Dallas Stoudenmire stood about six-foot-four, had dark brown hair and green eyes. He was born in Macon County, Alabama, in 1845, and after enlisting three times in the Confederate Army (the military kept discharging him because of his age), he came West at war's end. In the vicinity of Columbus, Texas, he built a reputation as a gunman.

The city of El Paso, Texas hired Stoudenmire almost as soon as he jumped off the stage.

The attempts continued on Stoudenmire's and Cummings' lives for a year, until Stoudenmire left town briefly to marry Isabella Sherrington. Early one evening, Doc Cummings walked down El Paso Street from the Globe Restaurant to the Coliseum Saloon and Variety Theatre. The events from then on, as noted at a coroner's inquest, went like this:

Cummings asked Jim Manning to drink with him, and Manning refused, saying that as a reformed alcoholic he had been off the bottle or a year. He offered to sip some cider though. Doc sat silent for a few minutes, then brought up the subject of last year shootout when four men were killed. He accused Manning of sicking George Campbell and John Hale onto Dallas Stoudenmire. Jim denied any complicity, and Cummings cursed him as a liar.

"I can't forget all that," Doc said. "Are you fixed?"

Manning removed his coat and hat, draping them across a soda case near the bar. "Doe, what is the use of your forcing me to fight? Why can't we settle this in a peaceful manner?"

Turn yourself loose I am ready," growled Cummings.

I will get on my knees," Jim pleaded. "I will do anything to settle this in a quiet way."

Doc called hime a coward, and told him that if he couldn't fight like a man, to put his coat back on. He turned to bartender David King, and with a string of profanities ordered him to keep his hands above the bar.

"You don't have to involve him," Jim said. "He has no gun behind the e bar, and besides, I do not hire men to do my fighting."

If a man worked in the Globe, and he would not fight for me, I would kick his goddamn ass," Doc replied. "Let's go outside "

The two men stepped out onto El Paso Street where they resumed quarreling. A bystander, hearing angry voices in the evening dusk came over to see what was going on. He had been drinking, and when he tried to get between the two men, Doc forced hime away with his pistol and threatened to kill him. After resolving that brief interruption, Cummings turned once again to James Manning, and saw that Jim had disappeared back inside.

A tight-lipped Cummings angrily came back through the bat-wing doors, sat down once more at the bar, and again demanded that Manning drink with him. Manning still refused, and King tried to verbally support him.

Doc had all the recent interruptions he could stand. In a voice breaking with fury he told King to shut up and to keep his hands in plain sight. The bartender protested he had no hidden weapon, and offered to bet $50 that no gun could be found under the bar.

As Doc and David King quibbled about the possibility of a concealed weapon, Manning ordered the barkeep to leave the room as the quarrel was not his. King refused to go, saying he would not be frightened off by threats. Manning slid off his bar stool and stepped back into the hallway where he removed his coat and checked his revolver. Seconds later he reappeared. "All right, Doc. We will have this out," he snapped.

Cummings, in the act of taking a drink went for his gun a little late. Pistols cracked inside the room, and the acrid smoke blinded everyone, witnesses and participants. Two bullets struck Cummings. He reeled across the room, stumbled through the doors, and fell on El Paso Street. Rolling over on his back, in death he emitted a piercing, anguished groan, and the street was silent except for running footsteps.

Frank Manning heard the shooting and came quickly. He found Doc lying in the street, removed his weapon, and went inside the saloon. A couple of part-time deputies were asking questions. Jim surrendered his six-shooter to them, saying in a dazed voice, "I stood this thing as long as I could. I could stand it no longer." Doc had died quickly and Jim Manning was aquitted on the basis of self defense.

Stoudenmire began drinking heavily. Although he had signed a truce with George, Frank, and James Manning, he repeatedly threatened to kill them when he was drunk. By Autumn 1882, he was asked to resign from the marshal's office by the El Paso Vigilance Committee.

At 5:30 in the afternoon on September 18, 1882, all agreed to meet in the Manning Saloon, have a drink together and sign another peace treaty. As Stoudenmire stepped inside, only Jim and Doc Manning were present. "Where's Frank?" Dallas asked. Jim said he would go find him. This left only Doc and Dallas, plus a few bystanders, and Stoudenmire called on Manning to have a drink. George left the billiard table and went to the bar as Stoudenmire said something to the effect that a lot of people were trying to cause trouble. George snapped that Stoudenmire had not kept his part of the agreement, meaning the first peace treaty. "Whoever says that is a liar!" Dallas roared.

Both men reached for their guns. A bystander stepped between the two men and pushed them apart, a brave act on his part, but one which might have caused Stoudenmire's death. Off balance, he drew last. George's first bullet smashed into Stoudenmire's left arm, causing him to drop his weapon, severing an artery, and ricocheting into his chest.

George fired again. This time the bullet hit Stoudenmire squarely in the shirt pocket, where it lodged in some papers and a picture he carried.   The impact, even though the slug never broke the skin, still knocked the ex-city marshal through the bat-wing doors and out onto El Paso Street.

Outside on the sidewalk, Stoudenmire (who was left-handed ), got out his other pistol with his right hand, and fired as George came through the door after him. His wild bullet struck Manning in the gun arm, causing the weapon to fly out into the street. With Doc Manning now unarmed, Stoudenmire might have killed him had he himself not been so badly shot up. As he struggled to recock the pistol, George rushed him, pinned his arms to his side, and the two men wrestled along the sidewalk.

When Jim Manning heard the shooting he came running back in time to see the two men locked in a death embrace, grunting and swearing, Stoudenmire trying to shake the much smaller man loose and kill him, but George struggled desperately to hang on and survive until help could come from one of his brothers.

The only weapon Jim had was a sawed off Colt with a missing trigger. He thumbed the hammer, aimed, fired and missed, the slug shattering a barber pole. He stepped closer, aimed and fired again. The bullet hit Stoudenmire an inch above and slightly to the rear of the left ear. It was all over. George fell on top of Dallas Stoudenmire and began wildly beating the corpse across the top of the head with the ex-marshal's own weapon.

Both James and George Manning went on trial for murder, and each was acquitted in separate trials.

On April 18, 1883, Frank Manning replaced James Gillett as the El Paso city marshal, but his tenure of office was short. In May he tried to shake down W. G. Walz, a merchant, and when Walz objected, Frank cracked him across the head with a heavy cane and threatened to shoot him. Frank was dismissed as marshal, and all of the Manning brothers left El Paso about this time.

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