How a Dog Survived a Drunken Gunslinger's Bullets

Step back in time to the dusty, lawless streets of Dodge City, Kansas as we unravel the enigmatic legend of "Mysterious" Dave Mathers over glasses of Knob Creek bourbon. Few characters in Western lore earned their nicknames more honestly than Mathers, whose life story combines gunfights, peculiar behavior, and ultimately, a disappearance that sealed his place in frontier mythology.

We trace Mathers' journey from his early days as a horse thief running with Dave Rudabaugh to his arrival in Dodge City around 1874. After surviving a near-fatal knife attack and forming an unusual business relationship with local physician Dr. Thomas McCarty, Mathers embarked on a colorful career that regularly blurred the line between lawman and outlaw. You'll hear the hilarious tale of "the conversion of Dave Mather," where he exposed a preacher's congregation as hypocrites with a well-placed gunshot, and discover his unique method for testing his sobriety—shooting at the town fire bell after leaving saloons.

The heart of our story follows Mathers through his time with the notorious "Dodge City Gang" in Las Vegas, New Mexico, his return to Dodge as assistant marshal, and his fateful, escalating feud with town founder Tom Nixon. Their rivalry over politics, business competition, and a woman culminated in one of Dodge City's most telling shootouts—where Mathers killed Nixon with four bullets and walked away free on self-defense claims, despite the shooting occurring weeks after Nixon's initial attempt on his life.

What happened to Mysterious Dave after that deadly encounter? Like many aspects of his life, his ultimate fate remains shrouded in mystery—a fitting end for a man whose very nickname acknowledged the enigma of his existence. Join us for this captivating glimpse into frontier justice, personalities, and the complex moral code that governed the American West.

Transcript

Introduction to Whiskey Westerns Wednesday

Speaker 1 0:00

Here we go again. I demand more, I want it, I need it and I'm gonna have it. This pod show is pleased to bring you Whiskey Westerns on Wednesday, direct from Dodge City, kansas, featuring rich topics on the legends of the old west. Whiskey to motivate Westerns to inspire Get it, play it, drink it.

Knob Creek Whiskey Tasting

Speaker 2 0:41

Welcome everyone to the Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday pod show. My name is Mike King. I am the producer and writer of Wild West podcast. Today we, as it relates to a legend of Dodge City, I have with me Brad Smalley. Brad is the narrator of the Wild West podcast and a true historian of the early days of Dodge City. Before we get started with our show, I would like to thank all of our dedicated listeners. Each and every one of you has made this show a popular release, especially for those who love the stories of the Old West. Our worldwide listener loyalty is much appreciated, allowing us to continue to climb the podcasting charts to over 13,500 visitors. Brad, what whiskey have you selected for us on this episode of Whiskey and Westerns on Wednesday?

Speaker 3 1:48

Well, mike, today we've got nothing short of just a classic Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, your friend and my old Knob Creek Knob.

Speaker 2 1:57

Creek. Ah. So tell me, well, before we do a taste test on this. Well, before we do a taste test on this, there must have been a reason why you selected Knob Creek for tonight's story.

Speaker 3 2:10

Well, simply put, Mike, you and I are gentlemen who enjoy drinking whiskey.

Speaker 1 2:16

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 2:17

And there's another fella in Old Dodge who enjoyed drinking whiskey and his name was Mysterious Dave Mathers.

Speaker 2 2:24

Mysterious Dave Mathers. Now, mysterious must have something behind it, so we'll talk about that, but what I want to do right now is let's take this Knob Creek to a test, absolutely.

Speaker 3 2:38

Well, I should lead out Knob Creek. It's one of those. There's four of the small batch collection that comes from Beam Suntory put out by Jim Beam. Fred Noe, master distiller man, knows what he's doing. Knob Creek is one of them. Then there's three more Basil Hayden's Booker's I can't remember Baker's, Baker's okay, I want to camera them. Bakers, Bakers that's it Okay, okay. Bookers, bakers, candlestick makers and Basil Hayden.

Speaker 2 3:10

It almost sounds like.

Speaker 3 3:12

Knob Creek. Just to break the alliteration, it's a good, good whiskey, 100 proof. Used to be. It doesn't come with An age statement anymore. But If you have an old bottle Sitting around, maybe For you drinking at home Used to be, it doesn't come with an age statement anymore. But if you have an old bottle sitting around, maybe for you drinking at home, it used to be age nine years. They took the age statement off of that two, three years ago Now because there was actually a shortage of Knob Creek. That actually tells you how good it is. They just couldn't keep it in. So they worked real hard to keep that same flavor profile profile. But there's whiskeys in here that aren't necessarily there. Might be a little younger than nine, might be a little older than nine, but the overall age is about nine.

Speaker 1 3:56

They just take the label off.

Speaker 2 3:59

But you know, when you taste it you're thinking you're tasting nine years.

