Newton Kansas, Hyde Park shootout

[Henry4440]

Anyone ever heard of the Newton Kansas, Hyde Park shootout?

One of the deadliest gunfights of all time was the Newton Kansas, Hyde Park shootout. For some reason the gunfight was never written about very much and some people have never heard of it. On August 20, 1871, a young man no more than 18 years old named Kinch "James" Riley, (Who people said was dying from consumption as was the case with many people of that time), saw his best friend Mike McCluskie shot down in Tuttle's Dance hall while sitting at a Faro table by a fellow named Hugh Anderson.

Anderson, Billy Garrett, Henry Kearnes, and Jim Wilkerson had come there for the sole purpose of killing McCluskie, who a few weeks earlier had shot one of their friends. After shooting McCluskie the men proceeded to fire their guns in the air to hold off anyone who might interfere with their departure. James Riley wearing two colt pistols pulled both guns and went to work on anything that moved. After the smoke had cleared bodies and wounded men were laying everywhere. Four men were either killed that day or died later and three men were wounded by Riley.

Jim Martin a friend of  Riley's is first hit. He is shot in the neck and his
jugular is severed, he runs out of the saloon and dies.
Hugh Anderson is hit in the thigh and leg. He survives his wounds.
William Garrett is hit in the shoulder and chest. he dies later in the day.
A man named Hickey an innocent bystander is shot in the calf. He survives his wounds.
Henry Kearnes is shot in the chest. He dies on August 27th.
Patrick Lee is shot in the stomach. He dies on August 22nd.
James Wilkerson is shot in the nose and leg. He survives his wounds.
   
Young James simply turned and walked out the door and was never seen again by anyone that knew him.
If someone started to shoot you never knew who else would pull a gun and fire. No gunslinger ever went into a town to harass the local town folks and lived very long. A good Winchester 66 or a Sharps buffalo rifle would usually take care of the problem at a safe distance. Many men were shot in the back and depending on the circumstances nothing was ever done about it.

[Will Ketchum]

I have seen it mentioned a couple of times and there are at least 2 fiction books based on the event. 
One by Louis La'Amour, the title of which escapes me now.

Will Ketchum

[Books OToole]

It is most often refered to as "The Newton Massacre."

Books

[Hill Beachy]

I have read several versions of the fight, but the details are a bit murky.  Newspaper accounts of the day are not always accurate, and sometimes sensationalized (hmmm....the more things change the more they stay the same – no?)

Here is a version that was published as the background story for a CAS shooting stage earlier this year.  No claims are made as to its accuracy to the actual event, as the storyline was pieced together from several references.

HB


The Newton General Massacre

Sunday, August 20, 1871: Newton, Kansas.  There's been a feud festering between Texas hard-case Hugh Anderson and the gambling railroader "Mike McCluskie" (real name Arthur Delaney, at least until he skipped Missouri just ahead of the law).  It all started when McCluskie killed Texas trouble-maker William Bailey (also called Baylor) with a shot to the heart.  Early Sunday morning, Anderson and four of his Texas companions entered Perry Tuttle's Dance Hall.  Anderson said something to McCluskie, then suddenly drew his six-shooter, and shot McCluskie at point-blank range.  What was said between Anderson and McCluskie has been lost to history.  But what followed has become known as the Newton General Massacre...

The dying man half-rose to his feet in an attempt to retaliate, but the revolver hang-fired.  Bathed in his own blood, McCluskie went down still trying to discharge his revolver.

But McCluskie had one friend in that town:  a skinny, tubercular youth of about 18 years' age named Jim Riley.  Mike had befriended the penniless boy some months earlier, and now it was up to Riley to settle the score.  Without a word, Riley turned and bolted the door, drew his six-gun and cut loose. 

Someone doused or shot out the lights; the dance hall filled with smoke and death.  Jim Martin, a Texas cowboy, motioned for the men to stop but a bullet severed an artery and he fell dead still clutching his neck.  Riley fired a shot at Jim Wilkinson, standing there by the bar, blowing off the tip of his nose.    When the gunsmoke cleared, five men lay dead or dying and another five were wounded. 

How many men were hit by Riley's bullets and how many were shot in the general melee`, no one knows for certain.  When it was finished, Jim Riley slipped out the back.  Some say that he was killed in a gunfight in Arizona or New Mexico; some say that the consumption got him in Colorado.  McCluskie was buried in Newton's Boot Hill; his relatives later re-interred him in Missouri.  Friends managed to sneak the badly-crippled Hugh Anderson out of town, but two years later in Medicine Lodge, he and McCluskie's brother would kill each other in a duel to the death.

This gunfight would only be equaled in ferocity by the Gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881.  In all, there were 40-50 shots fired in a space of less than three minutes.  By the time that local lawmen arrived, all those involved were either dead or had left town.

[Henry4440]

Thanks for the information, guys.