J.W. famously bought his eighth interest in the Blongers\u2019 Forest Queen mine<\/a> with twenty barrels of the stuff.<\/p>\n Now his descendants have picked up the baton, and returned several of their famous products <\/a>to the shelf. The bottle is long empty, and it’s time to reorder. And no, it didn\u2019t give me a headache, though I can\u2019t say it blotted out ALL my troubles.<\/p>\n We found that Sam was witness to a shooting in Aspen\u2019s Fashion Saloon in 1885. His testimony:<\/p>\n Was sitting with my back to the bar; heard a gunshot; jumped to my feet and saw deceased in the actof falling; his gun flew out of his hand to the floor; a man came in the side door and shot; he was taken out by several parties; deceased was on his hands and knees with his head toward the floor when shot.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It seems Frank Jones had been drunk and causing trouble, and when Special Officer James Fitzpatrick came to arrest him, Jones pulled a gun. He got off a shot to no effect, and Fitzgerald put him to the floor and whacked him with his pistol. As Jones struggled on the floor, hoping to get off another shot, Bernard Riley put a bullet in him and ended the fray.<\/p>\n We have long believed Lou when he stated in a pension request that he spent the years 1883 through 1887 in the Deming, New Mexico area, staying in the hotel of gamblers Frank Thurmond and Carlotta \u201cLottie Deno\u201d Thompkins. Then we found him running yet another saloon, in 1885, in San Bernardino, California.<\/p>\n We also believed Joe to be in the Black Hills in the early 1870s, when he supposedly was communing with the Sioux and Cheyenne, and playing poker with Wild Bill. While he may indeed have spent time on the Plains around this time, we now know he was in California in 1875, at a place called George (or George\u2019s) Creek<\/a>. While he was listed in voter rolls as a farmer, this area\u00a0in the eastern Sierras sounds more suitable for prospecting.<\/p>\n Now we finally know what Joe looked like. What a treat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An article from 1906 seems to have solved a lingering question —\u00a0by\u00a0suggesting that two\u00a0important characters in our long narrative\u00a0may in fact\u00a0be one and the same. Yes, the pistol-packing prostitute from Albuquerque with the Blonger name, who shot Charles Hill in the head in 1888<\/a>,\u00a0may\u00a0have also been Mrs. Sadie Wilson, who married Sam in 1889. Their marriage would end just four years later, with Sadie\u00a0detailing a long history of savage beatings at Sam’s hand.<\/p>\n The 1906 article, which details the scandalous behavior of a Denver city detective,\u00a0paranthetically implicates\u00a0one Kate Blonger — also known about town as Mrs. Hank Domedion, the man “Sadie Wilson” would marry after she divorced Sam. Domedion was another bartender, by the way, and the\u00a0same article\u00a0suggests that “Mrs. Demedion” was keeping a “hotel” of suspect character.<\/p>\n A few years later\u00a0Kate\/Sadie would be in the news again, when her latest husband, the aforementioned city dick, threatened to kill her and all her “friends.”<\/p>\n Amy Reading’s new book<\/a> came out, and there will be a short review soon to follow, but I’ll say this: Reading has given us the first new look at the trial of the Denver bunko men in many years, with a broader perspective than any previous author, including Van Cise. Not only does Reading outline the evolution of the American con, she makes a pretty good case that “humbug”\u00a0is\u00a0more central to\u00a0the American way of life than we want to admit.<\/p>\n We also found this ad for Sam and Lou’s ill-fated palace of spirits, the Elite Saloon<\/a>. Finally, there was this article, finally revealing just how short Joe’s only marriage actually was.<\/p>\n The Pecos Valley Correspondent of the Las Vegas Optic says:<\/p>\n Thirteen is a sure unlucky number. Some time about the middle of April Joseph Blonger, an old miner and a Grand Army man of Santa Fe, led to the hymeneal altar in the Plaza hotel at Santa Fe, Mrs. C. A. Viles. The solemn obligation that bound them together as man and wife was performed in room 13.<\/p>\n Hardly two moons had passed over the fair contracting parties till Blonger concluded it was a good deal more economical and not near so hard work to hold down a miner\u2019s cabin, so he gathered up his bed, bid the fair bride of less than sixty days good by and again picked up the pick and shovel, departed for Cerrillos and gave all his right, title, and \u201cherediments\u201d back to the fair one, shook the dust of the Pecos from his feet anl [sic] left.<\/p>\n As for the future — things are looking up. New stuff has been popping up like dandelions, and we’re feeling anxious. Scott’s begun the process of putting a book together, there are still places to go and and articles to uncover, and yes, there is a script in the works, for what it’s worth. We started thinking about it years ago, of course, but things are proceeding now. Frankly, we know it’s a long shot, but what the hell? This material aches for it, and we’re happy to oblige.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that Scott has had his say, I\u2019d like to add my two bits. In past years (though I missed last year) I\u2019ve taken this opportunity to review the finds of the preceding twelve months, and talk a bit about the future. Back to it. Good Old Mountain Dew In 2011 I got my first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essentials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Green](\"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/GreenRiverWhiskey_5.jpg\" "\\"Green")
<\/a><\/p>\nShootout at the Fashion Saloon<\/h3>\n
San Bernardino<\/h3>\n
George Creek<\/h3>\n
Joe\u2019s Face<\/h3>\n
![\"Joe](\"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/Joe_Bullet.jpg\" "\\"Joe")
<\/a>Who Was Kate “Kitty” Blonger?<\/h3>\n
The Mark Inside<\/h3>\n
The Elite<\/h3>\n
\n![\"Elite](\"https:\/\/www.blongerbros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/ad_Elite.jpg\" "\\"ad_Elite\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nJoe & the Widow Viles<\/h3>\n
\n
Couple Were Married in Room Thirteen of a Hotel.<\/h3>\n
Albuquerque Daily Citizen<\/em>
\nJuly 16, 1902<\/h6>\n<\/blockquote>\nWhat Tomorrow Brings<\/h3>\n