Talk:McCanles Gang

Comments by Uri Ridelman
Some say the McCanles were not a gang but just some unfortunante souls who had some disputes with Wild Bill and ended being shot by him. Others claim that they were indeed ruthless criminals and that they deserved to die at the hands of the famous gunfighter.

Here I present to you information I found while surfing the Internet. Hopefully, together we can reach a satisfactory answer and then create a page for them here at Wikipedia. Please feel free to post any info you have on this matter.

From our own Wikipedia on the Wild Bill Hickok page: "He became well-known for single-handedly capturing the McCanles gang, through the use of a ruse."

From About.com on the Wild Bill Hickok page: "The incident that began his claim to fame. While employed at the Rock Creek Pony Express Station in Nebraska he got into a gunfight with an employee looking to collect his pay. Wild Bill shot and killed McCanles and wounded two other men. He was acquitted at the trial. However, there is some question on the validity of the trial because he worked for the powerful Overland Stage Company." http://americanhistory.about.com/library/timelines/bltimelinehickock.htm

From AOL Hometown on the Wild Bill Hickok page: "The incident at Rock Creek Station, Nebraska was what began his legend. The station was an important stop for overland stages and as Pony Express station. It had been owned by David McCanles before he sold it to Russell, Waddell, and Majors, of the Pony Express. After that, the station was operated by Horace Wellman and his common-law wife, Wild Bill, a stock tender, and J.W. "Dock," Brink, a stable hand. That summer the station was almost bankrupt and could not pay McCanles. Wild Bill had just arrived when an altercation took pl ace. It happened on July 12, 1861.

McCanles, cousin James wood, and hand James Gordon showed up at the station to collect money owed him. After a short argument, Wild Bill shot and killed McCanles from inside the house. He also wounded Woods and Gordon. Wellman finished Woods off by beating him with a hoe. They both ran after Gordon and killed him with a shotgun blast. A trial was held but it was a farce. 12 year old Monroe McCanles, who witnessed the shootings, was not allowed to testify, nor was he even allowed in the court room. Wild Bill and Wellman were allowed to put forth a defense of self-defense. Since they were employees of the Overland Stage Company, the most powerful corporation west of the Mississippi, they had a lot of friends.

Four years later, writer Colonel George Ward Nichols wrote about the event, and he didn't much care if he got the details right. Wild Bill didn't seem to care either. This was the start of his gunfighter legend. Nichols wrote that there was a "McCanles gang" of terrorists. He write that Wild Bill held off and killed ten men, in a bloody one-sided fight. He also said Wild Bill was gravely wounded himself and later had eleven bullets removed. None of it was true, but it made Wild Bill's reputation." http://members.aol.com/Gibson0817/WildBill.htm

From The World According to Jerome "Brilliant Brief Lives": "The McCanles outlaw gang was wanted for train robbery, murder, bank robbery, cattle rustling, and horse theft. In 1861 word came to Wild Bill that they had set up a camp at Rock Creek Station, in Jefferson County -- just outside his limited jurisdiction." http://www.abacom.com/~jkrause/hickok.html

Answers.com has them on their "List of Western Outlaws" under the category of Outlaw Gangs, right next to those like the Dalton Gang. http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-western-outlaws

The McCanles however are portrayed differently in an article by editor and proofreader Rick A. Henkel. Follow the link below to his Web site to read the article: http://frameuser.docspages.com/time/12A_95.htm

And finally they are portrayed as an infamous gang in the HBO series "Deadwood."

There are other sites that make the case one way or the other but I posted here only some of the ones I found more interersting.

Your help will be greatly appreciated, and at the same time we'll create a page for them on this site. Thanks

Please feel free to comment on this subject. Your information, insight and opinion is welcome and needed.

The above comments were posted by, at 20:07, 13 April 2005 (UTC)


