Pitched Gun Battle on the Streets of Thayer

   At Thayer (MO) about 6:00 a.m. on the morning of Friday, August 12, 1927, local constable Barney McCourtney parked his car on the town's main street across from Tony Gaw's White Kitchen Cafe. The lawman got out and was standing beside his automobile talking to another man when Gaw emerged from his place of business and came across the street to confront McCourtney, demanding that the two men needed to settle their differences. Exactly what led up to the confrontation is not altogether clear. 

   At least one report said the feud between McCourtney and Gaw dated back at least several months when Gaw had opposed McCourtney's election as township constable, while another traced the dispute to McCourtney's arrest of Gaw some time previously. Regardless of how longstanding the feud was, the best evidence indicates that the immediate cause of the confrontation was an incident that happened the night before. Gaw and the Thayer city marshal spent Thursday night corralling drunks and keeping the peace. Late in the evening, they went to Gaw's cafe, where a disturbance had broken out. Gaw, who himself held a commission as an Oregon County deputy, apparently resented the intervention of the marshal and especially the constable. He drew a pistol on McCourtney and told him to leave. The city marshal promptly forced Gaw to put away his weapon did not arrest him. 

    Exactly what happened after Gaw confronted McCourtney the next morning is also not completely clear. An initial report said that Gaw made threats toward McCourtney, even declaring that he was going to kill him. The constable told Gaw to go away and leave him alone, and when Gaw persisted with his remonstrances, McCourtney slapped him. Both men then drew their pistols about the same time but with Gaw going for his gun first. A later report said it was the other way around--that Gaw slapped McCourtney and that the constable went for his gun first. In any case, all reports seem to agree that the two men drew at close to the same time.  

   Both men started firing, with McCourtney taking cover behind his car. In all, about ten shots were fired before the shooting ceased. The constable was not seriously injured in the melee, and it appeared at first that neither was Gaw, as he began walking back across the street to his cafe, When he reached the cafe, however, he collapsed from a bullet wound near his heart and died five hours later. 

   McCourtney turned himself in, and he was charged with second-degree murder. Freed on $3,500 bond to await trial, he was found not guilty during the November 1927 term of court.