's handgun, the one with 28 notches, used supposedly to kill 28 men. Masterson kept turning the man down, but the would-be buyer wouldn't take no for an answer. Masterson wrote hundreds of columns in his final years, manned the corner for many professional fights, frequented city bars and had just finished up a piece for the paper on an October night in when he had a heart attack and died at his desk.

He was The musical is based on short stories and columns by another renowned New York newspaperman Damon Runyan. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close.

Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Historical Figures. Bat Masterson was a Wild West jack of all trades. Library of Congress. Bat Masterson was born in Canada and later moved to Kansas where he learned to become a skilled buffalo hunter. Like most "bad" men "Bat Masterson" is good. This does not mean that there are wings sprouting from his shoulders nor that he can qualify as a gospel shark.

But he has many sterling virtues, among which honesty and courage are prominent. He has killed many men, never unfairly and either in self defense or when it was necessary to get in the first shot to keep from losing his own life It is safe to say that where Bat Masterson is known he does not have to fire. Cite This! Try Our Crossword Puzzle! What Is the Missing Number? Try Our Sudoku Puzzles!

More Awesome Stuff. Police arrived, separated the combatants, and sent them on their way. No one was arrested. A reporter later cornered Bat and asked to see the gun that had panicked the hotel patrons.

Bat smiled and pulled a package of cigarettes from his pocket. Settlement for an undisclosed amount was reached out of court. When that case went to trial in May , Benjamin N. Cardoza, later a justice of the U. Supreme Court, represented the newspaper. He grilled Masterson at length regarding his gunfighter reputation. Bat heatedly denied shooting anyone, drunk or sober, in the back. He admitted shooting Indians in battle, but could not say if any were drunk.

He said he never shot a Mexican in the front or in the back. Masterson never reconciled his differences with either Bob Edgren or his old Denver enemy, Otto Floto. When Jack Dempsey came on the ring scene, Edgren was an early votary of the sensational Colorado heavyweight and Bat learned that Floto had once managed Dempsey and reportedly still owned a piece of him. Bat even disparaged a racehorse who had the misfortune, in his view, of being named Otto Floto.

Masterson also waged a vendetta against New York boxing commission chairmen he felt were detrimental to the sport and finally succeeded in getting two of them ousted. A new commissioner named Walter Hooke was appointed in Bat deemed him unqualified and said so in his column. A few nights later as Bat sat at his usual ringside seat at Madison Square Garden, an angry Hooke upbraided him in stentorian, foul-mouthed terms.

The reaction of a younger Bat Masterson would have been swift and violent, but at 67, Bat was too old, too tired and too wise. Bat and William S. More than any other man I have ever met I admire and respect him. Eighteen days later, seated in that chair at that desk, Bat Masterson would breathe his last. On Tuesday morning, October 25, he wrote his final column. When it was finished, he was seized by a sudden heart attack, collapsed over his desk and passed on without a sound.

This article was written by R. DeArment and originally appeared in the June issue of Wild West.