b'MAD KILLER CLAY ALLISON NO HEROBy Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerG UNFIGHTERS who had showdowns in the middle of dusty streets were extremely rare in the Territorial days of the Southwest, but crazed killers, many veterans of the Civil War were more common. One such man was Clay Allison. A Confederate doctor who treated him while he was in the Army described him as partly epileptic and partly maniacal. Allison had been mustered out of the southern Army after being wounded, but his doctor felt his wounds were more mental than physical. His record showed that after one battle in which Confederate forces sent Union troops into retreat, Allison threatened to shoot his superior Denver Public Libraryofficers because they refused to pursue the retreating Union forces and exterminate them.Born on Tennessee Farm long before the pioneers on the Maxwell rangeHe noticed Colbert casually lift his coffee cup with Allison spent his youth working on his parents farmaround Cimarron learned what kind of a man theirone hand and drop the other toward his gun.near Waynesboro, Tennessee until the Civil War brokenew neighbor was. On October 7, 1870, Allison was out. He had just turned 21 and immediately enlisteddrinking heavily, as he was known to do, in a saloonAllison suddenly fell backward in his chair, crashing to fight for the South. Despite a club foot that alwaysin Elizabethtown, a gold mining camp west to the floor. Colbert had lifted his gun above the table pained him, Allison saw action in several battles,of Cimarron. but Allisons sudden movement startled him and ignoring his handicap for what was for him the thrillcaused him to hurry his shot. As Colberts shot ripped of the battle. A man named Charles Kennedy had been convictedinto the tabletop, Allison, prone on the floor, leveled for a local murder and was awaiting his fate inhis gun at Colbert and fired one shot. It entered The Confederate Army mustered him out in Marchthe jail across the street from the saloon. AllisonColberts head above the right eye. Colbert fell dead of 1872 due to battle wounds and his mental state.brooded about this murder for some reason andto the floor.When Union troops rode up to the Allison farm asoon became incensed that the killer had not been short time after Clays return home and told Mrs.dealt with yet. He aroused those in the bar andChunk Colbert had come to Cimarron to kill Allison, Allison that they intended to confiscate everythingthen led a lynch mob across the street to the jail.something he had wanted to do for some time, ever of value on the farm, Clay slipped into a closet, gotAllison and his mob stormed the jail, battered downsince Allison had beat Colberts uncle, Zachary a gun, and killed the corporal in charge of the Thirdthe door, rushed inside, knocked the two deputiesColbert, unconscious at the Red River ferry some Illinois Cavalry detachment. The younger members ofsenseless, and pulled Kennedy from his cell, haulingyears earlier. Colbert had a friend, Charles Cooper, the Allison family migrated to Texas at wars end. Clay,him kicking and screaming into the street. The mobwith him at the Clifton House that day. Cooper did his brothers Lewis and John, his sister Mary and hertook its prize to a nearby slaughterhouse, wherenot get in the fray after Allison killed his friend but husband Lewis Coleman all made the trek to TexasAllison and his mob lynched Kennedy, and thentold friends he would settle with Allison later.cattle country. took the large knives used to butcher cattle and mutilated his body. Allison took an ax, cut down One day in mid-January Cooper was seen riding A Little Trouble along the Way the body, and with the ax chopped off Kennedystoward Cimarron. This was the last time anyone saw At the Red River Crossing, ferryman Zachary Colberthead. The crazed Allison jammed the head on to ahim. Authorities believed Clay Allison bushwhacked tried to double-charge the Allisons, or at least Claypole, got on his horse, and rode out of ElizabethtownCooper and then buried him on the prairie. In thought he was. Clay became furious and beat Colbertto Henry Lamberts Saloon in Cimarron with his1876, Allison was charged with Coopers murder. into unconsciousness. Colbert was left senseless onprize. He put the head on display at Lamberts whereProsecutors didnt have a case. They did not have a the ferry landing as Clay and his family piloted thehe was known and could bask in his glory for body and no solid evidence against Allison and he ferry across the river themselves, paying nothing. all to see. was released.Signing on as a cowboy with several of the largeEnemies Stalk his Trail Another LynchingTexas cattle barons of the 1860s, Allison helped While Allisons reputation as a ruthless killer wasCruz Vega was under arrest for murder in Colfax blaze the Goodnight-Loving trail up through Texas,growing, so was the reputation as a gunslinger ofCounty, New Mexico, on October 30, 1875. Allison New Mexico, and Colorado in 1866. After workinga man named Chunk Colbert. Colbert rode intoagitated a mob that stormed the jail and dragged for Goodnight and Loving, he went to work for Cimarron one day, a man with a purpose. HeCruz to a telegraph pole. Cruz kept screaming that M.L. Dalton and Isaac Lacy. Despite his club foot,encountered Clay Allison and challenged him to ahe was innocent and that a man named Manuel Clay Allison had earned a reputation as a tough,horse race. After a wild race that ended in a dead heat,Cardenas was guilty of the murder Cruz was expert cowhand. the two decided to rest up at an inn near Allisonsaccused of.house called the Clifton House. They talked amiably In 1870, Allison saw his chance to go on his own. Heabout the race and ate large meals. Seemed like twoA frenzied Allison and his cohorts cared less. They drove a large herd of cattle into New Mexico and wasmen enjoying themselves over dinner after a hard racestrung Vega up on the pole where he dangled, paid 300 head for his effort. He started his ranch nearto onlookers. The sharp-eyed Allison was not lulledstrangling to death. Allison watched, then took out Cimarron, New Mexico with that small herd. It wasntinto complacency by his dinner companion. his gun and shot Cruz in the back. As Clay put it, 20 December 2020'