Bat’s Only Notch

The Texas gunfight with Melvin King.

January 24, 1876. Corporal Melvin King, drunk and angry over exactly who knows what, bursts into a dance hall in Sweetwater, TX (now Mobeetie). He starts shooting, killing Mollie Brennan and seriously injuring Bat Masterson–who returns fire and mortally wounds King. At least that’s what most of the books say. There are no contemporary reports of the shooting. Masterson biographer Robert DeArment says this is Bat’s only reported killing.