An Ignominous Way to Die

Gunfighter Clay Allison lost out to a wagon wheel.

July 3, 1887. Shootist Clay Allison checks out. He accidentally falls off his moving wagon and a wheel breaks his neck. Allison was involved in a number of killings, mostly in Colfax County, NM and West Texas. It’s hard to know how many men died at his hands–he dispatched them with knife, gun and even a lynching rope. He was considered very dangerous and unstable; some believe an old head injury was at fault, although he also drank profusely. attached photo shows Allison with a bum foot–he’d accidentally shot himself.