After two and a half months, McWaters deserted and returned to his home territory. He resumed bushwhacking and started courting Jennie Mayfield of Vernon County, one of the Mayfield sisters of “bushwhacker belle” fame. Legend holds that McWaters accompanied William Quantrill during his infamous 1863 sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, and that he later rode with Bloody Bill Anderson, but these claims cannot be verified.
After the war, McWaters continued his outlawry. He was implicated in the March 1867 murder of Vernon County sheriff Joseph Bailey, and later that year, he got into a wild gunfight with a posse that was trying to arrest him at Humansville. Described at the time as “a daring desperado” and “an expert with his revolvers,” McWaters escaped unscathed.
McWaters fled to Nebraska, where he married Susie Davis at Otoe in December 1868. McWaters was still living at Otoe in mid-January 1873 when he and two other men assaulted Assistant Postmaster Wolf in the neighboring village of Wyoming. When an officer tried to arrest McWaters a few days later, gunplay erupted. McWaters wounded the officer and killed Wolf, who was assisting in the arrest. A report of the incident said McWaters had been a terror in Otoe County since he'd lived there.
McWaters escaped but was arrested in Kansas City in early May and taken back to Nebraska. At his September murder trial, he was found not guilty, because it was shown that Wolf shot and slightly wounded McWaters before McWaters killed Wolf.
McWaters went back home to his wife, but he soon got in trouble again. In February 1874, he and John Crook went into a saloon in Nebraska City, the Otoe County seat, in a drunken state and started raising hell. McWaters pulled out his revolver and opened fire, mortally wounding the bartender, Rudolph Wirth. Described as “a noted character and dangerous man,” McWaters and his sidekick were tracked to Iowa and brought back to Nebraska City, where they barely escaped lynching at the hands of a mob.
On April 10, 1874, the desperate pair escaped the Nebraska City jail and fled south. In Kansas, the two split up. McWaters was recognized at Hays City and placed in the local jail, but he quickly escaped from that place, too. He then ranged back into southern Nebraska, barely avoiding recapture before heading west.
About October 1, McWaters killed George Weed "without...provocation” in Sparta, Oregon. He hightailed it to California, where he was arrested in late October for the Weed murder. Before he could be returned to Oregon, the Otoe County sheriff arrived with requisition papers, and McWaters was escorted back to Nebraska City to stand trial for killing Wirth.
He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to twenty-one years in the state penitentiary. At the time of his conviction, a Nebraska City correspondent wrote a story detailing the many exploits of the “terrible McWaters,” which subsequently appeared in newspapers across the country. Although much of the report was accurate, it also contained a number of fabrications and half-truths that became part of the McWaters legend.
What the writer didn’t know was that McWaters’s exploits were hardly over. On January 11, 1875, just three weeks after arriving at the state prison in Lincoln, McWaters led a mutiny that nearly resulted in a large-scale prison break. After an all-night standoff, he and the other prisoners finally agreed to surrender.
Four and a half months later, in late May 1875, McWaters was killed by a guard when he attempted to instigate another prison revolt. Thus ended the infamous career of the terrible McWaters, “noted murderer, desperado and horse thief,” as a Lincoln newspaper called him at the time of his death.
This is a condensed and revised version of an article I wrote for the October 2020 issue of Wild West Magazine.
After the war, McWaters continued his outlawry. He was implicated in the March 1867 murder of Vernon County sheriff Joseph Bailey, and later that year, he got into a wild gunfight with a posse that was trying to arrest him at Humansville. Described at the time as “a daring desperado” and “an expert with his revolvers,” McWaters escaped unscathed.
McWaters fled to Nebraska, where he married Susie Davis at Otoe in December 1868. McWaters was still living at Otoe in mid-January 1873 when he and two other men assaulted Assistant Postmaster Wolf in the neighboring village of Wyoming. When an officer tried to arrest McWaters a few days later, gunplay erupted. McWaters wounded the officer and killed Wolf, who was assisting in the arrest. A report of the incident said McWaters had been a terror in Otoe County since he'd lived there.
McWaters escaped but was arrested in Kansas City in early May and taken back to Nebraska. At his September murder trial, he was found not guilty, because it was shown that Wolf shot and slightly wounded McWaters before McWaters killed Wolf.
McWaters went back home to his wife, but he soon got in trouble again. In February 1874, he and John Crook went into a saloon in Nebraska City, the Otoe County seat, in a drunken state and started raising hell. McWaters pulled out his revolver and opened fire, mortally wounding the bartender, Rudolph Wirth. Described as “a noted character and dangerous man,” McWaters and his sidekick were tracked to Iowa and brought back to Nebraska City, where they barely escaped lynching at the hands of a mob.
On April 10, 1874, the desperate pair escaped the Nebraska City jail and fled south. In Kansas, the two split up. McWaters was recognized at Hays City and placed in the local jail, but he quickly escaped from that place, too. He then ranged back into southern Nebraska, barely avoiding recapture before heading west.
About October 1, McWaters killed George Weed "without...provocation” in Sparta, Oregon. He hightailed it to California, where he was arrested in late October for the Weed murder. Before he could be returned to Oregon, the Otoe County sheriff arrived with requisition papers, and McWaters was escorted back to Nebraska City to stand trial for killing Wirth.
He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to twenty-one years in the state penitentiary. At the time of his conviction, a Nebraska City correspondent wrote a story detailing the many exploits of the “terrible McWaters,” which subsequently appeared in newspapers across the country. Although much of the report was accurate, it also contained a number of fabrications and half-truths that became part of the McWaters legend.
What the writer didn’t know was that McWaters’s exploits were hardly over. On January 11, 1875, just three weeks after arriving at the state prison in Lincoln, McWaters led a mutiny that nearly resulted in a large-scale prison break. After an all-night standoff, he and the other prisoners finally agreed to surrender.
Four and a half months later, in late May 1875, McWaters was killed by a guard when he attempted to instigate another prison revolt. Thus ended the infamous career of the terrible McWaters, “noted murderer, desperado and horse thief,” as a Lincoln newspaper called him at the time of his death.
This is a condensed and revised version of an article I wrote for the October 2020 issue of Wild West Magazine.
2 comments:
He was my great-grandmother's uncle.
Also, I have a copy of your Wild West article.
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