Speaker 3 4:02

Well, speaking of flavor profile, I tell you we discussed this earlier and I've had arguments over this more than once and I'm telling you you taste that and I swear to God, mike, you get red, ripe gala apples dipped in peanut butter.

Speaker 2 4:21

Okay, all right. So what I'm going to need to do, then, is take a sip of this and tell you whether or not I'm going to taste the red apple and a little bit of peanut butter Right on the front of your tongue.

Speaker 3 4:35

Okay, here we go. A little bit of peanut butter.

Speaker 2 4:37

You see what I'm getting at Well, I get the red apple, but I'm not getting the peanut butter.

Speaker 3 4:42

Well, it's all subjective.

Speaker 2 4:45

It's about apple, but I'm not getting the peanut butter. Well, it's, it's all subjective, okay. Well, let me take another shot here, because I definitely want to see if I get that peanut butter taste but uh, more more fun than that.

Speaker 3 4:52

After you've you've had a taste, go back there and just nose that a little bit and it becomes real rich. Uh, maple syrup yeah, it does.

Origins of Mysterious Dave Mathers

Speaker 2 5:01

Yeah, I got to make this maple syrup on the initial nose.

Speaker 3 5:05

It's a lot more than just that whiskey soaked oak it's, it's 100 proof you're, you're definitely we better slow down on the peanut butter.

Speaker 2 5:14

Then we gotta show we gotta we might want to have a sandwich too.

Speaker 3 5:17

I'm thinking, yeah, he's up on it all right.

Speaker 2 5:19

So all right, now we've got a taste test done. I'm saying that I haven't even got to the peanut butter part here, but at least I know that there's a little red apple in there and some maple syrup. So all right, let's talk about this mysterious Dave Mathers.

Speaker 3 5:38

One of my favorite fellows in old Dodge. I mean a lot of these guys, you know they had their nicknames, like you know Dirty Dave, rudabaugh, shotgun Collins. Everybody had a nickname, so to speak, mysterious. Dave was aptly named. He was mysterious for a reason.

Speaker 2 6:00

Was that because he had a mysterious personality? Or was that because he was just kind of recluse and sat in the back of the room in a dark corner somewhere?

Speaker 3 6:10

Well, he definitely wasn't sitting in a dark corner. He tended to be the fellow that would be out there on the boardwalk leaning back in his chair with his foot up on one of the awning posts. Matter of fact, there's a very well-known painting of Dave Mather in that exact position. A lot of folks who knew him said he was often could be seen sitting like that. But very little is actually known about Dave Mather. We know where he was born, we know when he was born. We know who his parents were. There are stories that he may have been descended from Cotton Mather.

Speaker 2 6:47

He liked that story. In fact he says to him I think he told that story himself. Oh, he did.

Speaker 3 6:54

I'm from a descendant of the Mather family, and they did come from New England, so I'm inclined to accept that as true. But then everybody with the last name of Mather in that part of the country also claimed to be descended from Cotton Mather. So whether it is or whether it not really doesn't have any bearing on his career from that point.

Speaker 2 7:12

Would it have any bearing on his personality?

Speaker 3 7:16

Well, he definitely liked to be top dog, okay, so he was kind of a show-off. Then he wanted to be known, have the reputation. Not that he necessarily worked that hard at it, it just sort of came natural to it. But really the only things that we can set in concrete about Dave Mather's life and career is much of the time that he spent in Dodge City, a little bit in Las Vegas, nevada, and then of course back to Dodge. But beyond that we can get to this later. But Dave is one of the guys he just sort of disappeared from the pages of history.

Speaker 2 7:56

So that's where you get the name Mysterious Dave. I'll see. So. He was very mysterious all in his entire life, and what I'm thinking is, down toward the end of our story, there's going to be a mystery there too. Oh, absolutely All right. So let's start out with some of the legends of Dave Mathers and some of the stories that have been told around Dodge about this character Dave Mathers mysterious.

Speaker 3 8:26

Dave Mathers. Well, as best as we can guess, a lot of this is just hearsay, if not heresy. We have Dave in Dodge, at least by 1874, some guess even prior to that, 1974, some guess even prior to that. We know that he became good friends with Dr Thomas McCarty of early Dodge who was the only legitimate physician and one of the earliest settlers of Dodge City. As the story goes, dave, who had arrived in Dodge sort of on the run, he'd been involved with a horse thievery operation down in Arkansas with Dave Rudabaugh, milton Yarbury.

Speaker 2 9:11

Some of the good guys of the Wild West. Yeah, yeah, rudabaugh. Okay, that's another story to be told.

Speaker 3 9:17

Rudabaugh comes and goes throughout just about everyone's story.

Speaker 2 9:20

But he's involved in wrestling and stealing horses.

Speaker 3 9:24

He was a horse thief. There was a big horse thief ring.

