Belton, Texas vintage postcard
William Sidney “Cap” Light served as an exemplary lawman in Belton, Texas, until his brother-in-law, Soapy Smith, convinced him to join his criminal empire.
Light was born around 1864 near Belton, Texas, to merchants W.R. and Eliza Hyatt Light, who originally hailed from Tennessee. He started his working life as a barber, but at the age of 20, accepted the position of deputy marshal in Belton. He had barely begun the job when he was a posse member that tracked down and killed a local outlaw named William Northcott on March 24, 1884.
Soapy Smith
Three years later, he married Eva Katherine Smith of Temple, Texas, in June 1887. Eva was the sister of Randolph Jefferson “Soapy” Smith, who Light would later be involved with criminal affairs.
But, for the time being, Light remained faithful to the law. He and Eva had two children, William Jeff Light, in 1890 and a daughter, Emma Ruby Light, in 1892.
In August 1889, while Light was helping the marshal of nearby Temple, Texas, “Cap” was trying to take a captured prisoner named Ed Cooley to jail. When Cooley tried to escape, Deputy Light shot him.
A short time later, in the fall, a man named Sam Hasley was carrying on drunk and disorderly in Belton. Hasley, who had been involved in the Early-Hasley Feud decades following the Civil War, had maintained a rowdy reputation as a troublemaker. When Light ordered him to go home, Hasley ignored him and began riding his horse on the sidewalk, daring him to do something about it. Light responded by attempting to arrest the wayward Hasley. But when Sam pulled out his gun, Light had little choice but to respond and shot Hasley dead.
Light killed another man the following year in March. When Felix Morales was drunk and creating a ruckus in Temple’s Cotton Exchange Saloon, Light confronted him. The drunken Morales made the mistake of pulling his gun, but Light was quicker on the draw, and Morales was soon dead on the floor. According to a local newspaper article, Morales died with “his pistol in one hand and a beer glass in the other.”
Until 1891, William Light had served law enforcement in an exemplary capacity. However, it was in this year that his brother-in-law, the notorious Randolph Jefferson “Soapy” Smith, convinced him to join him in Denver, Colorado. Soapy, known as the “King of the Frontier Con Men,” was by then firmly in control of the Denver underworld crime faction. Light was with Soapy when the gang “attacked” the Glasson Detective Agency. Allegedly the agency had attempted to force a confession from a pretty young girl, and upon hearing about it, Smith and his men raided their offices with pistols in hand. This further led to Soapy’s reputation as a hero with many of the locals.
Creede, Colorado, 1892
The next year, when Soapy moved his operations to the booming silver rush camp of Creede, Colorado, he convinced Light to go with him. “Cap” soon became a deputy marshal in the camp and helped Soapy to become the “boss” of the quickly growing settlement. On March 31, 1892, Light again showed his gunfighting skills when he encountered a drunken William “Reddy” McCann. “Reddy,” a Creede faro dealer with a long gunfighting history of his own had been drinking heavily all night. By 4:15 a.m., he was showing his shooting skills by blasting the street lights in the camp. When Deputy Light confronted him, McCann was drinking in the Branch Saloon.
When Light tried to arrest McCann, the drunken man became argumentative and resisted. Light tried to talk sense into him, but McCann resisted until, finally, the deputy slapped him in the face, knocking a cigar out his mouth.
McCann pulled his gun, but Light was faster once again. The coroner’s jury found that Light had acted in self-defense. But Light had had enough of killing. He soon quit his deputy job and the Soapy Smith Gang and returned to Texas.
Settling in Temple, Light applied for a job as a detective for the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad in June 1892. When he didn’t get the position, he blamed the railroad’s chief detective, T.J. Coggins. Sometime later, when Light was drinking heavily, he ran into Coggins and began beating him with his fists and pistol barrel. He soon found himself in jail for assault.
Coggins pulled his revolver at his hearing, firing off several shots at Light’s head. He hit just below the jaw, in the neck, and near his right ear; the wounds were so severe that most thought he would die. Amazingly Light recovered from the shots. In the meantime, Coggins was arrested for attempted murder, but he never faced a trial for whatever reason.
Ironically, a year later, on December 24, 1893, when Light was traveling on a train, he accidentally pulled the revolver’s trigger in his pocket. Severing his femoral artery, he bled to death within minutes. He was 30 years old.
© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2022.
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