When news of a massacre reaches HBO's Deadwood, it's the Metz family who has been attacked and murdered — all save one girl, who's brought back to town. The incident wasn't entirely made up for the show, as there really was a Metz family massacred along the Cheyenne-Black Hills Road, not far from the Cheyenne River.
According to author and retired National Park Service superintendent Paul L. Hedren (via HistoryNet), the 1876 Metz Massacre claimed the lives of the entire party, which included Charles Metz, a baker headed to Deadwood, his wife, their cook, and a teamster. As in the show, it was first assumed the attack was the work of local Native Americans, but that wasn't the case. All the Metz family's gold and cash was gone, and word started circulated that it was the work of a shady character called William F. "Persimmon Bill" Chambers.
Chambers was a well-known murderer and horse thief, and the Cheyenne-Black Hills Road was his haunt starting around 1876 — long after he fought first for the South, then the North, then the South again during the Civil War. Not long after the Metz massacre, another attack put Chambers in the sights of the U.S. Army, and newspaper reports seem to suggest he was killed sometime in the fall of 1876 — but they're more colorful than confirmed. As for the Metz party, it's more tragic than it was in the show — there were no survivors.
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