George Campbell (Ex-Town Marshal for El Paso, TX)

George Campbell (1850 – April 14, 1881) was a one-time town Marshal for El Paso, Texas. He served from mid-1880 until April 1881, when he was replaced by a new town Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire. Campbell was the last person killed by Stoudenmire in what would later be dubbed Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight on April 14, 1881.

The events leading up to the gunfight seem to have started with around 75 Mexicans riding into El Paso looking for two young vaqueros who had been killed. The mercenaries, paid by a wealthy Mexican ranch owner, were looking for two missing farm hands, Sanchez and Juarez, and 30 of stolen cattle. Ben Schuster, the mayor of El Paso, had made an exception for the Mexicans, enabling them to enter the city limits with their guns.

A constable named Gus Krempkau, at the request of the Mexican posse, accompanied the Mexicans to the ranch of Johnny Hale, a local ranch owner and known cattle rustler, whose ranch was some 13 miles northwest of El Paso in the Upper Valley. The bodies of the two Mexicans were found in the bosque near Hale's ranch and the corpses were transported back to El Paso. [1] The court in El Paso held an inquest into the deaths of the men when they returned to El Paso, and Krempkau, being fluent in Spanish, was required to act as an interpreter to the Mexicans.

The verdict was that the two Mexicans, Sanchez and Juarez, were in that vicinity of Hale's ranch in an attempt to locate 30 stolen Mexican cattle. The court determined that the American cattle rustlers, among them Hale, feared the deceased were acting as scouts and would alert the larger Mexican group to their location. It was determined that two American cattle rustlers ambushed the 2 Mexicans during the night of April 13 or in the early morning of 14th.

A large crowd gathered in El Paso, including John Hale and his friend, former town Marshal George Campbell. There was animosity among Americans about the Mexicans being heavily armed within the city limit, but at the same time tensions were high among the Mexicans, who wanted justice for their two young men who had been killed. Constable Krempkau was fluent in Spanish and was inquired to interpret for the judge. An inquest was held in court. The court was adjourned and the crowd dispersed. The Mexicans, bringing the two bodies, quietly rode back to Mexico.

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Wikipedia