9. An Old West Vendetta That Gave Birth to a Legend
Frank Eaton (1860 – 1958), birth name Francis Boardman Eaton and better known as “Pistol Pete”, was born far from the Old West in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 26th, 1860. When Frank was eight years old, his family moved to Kansas. Unfortunately, some neighbors did not like the new arrivals. In 1868, only three years after the end of the Civil War, tensions were still running high. Eaton Sr., an abolitionist and Union Army veteran, got on the wrong side of some former Confederates, still bitter about their side’s defeat.
The upshot was that six former guerrillas, who had ridden with Quantrill’s Raiders during the war, shot Frank’s father in cold blood in front of his son. To cap off the murder, they then proceeded to horse whip young Frank with a quirt. Mose Beaman, an elderly neighbor and friend of Frank’s father, urged the kid to make it his life’s mission to exact vengeance. As he told him: “My boy, may an old man’s rest upon you, if you do not try to avenge your father“.