On a warm summer evening in Winfield, Kansas, the sound of a band concert filled the air at Ninth Avenue and Main Street. Male plasterer, Everett Ridgeway, was among the crowd enjoying the music on August 13, 1903. The pleasant scene turned to one of horror at approximately 9:15 PM when Gilbert Twigg, a 35-year-old Army veteran, opened fire on the unsuspecting audience from a nearby alley.
Twigg, who was described as demented and possessed of an hallucination that he was being pursued by detectives, used a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun to fire indiscriminately into the crowd of thousands.
Everett Ridgeway was struck by three buckshot pellets. Two of the shots were removed from his back, but a third lodged in his spine and penetrated a lung, leaving his condition to be considered hopeless. He was one of many casualties that night. The shooting spree resulted in the deaths of nine people and left at least twenty-five others wounded.
The perpetrator, Gilbert Twigg, had meticulously planned his assault. He had purchased the shotgun and a large quantity of ammunition in the days leading up to the massacre. After firing approximately eight shots into the crowd, Twigg reloaded his weapon. As two men from the concert audience attempted to confront him in the alley, Twigg turned a. 32-caliber revolver on himself, ending his own life. A letter found in his room after the incident expressed his disappointment with the world. There is no indication of any arrests besides the identification of Twigg as the sole person responsible for the deadly rampage.
