Mart Duggan - Later Career

Later Career

In May, 1880, Duggan led several others in the employ of former mayor Tabor to help end a miners strike over wages, and within a month the strike had ended. On November 22, 1880, Duggan argued with miner Louis Lamb, with whom he'd had previous confrontations. Lamb walked away, but Duggan was still enraged. Duggan continued to verbally yell at Lamb, who walked as far as the front of the Purdy Brothel, where he turned and pulled his pistol. Duggan drew also, shooting Lamb in the mouth, killing him instantly. He turned himself in following the shooting and was later cleared on grounds of self defense. Lamb's widow, however, swore an everlasting hatred toward Duggan, and swore she would wear her widows weeds until Duggan's death, and that she would dance on his grave.

Although cleared in the shooting, Duggan lost a lot of his popularity over the shooting of Lamb, who was well liked in the community. Duggan had opened a livery stable, but after the shooting his business failed altogether in 1882. He moved to Douglass City, Colorado, where he became a deputy, and tended bar. In 1887, when a conman tricked several dance hall girls into buying fake jewelry, Duggan hunted the man down, beat him, then made him return all the money he had taken, using the remainder of his money to pay for drinks for everyone present at the dance hall until he was broke. Duggan then escorted the conman out of town.

The salesman immediately went to Leadville, where Duggan was not popular. He filed charges of robbery and assault against Duggan, who appeared in court to face the charges along with a string of dance hall girls as witnesses. The judge acquitted Duggan on the charge of robbery, but fined him $10 for assault. Duggan flew into a rage, demanding that if anyone should pay, it should be the salesman. Seeing Duggan's temper, the salesman dropped the charges and fled town.

Later that year, Duggan returned to Leadville to accept a job as a patrolman. However, Leadville had by this time progressed well beyond the bustling mining camp he had policed a decade earlier, and had become civilized. Duggan and his techniques, however, were unchanged. In March, 1888, Duggan arrested a jewelry peddler, and when the charges were dropped and Duggan was fined $25 for unlawful arrest, he resigned from the police force. Duggan began drinking heavily for the next month and was involved in several disputes.

On April 9, in the early morning hours, Duggan became involved in an argument with two gamblers, William Gordon and gambler and business owner Bailey Youngston, inside the Texas House. Duggan invited them both outside to settle the dispute with guns, but fearing his reputation they both refused. At around 4:00am, friends were able to calm Duggan and convince him to go home. He left the Texas House, but had walked only a few steps before someone approached him from behind and shot him in the back of the head, then fled. Duggan did not immediately go down, and staggered next door to the Bradford Drug Store, where he fell. His wife was called, and she sat with him along with many of his friends until well into the morning.

He opened his eyes some hours later and asked for a drink of water. When asked who had shot him, and had it been Bailey Youngston, he replied, "No. And I'll die before I tell you". Duggan died at 11:00am on April 9, 1888. It has never been discovered why he chose to withhold the name of his killer. Despite some of the problems he'd had, Duggan was still highly respected and his death was mourned by the whole of Leadville, with a large attendance at his funeral. Bailey Youngston, along with his business partners Tom Dennison and Jim Harrington and employee George Evans, were arrested for his murder, tried, but acquitted due to a lack of evidence. The widow of Louis Lamb danced where Duggan had been shot down, and presented her widows weeds to Duggans wife.

Although no one was ever convicted in his murder, most believed that George Evans had been paid to murder Duggan by a group of men who held grudges against him from years earlier. This could never be proven. Evans left town immediately after being acquitted, and was killed in a gunfight in Nicaragua in 1902.