I started collecting because I liked to read and wanted to keep every book and not have to return it to a library. My first book collection was Hardy Boys.
I got my passion for collecting outlaw and lawmen photos from reading about them. I do not know why they interested me so much. Maybe it was because Oklahoma, my native home, had so many of them.
My first original photograph was a cabinet card of Pat Garrett, given to me by his son Jarvis. It made me aware of what an “original”

January 2014
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- Curtis’s Big Dream
- Hard Living: Elmore Leonard’s West
- The Lawman & the Land Rush
- How do we know the tintype photo is really of Billy the Kid?
- Did some cowboys dig up a corpse and pour whiskey down his throat?
- I have seen several photos on the Internet claiming to be of Doc Holliday, however, many of the facial features don’t match up. What gives?
- In the Pancho Villa photograph, who is the man peering over Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing’s left shoulder? Huge wager on this! Your input, please.
- How common was postmortem photography in the Old West?
- True West’s Best Western Books of 2013
- I saw comparison photos of Etta Place and Ann Bassett, and they look identical to me. Was Ann Etta?
- Rough Drafts 1/14
- True West’s Best Western Wear for 2014
- True West’s Best Art & Collectibles of 2013
- True West’s Best Heritage Travel for 2014
- Buffalo Gal
- True West’s Best of the West 2014 Winners
- Shoot-out at Stinking Springs
- True West’s Best Firearms for 2014
- Forrest Fenn’s Other Treasure
- Robert G. McCubbin
- January 2014 Events
- 100 Best Historical Photos of the American West
- True West’s Best Movies, TV Series & DVDs of 2013
- Who are the men in the “mystery photo” that claims to feature some of the Old West’s most famous gunfighters at Hunter’s Hot Springs in Montana?