On March 11. 1884, Texas gunslinger Ben Thompson was
ambushed and murdered in a San Antonio theater. Thompson's career as a gunman
began in 1858, when he was only 16, and wounded a black youth during a quarrel
in Austin, Texas in 1858. Local citizens demanded action against Thompson, so
he served a short jail term and paid a fine. A few years later, he left Austin
and tried to make a peaceable living in New Orleans, but the lure of the gambling
houses proved more attractive. After the Civil War he became a mercenary to the
emperor of Mexico, where his talents as a killer were encouraged and rewarded. In
1872, he traveled to Ellsworth, Kansas, to join his brother Billy as a
professional gambler. A year later, a local deputy angered the two brothers
when he intervened in a gambling dispute. The Ellsworth sheriff, Chauncey
Whitney, came to his deputy's rescue and tried to calm the angry brothers.
Whitney thought he had defused the situation, but as he walked across the
street with the two brothers, the volatile Billy suddenly pulled his gun and
shot the sheriff dead. Thompson came to Billy's rescue by recruiting a large
gang of Texas cowboys to intimidate the Ellsworth police long enough for Billy
to escape. No longer welcome in Ellsworth, Thompson spent the next decade
drifting through Kansas.
In 1879, he joined Bat Masterson and others as a hired
gunman for the Santa Fe Railroad. With the money he earned working for the
railroad, he invested in a chain of Texas gambling houses that eventually
returned sizeable profits. Using his newfound wealth to buy respectability, in
1880 he returned to Austin and made a successful run for town sheriff. Thompson's
shift to the side of law enforcement, though, did not end his involvement with
the shady world of gambling. In 1880, he quarreled with three San Antonio
gamblers, Joe Foster, Jack Harris, and Bill Simms, over a debt Foster claimed
Thompson owed him. A few years later, the quarrel led to a gunfight in which
Thompson killed Harris, further angering the other two. In 1884, Foster and
Simms laid a trap for Thompson at the Vaudeville Theater in San Antonio.
Apparently attempting to make peace with his two old enemies, Thompson
approached them in the theater. The men began to argue, and when the dispute
threatened to become violent, a volley of shots rang out. Two hidden
accomplices of Foster and Simms killed Thompson.
Michael Thomas Barry is a columnist for www.crimemagazine.com and is the
author of numerous books that include Murder
and Mayhem 52 Crimes that Shocked Early California, 1849-1949. The
book can be purchased at Amazon through the following link:
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