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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that shines a light on the ups and

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Speaker 1: downs of everyday history. I'm Gay Blusier, and today we're

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Speaker 1: examining one of the fastest and most pointless gunfights in

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Speaker 1: the history of the wild West. The day was April four,

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Speaker 1: eight eight one. A gunfight at a saloon in downtown

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Speaker 1: El Paso, Texas, left four men dead in five seconds.

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Speaker 1: Even in one of the most violent towns of a

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Speaker 1: decidedly violent era, the event stands out due to its

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Speaker 1: swift and brutal conclusion. It was also distinguished by the

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Speaker 1: involvement of a Texas law man named Dallas stouden Meyer.

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Speaker 1: He had served just three days as the Marshal of

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Speaker 1: El Paso when the shooting began, and he was the

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Speaker 1: one who did most of the shooting. Three of the

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Speaker 1: four casualties that day were the work of Marshall Stoudenmeyer,

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Speaker 1: including an innocent bystander. The ordeal began a day earlier

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Speaker 1: when two of the carros named Sanchez and Warrike, crossed

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Speaker 1: into Texas in search of some cattle that had been

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Speaker 1: stolen from their employer's ranch in Mexico. As they approached

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Speaker 1: El Paso, they spotted a herd being driven north to

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Speaker 1: the ranch of Johnny Hale, a well known cattle wrestler.

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Speaker 1: The Vicaros began trailing the herd to confirm that it

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Speaker 1: was theirs, but that evening they were discovered and killed

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Speaker 1: by two of Hale's men. The next day, on the

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Speaker 1: morning of April four, a group of about seventy five

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Speaker 1: armed Mexicans road into El Paso. They had been hired

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Speaker 1: by the Mexican rancher whose cattle had been stolen. They

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Speaker 1: were sent to find the missing Vocarros, and they hoped

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Speaker 1: for everyone's sake that someone in the town could point

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Speaker 1: them in the right direction, hoping to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.

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Speaker 1: A town constable named Gus cremp Cow agreed to help

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Speaker 1: conduct a search, and he knew just the place to

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Speaker 1: look first too. Cremp Cow and the posse rode thirteen

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Speaker 1: miles northwest to Hale's ranch. When they arrived, the writers

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Speaker 1: found two bodies lying in the dirt, and sure enough,

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Speaker 1: it was the missing Vocarios. They took the bodies back

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Speaker 1: to El Paso, and that afternoon an inquest into the

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Speaker 1: deaths was held at the town court. Constable cremp Cow,

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Speaker 1: who was fluent in Spanish, served as an interpreter for

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Speaker 1: the Mexican posse. They alleged that Hale and the other

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Speaker 1: rustlers had stolen cattle from Mexico and then murdered the

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Speaker 1: two men who came looking for perhaps fearing that they

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Speaker 1: might otherwise return with more men. It also came to

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Speaker 1: light that two known associates of John Hale, Fredericks and Purvy,

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Speaker 1: had been overheard earlier that day bragging about two Mexican

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Speaker 1: cowboys they had killed the night before. Meanwhile, just outside

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Speaker 1: the court house, a large crowd had gathered, including John

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Speaker 1: Hale and the former town Marshal George Campbell. Hale, Campbell

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Speaker 1: and the others didn't like the fact that a large

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Speaker 1: group of armed Mexicans had come to seek justice in

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Speaker 1: their town. They also didn't like that one of their own,

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Speaker 1: Constable cramp Cow, had offered to help them in that pursuit.

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Speaker 1: Where exactly, they wondered, did his real allegiance lie. Luckily,

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Speaker 1: the restless crowd didn't have enough time to work itself

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Speaker 1: into a proper frenzy. The court quickly determined that Fredericks

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Speaker 1: and Pervy were the likely killers. They were charged and

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Speaker 1: arrested on the spot, and their trial was set for

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Speaker 1: a later date. With that, the court was adjourned, the

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Speaker 1: crowd outside dispersed, and the Mexicans rode back home to

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Speaker 1: give their comrades a proper burial. At first, it seemed

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Speaker 1: like the town had dodged a bullet and that there

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be any more killing that day, but unfortunately John

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Speaker 1: Hale and George Campbell had other ideas. When the court

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Speaker 1: adjourned early that evening, Constable cremp Cow went next door

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Speaker 1: to Keating Saloon to retrieve the weapons he'd stowed there earlier.

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Speaker 1: Outside the bar, cramp Cow was confronted by a drunken

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Speaker 1: Campbell and Hale, who accused him of harboring sympathies for Mexicans.

