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, and, at two a.m. on November 9, they strung up the outlaws from the rafters in the barroom of the Shakespeare Hotel. King was hanged for his many outlaw deeds, and Russian Bill was strung up with him “because he was a damned nuisance.”