John Shaw west story

John Shaw was an outlaw who was killed by Navajo County Sheriff, Chet Houck after he and another man named William Smith (a.k.a. William Evans) robbed some men of their silver dollars in the Wigwam Saloon in Winslow. Shaw and Smith fled with the money to Canyon Diablo, 25 miles west of Winslow. Sheriff Houck & Deputy Pete Pemberton tracked the outlaws to the Train Depot where the trading post operator, Fred Volz described to them the men he'd seen. While Volz was talking to the lawmen, Shaw and Smith were spotted walking towards the depot. Sheriff Houck confronted Shaw and Smith, words were exchanged and the four men began to engage in a close up gunfight standing not more than four feet away from each other. The men were firing at each other through the smoke when Shaw ran out of bullets. When he turned his head to reload, Houck shot him in the head. Smith was wounded, taken to the hospital at Winslow and sent to prison later. Shaw was taken to the cemetery at Canyon Diablo and hastily buried that same day.

The next night, several cowboys were at the saloon in Winslow and heard about the gunfight and found out that prior to the robbery, Shaw and Smith had ordered and paid for whiskey to drink but never had the chance to finish their drinks before they decided to commit the robbery. So, the group of cowboys decided to take the train to Canyon Diablo to find Shaw's burial place and dig him up to give him one last drink of his paid for whiskey. When they arrived at the depot, they went to find the trading post operator, Fred Volz and pounded on his door waking him up. Volz, angry about the men's intent, eventually gave the cowboys shovels and also loaned them his Kodak Box camera to take a picture to give to Sheriff Houck later in case there was a reward to be collected.

When the cowboys arrived at the cemetery, they dug up Shaw's grave, pulled him out of his pine box, propped him up on a pickett fence of another man's grave, and poured the whiskey into his mouth through his clinched shut teeth, then took some photos and laid him back in his grave. They said some prayers, covered the grave and left. Summarized from a story that was published on John Shaw in True Tales and Amazing Legends of the Old West, from the editors of True West Magazine.