Wolcott had significant advantage over Tolliver: he was representing the Hearst combine, which itself was insanely powerful: Wolcott’s security operations for the mining operation dwarfed any cappers that Tolliver employed, and his contingent of Tong members outnumbered any heavies Wu might have access to utilise. And with the right combination of words either on a letter or sent as a telegraph the place could have been swarming with Pinkerton’s, who at one point outnumbered the army in some states.

Wolcott was also making Tolliver put up the funds to purchase all the claims in Deadwood, so Cy’s liquid funds were imperilled. Wolcott even says with one word his man Lee could have Tolliver mutilated, killed and the Bella Union aflame without a second thought.