The vigilantes knew that no Anglo (I use this term to include the mostly Scots-Irish immigrants in Erath County) had been questioned about murders committed around the Brazos Reserve, so at dawn they crept up to the teepees containing Choctaw Tom’s Caddo families and a few Anadarkos. Choctaw Tom had just purchased a wagon and had already started back to the reservation, leaving his family and friends asleep in camp. Choctaw Tom’s wife was among the seven people killed, mostly women and children in their beds, a nine year-old girl survived by pushing a rifle away from her face as her thumb was shot off. The only Anglo casualty was sixteen-year-old Samuel Stephen, whose father, the founder of Stephenville, John Stephen who had opposed the raid. Samuel had jumped to his feet as the command to charge was given and was shot in the back of the head by his own people – his was the first grave in the West End Cemetery. When Garland led his victorious men back to Stephenville, he announced “We have opened the ball and others can dance to the music.” That cryptic remark was taken to mean as an alarm that Jose Maria’s Caddoes and Anadarkos were on their way to attack Stephenville. Instead, the Indians took their case to court, where it was ignored.