I did go to the library and found the micro film of the original article in the Globe Democrat - I made a copy which is poor but if I can scan it and then somehow stick it into a message here I will.   For one thing the article is in the Dec 26, 1895 edition not the Dec 28 edition. A follow up story of the inquest (1 brief paragraph) is in the Dec 28 paper.   I also found an even briefer report of the shooting in the December 26 Post Dispatch.   There was a third newspaper available at the time but I ran out of time - I figured 2 was enough. Both articles initially mispell Shelton's name as Sheldon - which was later corrected.

In neither paper was the article prominently featured - in both it was basically buried in a "police blotter" type area sandwiched in among in among other shootings, stabbings etc - which were numerous but only briefly described in a short paragraph or two at most. I read in one web site that there were 6 shootings in St Louis on Christmas day that year - I didnt count them but there seemed to be a huge amount of violent crime being reported - so unless it was really sensational it ws pretty commonplace. Sad to say but if you were a minority I doint think they thought you normally were worth much press.   So in the Globe Democrat it is buried in the middle of page 11 with the minimal title "Shot in Curtis' Place - just as I had quoted in the prior post - right next to similar stories entitled "One Chinese Cuts Another" "QUARRELED ABOUT A MAN - Alice Roberts Disemboweled by Lulu Howard", "Officer Stabbed by Negro", "Shot By a Policeman" etc. The front page of the Globe Democrat was all national news - the War in Cuba and Washington legislation - very dry.

The Post Dispatch Article was similarly placed toward the rear of the news section, although it along with other local police doings there were listed to the side of the editorials and there was a certain amount of local crime on the front page, which was apparently deemed more interesting than this.   It is also adjacent to the Chinaman knifing story, and sevral other similar ones The Post Dispatch article bears the headline in fairly modest type: "SHOT IN A SALOON - Drinks and Politics Get a Bullet in William Lyons Stomach". The article is only 4 sentence,just slightly bigger than the space occupied by the headline, including two that read: "They were drinking and arguing about politics. War was discussed and Lyons was shot in the abdomen". No mention of the hat.

I think Stetson hats would have been common in Missouri at the time as in most parts of the country. I've seen nothing in the actual reports to identify Billy's hat as a Stetson but any person aspiring to be cool or wealthy would probably have wanted to have one.   So whether it is true or not in makes for a nice consistent story for the hat to be a Stetson. Stetson made more than just cowboy hats.   I have no idea when the reference first showed up.

Anyway if you want to see the original papers - I have them, but tell me how I can post them I did not track down other followup stories of the trial etc. There are sites that give the dates so it would be feasible, but I'm not planning to do it myself.

In terms of why the legend took off I can only speculate on a few possibilities a. among the St Louis black community the two men were well known and even were possibly representatives of rival political factions - at the inquest I gather there was a heated crowd, so I think the story resonated in the black community more than it did in the white press; b. if Sheldon did indeed take his hat and walk coolly out the door as reported by the Globe Dem - that bespeaks of a certain panache that could fuel the imagination, c. the subsequent trials may have been somewhat more publicized (possibly due in part to the prior reasons) - also Shelton got himself a fancy lawyer; d. the world was ready for an urban antihero