American Western Frontier Outlaw. He joined the Confederate army during the Civil War on October 15, 1861 but was discharged for personality problems January 10, 1862. In the late 1860s, he was a trail boss in New Mexico working for Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, legendary Texas cattleman. On January 7, 1874 he met up with "Chunk" Colbert a desperado who had a grudge for him. They spent the day together carousing and drinking. That night at dinner Colbert lunged for Allison's gun and Allison shot Colbert squarely in the head. When reporters asked why the men sat down to dinner he replied "I didn't want to send him to hell on an empty stomach". In 1875, he killed Francisco "Pancho" Griego in Cimarron's St. James Hotel in a standup gunfight, the result of hatred between ranchers and farmers. On December 21, 1876, he and his brother John were in a Las Animas, Colorado saloon drinking and gambling. When Constable Charles Faber arrived to investigate complaints, he neither challenged the Allison’s nor warned them. He brought up his shotgun and fired wounding John, Clay immediately pulled his pistol killing the constable. His career as a shootist went on for several more years, but he detested his reputation as a killer and did his best to live it down. By 1880 he moved to a ranch in Hemphill County, Texas, married and fathered two daughters. In a freak accident while going for some supplies, a grain sack slid from the wagon and when he reached for it, he fell and one of the wheels passed over his neck killing him. He once remarked, "I Never Killed A Man That Did Not Need Killing"
