22. Shootout in Round Rock
While Sam Bass was casing Round Rock’s bank, he aroused the suspicions of local law enforcement. A sheriff’s deputy approached him and asked Bass if he had a gun. “Yes“, he replied, pulled it out, and shot the deputy dead. A firefight erupted, and the noise attracted the recently arrived Texas Rangers, who joined the shootout.
It ended with a dead outlaw, and a mortally wounded Bass jumping on his horse and fleeing town. The following day, he was tracked down and found beneath a tree, bleeding from a gruesome wound caused by a bullet that had entered his back above the right hip bone, and shredded his right kidney before leaving a gaping exit wound. Bass was taken back to Round Rock, but died the next day, June 21st, on his 27th birthday.