On Jun. 13, 1881 Ben Thompson, gunfighter and lawman, received a gold-plated target pistol in the mail from his new friend, famed showman “Buffalo Bill” Cody.
The two men met a year and a half earlier, when Cody brought his stage production, a melodrama loosely based on his own exploits called “Scouts of the Plains,” to Austin in December 1879. Ever the hospitable southerner, Thompson welcomed the …
