In the town of New Castle, Colorado, a dispute rooted in a courtroom grievance escalated into a tragic series of events that claimed the life of Town Marshal John M. Rennix. The 43-year-old lawman was shot and killed in November of 1910, a casualty of a local saloon owner's fury. The conflict began after Billy Griffith, a former town marshal himself and a local saloon proprietor, was convicted of assault. Believing his conviction to be unjust, Griffith's anger festered.
The day after his conviction, on November 10, 1910, Griffith, armed with two pistols, confronted Frank Sample on Main Street, one of the individuals who had testified against him. Marshal Rennix intervened to protect Sample, who managed to escape the volatile situation. In the ensuing confrontation, Griffith shot Marshal Rennix in the stomach. Despite his grave injury, Rennix managed to return fire, wounding Griffith before he collapsed.
Following the shooting of the marshal, Griffith fled into the nearby Trimble building, seeking refuge on the second floor. From a window, he continued his violent rampage, firing upon citizens who had rushed to the fallen marshal's aid. In this indiscriminate firing, a man named William Davis was struck in the head and killed. A posse of around 40 men from Glenwood Springs soon surrounded the building, riddling it with bullets.
The standoff reached its conclusion when Griffith's girlfriend, Lelia McMichael, bravely volunteered to enter the building. Inside, she discovered that Griffith had taken his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Marshal John M. Rennix was transported to a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs, where he succumbed to his wound the following day, on November 25, 1910. He was survived by his wife and four daughters. All three men involved in the tragic shootout—Griffith, Rennix, and Davis—are buried in Highland Cemetery.