Speaker 2 9:27

That's a hanging offense in the West, wasn't it? Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3 9:31

Absolutely, and that was in.

Speaker 2 9:32

Arkansas. So he got the heck out of Arkansas From.

Speaker 3 9:35

Arkansas all the way up through Nebraska. Dodge was kind of a linchpin in that he was running with a pretty big crew Of horse thieves, Of horse thieves, Of horse thieves. Absolutely that's how Bat Masterson got famous actually in his lawman career tracking down horse thieves, All right. So once he arrived in Dodge City, sort of on the run, he had gotten in a scrape in the Dodge House Hotel. Apparently he just got slashed right through his gut. Somebody just took a knife to him, so he got a big bellyache. He got one hell of a bellyache and dr mccarty reportedly saved his life. At least that's what mather claimed. And during the time that mather spent in dodge city over the years, he and he made a deal with dr mccarty that he would send and occasionally pressure anybody to go and see Dr McCarty for their medical needs. There are rumors, of course, that he may have even caused some of the injuries that they needed to go see Dr McCarty for.

Speaker 2 10:40

It was more of a persuasive kind of thing. I'm going to hit you over the head with my pistol and now you go see the doctor.

Speaker 3 10:47

He definitely felt that he owed Dr McCarty and they maintained a good relationship over the years. They were business partners, you could call it that. That was as legitimate a business in early Dodge as anything was.

Speaker 2 11:02

Okay, all right, I conk them out out and you fix them up well, that's again.

The Conversion of Dave Mather

Speaker 3 11:08

That's one of those we don't have any concrete evidence for, but that story had been told so often by the people who, who that we can trust and, and you know, had legitimate reasons for for not lying about that sort of thing. I tend to believe that that's one of the true stories about Dave. Another one, and it's one of my favorites, and this story has been told and retold so many times over the years. I just love it. I affectionately refer to it as the conversion of Dave Mather.

Speaker 2 11:41

Oh, so I hear this one coming. It's kind of like we're getting some religion here, right? Is that what's happening here as?

Speaker 3 11:51

much as they could.

Speaker 2 11:52

Okay, so we've got some conversion of Dave Mather.

Speaker 3 11:55

Dodge was sort of a goal for a lot of the missionaries over the years. If you were out to bring Christ to Dodge City and you could survive your attempt, there was nothing you couldn't do.

Speaker 2 12:13

There may have been some funding going on for that. Oh, entirely possible.

Speaker 3 12:18

But there were a couple of legitimate ministers who did finally set up shop in Dodge. Most of them who came through were just itinerant tent preachers trying to have a revival sort of thing. Well, one of these preachers sort of he set up shop. He really wanted to make it big. He was seeing some success, sort of a hellfire, brimstone type guy, holy roller, he was getting people falling all over him, feeling like he was really doing a good job bringing religion to Dodgson.

Speaker 2 12:49

So he was getting a good following. There was a large crowd. There was people that were actually coming to church and listening to his revivals and saving a lot of souls.

Speaker 3 13:01

Well, this preacher man sort of got himself a big head over the deal. His success went to his head is what I'm trying to say and he thought that if he had all these folks going, he said the biggest sinner in Dodge City that he thought he could single out was Dave.

Speaker 2 13:18

Madden. Okay, so what you're telling me is the preacher's got a big head now and he's singling out mysterious Dave, Dave Mather. Oh my, this is headed in the wrong direction.

Speaker 3 13:34

I can already see, but go ahead. He figures that it would be a feather in his cap if he could bring a man like Dave Mather to the Lord. And he made it very well known all over town. He says we're going to get Dave Mather to the Lord. And he made it very well known all over town Says we're going to get Dave Mather, we're going to get him to come to church and we're going to save his soul and Dave Mather's going to be right with the Lord and you're just going to see a change in that man. And it was getting so big all over town that Dave finally just decided to take the preacher up on his offer and attend a service.

Speaker 2 14:08

So he sent out his congregation as what it sounds like to me to recruit Dave Mathers to come to church.

Speaker 3 14:16

It got to the point where Dave just didn't really have a choice. I mean, he could continue to ignore it, but that wasn't going to change, it was only going to get worse.

Speaker 2 14:25

The townspeople were pretty much just pestering the hell out of him.

Speaker 3 14:29

They were, they were. If not him, he was hearing it around the streets. The man has got a reputation to uphold. So, dave, being the man that he was, he decided to attend a service and when they saw him coming, of course he got to place an honor, ushered him excuse me right up the center aisle, gave him a spot right in front of the pulpit on the right hand side and preacher man started preaching right to Dave.

Speaker 2 14:57

And I guess at that point in time he took his position on the bench with his feet up on the pew.

