During Bodie’s boom times, in the late eighteen seventies, a week rarely went by without one person or more being killed by an act of gun violence.   With over sixty saloons and dance halls in town, it’s safe to say many of these confrontations were fueled by excessive alcohol consumption.   In June 1881, the Bodie Daily Free Press, in response to other newspapers editorializing on frequent shootings in Bodie, ran this disclaimer:   “Some of the newspapers are commenting on the number of shootings scrapes that occur in Bodie and argue that the town must be bad.   To be sure here is something of a shooting gallery, and there is a man for breakfast not infrequently, but what are we to do?   Times are dull, money scarce, and the weather miserable.   Under such a condition of affairs there must be some inexpensive recreation provided for the people.   Six shooters are of no account unless they can be used, and coffins will warp and be unfit for occupancy if allowed to stand a great while in an undertaker’s room.”

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