Gun Fight
The posse found a Savage 30-30 rifle that was used in the robbery of the M, K and T train. After the robbery, McCurdy headed to Dave Sears' farm, hiding away for two days. On October 6th, after reading a note left by Sheriff Harve Freas, Sears loaded the drunken McCurdy into his buggy and drove him to the ranch of Charlie Revard. Sheriff Freas, along with deputies Robert and Stringer Fenton, went back to the Sears farm where they questioned Sears about his involvement. Sears, afraid of being implicated in the robbery and proclaiming his innocence, directed the posse to the Revard Ranch. According to witnesses, McCurdy had bragged that his whiskey was "from the train that was held up from below Okesa." Witnesses also corroborated that McCurdy had arrived at night. Dave Sears had provided McCurdy with a shotgun and more whiskey.
Instead of holing up in the barn, McCurdy assumed a defensive position in the hayshed. This gave him an unobstructed view of part of the barnyard. Just before dawn on October 7th, Sheriff Freas and deputies Robert and Stringer Fenton and Robert "Dick" Wallace surrounded the hayshed where McCurdy was sleeping. At approximately 7 AM, Sheriff Freas yelled for McCurdy to surrender. McCurdy responded with a barrage of curses. This led to an hour-long standoff, as the posse wanted to capture McCurdy alive and collect the $2000 reward for his arrest and conviction. According to Robert Fenton, McCurdy fired the first shots. "He took a shot at me first. Then he took a shot at Stringer. After that he took three shots at Wallace before we opened up," he told reporters. The posse's return fire was so intense that the neighbors came out and stood at a safe distance to watch the gun battle. After about an hour, the firing stopped and no sound was heard from the hayshed. The deputies sent a young boy into the hayshed to investigate. Then Pawhuska Chief of Police William Floyd Davies slowly ascended the ladder into the hayloft, the posse's guns transfixed on the ladder's top rung. Davies put his hat on his rifle barrel and poked it into the hay loft. There was no response from McCurdy. McCurdy was found dead with a 32-20 bullet in his chest. Only Stringer Fenton was using a Winchester 32-20 rifle. A buckboard was brought around and McCurdy's body was loaded and taken back to Pawhuska.
Read more about this topic: Elmer Mc Curdy
Famous quotes containing the words gun and/or fight:
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969)
“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)