Russian Bill Swings at Shakespeare

William Rogers Tattenbaum hailed from a Baltic Sea port and claimed Russian nobility in his lineage. After arriving at San Francisco in the 1870s, he landed in Tombstone, Arizona, where he fell in with the “cow-boy element.” He became friends with Sandy King and followed him to New Mexico in 1881. Captured on a stolen horse, Russian Bill was taken to the jail in Shakespeare. He was joined by King, who had shot the tip off a clerk’s finger for fun. Locals were “damned tired” of the two,