 * Much of the above is good fodder for material about the legend, but it must be realized that many sources about the Old West are very, very poorly researched and simply repeat legends as if they were facts. That is, the material above cannot be credibly used with regard to the actual factual background behind the legend, the murder of David Colbert McCanles and his relatives.  Speaking of which, many details are missing.  There is a well-researched short publication produced by the county itself that contains a lot more information, such as the fact that it did go to trial, but the case was thrown out by a judge who was popularly believed to have been bribed and who prevented D.C. McCanles's young son, the only non-suspect witness, from testifying, as well as the fact that McCanles wasn't just a bully in general but had been bullying Hickok himself on a regular basis, nicknaming him "Duck-bill Hickok" because of his big nose, and beating him up.  It's an interesting read, and has a really fantastic (now public domain) image of McCanles.  It presents a more balanced view than this article does.  The article suggests that it was simply an outright murder for profit, but the truth is probably more complex - McCanles had very incautiously earned the hatred of a dangerous man in dangerous times.  I have a copy of this publication somewhere, but having recently moved, everything is in boxes, so finding it will be iffy at best.  It is probably better if someone simply contacts the county's historian or whatever that office might be called and request a copy. —  SMcCandlish  &#91;talk&#93; &#91;cont&#93;  ‹(-¿-)› 23:55, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

McCandles spelling error
My apologies to the previous editor McCanles is the correct spelling. I've since corrected the error. 152.163.100.8 22:16, 28 May 2005 (UTC)
 * It actually depends on the source; many give it as McCandless (a common (since the Highland Clearances and Ulster Plantation) Northern Irish variant of the Scottish name McCandlish. David Colbert McCanles came from a family that originally used the McCandless spelling. His brother also used the McCanles spelling for a long time, but changed it back to McCandless after moving to Colorado. From what I can determine after over 10 years of genealogical research, all living people today who use the McCanles spelling are descended from D.C. McC.  The article is completely incorrect in saying that the entire family changed their name, as I have been in regular contact with several McCanles-named descendants of D.C. McC.  Anyway, it is likely that some sources even use spellings like McCandles and McCanless, and I know for a fact that many of them use McCandless.  What this article should be titled is really a matter of finding as many contemporary and modern sources as possible, and seeing which spelling, McCanles or McCandless, is more common.  The fact that the root of the legend spelled it McCanles isn't really relevant, because this article is not the David Colbert McCanles article, but rather the article about the legend itself. I strongly suspect that this article should be at McCandless Gang, as most sources I've seen on the matter use that spelling; but my experience is anecdotal. —  SMcCandlish  &#91;talk&#93; &#91;cont&#93;  ‹(-¿-)› 23:55, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Requested move
I see no reason for "gang" being classed as a proper noun and moving the article to McCanles Gang. violet/riga (t) 20:30, 29 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Violetriga. Shouldn't moving the McCandles gang to McCandles Gang depend on the consistancy the other gang articles in Category:Gangs ? It seems almost all of them have Gang capitalized. 152.163.100.8 08:20, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * For the sake of consistency I've moved it, but I think that all of them ought really to be lower case. violet/riga (t) 10:52, 30 May 2005 (UTC)
 * That wouldn't make any sense; when a regular word becomes part of a proper name, it is capitalized. E.g.  Brooklyn Bridge, not Brooklyn bridge, Mississippi River not Mississippi river, River Thames not river Thames, Pyramid of the Sun not pyramid of the sun, Wu-Tang Clan not Wu-Tang clan, etc., etc.  The naming conventions already cover this in terms that are very clear. —  SMcCandlish  &#91;talk&#93; &#91;cont&#93;  ‹(-¿-)› 23:55, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Dispute tag
I removed a dispute tag placed in regards to the McCanles family changing their name to McCandless. From what I can find the family name was really McCanles but from the early 1800's different branches of the family began using one or the other spelling and contemporary sources used both for David. David himself actually spelt it both ways at different times. The McCandless geneology lists David as McCanles and his sons as McCanles then it is McCandless when they married. An article in the Nebraska Heritage list in late 2001 also follows the official family geneology (the name change after the incident). While both names were used by the family before the incident only the McCandless name was used after so this supports the edit Also of interest is that Monroe and Julies's mother seems to have been Sarah Shull who is usually listed only as Davids "girlfriend" or "mistress". That she left David for Hickok makes the animosity between the two a plausable reason for the shooting. Can't put it in the article though as this is only the belief of the McCanles descendents. Another fact I was not aware of is that David McCanles was a popular Whig who was elected Sherriff four times before he bought the station. Wayne (talk) 16:17, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

If anyone is interested...here is a photo of David McCanles. Maybe someone can add it to commons? Wayne (talk) 17:11, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Older account
This newspaper account is from the Green-Mountain Freeman, January 30, 1867, and claims to be an interview with Wild Bill about the "M'Kandlas" affair. The story seems, by then, to be quite famous and well-developed.

Hypercallipygian (talk) 05:52, 9 May 2017 (UTC)