a man named Charles Kennedy was being held in the local jail in Elizabethtown, accused of going mad and suspected in the disappearance of several strangers and his own son. A mob, led by Allison, broke into the jail, took Kennedy from his cell, and hanged him. When Kennedy's house was later searched, the bodies of those missing (including his son), were found. Allegedly, Allison cut off the man's head and carried it in a sack for 29 miles (47 km) to Cimarron, where he placed it on display on a pole in front of the St. James Inn. He believed himself fast with a gun, but this changed when he was outdrawn in a friendly competition with Mason Bowman. Bowman and Allison became friends, and Bowman helped Allison to improve his 'fast-draw' skills. At one point on October 31, 1878, Allison was entangled in a small skirmish with Comanches during the ongoing Texas-Indian War in Wheeler County, Texas. While riding, Allison came upon a small family home being besieged by Indians. After his request for assistance from the U.S. cavalry was denied, he personally collected a group of ranchers and cowboys to mount a rescue party. They charged at the Indians and killed one of them before the rest fled. Notoriety as a gunfighter On January 7, 1874, Allison killed a gunman named Chunk Colbert, who was known to have already fought and killed seven men by this time. After first racing their horses, Colbert and Allison entered the Clifton House, an inn located in Colfax County, New Mexico, where they sat down together for dinner. Colbert had quarreled with Allison years earlier, as Allison had physically beaten Colbert's uncle, Zachary Colbert, when he tried to overcharge Allison for a ferry ride across the Brazos River. During their meal, Colbert suddenly drew his pistol and attempted to shoot Allison; however, the barrel of his gun struck the dinner table, allowing Allison to quickly draw his own revolver. He fired one shot, which struck Colbert in the head. Asked afterward why he had accepted a dinner invitation from a man likely to try to kill him, Allison replied, "Because I didn't want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach." Allison's reputation as a gunman grew, as did his notoriety. On October 30, 1875, during the Colfax County War, Allison is alleged to have led a lynch-mob to