Clay Allison
Clay Allison (1841 – 1887) was born and raised in Tennessee, and fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. After the war, he moved west and quickly gained a reputation as a dangerous man and lethal gunslinger. He first garnered attention in 1870, when he led a mob that broke into a New Mexico jail, seized a deranged man suspected in the murder of a number of people, including his own daughter, and lynched him.
His fame grew in 1874, when a notorious gunman tried to kill him while the two were dining together in a saloon, but Allison drew faster and shot him dead. His reputation was further enhanced during a range war in New Mexico between established settlers and new titleholders who accused the settlers of squatting, known as the “Colfax County War“. Allison sided with the settlers, and took part in the lynching of a pro-landowner gunslinger.
The lynched man’s family vowed revenge, but when an uncle of the victim cornered Allison, the latter proved quicker on the draw and shot him dead. Allison was arrested for murder, but charges were dropped after an inquiry determined that he had acted in self-defense.
In 1876, Allison’s refusal to surrender his pistols to a constable in Las Animas, Colorado, who informed him that it was illegal to carry guns within the town limits, led to a gunfight that left the constable dead. Allison was charged with manslaughter, but charges were dropped because the constable had fired first. Surprisingly, for a man so violent, he died in a routine accident in 1887 when he fell off a wagon, and its wheel rolled over him and broke his neck.