September 27, 2007
Much final tweaking on CG (Classic Gunfights). Woke up in the night with realization of several things to fix. When Bob Ford kills Jesse, I had the bullet entering behind Jesse's ear then exiting above his left eye. According to Ted Yeatman, the JJ expert, the bullet never exited and the subsequent bullet hole in the wall of the James house is bogus (which also turned the room around in terms of where Jesse was actually standing. Historians now believe he was standing next to the front door and not where the "bullet hole" is. And, of course, there are at least fifty bullet slugs in the possession of colllectors, all claiming to be the slug that was extracted from the wall.

Anyway, there are other problems and we go to press this afternoon. Here's an exchange with fellow editor Mark Boardman:

"I think somewhere you should mention that Hite and Liddill were both vying for Martha Bolton's affections.  And if possible, you can note that they'd actually had a gunfight a few weeks earlier in Kentucky in which both had emptied their pistols with no affect.

"Also, in the sidebar 'Liddill's Defection,' you mention Martha Bolton's house or cabin.  In the sixth paragraph, you also mention the Harbison's place.  They are one and the same, and that isn't clear.  Even though the place was known to everyone at the time as the Harbison place, I'd chuck that and just refer to it as the Bolton house or something similar.

"Otherwise, it looks great."
—Mark Boardman

Mark,
Thanks. Fixed two of them. Traded out the Hite stepmother speculation for the stronger "theory" that the two were vying for Mrs. Bolton's affections. And, I had no idea the Harbison's place was one in the same with Martha's. Whew! Thanks. She was some outlaw magnet, eh?

Couldn't fit in the previous gunfight but wanted to. Not sure why this happened, are you? Yeatman brings in the mother-in-law affair here, and includes that she pressed charges against Wood for the killing of the African-American boy. It obviously led to the shootout, but couldn't figure out how to squeeze it in the limited space we have.
—BBB