Stop the Presses

A negative editorial set Clay Allison off.

It was January 1876, and gunfighter Clay Allison was angry. The Cimarron News and Press had published an editorial that accused of Allison of being responsible for some of the unbridled crime in the area. Allison and friends took umbrage. They went to the newspaper offices, set off a charge of black powder, then threw the printing press into the Cimarron River. Allison was likely drunk. When he sobered up the next day, he gave the newspaper owners $200 for the damages.