Speaker 3 15:06

He may well have. I can see him in that. I've just added to the story Now. I can definitely see him doing that. But there he sits, preachers preaching right to Dave, getting all up in a fury. He's got the whole crowd with their hands in the air. And finally the preacher he lays it on the line, says if a man like Dave Mather will accept Christ today, says there is nothing else on earth that I will be able to achieve in the Lord's work and I'll just be ready to die right today and go straight to heaven. If only I'll get to go riding along with Dave Mather. And of course, the rest of the congregation just jumps up and they're all screaming yes, yes, absolutely. We're willing to lay down our lives right now just to support Dave Mather and his conversion. And Dave was moved, he was touched.

Speaker 2 16:00

So he got out of his position on the bench on the pier.

Speaker 3 16:03

He got up. He got up, went up to the pulpit, turned around and addressed the congregation and he was very moved. It was their motions were running, running hot and heavy and he thanked the preacher. He wasn't all teary-eyed, was he? I don't know that Dave really had any tear dives, hard telling but I mean, he was somewhat emotional.

Speaker 2 16:31

He was very grateful. He was grateful for the fact that he could come up in front of the whole congregation.

Speaker 3 16:39

Oh yes, there are plenty of witnesses to this and he thanked him from the bottom of his heart. He said that he was just so deeply moved by their willingness to lay down their lives just for him, and he was so touched that he knew the Lord had spoken to his heart and Dave was ready to go. However, however, he knew himself and he had a terrible fear of backsliding. He says, even though I believe my sins as of this point are completely forgiven, I'm ready to die and go to heaven right now. I believe that.

Speaker 2 17:15

Okay, but I know me.

Speaker 1 17:16

I know myself as soon as I walk out the tent.

Speaker 3 17:18

It says Dave, I'm going to walk right back into my sinful ways.

Speaker 3 17:22

He was fearful then he was fearful of that walk right back into my sinful ways. He was fearful then. He was fearful of that. And he says that because of that, because I have such a terrible fear of backsliding that if I am going to enter the Lord's presence, I need to do it right now, today, before I walk out of this tent, and because I am so grateful to each and every one of you here in this congregation for your willingness to take this journey with me. I'm going to have to just do it.

Speaker 3 17:48

And he pulls his gun and turns around and fires a shot right past the reverend's ear and people start ducking, they freak out, yelling, they're ducking out the tents, running hiding behind the pulpits, hiding under their pews, running hither and thither and yon. Tension is high. And Dave stands there with his gun in his hand and says you, sons of bees, are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. You're not willing to die with me at all. And that's just all there is to that. And that was the last of the preacher man in Dodge City.

Speaker 2 18:21

So nobody would take Dave Mather's challenge then.

Speaker 3 18:25

Nobody took him up on it. Bunch of hypocrites.

Speaker 2 18:28

I'll tell you what. That is why you call him Mysterious Dave, all right. Well, I tell you what before we go on. My ice is getting a little thin, all right, so let's help ourselves to another little bit of knob.

Speaker 3 18:45

Pull a cork here, see if we can get that. Oh yeah, I don't know. I don't know if they heard that or not. That's a good sound there.

Speaker 1 18:53

Yep.

Speaker 3 18:53

Thank you, sir.

Speaker 2 18:59

I will add a little bit to my glass as well. Okay, in celebration of mysterious dave mathers, we're doing a little bit of knob creek here, and the reason why we're doing the knob creek is because dave was a known whiskey drinker.

Dave's Unconventional Sobriety Test

Speaker 3 19:09

He liked a good drink as much as anybody, probably more than most. A matter of fact, during also during his time in Dodge City, in compliance with common practice and the ordinance, when he entered a saloon, he would fork his guns over to the bartender and when he got done, ready to leave, he'd take them back and go out. Well, dave was a responsible man and got himself a system Whenever he was ready to leave the saloon, got his guns back from the bartender, he would walk outside and fire a shot at the fire bell hanging off the building across the street.

Speaker 2 19:52

Did it alert the fire department?

Speaker 3 19:55

Just to see if he could hit it. It was just one of those shots.

Speaker 2 19:58

Am I vision good or is it bad, or am I?

Speaker 3 20:01

shots. Good, he figured, if he could hit the bell and hear it ring, then he was sober enough. If he couldn't hit the bell, it was time to stop drinking and go home, gotcha. Okay, well, it was like one of those sobriety tests that you get from the highway patrol. Well, a little bit more fun than theirs. You know, my dad was a trooper. I'm going to try that out.

Speaker 2 20:30

On the Smokies out there he could be going down now as the inventor of that test, the field sobriety test, the field sobriety test. Yeah, field sobriety test.

