A Fatal Favor

John Denson helped out a kinsman, in trouble with the law.

John Denson was a badman of some note. He was related to both Jim Miller (photo) and John Wesley Hardin. He got into trouble trying to help those two stalwarts. In 1893, Miller schemed to kill his former employer, Reeves County Sheriff Bud Frazer. But Con Gibson overheard the plot and foiled it. Miller and two cronies were to be put on trial in the matter. But before it could be heard, Denson killed Gibson in a New Mexico saloon. The case was dropped for lack of evidence.