it is often reported that swearengen died penniless while trying to hop a freight train, but research suggests he was murdered. according to his rediscovered obituary and contemporaneous newspaper accounts, swearengen was found dead in the middle of a suburban denver street on november 15, 1904, apparently of a massive head wound. less than two months earlier, his twin brother lemuel had been shot by unknown assailants and survived, although suspiciously not robbed.