The Shooting of Riley Luffsey

The Shooting of Riley Luffsey. . , William Riley Luffsey was born in Wayne County, Missouri, around 1859. He died in a gun battle along the Little Missouri River on June 26, 1883, about a mile west of the twin towns of Little Missouri and Medora., Riley Luffsey was a popular young man. He and his partners, Frank O’Donald and John Reuter (Dutch Wannigan), were hunters, who supplied the military cantonment and the settlement with fresh game. They also guided visiting sportsmen., The arrival of the Marquis de Mores in April 1883 brought conflict. The Marquis accumulated title to many acres of formerly public land, and ordered much of his land fenced. Where the fences crossed game trails used by the hunters, the hunters cut the wires., Drunken threats were made against the Marquis, who reported them to the sheriff at Mandan, 130 miles east. Before the sheriff arrived, a gunfight erupted between Luffsey, O’Donald and Reuter and several men led by the Marquis. O’Donald and Reuter testified it was an ambush. The Marquis’ party testified it was self defense., In 1885, the Marquis de Mores and his foreman, E. G. Paddock, were indicted for Luffsey’s murder. The Marquis was acquitted at trial, and the charges against Paddock were dropped., Although no one was held accountable for Riley Luffsey’s death, a stone marker in Medora’s cemetery overlooking the town and the site of the fatal gunfight commemorates him. ,