It may have been the name of a TV Western, but few officials actually used “wanted, dead or alive” rewards to track down criminals. Money was generally paid out only for the capture and conviction of hard cases.
There were exceptions. In 1874, the governor of California put a bounty on the head of famed criminal Tiburcio Vasquez: $6,000 dead or $8,000 alive. In May of that year, a posse ar

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