Murder
The following year, 1910, Ketchel fought six times (including one exhibition), but his fast living had worn him down.
Hoping for a rematch with Jack Johnson, Ketchel moved to the ranch of his friend, R.P. Dickerson, in Conway, Missouri, where he had hoped to regain his strength. Dickerson had just hired a cook, Goldie Smith, and a ranch hand, who Smith said was her husband, Walter Kurtz.
Walter Kurtz turned out to be Walter Dipley. Walter Dipley and Goldie Smith were not married and, in fact, had just met each other a month before Dickerson had hired them.
After being upbraided by the "Michigan Assassin" for beating a horse on the morning of October 14, Dipley decided to get even with Ketchel by robbing him. The following morning, Smith seated Ketchel at the breakfast table with his back to the door and Dipley, armed with a .22 caliber rifle, came up behind him and shouted, "Get your hands up!" Ketchel stood up and as he turned around, Dipley shot him. The bullet traveled from his shoulder into his lung and Ketchel fell to the floor mortally wounded. Dipley then took Ketchel's handgun and smashed Ketchel in the face with it. At the same time, Smith rifled Ketchel's pockets for his money.
After promising to meet Goldie Smith later that night, Dipley ran from the ranch.
Unaware that, as he lay dying, Ketchel told the former ranch foreman, C.E. Bailey, that Goldie Smith had robbed him, she told police officers that Ketchel had raped her and that that was the reason Dipley shot him. Her story fell apart and she admitted her complicity in the robbery but stated she did not know Dipley was going to kill the former champion.
In an effort to save the young fighter's life, R.P. Dickerson chartered a special train to take Stanley Ketchel to a hospital in Springfield, Missouri. But Ketchel died at approximately 7 o'clock that night His last words were: "I'm so tired. Take me home to mother."
Dickerson also offered a $5,000 dead or alive reward (preferably dead) for Dipley, who was captured at a neighboring farmhouse the next day.
Read more about this topic: Stanley Ketchel
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