George ‘Ted’ Price

In the early morning of August 31, 1921, at the age of 31, Assistant State Game Commissioner (Game Warden) George “Ted” Price of Thermopolis was killed in a gunfight while assisting the Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office in apprehending bootleggers. Price was acting in the capacity of a Deputy Sheriff at the time of the incident and was assisting Sheriff Harry Holdrege when he was shot.

Sheriff Holdrege had received a tip that Elsworth Mullendore and Starkey Powers had planned to run a car of moonshine from Meeteetsee to Thermopolis Tuesday night. Accompanied by Deputies Price and Palmer, he took the main road to Grass Creek thinking they might meet their men somewhere in that vicinity. They placed a mark across the Ilo road that comes into the main road and then drove to the Indian Trails to see if they had taken that detour, but no cars had gone that way. Returning to where the Ilo road comes in, they found that a car had passed the mark they had made, and at once took in after it. They caught up with it about where the Wyoming-Yellowstone road turns off. The booze car turned out to the other pass and as the Officers drove up, Sheriff Holdrege called to the men that they were under arrest. Deputy Palmer exited the Sheriff’s car and went up to the booze car to make the arrest. Instead of giving themselves up, they started their car down the road full speed. Ted Price took a shot at one of the tires of the fleeing car and it was afterward found the bullet had cut a spoke in the right rear wheel. The Sheriff’s car kept close behind with its lights full on the fugitives. When they reached the Cottonwood crossing, the booze car was out of sight for a few moments from a sharp turn in the road and taking it out of the beam of the pursuing car’s lights. Just at the south side of the creek, Mullendore jumped out and hid behind a clump of three cottonwood trees that grew on the right side of the road, while Powers stopped his car at the left side of the road about 30 feet farther on.

As the Sheriff’s car came up, Ted Price saw the man behind the trees. Price was sitting in the front seat beside Sheriff Holdrege and opened his door and swung himself around with his rifle raised and called to the man to throw up his hands. The answer was a shot from behind the trees. With an exclamation, “Boys he’s got me.”, Ted Price fell back in the car against Sheriff Holdrege and died instantly. The bullet had passed through and shattered the left forearm and went directly through the heart. Sheriff Holdrege had drawn his gun with one hand and was covering Powers who was standing by the booze car. Powers’ gun was in his car and he came forward with his hands up and surrendered. While this was going on, Deputy Palmer had jumped out and ran around to the back of the Sheriff’s car toward the area where Mullendore was attempting to clear a jam in his gun, a .22 high–power Savage rifle. Going up to the other side of the trees, Deputy Palmer took one shot at close range that brought Mullendore down.



Mullendore shot Ted Price at a distance of 12 feet and was later shot by Deputy Palmer at a distance of 3 to 4 feet. If Mullendore’s rifle had not jammed or had Deputy Palmer hesitated a moment while the battle was on, all three Officers almost certainly would have been killed.