the freight company soon fell behind on paying its installments, and on july 12, 1861, mccanles arrived at the station with his 12-year-old son monroe (or william monroe), his cousin james woods, and another employee, james gordon, demanding to see horace wellman in order to collect a long-overdue payment. there are several different versions of what happened next. in some versions, mccanles was initially met by wellman's wife and hickok at the door, who told him that wellman was either unavailable or unwilling to meet with him. other accounts suggest that wellman himself was present for the confrontation. at some point, either by invitation or by force, mccanles entered the station cabin and argued with the occupants. he was then shot by hickok, who was hiding behind a curtain. mccanles's son immediately rushed into the building. woods and gordon, like mccanles, were unarmed and attempted to flee, but hickok stepped from the cabin and wounded both with his pistols. the two men were then killed by other members of the relay station, gordon by station employee j.w. "doc" brink with a shotgun blast and woods by horace wellman (or wellman's wife), who hacked him to death with a gardening hoe. hickok was not reported as wounded. during the attack, mccanles' son monroe was able to escape via a dry creekbed.