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sheriff, warned that Lewis would deputize a crowd of gunfighters and occupy the courthouse, forcing the Howards to attack from the street. James had not specified at what time they would arrive, however, and on Monday morning the Howards gathered before dawn, rode into Harlan and quietly took up positions; Berry, Hiram, and James Howard and Hezekiah Jennings were in the courthouse; Wilse, Alex, and Elijah Howard were across the street. It is possible that Chad Hall and Bud Spurlock were with them.
    The Turners must have intended the battle to be a showdown to impress the large crowd expected to watch. It didn’t turn out that way; in fact, it was something of an anticlimax. Shortly after breakfasttime, a dozen or so of the Turners, unaware that the Howards were waiting for them, walked casually out of the Turner Mansion toward the courthouse. They had almost reached it when someone spotted the Howards in second-floor windows and gave the alarm.
    Everyone started shooting. Will Turner, the returned bulldog, showed his courage, if not his common sense, by attempting to rush the front door of the courthouse. He was hit before he reached it, got up and retreated, firing as he went, but was hit agian. He got up and, with the help of others, staggered up the street to the Turner home, where his mother came out and helped him onto the front porch. He had been hit in the stomach and was screaming with pain. “Stop that!” his mother snapped. “Die like a man, like your brother [Little Bob] did!” Will stopped screaming and died.
    The firing went on for a few more minutes. Four men were hit, none seriously, and no one else was killed. After Will was shot, the Turners fell back to the mansion, spectators peered from around corners, and the Howards came out of the courthouse, sat for a few minutes smoking and talking, then mounted their horses and rode home.
    Judge Lewis, instead of trying to arrange a truce, began writing letters to the newspapers and the governor, condemning the Howards for their “attack” on the courthouse and the killing of Will, and asking for troops to save the county from outlaws. Finally Mrs. Hezekiah Jennings, Will’s mother, called on Mrs. Turner and asked her to help end the trouble. Will went with her to show that the effort was sincere, but again Mrs. Turner refused. Walking to the front porch, she pointed to the spot where Will had fallen, dying from Howard bullets. “You can’t wipe out that blood,” she said. “Either the Turners will rule or the Howards, but not both.” Strong words from the matriarch of the clan that, according to Judge Lewis’s letters to the governor, wanted only peace.
    For a few weeks there was an uneasy calm, but it couldn’t last. Wilse heard that Little George Turner was following him, so he began to follow Little George. It was only a matter of time until they found each other, near Sulphur Springs, on August 4, 1889. As usual, there were several versions of the encounter. According to J.K Bailey, in one of the endless stream of letters to the governor, “This morning George B. Turner, Jr., was travelin on foot up Catrons Creek some five miles from this place [Harlan] when Wilson Howard the murderer and fugitive from justice overtook him and shot him dead. Howard the murderer had been informed this morning that young Turner had passed up the road … he set out in pursuit … meeting one Fields riding a mule, Howard demanded the mule, which Fieldsreluctant surrendered. On this mule Howard was able to overtake young Turner at a spring.”
    Whatever the role of the mule, Wilse came upon George drinking from a spring and shot him. George rolled behind a large rock and shot Wilse. They emptied their guns at each other until Wilse noticed that George had stopped shooting. He himself was badly wounded in the thigh, but he had hit George four times, the last shot almost taking off the top of his head. Limping