More on Morris: "Fatty Gray"

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The gold miners

Back on May 18, 2010 I reported that there was a small omission from my book sources regarding the death of John H. "Fatty Gray" Morris in a saloon in Murray, Utah. Fellow gang member Henry "Yank Fewclothes" Edwards mentioned in a 1914 newspaper interview that Morris had "died with his boots on" in Murray, Utah. The fact that these men wrote many letters to one another tells me that Edwards probably received word via letter of Morris' death.

I found the following sources and they will be included in the second edition along with any new information found on Morris.

1.) Shortly afterward [1896] came news that the surly “Fatty” Gray had also come to an untimely end, slain in a lowly saloon row in Murray, Utah. Intoxicated himself, Gray chose to quarrel with a harmless-appearing “bar fly,” whose resentment took the form of a quick draw and a shot from the hip, which pierced Gray’s heart. (The Reign of Soapy Smith, Collier & Westrate, p. 209)

2.) The old gang was breaking up. Doc Baggs and Canada Bill long since had departed. Fatty Gray had gone to Utah, where he was killed in a gun fight at Murray. (Soapy Smith: King of the Frontier Con Men, Robertson and Harris, p. 149.)

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