Robert Neighbors

Robert Simpson Neighbors (November 3, 1815 – September 14, 1859) was an Indian agent and Texas state legislator. Known as a fair and determined protector of Indian interests as guaranteed by treaty, he was murdered by a white man named Cornet, whose brother-in-law had been defamed by Neighbors, accusing the brother-in-law (one Patrick Murphy of Belknap, sheriff, saloon owner and businessman) a common horse thief, responsible for stealing horses from the reservation Indians. When Neighbors refused to recant the accusation in front of the two men, Cornet shot Neighbors with a shotgun. Cornet was murdered and Murphy acquitted as he did not pull the trigger. Cornet went on the run and was killed during his arrest.^[1][2]