Gunsmoke, Canton-style
In the early morning hours of July 16, there was gunfire at the Longbranch coming from Miss Kitty’s room but Marshal Dillon was nowhere to be found.
Longbranch Hotel manager Anthony Lewis reported a gunshot from the Miss Kitty room from the hotel on The Mountain shortly after 2 a.m. July 16. When Canton Police arrived and knocked on the door to Miss Kitty’s room, Mary Lou Hyde answered the door and said she’d been asleep and hadn’t heard anything. After a few minutes of questioning, Hyde admitted a gun shot did wake her and that her traveling companion – Mack R. Christie – had left the room and gone to buy some cigarettes.
Canton officers were joined by Texas Department of Public Safety officers and Van Zandt County Sheriff’s deputies and the search for Christie began.
Christie’s vehicle was soon discovered at the Motel 6 on Hwy. 19. Inside the vehicle was a Glock .357 handgun, a shell casing, two chimineas and two metal stars.
The handgun had been recently fired, police reports said.
Christie, 25, said at first that he didn’t fire the gun. Then he said he may have fired the gun outside the Longbranch. Then he said he was cleaning the gun and it went off accidentally inside Miss Kitty’s room.
He said he didn’t remember the gun firing in the car but he later admitted that he had stolen the chimineas and metal stars from a local shop to give to Hyde because he thought it would make her happy.
Christie, from Bossier City, La., was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, discharging and displaying a firearm, unlawfully carrying a firearm and theft of property >$50 and <$500.