Speaker 3 20:39

That's a good one. We'll have to add that. All right, but we've talked about Luke McGlue in the past and all the practical jokes that Luke liked to play. Well, this one evening this particular bartender in question was part of the Luke McGlue crowd. This particular bartender in question was part of the Luke McGrew crowd and he decided that it would be a fun idea to while Dave was drinking, he took Dave's guns and loaded them with blanks. So after another couple hours, Dave was deciding that maybe it's time to go home. He takes his gun back from the bartender, heads on out the front door and levels his six-shooter at the bell across the street. Pulls the trigger. Gun goes bang, but there's no ding on the bell. Tries it again Gun goes bang, doesn't hit the bell. Tries it again Gun goes bang, Doesn't hit the bell. Dave decides he's too drunk, he can't hit the bell. It's time to go home, Of course, again, still not knowing he's got blank in his gun.

Speaker 2 21:48

You know that's kind of bad on the bartenders back end of that because he's not selling any more whiskey to Mysterious Dave. Are you kidding? It's more than worth. More whiskey to Mysterious Dave, Are you kidding?

Speaker 3 21:58

It's more than worth just getting a laugh on Dave Madden. That's worth any price.

Speaker 2 22:03

Okay, so it's not about economics, it's really about the humor of the story. So he's now got blanks in his guns, he's shot at the bell, he's missed each time, and so now what happens?

Speaker 3 22:15

Dave just feels that he's drunk and depressed and he's just going to head home for the evening. Well, he starts to get a little bit upset with himself because that's the first time he'd ever missed the bell. He's never shot at it and missed it.

Speaker 2 22:31

He's never missed the bell yet, oh my goodness, it must have been a big bell, or a small bell, or what Dave was a good shot, a good shot.

Speaker 3 22:44

Drunk bell. Yet, oh my goodness, she must have been a big bell or a small bell or what. Dave was a good shot. A good shot drunk or sober man was a good shot. So by by the time he heads down a couple of blocks down the street, dave is starting to get pretty irritated and he sees just a dog start crossing the street out in front of him, comes around the corner of the building and dave just, I mean, he wasn't necessarily a bad guy, but he was drunk and he was irritated and the dog was in his way and he took a shot at it and didn't hit the dog either I must have thought he'd gone blind, fired two, or three more shots still couldn't hit the dog point blank.

Speaker 3 23:16

Not only could. Or three more shots Still couldn't hit the dog Point blank. Not only could he not hit the bell, he couldn't hit a full grown dog, almost point blank range.

Speaker 2 23:25

So he retired his guns that point in time.

Speaker 3 23:28

Well, he freaked out a little bit. Dave was. I don't necessarily know if he was a superstitious man, but seeing that dog completely immune to his bullets, it was a little bit too much for Drunken Dave and he worried over that for two or three weeks.

Speaker 2 23:46

He must have had a little bit of knob creek that night, perhaps All right. So now we got him with the preacher, you got him with shooting a dog and a bell. We call him Mysterious Dave, but I'm wondering how in the world did he get involved with the Dodge City Gang?

Speaker 3 24:17

involved with the Dodge City gang. Well, dave again was one of those fellas that was just as happy on either side of the law. He tended towards wearing a badge because that gave him legitimacy. But it didn't change his personality one iota whether he was wearing a badge or not. He still wanted to be top dog. He still had his reputation.

Speaker 3 24:42

Even if he couldn't shoot a dog. He wanted to be top dog. Yeah, you're right, he had his reputation and he didn't want to lose it. Who does? But his first real lawman job, so to speak, that we know of came in 1879, when he was deputized by Bat Masterson, along with a whole bunch of other guys John Joshua Webb, dave Rudabaugh he's back again Guys like Ken Shreiley even Doc Holliday was roped into this.

Speaker 2 25:17

So the enforcers are back in town. The enforcers.

Speaker 3 25:21

there was a group of railroaders they're called the Railroad Wars really, just to put a finer point on it. There was two different railroads that were climbing right-of-way through the Royal Gorge in Colorado.

Speaker 3 25:36

Railroad conflict going on here Absolute railroad conflict and it got pretty bad to a point where they started hiring gunmen and Bat Masterson, who was not only sheriff of Ford County at that point but was also a United States federal marshal, was brought in, said you hire as many deputies as you can get your hands on and we're going to go intimidate the other guys. And they did. There was quite the standoff and they wound up lost, but the important thing is they were well paid.

Speaker 2 26:13

So he went up there, got well paid, joined law enforcement at that point Right, and I guess he kind of liked the idea of wearing a badge. He did, got a handle on it, liked the power so you could swing your gun and be legal about it.

The Dodge City Gang

Speaker 3 26:28

Absolutely so. After the railroad conflict was settled, a bunch of these guys decided that no, they'd done about everything they could do in Dodge City and several of them went down to Las Vegas, new Mexico, and set up shop down there, and very shortly they had completely taken over the town. Dave was a constable down there, hoodoo Brown from Dodge was, oh, our old Hoodoo Brown the buffalo hunter, our old friend Hoodoo Brown.

Speaker 2 27:01

He shows up down in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Speaker 3 27:03

Yep, he was Justice of the Peace down there.

