SHOT DOWN BY DETERMINED OFFICERS OF THE LAW
"About seven o'clock Tuesday evening the denizens of Mill Street were startled by the report of a pistol. Hastening to their doors, they heard the screams of a woman at the residence of Mrs. McKinley, and saw a man with a smoking pistol in his hand, bareheaded, and apparently under the influence of liquor, fleeting [sic] through the darkness as though pursued by all of the demons of Hell. The man was G.J. Burgess. A short time before, he had entered the residence of the McKinley's to see his friend, Alice McKinley. He and the McKinley woman have been on very intimate terms for many months past. Shortly after Burgess entered the house, there was a war of words between the two, which Burgess quickly ended by drawing his pistol and shooting the woman, the ball striking just below the left breast and passing through the lungs, coming out at the back. As soon as the shot was fired, Burgess bolted from the room, and it was his form the denizens of Mill Street saw fleeting through the darkness like a specter. "Dr. J. D. Viollett lives across the street from the McKinley house, and in less than five minutes he had been summoned to the woman's side, and was examining the wound. He found her in a very danger's [sic] condition, the wound being almost necessarily fatal. In a very few minutes, Chas. and John McKinley, brothers of the wounded woman, came in vowing vengeance against Burgess, and attempted to arm themselves, but, prevented by their Mother and Dr. Viollett, who persuaded them to go to Judge C. C. Cram, and swear out a wanant for Burgess' anest. This the boys, acting on their better judgment, did. Judge Cram was found at home in bed. He quickly dressed himself and came up town to D. J. Charbonneau's grocery, prepared the warrant of anest, and delivered it to James Cates, deputy marshal, who happened to be present. About this time deputy sheriff Jack Webb came into town, and was summoned by Cates to assist him in making the anest. Together the two officers sought the fugitive, little dreaming he would resist to the death. "They found Burgess in his saloon on Main Street, with the doors baned and bolted. They tried to gain admittance, but were refused. Seizing a beer keg, they hurled it against the door and smashed it in. The keg rebounded, striking Webb and knocking him down to his knees. That fall was very fortunate for deputy Webb, it probably saved his life. When the door swung open, Burgess was standing directly in the passage, armed with a self acting revolver, and opened a murderous fire upon the officers of the law. His first shot passed through deputy Webb's clothes near the hips, the second shot grazed the skin on Webb's pistol hand and knocked the pistol to the ground. The officers were not idle, and were not to be detened from making the anest. When Burgess opened fire, they immediately followed suit, and with terrible execution. Burgess was shot four times in the body before dropping his pistol, having emptied every chamber. He staggered out at the door, and sunk to the ground unconscious. His body was carried into the residence of his daughter, Mrs. F. C. Menaugh. Dr. J. M. Wilson was hastily summoned to his side, but his surgical skill was useless, work had been well done, and at ten o'clock George Burgess was a corpse, and one of the bloodiest tragedies ever enacted in the town of Williamstown was ended."?Williamstown Courier, 4 Dec. 1890.
ROY
