Ben Thompson Kills a Theater Owner – Take 1 A shooting in Austin foreshadowed a later event in San Antonio.

Gunfighter Ben Thompson is well-known for killing Jack Harris, owner of San Antonio’s Vaudeville Theater in 1882—mostly because it led to Thompson’s death in 1883. But there was a similar incident several years earlier.

Thompson and friends were partying at the Capital Theater in Austin on Christmas night in 1876. A fight broke out. Theater owner Mark Wilson opened up with a shotgun; Thompson returned fire, hitting Wilson three times, killing him. Thompson then mortally wounded a bartender who’d taken a shot at him. Thompson was acquitted on self-defense grounds.