Speaker 2 27:06

I didn't know he was that smart you didn't have to be smart Judge. Roy Bean. He just picked up a buck and said I'm the judge.

Speaker 3 27:15

All they needed was numbers and guns and they had them Completely taken over the town, the politics, the law, all the legalities. They were running the place. And because everybody knew where they were from, all these guys had been from Dodge City, even down in Las Vegas, new Mexico. They were called the Dodge City Gang.

Speaker 2 27:33

So their reputation followed them, their reputation preceded them, preceded them, preceded them. And so the legends followed Absolutely, and so here they are.

Speaker 3 27:46

They took over Las Vegas, new Mexico. They're running the place down there. Dave himself was involved in at least one shootout killed a guy down in Las Vegas and at least one shootout killed a guy down in Las Vegas and it was just getting more than the town folks could handle. So they set up their own vigilante mob and ran them out Just about overnight. They put out an ordinance that says all you guys need to leave or there's going to be a shooting war. And these guys the Dodge City gang took it at face value and they set up shop and they just left.

Speaker 2 28:26

So where do they go from there?

Speaker 3 28:29

Oh, dave moves around. For a little bit Several of the guys came back to Dodge. A lot of them went around through Texas for a time. We're pretty sure that Daveave again spent some time, also over new mexico, but also around in texas. There's rumors that he and wyatt erp actually got involved in a scheme where they were selling fake gold bricks to make money down in mobidi our mob, our Mobiti story continues yeah old Mobiti, it just doesn't end, does it?

Speaker 3 29:01

That's another little nexus that keeps popping up, so he's down here selling gold bars. He's trying to Him, and again supposedly Wyatt Earp. They decide they're going to get a scheme. They're painting bricks gold and they're just— they're not real gold bars.

Speaker 2 29:16

No, of course not they didn't have any gold.

Speaker 3 29:18

They're painting. They're painting these bars Totally fraud. However they were doing it, it was pure fraud on their part. Fool's gold Problem is there weren't as many fools as they thought there might be and they got run out, didn't work, didn't make any money and over time, dave again winds up back in Dodge City.

Speaker 2 29:41

Okay, so he's back here in Dodge City. What year is that?

Speaker 3 29:45

Oh, by now we're talking 1880, 82, 83.

Speaker 2 29:50

By this point. Oh, that's the time of the Saloon Wars, absolutely, dave acquires.

Speaker 3 29:55

Does he get?

Speaker 2 29:55

called back by Luke Short, or does he just come back on his own? Dave's already there, okay.

Speaker 3 30:00

He's already there. Matter of fact, he is assistant marshal under Jack Bridges. Oh, he's got his marshal badge back. He's got the badge back on. He's liking that. I imagine Dave's a man of law. He starts to settle down just a little bit Not too much, mind you, but just a little bit. He invests in a saloon, a dance hall in town. He starts flirting around with Tom Nixon's wife Whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, just a second now.

Speaker 2 30:30

I know there's Tom Nixon's wife, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just a second now. I know this, tom Nixon. We talked about Tom Nixon the buffalo hunter. Tom Nixon the buffalo hunter, tom Nixon, was a settler in these parts, oh yeah, and he owns a ranch outside as early as 1868.

Speaker 3 30:43

Rancher saloon owner Tom Nixon was one of the oldest of the old timers.

Speaker 2 30:48

But Dave Mathers is trying to make in on his wife.

Speaker 3 30:53

Supposedly.

Speaker 2 30:54

Is this the second wife or the?

Speaker 3 30:56

first wife, tom Nixon's wife. Did he ever have two wives? I believe he did, but you know, I can't remember. I think it might be his second wife by this point.

Speaker 2 31:04

Okay, so he's moving in on the second wife. She's fairly young, she's quite a bit younger than Tom.

Speaker 3 31:09

Yeah, because he's been around here for a while oh yeah, Tom is not aged, but he's definitely seasoned.

Speaker 2 31:14

Dave is making a move on Tom Nixon's wife, dave had a thing for married women.

Speaker 3 31:23

I mean not the first time that he'd done that At this point in Dodge, not that marriage vows were necessarily all that constrictive, for several years.

Speaker 2 31:32

Some of them were like common law. Oh, many of them were like common law. They just kind of hooked up and said, yeah, you can sleep here tonight, absolutely.

Speaker 3 31:42

Tom in fact, although he was legitimately married and things started brewing back and forth, of course the saloon wars that Dave didn't play too big of a part in individually. But after that was all said and done, as we again, as we've talked about, through the saloon wars the politics in Dodge changed rapidly.

Speaker 2 32:07

Politics in Dodge has always been. They always changed rapidly. Yeah, they always always been they always changed rapidly.

Speaker 3 32:10

Yeah, they always changed rapidly. It was a swinging door. You were on one side of the fence or the other and you never stayed there for long. Well, jack Bridges, as marshal, was replaced by Bill Tillman as city marshal. Bill was on the opposite side of the Luke Short faction and Bill he actually. Now that he's city marshal, he can hire the people that he wants. He fires Dave Mather and hires his good buddy Tom Nixon.

Speaker 2 32:39

So now you've got a conflict going on with the wife and now you get fired and he gets your job as if.

Speaker 3 32:48

Oh, there has got to be some sore points brewing right now, as if Madden and Nixon needed anything else to fight about.

Speaker 2 32:54

Oh my, they're setting it all up.

Speaker 3 32:57

Well as this the politics changed. Dave, by all accounts, wasn't too put out with losing his badge. He still had his saloon to fall back, on which he did the Opera House Saloon, which was on the north side of the railroad tracks.

Speaker 2 33:12

It was on the good side of the track, Well yeah, the side of the track that follows the law.

Speaker 3 33:20

Not necessarily any more legal. Again, it goes back to how the laws were enforced, which?

Speaker 2 33:29

becomes the problem.

Speaker 3 33:32

Because while Dave is running the opera house, he starts to remodel it into a dance hall, getting more business going through there. Well, the problem is, tom Nixon is also involved at this point in the Lady Gay Saloon.

Speaker 2 33:51

Oh, here we go with another Lady, gay Saloon, on the south side of the railroad tracks in the sporting district.

Speaker 3 33:56

Wow, oh yeah, everybody owned Lady Gay.

Speaker 2 33:59

I mean, it's just like turned over a hundred times, lady Gay.

Speaker 3 34:03

Saloon in Dodge City caused more problems than any other barn. I would say Nice. In any other barn I would say Nice, I mean even the Long Branch, as famous as it has become. Even it wasn't as notable as the Lady Gay Sloan, Not even the Dodge House. But because of that rival faction, one side being on the other side of the political fence, they passed an ordinance Because, again, Nixon and his partner were friends with the people in power, Webster's and the reformers.

Speaker 2 34:39

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Conflict with Tom Nixon

Speaker 3 34:40

Well, they put out an ordinance that made it illegal to operate a dance hall in the city limits of Dodge City because they were trying to shut down Dave Mather. He was just starting, of course, the long, well-established dance hall of the Lady Gay that wasn't being shut down, it was the new ones.

Speaker 2 35:05

Okay, but that's the same thing that's happening to Luke Short at this time.

Speaker 3 35:09

Exactly the same, I mean it's Short at this time, exactly the same.

Speaker 2 35:10

I mean, it's almost like favoritism. Sure is, if I own a saloon and I'm on the right side of the fence, I can have my ladies.

Speaker 3 35:19

The only reason they're passing laws is to make people that they don't like illegal.

Speaker 2 35:23

I see so they wanted really to own all of the businesses in town, Right? Shutting down the competition, and so that would stir a man up. It did.

Speaker 3 35:34

And Dave. Again, he had weathered losing his badge pretty well. That's okay, but this was very pointed. He knew where this was going and he wasn't going to stand for it.

Speaker 2 35:46

So right now we're looking at strike three.

Speaker 3 35:50

Dave was done talking. So what he did is he lowered the price of beer to five cents. Every beer he was selling five cents, which undercut not only the lady gay but everybody else in town. Naturally. Five cent beer where's everybody going to go? They're going to Dave's Opera House.

Speaker 2 36:11

Right, that was a good move on his part.

Speaker 3 36:14

It was a wonderful move on his part. He was still making money hand over fist he was going to shut me down everywhere else.

Speaker 2 36:20

I mean, why not Offered beer for five cents?

Speaker 3 36:23

And of course that ticked off. The establishment of the Lady Gay Always comes back to politics in Dodge. So what they did is Nixon really started pressuring all of the local brewers and the wholesalers to stop selling beer to Dave Mather.

Speaker 2 36:46

So well-established citizen in Dodge and on the other side of the fence starts his political maneuvers.

Speaker 3 36:54

Problem is he had the power to do it and it was starting to work. They were putting the squeeze on Dave.

Speaker 2 37:00

That might have been strike four right there it was.

Speaker 3 37:03

They weren't even counting strikes anymore. It was. Somebody was about to round home and I'm talking to Pearly Gates kind- of oh, I can hear it coming. And it was getting hot hot between the two. Everybody in town knew it that sooner or later Dave Mather and Tom Nixon were going to come to blows. And finally Tom sees it coming and he knows the reputation that Dave has and Tom takes a shot at it.

Speaker 2 37:34

Tom Nixon takes a shot at Dave Mather.

Speaker 3 37:36

Tom Nixon takes a shot at Dave Mather.

Speaker 2 37:38

Okay, well, but he's, I mean he's got the upper hand. I mean, if you think about it, sure, he does, but he still takes a shot at him, Sure he does.

Speaker 3 37:49

Wow, sure he does, but he still takes a shot at him. Sure, he does, because this is not the high noon gunfight on either end of the street and waiting for the other fellow to pull first.

Speaker 2 37:58

It's in the back alleys in a shaded dark If you need to kill somebody.

Speaker 3 38:02

you need to do it. You just ambush them Because they're going to kill you. It wasn't necessarily an ambush.

Speaker 2 38:07

You knew it was coming, so you might as well just finish the business.

Speaker 3 38:11

That was the idea. Well, Tom missed. He grazed Dave. Tom was actually arrested. They posted bond.

Speaker 2 38:22

But Dave, Now the buffalo hunter actually missed. He missed a shot, that was his mistake.

Speaker 3 38:29

I would say that was absolutely his mistake, oh.

Speaker 2 38:33

I'm telling you, you don't miss a shot like that. When you got one, he paid for it. Oh, okay, he paid for it.

Speaker 3 38:39

Even though he was arrested, they posted bond. Dave didn't press charges against. Tom Ness, good guy, no, no, that's another plan. Tom Nixon, good guy, no, no, that's another plan. Dave didn't want Tom Nixon in jail. Dave wanted Tom Nixon out on the street open where he could keep an eye on him. Sure.

Speaker 3 39:01

And get his revenge when it became necessary. And just a few weeks later, sure enough, they were out in front of the Opera House Saloon. Tom Nixon was likely heading that way to check up on Mather. Mather knew he was coming, came up behind him in the street, whispered behind him just to make his presence aware. And while Tom Nixon is turning around to see who had spoken to him, Dave Mather pulls his gun and fires four shots.

Speaker 2 39:35

And I'm thinking this story he doesn't miss.

Speaker 3 39:39

Dave doesn't miss. One of the four bullets goes right through Tom Nixon's heart. He's dead before he hit the ground.

Speaker 2 39:47

Now, here's the kicker for you at the ground. Now here's the kicker. It's not kicking on Nixon's side because he's down on the ground, not kicking One of the most telling.

Final Showdown and Aftermath

Speaker 3 39:59

this story is one of the most definitive stories of Dodge City and how things operate, Because you've got a man who gunned down another man almost in the back.

Speaker 2 40:15

The tops, one of the top citizens of Dodge. City, Absolutely one of the leading citizens of Dodge City, one of the founders of Dodge City.

Speaker 3 40:23

Outright murdered in the street, four bullets while he was turning around starting, while his back was turned. And do you think Dave Mather was arrested?

Speaker 2 40:36

Well, I think, yeah, of course he was right.

Speaker 3 40:39

Well, he was, but it was a clear-cut case of self-defense. How was it self-defense? Because weeks earlier, tom had tried to shoot Dave Ah okay, tom had tried to shoot Dave, ah, okay, so that Tom had pulled the gun first.

Speaker 2 40:54

He must have had a really good lawyer.

Speaker 3 40:55

Everybody knew the judge. If Dave didn't shoot Tom, sooner or later Tom was going to shoot Dave.

Speaker 2 41:02

That was just a well-known Wow. So no matter who shot who at that point in time, it was going to be self defense.

Speaker 3 41:09

Dave got off scot-free.

Speaker 2 41:11

Everybody would have got off scot-free. Whoever shot who and killed who, they would have got off scot-free. This time it just happened to be Nixon.

Speaker 3 41:20

Had Nixon come back and shot Dave. I don't know that that would have worked the same way it may not. Because it was already the self-defense number.

Speaker 2 41:29

He had already planned the, already the self-defense. He'd already planned the killing, the assassination. You might be right. So maybe Nixon is better off where he was at that point in time, so he wouldn't have any more troubles after that.

Speaker 3 41:44

One of the great leading citizens of Dodge City is no more. Lady Gay goes up for sale and again we can tell no more. Lady Gay goes up for sale and again we can tell more stories of Lady Gay ad nauseum.

Show Closing and Announcements

Speaker 2 41:55

but Sorry, go ahead. Okay, I think that's it for now. Remember to check out all of our Wild West podcast shows on iTunes Podcast, spotify, any pod at Amazon or at wildwestpodcastbuzzsproutcom. We would like to conclude our show by thanking our sponsor, boothillproductionscom, and if you would like to sponsor our show, just send us an email at wildwestpodcast at gmailcom. We would like to conclude our show by reminding all of our listeners to check out upcoming digital bookstore by visiting bootheelproductionscom and select publications. The Battle of Cimarron is our newest digital book edition and can be preordered at Amazon dot com and will be soon available at iBook stores. Remember, as always, drink responsibly. Thanks for listening to our podcast. This podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribute non-commercial license. You can learn more about the legends of Dodge City by visiting our website at worldfamousgunfighterscom or visit us at boothillproductionscom. And I'm thinking that's the longest closing I've done thus far, probably.