Right here at the corner of Mulberry and Congress stood the Capital Theater. It wasn’t so much a legitimate theater as it was a saloon where they had dancing girls. You’ve seen Westerns. You get the idea. And it was the scene of a rootin’-tootin’ shoot out one eventful Christmas Night with one of Austin’s most colorful characters, Ven Thompson.
Ben Thompson was an Englishman who can only be described as a Wild West gunslinger. In fact, that’s putting it mildly! He hung out with all the greats: Buffalo Bill Cody, Bat Masterson and Doc Holiday.
Ben opened up the Iron Front Saloon and Gambling Hall when he moved to Austin. It’s where the Littlefield Building is today – corner of 6th and Congress. He was well-liked and successful.
Well, Christmas Night 1876, Ben closed the Iron Front and thought it would be a good night to check out the competition, so he and some of his buddies were drinking champagne RIGHT HERE at the Capital Theater.
During the show, some yahoos lit firecrackers, and the owner of the place thought it was one of Ben’s buddies. Ben tried to calm everyone down, but the owner Mark Wilson kept on. Fists started flying, a brawl broke out, the owner drew his pistol, but Ben was quicker and he wounded him. One of the bartenders reached behind the bar and pulled out a shotgun, but Ben instinctively fired on him and killed him! When all the smoke had died down and the police arrived, Ben was arrested and tried for murder but acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
Ben used his reputation as an unstoppable butt-kicker to get elected the Marshal of Austin in 1880. During his reign the city saw a dramatic drop in crime as Ben cleaned up the streets like RoboCop. But he started drinking heavily during that time, and the Austin paper – which was located just ABOVE the Capital Theater – would criticize him. When stuff like that was printed, Ben would stagger down Congress Avenue, firing his guns and shouting angrily, and the reporters would abandon the newspaper office and hide behind the bar at the Capital Theater!
Ben should have stayed away from theaters. When he shot another theater owner in San Antonio, he was gunned down for it by friends of the deceased.
But while he lived, Ben Thompson was everything you could possibly want from a Wild West character. He loved punching, shooting, gambling and whiskey, which were basically like the four major food groups back in the old West.
