There are a lot of Old West items floating around in the world of collectors—including the bullet that killed gunfighter John Wesley Hardin.
Bill Koch—who bought the only authenticated photo of Billy the Kid—owns the .45 slug that went through Hardin’s brain. It’s been encased in a bottle for 122 years. Last year, the deformed bullet was removed and examined. Ex

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus