"DIAMOND L. SLIM"

The great state of Wyoming has many stories that bring the old west to life.  One of those stories was told to me by an eye witness.
When living in Newcastle, the County Seat of Weston County, I was privileged to live neighbors to someone who could remember when her father was killed by the Indians.  Her father was Billy Mitchell, known as the "Martyred sheriff of Weston County".  It was in the Fall of 1903 and the Sioux Indians had left the reservation to steal cattle in the County at a place known as Lance Creek.  The Sheriff formed a Posse and went after them and in the ensuing fight was wounded and bleed to death.  But that is only part of the story.
In the early Spring of that year A ranch couple were murdered by their hired hand, Wm. L. Clifton, known as "Diamond L. Slim" after the ranch he worked on.  He was tracked down and jailed in Gillette.  The Sheriff feared that mob action would take "Slim" so he took him to Newcastle, some 70 miles away.  President Roosevelt happened to be traveling the West and was in Newcastle at the time and for his safety he was moved out of town.  It was May 27, 1903.
In those days the Sheriff's quarters were above the jail.  My friend and her sister were watching through the hole in the floor which allowed the Sheriff to check on prisoners when the mob invaded the jail and held him at gunpoint while they took Diamond L. Slim to the railroad bridge, put a rope around his neck, and at his request, gave him a "long drop".  As the story goes the long drop jerked his head off.  Lore has it that the undertaker attached his head on backwards and put him on public display.  One might assume that costs to the County were minimal!...Medicienman!