Six Men Dead - Part 2

© 2011 (by Jim Sularz) (The true story of Frank Eaton – AKA “Pistol Pete”) There’s a saying out West, know by gunslingers best, that’ll deep six you in a knotty pine casket. One you should never forget, lest you end up stone dead, “There’s always a man – just a shade faster.” Doc Ferber was next to feel Pete’s hot lead, “Fill your hand, you Son of a *****!” With little remorse, Pete shot him clear off his horse, left him gunned down in a shallow ditch. After getting reports, Pete headed North, to where John Ferber hunkered down. A Missouri corner, in McDonald County, filled with Bible thumpers in a sinner’s town. Pete rode five hundred miles to shoot that snake, with two notches, he welcomed a third. He carried his cursed ball and chains, to kill a man, he swore with words. But John Ferber was plastered, and he didn’t quite master, deuces wild, soiled doves and hard drinkin’, Someone else would beat Pete, the day before they’d meet, sending John slingin’ hash in Hell’s kitchen. There’s a night rider without a father, under a curse to settle a score. In all, six murderous desperados, Three men dead - now, three men more …. Pistol Pete was now pushin’ seventeen, just a young pup, but no tenderfoot. With two men in the lead, he was quick on his steed, to kill two brothers who killed his kin. Pete rode up to their fence, with a friendly countenance, spoke with Jonce Campsey, but asked for Jim. “There’s a message from Doc, that you both need to hear,” Pete readied his hands – both guns were cocked! Pete continued in discourse, and got off his horse. all the while in an act of pretense. Jim came to the door and Pete read them the score, and shot them both dead in self-defense. With the help of the law, they verified Pete’s call, then gathered any loot they found. Laid Jim and Jonce out, in their rustic log house, and burnt them both and the house to the ground. Might have seemed kind of callous, but weren’t done in malice, that those boys were burnt instead of swingin’. They just sent them to Hell, sizzlin’ medium well, besides, it “saved them a lot of diggin’.” There was one man to go, he’d be the last to know, that a hex is an awful thing. That a young boy would grow, with a curse in tow, to kill a man, was still a sin. Pete garnered his will, with the best of his skills, to take on the last of the Campsey brothers. It would be three to one, Wiley and two paid guns, Pete knew his odds were slim and he shuddered. (Continued on Part 3)