TWO-GUN MAN DIES IN BED.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 34, 17 March 1914, Page 10 (Supplement)

TWO-GUN MAN DIES IN BED.

"DOC." MIDDLETON'S GRIM RECORD. "Doc" Middleton is dead. He died in gaol in Douglas a few days ago. The barrel of his "six-gun" was so covered with notches —there were 27 of them—that there was not room for them all on one side, so the redoubtable owner had %p turn the weapon over and begin making marks on the other. According to the gossip—when old Doc wasn't around — notches had been cut in that gun barrel in half the trans-Missouri States. Four were cut in one day, wrote the Chicago ' "correspondent, at Douglas on February 3, ■„ Time was when '' Doe'' was.'' wanted'' in half a dozen States, with rewards aggregating probably seoOddl hanging oveY his head. The vigilantes of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, and a few other States always were on the look-out for him, an"d instructions were that he be hanged without "the of a,'trial.. •'•■'■- '""■"; "Be sure its 'Doc, and then go ahead; and if there V any doubt about its being Doc, go ahead anyway," were the general orders.

He died of measles and pneumonia. KING OF CATTLE BUSTLERS. Middleton was the king of the cattle rustlers. He kistled cattle all the way from Bozeman to Taos, from Abilene to Aberdeen, from Omaha to Ogden. The vigilantes were formed primarily to stop cattle thieving.* The rustiers formed an organisation known as the "Hoodoos" for the purpose of protecting themselves from the vigilantes. Dozens of rustlers and vigilantes were killed. * Near Sidney, Neb., one day the vigilantes got after Middleton, who had been accused s of stealing a cow.- /This time Middleton was innocent, it is said. He got word the vigilantes were coming, so he saddled his cow pony and took to the range. The vigilantes -picked up his trail, and there was a running fight lasting half the day. That evening Middleton cut four notches in his gun. , GAOL HIS FOET.

Two days later he surrendered to the sheriff, whor put him in Sidney gaol. '' The gang came to the gaol as soon as they heard I was in there," Middleton used to say. "They demanded that Ibe turned over td them. The sheriff said 'No.' They poked their rifles through the bars and wanted to shoot, me, but the sheriff threatened t» kill the first man who fired, so they went away. I swore to get every man of that committee.

"The next day the fellow who had sold me that critter came to town and stood by me. I was released. Then I got my fellows together. Some of us got every man we marked. Kid Scott got the leader, scalped him, and wore his scalp at his belt." As a poker player Middleton was a success. In Cheyenne one night he got into a game with a. boastful t stranger from the East. Atf daylight the stranger leaned back in his chair. "I'm all in," he said. "I had 7000 dollars when I started." Middleton pitched over a roll of about 1000 dollars and told him to go back home and learn to play. SHOOTS SEVERAL SOLDIERS. At Sidney one day a v,r?wd of soldiers decided to clean up Middleton. One picked a row with him and the others jumped in to help. Middleton pulled a gun and started shooting. His antagonist was killed at the first shot. Then Middleton mortally, or seriously, wounded every one who had taken part in the fight. Ha himself got three or four bullets in his side. Middleton never served but eight months in prison in all his life. This was for killing the man who cut away his thumb. Rather early, in his career Middleton was in a saloon in Custer, S.D., during the early days of the! gold rush to the Black Hills. That country was, full' of.;' ' bad;men." Without .warning, a man attacked Middleton with a huge knife. At the first slash Middleton's right thumb was cut away as clean as a whistle. In the next two or three minutes ''■ Doc'' received a dozen dangerous cuts and staos: Then he got his left-handed gun into action, and ; killed the desperado. ■';....■ "The loss of that thumb prevented, me from making -50 notches on my. gun," mournfully said the old rustler one day. MILD-MANNERED MAN. Middleton did not look like a twogun fighter. He \vas a small, spare, slightly-stooped man. "Doe's" eyes were black and piercing, but he .was mild-mannered and soft-spoken—unless somebody rubbed up against him. After the cattle rustler days "Doc" spent his time in the Black Hills and in Western Nebraska and Wyoming. In Deadwood, in Custer, in Chadron, in Sheridan, he operated saloons and gambling dens. Finally he got "down and out,'' and started . bootlegging. Two weeks ago he was.arrested in Douglas for that offence. He still had his famous old "six-gun" with the 27 notches, but he no longer attempted to use it. He knew the day of the gun in Wyoming was gone. So he submitted to arrest, and was placed in gaol, where he remained two weeks. Then he died of measles and pneumonia.