Frontiersman Bill Gay

 | Wild West  | 0 comments  | Print This Post  | Email This Post

After a fire destroyed the Castle Reporter print shop, some citizens alleged that Gay was responsible. In May 1892, Gay began to receive anonymous threatening letters and found notes attached to his front door. The last message said, ‘The citizens of Castle take this method of informing you that unless you get out of the country you will be killed.’ There was no signature, just the cryptic old Montana Vigilante symbol, ‘3-7-77.’ Gay ignored the threat.

Gross was arrested on April 4, 1893, while resisting a search warrant served on him in an effort to find evidence to pin the Wyoming robbery on him. Gross escaped from custody after persuading the deputies to allow him to stop at Gay’s ranch to explain his situation and to get Bill to help him secure a bail bondsman.

Later, at Gay’s trial, Constable Peter Westbrook testified that following Gross’ escape, Gay had told him he was tired of being hounded by the citizens of Castle and that he had not stolen from anyone in Castle. ‘There was not men enough in Meagher County that had sand enough to arrest me,’ Westbrook quoted Gay as saying. The constable added that when Gay made the statement, he was carrying a .45-120-caliber Sharps buffalo rifle. Not long after Gay allegedly said that, he and Gross were freeing a wagon from a mudhole not far from Gross’ ranch when some deputies showed up intent on arresting them. Who fired the first shots in a brief exchange has been disputed, but, in any case, the deputies left empty-handed. Meagher County Sheriff James O’Marr then organized a posse of several local citizens and enlisted as his deputies an ex-sheriff named William Rader and the same Peter Westbrook who would later testify at Gay’s trial.

As the posse closed in on Gay and Gross, Sheriff O’Marr split his force, probably wanting to encircle the two men. Rader and Westbrook followed up the trail and soon encountered Gay and Gross, who were resting along a creek while their horses grazed. Deputy Rader shouted, ‘Throw up your hands!’ Rather than comply, Gay and his brother-in-law took cover. The two possemen shouted again and then began firing. Rader maneuvered to a higher position and got off a good shot. Seeing Gay fall with what turned out to be a leg wound, Rader told Westbrook, ‘You hold the horses; I think I have broken that fellow’s back.’ Later, Westbrook said that his gun ‘choked’ and that the fighting had to be done by Rader. As Rader approached the fallen Gay, according to Westbrook’s testimony, Harry Gross shot the lawman in the back, killing him instantly. Deputy Westbrook then retreated, allowing Gay and his brother-in-law to once more escape.

After Westbrook located Sheriff O’Marr and the rest of the posse, the group recovered Rader’s body and then continued the pursuit of the two wanted men. Correctly assuming that the two fugitives were headed toward the Musselshell River country 80 miles north of Castle, the posse once more caught up with Gay and Gross. The outlaws hastily dug a shallow rifle pit in a stand of willow trees and opened fire on the posse. In the ensuing gunfight, Deputy Sheriff James Macke was killed. With a dying declaration, Macke told the other officers it was Bill Gay that had shot him, although Gay would insist later that it was Harry Gross who had killed Macke. Again, both Gay and Gross were able to get away into the wilds of Montana. The posse, at this point, had run out of steam.

Harry Gross was never brought to trial, but Bill Gay was apprehended in California, in the spring of 1894, almost a year after the two lawmen were killed. Someone who had known Gay and was aware he was a wanted man had tipped off the law. During his year on the run, Gay had traveled a circuitous route from Montana into Utah and Nevada. He had changed his name and worked for a mining company, but his efforts to again become a rich man through prospecting had not paid off. He eventually had found his way to Providence, Calif., and was reshoeing his horse there when two men approached him. Before Gay knew it, he found himself at gunpoint and in handcuffs.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to

Tags: Historical Figures, People, The Wild West, Wild West