Wild West Shooting Affray at Nixa

What the Springfield Leader-Democrat called "a genuine wild west shooting affray" occurred at Nixa, Missouri, on the night of Saturday, December 26, 1896. Twenty-four-year-old Ben Slay, who, according to the Leader-Democrat, had "an inclination to bulldoze the town in desperado fashion when he (got) drunk," went into Peter Adams's drugstore in an intoxicated state and commenced to "bully the crowd" that had gathered there to smoke and tell stories, even though he had no particular grievance against any of the men.
Slay then stepped just outside the door and flourished his revolver, daring anyone inside the store to follow him out. Finally proprietor Peter Adams went to the door with his pistol and ordered Slay to leave. He was backed up by Charles, John, and Harvey McConnell, who went to the door also in case any trouble started. The next thing anyone knew shots rang out. Who commenced shooting first was supposedly unknown, but by the time the shooting ceased, twenty or more rounds had been fired. Slay suffered three gunshot wounds, through the right breast, the left groin, and the right leg; and he was given little chance of surviving. Meanwhile, Charles McConnell retreated into the store with a wound to one arm. The whole affray last only about a minute.
Slay's wounds were dressed, and he was carried to his home in Nixa.
In reporting the incident, the Springfield newspaper noted that the Nixa trouble marked the third shooting affair Slay had been involved in. A few years earlier, he'd been shot almost to death by a man named John McClain, and just a three months before the most recent episode he'd been badly wounded by William Fought in another scrape at Nixa. The newspaper failed to mention that back in 1894 Slay had been charged with arson for burning down a barn near Billings.
A day or so after its initial report, the Leader-Democrat issued an update saying that Slay was improving and was expected to live after all. The newspaper also revised its earlier report to say that two McConnell boys and Pete Edwards were the three men who'd followed Slay to the door of the drugstore, with only one or two of them having revolvers. During the initial barrage of gunfire, Slay dropped his revolver and ran, but one of his pursuers picked it up and shot Slay twice more with his own gun.
One of the McConnells was arrested, but he was released upon his preliminary examination, when it was determined that he was acting in self defense.
Slay, contrary to expectation, did not recover but instead died from his wounds on January 21, 1897, not quite a month after the Nixa shootout. He was eulogized at the time as "the hero of several shooting scrapes in Christian County."