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Speaker 1: Campbell said something to the effect of any American that's

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Speaker 1: a friend of Mexicans ought to be hanged. Crem Cow

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Speaker 1: asked if that was a threat, at which point Campbell

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Speaker 1: reportedly backed down, telling the Constable that he meant nothing

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Speaker 1: by it and was just upset about the armed posse

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Speaker 1: that had come to town. Cremp Cow said bare enough,

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Speaker 1: and once again it seemed bloodshed would be avoided. That's

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Speaker 1: when John Hale, misunderstanding the situation, entirely, grabbed one of

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Speaker 1: Campbell's two pistols from its holster and shouted, George, I've

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Speaker 1: got you covered. He then shot cramp Cow at near

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Speaker 1: point blank range, sending the constable stumbling backward into a

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Speaker 1: saloon door, alive but badly injured. A second later, the

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Speaker 1: doors of the Globe restaurant across the street burst open.

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Speaker 1: Marshall Stoutenmeyer heard the gunshot while having dinner and immediately

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Speaker 1: rushed out into the street with two guns drawn and ready.

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Speaker 1: With zero grasp of what was going on, the Marshal

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Speaker 1: started firing wildly as he ran toward the saloon. His

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Speaker 1: first shot struck and killed a Mexican bystander named Ochoa.

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Speaker 1: The man had just bought a bag of peanuts and

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Speaker 1: was trying to get away from the violence when the

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Speaker 1: Marshal mistook him for a threat. John Hale ducked behind

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Speaker 1: an adobe pillar to avoid the same fate, but when

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Speaker 1: he picked out from it a moment later, the Marshal's

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Speaker 1: second bullet hit him right between the eyes, with Hale dead.

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Speaker 1: George Campbell stepped out from behind his cover with a

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Speaker 1: pistol drawn and yelled, gentlemen, this is not my fight,

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Speaker 1: and by all accounts he was right. It was Hale

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Speaker 1: who had shot Constable cram Cow, and he had been

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Speaker 1: subdued and then some. Unfortunately for Campbell, it had all

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Speaker 1: happened so fast that cramp Cow wasn't sure who had

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Speaker 1: shot him. As the wounded Constable lay slumped against the

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Speaker 1: wall of the saloon, he managed enough strength to draw

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Speaker 1: his revolver and fired two bullets at the man he

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Speaker 1: thought had shot him. Campbell was struck in his foot

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Speaker 1: and in his wrist, at which point he dropped his gun.

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Speaker 1: He instinctively reached down to pick it up, and when

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Speaker 1: he did, Marshal Stoudenmeyer shot him straight through the stomach.

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Speaker 1: Campbell fell on the dusty street, Furious that he had

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Speaker 1: been shot three times for no good reason. He glared

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Speaker 1: up at the Marshal and shouted, you big s o

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Speaker 1: b you murdered me. Marshall Stoutenmeyer made no reply. Once

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Speaker 1: the smoke cleared at Shoa, John Hale, George Campbell, and

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Speaker 1: Constable cramp Cow were all dead. The whole bloody affair

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Speaker 1: had lasted roughly five seconds, although some witnesses maintained it

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Speaker 1: was more like ten seconds. In either case, it was

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Speaker 1: a shocking and senseless loss of life that played out

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Speaker 1: in a matter of seconds. Marshall Stoutenmeyer was the only

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Speaker 1: person to walk away from the altercation, and over the

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Speaker 1: course of the next year, he would go on to

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Speaker 1: kill six more people in shootouts. The town's substantial crime

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Speaker 1: rate had actually taken a dive under his watch, but

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Speaker 1: the Marshal had made a lot of enemies thanks to

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Speaker 1: his actions at the Battle of Keating Saloon. In the

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Speaker 1: year and a half that followed, he thwarted several attempts

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Speaker 1: on his life by friends of Hale and Campbell. Eventually, though,

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Speaker 1: the past caught up with him, and Alice Staudenmeyer was

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Speaker 1: killed during a shootout on September two. Try as I might,

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Speaker 1: I couldn't find any information on the outcome of Fredericks

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Speaker 1: and Pervy's murder trial. Much like they're victims. The killer

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Speaker 1: story seems to have been overshadowed by the four dead

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Speaker 1: in five seconds gunfight, which was itself overshadowed by the

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Speaker 1: gunfight at the Ok Corral later that year. It was

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Speaker 1: an early example of what's become an all too common

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Speaker 1: problem in America, one instance of gun violence being followed

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Speaker 1: so quickly by another and another that the public eventually

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Speaker 1: loses track altogether. It's a grim cycle to be stuck in,

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Speaker 1: no question, but hope enders in El Paso and elsewhere

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Speaker 1: that one day we may break it. Yet. I'm Gay

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Speaker 1: Bluesier and hopefully you now know a little more about

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Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. You can learn even

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Speaker 1: more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and

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Speaker 1: Instagram at t d I HC Show, and if you

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Speaker 1: have any comments or suggestions, he can send them my

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Speaker 1: way at this Day at I heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks

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Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in History class