When Colorado journalism pioneer William Byers printed the territory’s first newspaper, The Rocky Mountain News, in April 1859, he placed himself in the line of fire from lawless men and unsavory characters who violently opposed his exposing their misdeeds.
As proprietor, publisher, and editor of the paper, Byers antagonized Denver’s criminal element to such an extent, he kept a revolver on his desk and a rifle leaning nearby. In the printing room above his office, the pressmen were similarly armed. A hole was cut through Byers’ ceiling so his workers could point their weapons through the opening and fire on any attacker who might attempt to silence Byers permanently.
But that arrangement came later. In the paper’s early days, the office and printing press were crammed into the attic above a Denver saloon. Byers reinforced the attic floor with a second layer of wood to guard against stray bullets from the gunfights that frequently broke out below. And it was from that attic, on the heels of publishing the third issue of The Rocky Mountain News, Byers faced his first assailant.
A reckless expedition leader known as Colonel Carpenter had organized a party of gold seekers in early 1859 to travel from Kansas to the Colorado diggings. They were ill-prepared for the journey, which lasted weeks longer than it should have due to Carpenter’s ineptitude. Several men died of hunger and thirst. Those who survived looked more like skeletons than men when they arrived at Cherry Creek, twenty miles south of Denver.
Byers obtained the grim details of the party’s suffering and the ignorance of its leader. He published the shocking account in The Rocky Mountain News, along with a scathing criticism of Carpenter for shepherding so many of his followers to their deaths. Upon reading the story, Carpenter set out to kill Byers for exposing his role in the doomed expedition.
Byers was writing at his desk in the newspaper office when he heard Carpenter storm into the saloon below. Listening through the floorboards as the disgruntled expedition leader howled threats of violence, Byers realized Carpenter was intent on killing him. The newspaperman grabbed his six-shooter, turned in his chair to face the door, and leveled it at Carpenter as he burst into the room.
Despite Carpenter’s whiskey-fueled fury, he proved to be more bark than bite. Upon seeing the revolver, he dropped his shoulders and rambled for ten minutes before staggering out the door. Byers was relieved the encounter had ended without bloodshed, but he knew the next one could be deadly.
In the summer of 1860, The Rocky Mountain News moved into a two-story structure built exclusively for its operations. The sentiment against Byers and the paper had become so bitter, the building was turned into an arsenal. Deadly weapons were placed within reach of every man who worked there. An opening was cut into the ceiling of Byers’ office so the pressmen on the floor above could fire down on any outlaw who tried to eliminate Byers. Employees of the paper took an oath to use deadly force if necessary.
The most infamous act of retribution against The Rocky Mountain News occurred in July 1860. A hard set of gamblers had settled in Denver and were playing poker with a local saloonkeeper named Charley Harrison. As the game grew tense, tempers flared. Revolvers were drawn, and soon a man whose name nobody remembered was dead on the floor. Harrison had pulled the trigger.
The killing of the nameless man wasn’t treated as a murder, so Charley Harrison faced no repercussions. When Byers got hold of the story, he printed a strongly worded editorial condemning the incident. This enraged Harrison’s friends, who swore to kill anybody who spoke out against the saloonkeeper.
Armed with revolvers and blind allegiance, three of Harrison’s compadres charged into The Rocky Mountain News editorial office and grabbed Byers by the collar. With guns pointed at his head, they dragged him toward the door, promising to kill him for chastising their fellow gambler.
Byers shouted to get the attention of the pressmen working in the printing office above. Moments later, three rifles were thrust down through the hole in the ceiling by the workers upstairs. They had taken an oath to shoot on such an occasion, but the gamblers blocked themselves with Byers so that the pressmen had no shot. Byers tried to resist, but they dragged him out of the building and to Charley Harrison’s saloon, where they planned to kill him.
Things didn’t go as planned. Harrison was appalled to see the vengeful gamblers dragging Byers into his saloon at gunpoint. He didn’t think the newspaperman deserved to die for publishing the editorial, and he didn’t want more blood on his hands. But the angry mob gathering in his saloon hollered for Byers to be finished off then and there.
Harrison had to act quick. Under the pretense of wanting to assassinate Byers without an audience, he hurried him through the saloon and helped him escape out the back door. Then he instructed Byers to go to the newspaper office and prepare to defend it. The mob would be coming for him.
Byers ran to The Rocky Mountain News office and readied it for an attack. He took his revolver from his desk, his men grabbed their rifles, and they posted themselves in an upper window.
A stone-cold outlaw named Steele galloped in on horseback with his revolver drawn. The men who took Byers hostage rode up behind him with their weapons in hand. Steele rushed the building and fired three shots into the editorial room where he expected Byers to be hiding. The bullets zipped across Byers’ desk and through the space where he usually sat. Byers’ men returned fire from their elevated position, nicking Steele in the hip. Steele galloped away, then circled back to take another shot at the building. Byers’ men fired again, hitting Steele in the back.
An old soldier who respected the news and considered Byers a friend witnessed the shootout. He mounted his horse with his rifle, chased Steele down, and delivered a shot that caused the gambler to fall dead off his saddle. The gamblers who took Byers hostage fled Denver and were killed in other gunfights within a year.
What became known as the “Charley Harrison Incident” should have served as a warning to other criminals who might get the notion to take aim at William Byers. But that wasn’t the case. Months later, a blood-and-thunder Irishman named Murphy filled himself with Taos Lightning whiskey and threatened to force his way into The Rocky Mountain News to take Byers captive.
Murphy had convinced an unsuspecting pioneer known for crossing the plains with nothing but a wheelbarrow to come to the newspaper office with him. The pioneer, who had no beef with Byers whatsoever, hadn’t asked Murphy why they were going. It wasn’t until Murphy drew a revolver and aimed it at the building that he realized he was in the middle of an assassination attempt. And as this realization dawned on him, the window facing him raised up just enough for the muzzle of a rifle to slide through.
Catching sight of the rifle, the pioneer threw his hands in the air and surrendered. Murphy was ordered to drop his revolver or be shot. Trembling and white as snow, the pioneer stated he hadn’t realized why he was there until it was too late. Byers believed his story, for the pioneer had always been friendly to the paper.
Murphy didn’t get off so easily. Drunk and unable to think on his toes, he claimed that, while his name was indeed Murphy, he wasn’t the same Murphy as the Murphy who had threatened to take Byers hostage, and he had come to the newspaper office to warn Byers that Murphy number one was coming for him. He promised to never do it again and left his revolver behind.
It wasn’t the last threat William Byers and The Rocky Mountain News would face, and many more had come before those described here. Publishing the news during the unsettled years of the American frontier was a dangerous business. But Byers and his men stood up to the thieves, gamblers, and murderers who sought to silence them. The good citizens of Denver deserved to read the honest truth about all that happened in the city and beyond.
