Whiskey for the Canyon Diablo shootout dead

My husband says there is some Old West saying about dead men drinking whiskey, but he doesn't know where it comes from or what it means. He says it every time we have bourbon, and it's getting embarrassing when we have friends in.

Well, there's the saying that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting, but I doubt if that is what is needed here.

And of course it is hardly unusual for a dead man's friends to raise of glass in his memory.

This may be the bit of Arizona your husband has in mind:

On April 8, 1905, a pair of not-very-bright cowboys named John Shaw and William Evans (whose real last name may have been Smith or Smythe) walked into a saloon in Winslow and ordered a couple of drinks. Before imbibing they pulled their pistols and robbed some gamblers of several hundred dollars.

Bad idea. A posse was raised and the robbers were tracked to Canyon Diablo, a former railroad town now known as Two Arrows.

Shots were fired. Evans was injured, captured and spent nine years in prison. Shaw was shot and killed and his body dumped in a shallow grave.

Back in Winslow, a bunch of cowboys were discussing the incident and decided it wasn't fair that Shaw had paid for a drink he never got to finish.

So they caught a train to Canyon Diablo, dug up Shaw's corpse and poured a shot of whiskey down his throat. They even posed for pictures with the corpse. Find them by Googling "Canyon Diablo shootout."

Have an Arizona question? Reach Thompson at clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com.