They Stole Cattle Too

I've already mentioned how I have ancestors that were hung for stealing horses. Talking with one of my aunts who does a lot of genealogy stuff, I got the following story.

In the early 1900's Cecil, Edd, and Clay to a wagon and left the territory of Oklahoma and were going on up around Gunnison or Durango, Colorado to look for work or a farm to rent. Somewhere around Gunnison, they were short of food and came across a stray long horn. They killed the longhorn and Cecil went to the creek for water to clean the carcass out. When he got back, two cowboys had ropes around Clay and Edd's necks and had them on horses all set to hang. Cecil tried to reason with them but the cowboys were determined to hang all three. As they tried to put a noose around Cecil's neck, he pulled a revolver from under his coat and shot both cowboys. They buried them by the creek and nothing was said about it until years later.

My Ancestors Were Cattle Rustlers doesn't quite have the same ring to it though...