Hale (fourth from left) and Grammer (third from left) competing
in a roping contest in 1909 Credit 51Just before the Smith house blew up, Hale had told friends that
he was heading out of town to attend the Fat Stock Show in Fort
Worth, Texas. White looked into Hale’s alibi and was told that
Grammer had gone with him. A witness had overheard Hale
talking to Grammer before the murders, murmuring something
about being ready for “that Indian deal.”
Like the other potential witnesses against Hale, however,
Grammer was dead. On June 14, 1923, three months after the
Smiths’ house was demolished, Grammer had been killed when
his Cadillac spun out of control and flipped over. The legendary
quick-draw artist had bled out on an empty country road.
Finally, a yegg—a safecracker—gave White and his team the
name of another witness to the bombing plot: Asa Kirby, the gold-