Revenge Got Out of Hand An eye for an eye blew up into a massacre.

August 19, 1871.  Several Texas cowboys were seeking revenge for the death of a friend eight days before.  They tracked the killer, Mike McCluskie, to Tuttle’s Dance Hall in Newton, Kansas.  Cowboy Hugh Anderson opened fire, putting several bullets in McCluskie.  At that, the shooting became general.  A young cowpoke named Jim Riley did much of the firing.  He hit seven men, four of whom died.

Riley reportedly was dying of tuberculosis.  He simply walked out of the saloon and was never seen again.  The shootout became known as the Newton Massacre or Gunfight at Hyde Park.