This review gives away the plot, so be warned.

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This is a true story, a slice from the history of the wild west when no one did anything by the rulebooks including the lawmen.

The plot is about a saloon robbery in the Arizona Territory in April 1905. The story begins with two well-dressed men walk into a saloon in the railroad town of Winslow on Third Street. One of them is John Shaw the other William Smith. They walk to a dice table where three men are playing and silver dollars are stacked in front of them. The two strangers pull out a gun and get away with the silver dollars.

Since the town is on the railroad, it is assumed that they rode a freight train to another town in the area. The sheriff and all the lawmen around the surrounding towns look for the thieves. Soon they are spotted and cornered and a gunfight ensues. In the gunfight, Shaw dies. Afterward, when people talk among themselves, they think Shaw wasn’t such a bad fellow because he paid for his drinks, and therefore, he deserves a last drink and a decent Christian burial.

Quite a few men all grabbing Jugs of whiskey head to where Shaw was hastily put underground. They dig him up and force a drink through the corpse’s mouth. Then they give him a somewhat decent-enough burial with men saying a few words and prayers at his grave.

As weird and garish an event like this sounds, if this story was told in a few words somewhere, no one would believe it, but what makes it believable are the photographs of the incident, and this book has them for Chet Houck, the sheriff of Navaho County, requested that this incident including the pouring of the drink into the corpse to be photographed. There originally were eight photographs but a couple of them were lost.

The story is told with humor and clarity, and due to its shortness, it can easily be read in one sitting, and the photographs are, of course, black and white.

taking a peek at the old Wild West.

Julie McDonald, who compiles historical anecdotes.

It is a short read, and for me, it was something very different and bizarre, yet historically true. Plus, the photos prove it.

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Created Mar 07, 2019 at 9:34pm • Submit your own review...