The supposed McCanles Gang or McCandless Gang was known as an outlaw

Outlaw

In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...

 gang

Gang

A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...

 in the early 1860s that was wanted for alleged train robbery

Train robbery

Train robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains.-History:Train robberies were more common in the past than today, and often occurred in the American Old West. Trains carrying payroll shipments were a major target...

, murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

, bank robbery

Bank robbery

Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...

, cattle rustling, and horse theft

Horse thief

-United States:The term horse thief came into great popularity in the U.S. during the 19th century. During that time the Great Plains states, Texas, and other western states were sparsely populated and negligibly policed. As farmers tilled the land and migrants headed west through the Great...

. However, there are questions surrounding the veracity of not only the allegations, but the existence of any such gang. On December 16, 1861 some of its alleged members were killed by "Wild Bill" Hickok

Wild Bill Hickok

James Butler Hickok , better known as Wild Bill Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West. His skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized.Hickok came to the West as a stagecoach...

 although many claimed they were innocent and their only crime was to cross paths with Hickok.

McCanles incident background

The legend of "Wild Bill" Hickok began, as reported in Harper's Monthly, at Rock Creek Station

Rock Creek Station

Rock Creek Station was a stagecoach and Pony Express station in southeastern Nebraska, near the present-day village of Endicott.-History:Rock Creek Station was established in 1857 along the Oregon Trail and California Trail, along the west bank of Rock Creek. The station was a supply center and...

, a stagecoach

Stagecoach

A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...

 and Pony Express

Pony Express

The Pony Express was a fast mail service crossing the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the High Sierra from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from April 3, 1860 to October 1861...

 station in southern Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

, near present-day Fairbury, NE. According to the story, Hickok single-handedly killed the nine members of "desperados, horse-thieves, murderers, and regular cutthroats" known as the McCanles Gang "in the greatest one man gunfight in history". During the battle Hickok, armed with only a pistol, a rifle, and bowie knife

Bowie knife

A Bowie knife is a pattern of fixed-blade fighting knife first popularized by Colonel James "Jim" Bowie in the early 19th Century. Since the first incarnation was created by James Black, the Bowie knife has come to incorporate several recognizable and characteristic design features, although its...

, suffered 11 bullet wounds, the story went.

However, the McCanles Gang legend seems to be traceable to an incident between "Duck Bill" Hickok, as he was then known, and a local rancher David Colbert McCanles, a former sheriff of Watauga County, North Carolina

Watauga County, North Carolina

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 42,695 people, 16,540 households, and 9,411 families residing in the county. The population density was 137 people per square mile . There were 23,155 housing units at an average density of 74 per square mile...

 who was known as a local bully and had earlier had an argument with Hickok over the latter "stealing" his mistress Sarah (Kate) Shull. McCanles, who had recently sold his ranch to the Russell, Waddell and Majors freight company to be used as a relay station, arrived with his 12-year-old son, his cousin, and another employee at the ranch demanding to see the relay station manager Horace Wellman. McCanles had come to collect a long overdue instalment from the company, which was having financial difficulties at the time, and was arguing with Wellman when he was apparently shot by then 24-year-old stock tender Bill Hickok who was hiding behind a calico curtain. McCanles's son immediately rushed into the building, where he ran to his father. The two other men who, like McCanles, were unarmed, attempted to flee but Hickok threw the rifle he had shot McCanles with onto a bed and stepping from the cabin, wounded both with his pistols. The two men, James Woods and James Gordon, were then killed by other members of the relay station; one was killed by station employee J.W. (doc) Brink with a shotgun blast and the other was hacked to death with a hoe

Hoe (tool)

A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural tool used to move small amounts of soil. Common goals include weed control by agitating the surface of the soil around plants, piling soil around the base of plants , creating narrow furrows and shallow trenches for planting seeds and bulbs, to chop...

, supposedly by Horace Wellman but there is evidence his wife had used the hoe. Hickok was not reported as wounded. During the attack McCanles' son (William) Monroe was able to escape via a dry creekbed.

Aftermath

Hickok, along with Wellman and J. W. "Doc" Brink, were charged with the murders. When the case was brought to trial Monroe McCanles was not permitted by the judge to testify and the court heard only the account given by the station employees. The judge ruled the defendants acted in self defense.

