Will Carver Checks Out
The outlaw buys it during a visit to the store.
Categories: History
By: Mark Boardman 11/01/2007
Just after 9 p.m., the group entered with guns drawn and ordered Carver and George to throw up their hands.
George froze, unsure of what to do. He never got out his weapon.
Carver, tying up a bag of oats, went for his gun, ready to shoot. He might have been able to put up a good fight—he was a deadly shot—but his pistol caught in his suspenders (note to self: buy belt on next shopping trip).
The officers opened fire and kept firing until both men stopped moving. They hit Carver seven times; George, five. The officers took the defeated outlaws to the courthouse, where they stretched out on the floor.
Carver died a couple of hours later. George surprised the doctors and survived his wounds (and avoided trial since nobody could prove he intended to rob the bank). As for their compatriots, Kid Curry and George’s brother Ben, they rode out of town when the gunfire started. They knew better than to get involved.
The town sold off Carver’s belongings—including his guns, horse and saddle—to pay for his funeral and burial in the Sonora cemetery. A few months later, his sister put a stone over his grave; it read, simply, “April 2, 1901.”
Maybe it should have read, “No refunds, no returns.”
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT