Frontiersman Bill Gay

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After being returned to Montana, Bill Gay stood trial in Lewis and Clark County–a change of venue ordered because of the threat of violence in Meagher County. A lengthy court proceeding ended in a guilty verdict. For the shooting death of Deputy Macke, Gay was sentenced to death by hanging. His lawyers took the case to the state Supreme Court, which denied the application for a new trial after a lengthy review. A motion was then filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court refused to grant a hearing after deciding that there was no federal question involved in the application. Gay saw his execution date postponed three different times during his incarceration.

After receiving petitions with the signatures of 4,500 people urging leniency, as well as letters from Gay’s friends who felt the sentence was too severe, Montana Governor John E. Rickards ruled on the latest scheduled date of execution. ‘I am fully satisfied, after a most thorough examination, that Mr. Gay had the benefit of a fair and impartial trial and that he was accorded all the rights allowed him under the law and is seeking to evade punishment for the crime he had committed,’ the governor said. ‘One of the most appalling crimes in the list of punishable offenses is the murder of officers of the law in the discharge of their duties. To permit sympathy to interfere with the punishment of a man found guilty of such a crime is to weaken the safeguards thrown around the public.’

After the governor turned down the request for leniency, Gay responded with a published letter: ‘I am innocent and will with my last breath say so. Could the spirit of Macke come here he would say so, too, and the cowardly curs who swore my life away should feel ashamed of their low and contemptible acts. I mean O’Marr, Thoe, Sarter, Denny McGrail and more especially Peter Westbrook and George Williams….I am not afraid to meet death in any form. I never knew what fear was. I have risked my life a hundred times or more to save people from harm, people I never saw before, or since, but that don’t count for anything among the race today. A hundred years ago, people appreciated such favors and deeds. I have seen men burned at the stake and I would rather a thousand times over be burned than die like a sheep killing dog. My enemies, the cowardly curs, may rejoice at my fate, but the time will come when they will remember me and they will die a harder death than mine.’

During the morning of June 8, 1896, Bill Gay was readied for his execution. Having been ill for a 36-hour period prior to the appointed time, he was given an injection of morphine before leaving his cell. He asked for a drink of whiskey and got it; he then offered the sheriff a drink, but the lawman declined. On the way to the hangman’s noose, Bill Gay was greeted by his friend Sheriff William Ryan, who had come to witness the hanging. ‘Goodbye, Bill,’ Ryan said. Gay replied, ‘Goodbye, but if I hadn’t been sick, I would feel better, don’t you know.’

The condemned man was moved into position, and Montana Sheriff Jurgens placed a black hood over his head. Next came the noose, which was attached to a 460-pound weight. Gay spoke: ‘Now as I said, it seems hard that I have to die this way. I want to see the sun as long as possible. I will never see another one and I want to see this one as long as I can. Gentlemen, you are witnesses to a man being murdered. I am murdered right here.’ He then turned to the sheriff and said, ‘You’ve got to get the rope around haven’t you? Make it solid.’

It was solid enough. The trap was sprung, and frontiersman Bill Gay swung off to oblivion.

This article was written by E. Dixon Larson and Al Ritter and originally appeared in the June 1996 issue of Wild West.

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