From the DeWitt Times News as told by the foreman of the company stations:
"At the time of this affair I was at a station farther west and reached this station just as Wild Bill was getting ready to go to Beatrice for his trial. He wanted me to go with him and as we started on our way, imagine my surprise and uncomfortable feeling when he announced his intention of stopping at the McCanles home. I would have rather been somewhere else, but Bill stopped. He told Mrs. McCanles he was sorry he had to kill her man then took out $35.00 (2010:US$839) and gave it to her saying: ‘This is all I have, sorry I do not have more to give you.’ We drove on to Beatrice and at the trial, his plea was self-defense, no one appeared against him and he was cleared. The trial did not last more than fifteen minutes".

After this tragedy, some of the McCanles family moved to Florence, Colorado

Florence, Colorado

The City of Florence is a Statutory City located in Fremont County, Colorado, United States. The population was 3,653 at the 2000 census.ADX Florence, the only federal Supermax prison in the United States, is located south of Florence in an unincorporated area in Fremont County...

 and changed the spelling of the name to McCandless. Hickok, making use of his new notoriety also changed his name after this incident. After growing a moustache to hide his protruding upper lip, he encouraged people to call him "Wild Bill" instead of "Duck bill".

Witness accounts

The first account was published around 1882 by S. C. Jenkins and S. J. Alexander who had arrived at the ranch within two hours after the trouble took place and before the bodies were removed. Their story was that David McCanles' brother James was a Southern sympathiser and had tried to persuade Hickok to join him and turn over the stage company's stock. After Hickok's refusal James threatened to kill him and it was later that afternoon that David and three others arrived with the intention of carrying out the threat.

In 1883 D.M. Kelsey published Our Pioneer Heroes and Their Daring Deeds which contained a biography for "Wild Bill" based on Hickok's own accounts. Hickok claimed he had killed six of the ten members of the McCanles Gang who had rushed in after using a log to batter the station door down, including two in a knife fight after he was wounded.

"I remember that one of them struck me with his gun, and I got hold of a knife, and then I got kind o' wild like, and it was all cloudy, and I struck savage blows, following the devils up from one side of the room to the other and into the corners, striking and slashing until I knew every one was dead."

The remaining four attackers now fled, Hickok picked up a rifle and shot one dead (another later died of his wounds).

"All of a sudden, it seemed like my heart was on fire. I was bleeding everywhere. I rushed out to the well and drank from the bucket, and then tumbled down in a faint."

The dead, according to Hickok, included David McCanles's brothers James and Jack LeRoy McCanles however, according to records Jack LeRoy McCanles was still alive in 1883 and was a "good citizen" of Florence, Colorado.

The story as told by the son of David McCanles, William Monroe McCanles appeared in the Fairbury Journal of September 25, 1930. Monroe maintained that it had been Wellman who shot his father and stated that he had gone with his father to the station to collect money, and that they had been unarmed:

"Probably the motive for killing was fear. Father had told Mrs. Wellman to tell her husband to come out. The Wellmans were the folks who lived there and kept the station. She said he wouldn't and father said if he wouldn't come out he would go in and drag him out. I think rather than be man-handled, he killed father".

Legacy

Another son of David Colbert McCanles, Julius McCandless, was the father of Commodore Byron McCandless

Byron McCandless

Commodore Byron McCandless was a longtime U.S. Navy officer who was awarded the Navy Cross during World War I and the Legion of Merit during World War II. He was also prominent in the field of vexillology , and helped design two separate versions of the Flag of the President of the United States...

 (United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

), recipient of the Navy Cross

Navy Cross

The Navy Cross is the highest decoration that may be bestowed by the Department of the Navy and the second highest decoration given for valor. It is normally only awarded to members of the United States Navy, United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard, but can be awarded to all...

 in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

; David's great-grandson was Rear Admiral Bruce McCandless

Bruce McCandless

Bruce McCandless I was an officer of United States Navy who received the Medal of Honor during World War II for his heroism on board the , during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, November 13, 1942. He retired with the rank of Rear Admiral...

 (also USN), recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...

 in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and his great-great-grandson is Captain Bruce McCandless II

Bruce McCandless II

Bruce McCandless II is a former naval aviator with the United States Navy and former NASA astronaut. During the first of his two Space Shuttle missions he made the first ever untethered free flight, using the Manned Maneuvering Unit.-Education:McCandless is the son of Bruce McCandless, a decorated...

 (also USN), a now-retired NASA astronaut

Astronaut

An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....

 who made the first untethered spacewalk.